Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

The influence of inter-annually varying albedo on regional climate and drought

  • Published:
Climate Dynamics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Albedo plays an important role in land–atmosphere interactions and local climate. This study presents the impact on simulating regional climate, and the evolution of a drought, when using the default climatological albedo as is usually done in regional climate modelling, or using the actual observed albedo which is rarely done. Here, time-varying satellite derived albedo data is used to update the lower boundary condition of the Weather Research and Forecasting regional climate model in order to investigate the influence of observed albedo on regional climate simulations and also potential changes to land–atmosphere feedback over south-east Australia. During the study period from 2000 to 2008, observations show that albedo increased with an increasingly negative precipitation anomaly, though it lagged precipitation by several months. Compared to in-situ observations, using satellite observed albedo instead of the default climatological albedo provided an improvement in the simulated seasonal mean air temperature. In terms of precipitation, both simulations reproduced the drought that occurred from 2002 through 2006. Using the observed albedo produced a drier simulation overall. During the onset of the 2002 drought, albedo changes enhanced the precipitation reduction by 20 % on average, over locations where it was active. The area experiencing drought increased 6.3 % due to the albedo changes. Two mechanisms for albedo changes to impact land–atmosphere drought feedback are investigated. One accounts for the increased albedo, leading to reduced turbulent heat flux and an associated decrease of moist static energy density in the planetary boundary layer; the other considers that enhanced local radiative heating, due to the drought, favours a deeper planetary boundary layer, subsequently decreasing the moist static energy density through entrainment of the free atmosphere. Analysis shows that drought related large-scale changes in the regional climate favour a strengthening of the second mechanism. That is, the second mechanism is stronger in a drought year compared to a normal year and this difference is larger than for the first mechanism. When both mechanisms are active, the second mechanism tends to dominate across the model domain, particularly during the 2002 drought period. The introduction of observed inter-annual variations in albedo produces an enhancement of the first mechanism and a weakening of the second mechanism during the onset of the drought.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
Fig. 13
Fig. 14

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Alessandri A, Gualdi S, Polcher J, Navarra A (2007) Effects of land surface–vegetation on the boreal summer surface climate of a GCM. J Clim 20:255–278. doi:10.1175/JCLI3983.1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Betts AK, Ball JH (1998) FIFE surface climate and site-average dataset 1987–89. J Atmos Sci 55:1091–1108

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blyth EM, Evans JG, Finch JW, Bantges R, Harding RJ (2006) Spatial variability of the English agricultural landscape and its effect on evaporation. Agric For Meteorol 138:19–28. doi:10.1016/j.agrformet.2006.03.007

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonan GB (2008) Forests and climate change: forcings, feedbacks, and the climate benefits of forests. Science 320:1444–1449. doi:10.1126/science.1155121

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cai W, Cowan T, Briggs P, Raupach M (2009a) Rising temperature depletes soil moisture and exacerbates severe drought conditions across southeast Australia. Geophys Res Lett 36:L21709. doi:10.1029/2009GL040334

  • Cai W, Cowan T, Raupach M (2009b) Positive Indian Ocean dipole events precondition southeast Australia bushfires. Geophys Res Lett 36:L19710. doi:10.1029/2009GL039902

  • Charney J, Quirk W, Chow S, Kornfield J (1977) Comparative study of effects of albedo change on drought in semi-arid regions. J Atmos Sci 34:1366–1385

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen F, Avissar R (1994) Impact of land-surface moisture variability on local shallow convective cumulus and precipitation in large-scale models. J Appl Meteorol 33:1382–1401

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cook BI, Bonan GB, Levis S (2006) Soil moisture feedbacks to precipitation in Southern Africa. J Clim 19:4198–4206

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Csiszar IA (2009) ISLSCP II NOAA 5-year average monthly snow-free albedo from AVHRR. ISLSCP initiative II collection. Data set. Available on-line [http://daac.ornl.gov/] from Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, U.S.A. doi:10.3334/ORNLDAAC/959

  • Dirmeyer PA, Shukla J (1994) Albedo as a modulator of climate response to tropical deforestation. J Geophys Res 99:20863–20877

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eltahir EAB (1998) A soil moisture rainfall feedback mechanism 1. Theory and observations. Water Resour Res 34:765–776

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Evans JP, McCabe MF (2010) Regional climate simulation over Australia’s Murray-Darling basin: a multitemporal assessment. J Geophys Res 115:D14114. doi:10.1029/2010JD013816

  • Evans JP, Pitman AJ, Cruz FT (2011) Coupled atmospheric and land surface dynamics over southeast Australia: a review, analysis and identification of future research priorities. Int J Climatol 31:1758–1772. doi:10.1002/joc.2206

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Evans JP, Ekström M, Ji F (2012) Evaluating the performance of a WRF physics ensemble over South-East Australia. Clim Dyn. doi:10.1007/s00382-011-1244-5

    Google Scholar 

  • Findell KL, Eltahir EAB (2003a) Atmospheric controls on soil moisture-boundary layer interactions. Part I: framework development. J Hydrometeorol 4:552–569

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Findell KL, Eltahir EAB (2003b) Atmospheric controls on soil moisture-boundary layer interactions. Part II: feedbacks within the continental United States. J. Hydrometeorol. 4:570–583

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Findell KL, Shevliakova E, Milly PCD, Stouffer RJ (2007) Modeled impact of anthropogenic land cover change on climate. J Clim 20:3621–3634

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fischer EM, Seneviratne SI, Vidale PL, Lüthi D, Schär C (2007) Soil moisture-atmosphere interactions during the 2003 European summer heat wave. J Clim 20:5081–5099

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fu G, Viney N, Charles S, Liu J (2010) Long-term temporal variation of extreme rainfall events in Australia: 1910–2006. J Hydrometeorol 11:950–965. doi:10.1175/2010JHM1204.1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fuller DO, Ottke C (2002) Land cover, rainfall and land-surface albedo in West Africa. Climatic Change 54:181–204. doi:10.1023/A:1015730900622

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guo Z, Dirmeyer PA, Koster RD et al (2006) GLACE: the global land-atmosphere coupling experiment. Part II: analysis. J Hydrometeorol 7:611–625

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones DA, Wang W, Fawcett R (2009) High-quality spatial climate data-sets for Australia. Aust Meteorol Mag 58:233–248

    Google Scholar 

  • Kalnay E, Kanamitsu M, Kistler R et al (1996) The NCEP/NCAR 40-year reanalysis project. Bull Am Meteorol Soc 77:437–471

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koster RD, Suarez MJ (2001) Soil moisture memory in climate models. J Hydrometeorol 2:558–570

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koster RD, Guo Z, Dirmeyer PA et al (2006) GLACE: the global land-atmosphere coupling experiment. Part I: overview. J Hydrometeorol 7:590–610

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lin C-Y, Chen F, Huang JC et al (2008) Urban heat island effect and its impact on boundary layer development and land–sea circulation over northern Taiwan. Atmos Environ 42:5635–5649. doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2008.03.015

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu Z, Notaro M, Kutzbach J, Liu N (2006) Assessing global vegetation-climate feedbacks from observations. J Clim 19:787–814

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mahmood R, Quintanar AI, Conner G et al (2010) Impacts of land use/land cover change on climate and future research priorities. Bull Am Meteorol Soc 91:37–46. doi:10.1175/2009BAMS2769.1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Matsui T, Lakshmi V, Small EE (2005) The effects of satellite-derived vegetation cover variability on simulated land-atmosphere interactions in the NAMS. J Clim 18:21–40

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCabe MF, Wood EF, Wójcik R et al (2008) Hydrological consistency using multi-sensor remote sensing data for water and energy cycle studies. Remote Sens Environ 112:430–444

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Notaro M, Liu Z, Williams JW (2006) Observed vegetation–climate feedbacks in the United States. J Clim 19:763–786. doi:10.1175/JCLI3657.1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paget MJ, King EA (2008) MODIS land data sets for the Australian region. CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research internal report. CSIRO, Canberra, Australia

  • Potter NJ, Chiew FHS, Frost AJ (2010) An assessment of the severity of recent reductions in rainfall and runoff in the Murray–Darling basin. J Hydrol 381:52–64. doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2009.11.025

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Risbey JS, Pook MJ, McIntosh PC, Wheeler MC, Hendon HH (2009) On the remote drivers of rainfall variability in Australia. Mon Weather Rev 137:3233–3253

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Skamarock WC, Klemp JB, Dudhia J et al (2008) A description of the advanced research WRF Version 3. NCAR Technical Note. NCAR, Boulder, CO, p 125

    Google Scholar 

  • Teuling AJ, Seneviratne SI (2008) Contrasting spectral changes limit albedo impact on land-atmosphere coupling during the 2003 European heat wave. Geophys Res Lett 35:L03401. doi:10.1029/2007GL032778

  • Tuinenburg O, Hutjes R, Jacobs C, Kabat P (2011) Diagnosis of local land-atmosphere feedbacks in India. J Clim 24:251–266. doi:10.1175/2010JCLI3779.1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ummenhofer CC, Gupta AS, Briggs PR et al (2011) Indian and Pacific Ocean influences on southeast Australian drought and soil moisture. J Clim 24:1313–1336

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wei J, Dickinson RE, Chen H (2008) A negative soil moisture-precipitation relationship and its causes. J Hydrometeorol 9:1364–1376

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xue Y, De Sales F, Vasic R, Mechoso CR, Arakawa A, Prince S (2010) Global and seasonal assessment of interactions between climate and vegetation biophysical processes: a GCM study with different land-vegetation representations. J Clim 23:1411–1433

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zaitchik BF, Evans J, Smith RB (2005) MODIS-derived boundary conditions for a mesoscale climate model: application to irrigated agriculture in the Euphrates Basin. Mon Weather Rev 133:1727–1743

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zaitchik B, Macalady A, Bonneau L, Smith R (2006) Europe’s 2003 heat wave: a satellite view of impacts and land-atmosphere feedbacks. Int J Climatol 26:743–769. doi:10.1002/joc.1280

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zaitchik BF, Evans JP, Geerken RA, Smith RB (2007a) Climate and vegetation in the Middle East: interannual variability and drought feedbacks. J Clim 20:3924–3941

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zaitchik BF, Evans JP, Smith RB (2007b) Regional impact of an elevated heat source: the Zagros Plateau of Iran. J Clim 20:4133–4146

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This work was funded by the Australian Research Council as part of the Discovery Project DP0772665 and Future Fellowship FT110100576. This work was supported by an award under the Merit Allocation Scheme on the NCI National Facility at the ANU.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Climate Change Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

    X. H. Meng & J. P. Evans

  2. Key Laboratory of Land Surface Process and Climate Change in Cold and Arid Regions, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Science, Lanzhou, Gansu, China

    X. H. Meng

  3. Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

    J. P. Evans

  4. Water Desalination and Reuse Center, Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia

    M. F. McCabe

Authors
  1. X. H. Meng
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. J. P. Evans
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. M. F. McCabe
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to J. P. Evans.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Meng, X.H., Evans, J.P. & McCabe, M.F. The influence of inter-annually varying albedo on regional climate and drought. Clim Dyn 42, 787–803 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-013-1790-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-013-1790-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation