Land-atmosphere coupling and summer climate prediction

The land surface, in particular the vegetation and soil moisture, provides a critical memory function in the climate system on monthly-to-interannual timescales, and thus can help to improve seasonal climate prediction. Our statistical analyses to observations and observationally-based analyses suggest that hot spots of soil moisture-atmosphere coupling during summer lie in central Eurasia, the region from Mongolia to northern China, southwest China, the Sahel, the northern continental United States, and southern Europe. The diagnosed results, which are largely in agreement with those from regional climate model simulations with the WRF, do not support the Global Land-Atmosphere Coupling Experiment (GLACE) hot spot hypothesis. We also investigate vegetation feedbacks on East Asian summer monsoon system using both statistical and regional climate modeling methods. Finally, we apply the land surface information to improve summer climate prediction over East Asia.