The Impact of Soil Moisture Anomalies on the General Circulation: A Comprehensive Analysis over North America

Recent work (Koster et al., 2014) has demonstrated the potential for a soil moisture anomaly to influence the general circulation (as characterized by the meridional wind at 250 mb) and to influence thereby the surface meteorological conditions in remote locations, even a thousand kilometers away. An in-depth look at this phenomenon is now afforded by a more comprehensive set of AGCM ensemble experiments. Each experiment is designed to quantify the impact of a specific local dry soil moisture anomaly, prescribed somewhere in North America, on the general circulation. The locations tested in the different experiments span much of the continent, allowing a comprehensive picture of the circulation's sensitivity to soil moisture anomalies. The main result is that while the sensitivity does vary with the imposed anomaly's geographical location, a dry anomaly in general tends to induce, just to the east, a northerly flow at 250 mb, with (at times) consequent impacts on surface meteorological variables. These results tend to be supported by reanalysis data. Koster, R. D., Y. Chang, and S. D. Schubert, 2014: A mechanism for land-atmosphere feedback involving planetary wave structures. J. Climate, 27, 9290-9301.