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Is there a relationship between soil moisture content and the amount of rainfall in a region?

We understand rainfall replenishes soil moisture. But my research on land-atmosphere coupling suggests dry soils might suppress convection and reduce subsequent rainfall, creating a positive feedback for drought. I'm struggling to isolate and quantify this reverse causality from other meteorological drivers in observational data. Is this a robust phenomenon we can parameterize?

 

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By Raghav V Answered 1 year ago

Yes, this is a robust and critical feedback, though quantifying it is challenging. I've worked with flux tower data where dry soils lead to higher sensible heat flux, warming the lower atmosphere and increasing its capacity to hold water, which can suppress afternoon convective rainfall. Conversely, wet soils promote latent heat flux, cooling the air and favoring cloud formation. In regional models, I recommend using a coupled land-surface model and paying close attention to the parameterization of the planetary boundary layer height, as this is where the soil moisture signal gets translated into atmospheric instability or the lack thereof.

 

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