Soil-frost-enabled soil-moisture–precipitation feedback over northern high latitudes
Permafrost or perennially frozen ground is an important part of the terrestrial cryosphere; roughly one quarter of Earth's land surface is underlain by permafrost. The currently observed global warming is most pronounced in the Arctic region and is projected to persist during the coming decades...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:bfab46ab0dfd43e4a6adca5da3764d85 2023-05-15T15:13:35+02:00 Soil-frost-enabled soil-moisture–precipitation feedback over northern high latitudes S. Hagemann T. Blome A. Ekici C. Beer 2016-07-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-7-611-2016 https://doaj.org/article/bfab46ab0dfd43e4a6adca5da3764d85 EN eng Copernicus Publications http://www.earth-syst-dynam.net/7/611/2016/esd-7-611-2016.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/2190-4979 https://doaj.org/toc/2190-4987 2190-4979 2190-4987 doi:10.5194/esd-7-611-2016 https://doaj.org/article/bfab46ab0dfd43e4a6adca5da3764d85 Earth System Dynamics, Vol 7, Iss 3, Pp 611-625 (2016) Science Q Geology QE1-996.5 Dynamic and structural geology QE500-639.5 article 2016 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-7-611-2016 2022-12-31T14:05:21Z Permafrost or perennially frozen ground is an important part of the terrestrial cryosphere; roughly one quarter of Earth's land surface is underlain by permafrost. The currently observed global warming is most pronounced in the Arctic region and is projected to persist during the coming decades due to anthropogenic CO 2 input. This warming will certainly have effects on the ecosystems of the vast permafrost areas of the high northern latitudes. The quantification of such effects, however, is still an open question. This is partly due to the complexity of the system, including several feedback mechanisms between land and atmosphere. In this study we contribute to increasing our understanding of such land–atmosphere interactions using an Earth system model (ESM) which includes a representation of cold-region physical soil processes, especially the effects of freezing and thawing of soil water on thermal and hydrological states and processes. The coupled atmosphere–land models of the ESM of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, MPI-ESM, have been driven by prescribed observed SST and sea ice in an AMIP2-type setup with and without newly implemented cold-region soil processes. Results show a large improvement in the simulated discharge. On the one hand this is related to an improved snowmelt peak of runoff due to frozen soil in spring. On the other hand a subsequent reduction in soil moisture enables a positive feedback to precipitation over the high latitudes, which reduces the model's wet biases in precipitation and evapotranspiration during the summer. This is noteworthy as soil-moisture–atmosphere feedbacks have previously not been the focus of research on the high latitudes. These results point out the importance of high-latitude physical processes at the land surface for regional climate. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Global warming Ice permafrost Sea ice Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Earth System Dynamics 7 3 611 625 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Science Q Geology QE1-996.5 Dynamic and structural geology QE500-639.5 |
spellingShingle |
Science Q Geology QE1-996.5 Dynamic and structural geology QE500-639.5 S. Hagemann T. Blome A. Ekici C. Beer Soil-frost-enabled soil-moisture–precipitation feedback over northern high latitudes |
topic_facet |
Science Q Geology QE1-996.5 Dynamic and structural geology QE500-639.5 |
description |
Permafrost or perennially frozen ground is an important part of the terrestrial cryosphere; roughly one quarter of Earth's land surface is underlain by permafrost. The currently observed global warming is most pronounced in the Arctic region and is projected to persist during the coming decades due to anthropogenic CO 2 input. This warming will certainly have effects on the ecosystems of the vast permafrost areas of the high northern latitudes. The quantification of such effects, however, is still an open question. This is partly due to the complexity of the system, including several feedback mechanisms between land and atmosphere. In this study we contribute to increasing our understanding of such land–atmosphere interactions using an Earth system model (ESM) which includes a representation of cold-region physical soil processes, especially the effects of freezing and thawing of soil water on thermal and hydrological states and processes. The coupled atmosphere–land models of the ESM of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, MPI-ESM, have been driven by prescribed observed SST and sea ice in an AMIP2-type setup with and without newly implemented cold-region soil processes. Results show a large improvement in the simulated discharge. On the one hand this is related to an improved snowmelt peak of runoff due to frozen soil in spring. On the other hand a subsequent reduction in soil moisture enables a positive feedback to precipitation over the high latitudes, which reduces the model's wet biases in precipitation and evapotranspiration during the summer. This is noteworthy as soil-moisture–atmosphere feedbacks have previously not been the focus of research on the high latitudes. These results point out the importance of high-latitude physical processes at the land surface for regional climate. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
S. Hagemann T. Blome A. Ekici C. Beer |
author_facet |
S. Hagemann T. Blome A. Ekici C. Beer |
author_sort |
S. Hagemann |
title |
Soil-frost-enabled soil-moisture–precipitation feedback over northern high latitudes |
title_short |
Soil-frost-enabled soil-moisture–precipitation feedback over northern high latitudes |
title_full |
Soil-frost-enabled soil-moisture–precipitation feedback over northern high latitudes |
title_fullStr |
Soil-frost-enabled soil-moisture–precipitation feedback over northern high latitudes |
title_full_unstemmed |
Soil-frost-enabled soil-moisture–precipitation feedback over northern high latitudes |
title_sort |
soil-frost-enabled soil-moisture–precipitation feedback over northern high latitudes |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-7-611-2016 https://doaj.org/article/bfab46ab0dfd43e4a6adca5da3764d85 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Global warming Ice permafrost Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Arctic Global warming Ice permafrost Sea ice |
op_source |
Earth System Dynamics, Vol 7, Iss 3, Pp 611-625 (2016) |
op_relation |
http://www.earth-syst-dynam.net/7/611/2016/esd-7-611-2016.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/2190-4979 https://doaj.org/toc/2190-4987 2190-4979 2190-4987 doi:10.5194/esd-7-611-2016 https://doaj.org/article/bfab46ab0dfd43e4a6adca5da3764d85 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-7-611-2016 |
container_title |
Earth System Dynamics |
container_volume |
7 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
611 |
op_container_end_page |
625 |
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1766344118999449600 |