Evaluating the strength of the land&ndash;atmosphere moisture feedback in Earth system models using satellite observations

Levine, Paul A.; Randerson, James T.; Swenson, Sean C.; Lawrence, David M.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-4837-2016

Articles | Volume 20, issue 12

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-4837-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-4837-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 20, issue 12

Research article

|

09 Dec 2016

Research article |

| 09 Dec 2016

Evaluating the strength of the land–atmosphere moisture feedback in Earth system models using satellite observations

Paul A. Levine, James T. Randerson, Sean C. Swenson, and David M. Lawrence

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-4837-2016-supplement

Data sets

GRACE MONTHLY LAND WATER MASS GRIDS NETCDF RELEASE 5.0. Ver. 5.0. PO.DAAC, CA, USA S. C. Swenson https://doi.org/10.5067/TELND-NC005

AIRS/Aqua L3 Monthly Standard Physical Retrieval (AIRS+AMSU) 1 degree x 1 degree V006, Greenbelt, MD, USA, Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC) AIRS Science Team/J. Texeira https://doi.org/10.5067/AQUA/AIRS/DATA319

Global Precipitation Analysis Mesoscale Atmospheric Processes Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center http://precip.gsfc.nasa.gov

CERES EBAF-Surface Product Information CRES https://ceres.larc.nasa.gov/products.php?product=EBAF-Surface

ERA-Interim ECMWF http://www.ecmwf.int/en/research/climate-reanalysis/era-interim

LENS | Data Sets Available to the Community CESM http://www.cesm.ucar.edu/projects/community-projects/LENS/data-sets.html

ESGF@DOE/LLNL Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory http://pcmdi9.llnl.gov/

Short summary

We demonstrate a new approach to assess the strength of feedbacks resulting from land–atmosphere coupling on decadal timescales. Our approach was tailored to enable evaluation of Earth system models (ESMs) using data from Earth observation satellites that measure terrestrial water storage anomalies and relevant atmospheric variables. Our results are consistent with previous work demonstrating that ESMs may be overestimating the strength of land surface feedbacks compared with observations.