Articles | Volume 21, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-409-2017
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-409-2017
Research article
 | 
24 Jan 2017
Research article |  | 24 Jan 2017

Land surface albedo and vegetation feedbacks enhanced the millennium drought in south-east Australia

Jason P. Evans, Xianhong Meng, and Matthew F. McCabe

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Cited articles

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Short summary
This work demonstrates that changes in surface albedo and vegetation, caused by the millennium drought in south-east Australia, affected the atmosphere in a way that decreased precipitation further. This land–surface feedback increased the severity of the drought by 10 %. This suggests that climate models need to simulate changes in surface characteristics (other than soil moisture) in response to a developing drought if they are to capture this kind of multi-year drought.
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