American Geophysical Union Become an AGU Member
Subscribe to AGU Journals		 AGU Home AGU Publications

Read Full Article (file size: 2102295 bytes)    Cited by

GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 34, L06707, doi:10.1029/2006GL029068, 2007

Contribution of land-atmosphere coupling to recent European summer heat waves

E. M. Fischer

Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland


S. I. Seneviratne

Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland


D. Lüthi

Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland


C. Schär

Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland


Abstract

Most of the recent European summer heat waves have been preceded by a pronounced spring precipitation deficit. The lack of precipitation and the associated depletion of soil moisture result in reduced latent cooling and thereby amplify the summer temperature extremes. In order to quantify the contribution of land-atmosphere interactions, we conduct regional climate simulations with and without land-atmosphere coupling for four selected major summer heat waves in 1976, 1994, 2003, and 2005. The coupled simulation uses a fully coupled land-surface model, while in the uncoupled simulation the mean seasonal cycle of soil moisture is prescribed. The experiments reveal that land-atmosphere coupling plays an important role for the evolution of the investigated heat waves both through local and remote effects. During all simulated events soil moisture-temperature interactions increase the heat wave duration and account for typically 50–80% of the number of hot summer days. The largest impact is found for daily maximum temperatures during heat wave episodes.

Received 22 December 2006; accepted 23 February 2007; published 24 March 2007.

Keywords: eat waves; summer; feedbacks.

Index Terms: 1605 Global Change: Abrupt/rapid climate change (4901, 8408); 1817 Hydrology: Extreme events; 3305 Atmospheric Processes: Climate change and variability (1616, 1635, 3309, 4215, 4513); 3309 Atmospheric Processes: Climatology (1616, 1620, 3305, 4215, 8408); 3355 Atmospheric Processes: Regional modeling.

Read Full Article (file size: 2102295 bytes)    Cited by

Citation: Fischer, E. M., S. I. Seneviratne, D. Lüthi, and C. Schär (2007), Contribution of land-atmosphere coupling to recent European summer heat waves, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L06707, doi:10.1029/2006GL029068.