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

Read Full Article (file size: 298776 bytes)    Cited by

GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 35, L08710, doi:10.1029/2008GL033486, 2008

Dust and sea surface temperature forcing of the 1930s “Dust Bowl” drought

Benjamin I. Cook

Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Ocean and Climate Physics, Palisades, New York, USA
NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, New York, USA


Ron L. Miller

NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, New York, USA


Richard Seager

Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Ocean and Climate Physics, Palisades, New York, USA


Abstract

Droughts over the central United States (US) are modulated by sea surface temperature (SST) variations in the eastern tropical Pacific. Many models, however, are unable to reproduce the severity and spatial pattern of the “Dust Bowl” drought of the 1930s with SST forcing alone. We force an atmosphere general circulation model with 1930s SSTs and model-generated dust emission from the Great Plains region. The SSTs alone force a drought over the US similar to observations, but with a weaker precipitation anomaly that is centered too far south. Inclusion of dust radiative forcing, centered over the area of observed wind erosion, increases the intensity of the drought and shifts its center northward. While our conclusions are tempered by limited quantitative observations of the dust aerosol load and soil erosion during this period, our study suggests that unprecedented atmospheric dust loading over the continental US exacerbated the “Dust Bowl” drought.

Received 31 January 2008; accepted 21 March 2008; published 22 April 2008.

Keywords: drought; dust; land surface feedbacks; Dust Bowl; aerosols.

Index Terms: 0305 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Aerosols and particles (0345, 4801, 4906); 1812 Hydrology: Drought; 1632 Global Change: Land cover change.

Read Full Article (file size: 298776 bytes)    Cited by

Citation: Cook, B. I., R. L. Miller, and R. Seager (2008), Dust and sea surface temperature forcing of the 1930s “Dust Bowl” drought, Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L08710, doi:10.1029/2008GL033486.