North American Drought in the 21st Century

The central science question to be addressed by this project is: What is the susceptibility of the continental U.S. to drought over the next century, and what role is anthropogenic warming likely to play in U.S. drought susceptibility?

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Soil Moisture Memory and Seasonal Precipitation Predictability in the GAPP Domain

A central element of the research is to determine the predictability of warm season precipitation over the continental U.S. using a number of modeling approaches and data. The project will use statistical methods such as Empirical Orthogonal Teleconnection (EOT) analysis to search for the teleconnection patterns between soil moisture and precipitation anomalies over the continental United States.

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Regional Terrestrial Evaporation Estimation based on Satellite Data

Climate variables measured from space are important for us to understand the role of the terrestrial hydrosphere-biosphere in Earth's climate system. The overall objective of this project is to provide a MODIS-based regional to continental-scale evapotranspiration data product to the land surface climate community.

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Land Surface Modeling Studies in Support of AQUA AMSR-E Validation

We will provide modeling support to the AMSR-E validation activities through a combination of process-based hydrological modeling and the simulation of the AMSR-E measurements. A central premise of this project is that hydrological modeling can help bridge the gap between the small-scale in-situ field observations and the AMSR-E 60 km footprint, and between the short-term field experiments and continuous AMSR-E measurements.

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Understanding the Terrestrial Water and Energy Cycles across the NEESPI Domain

The overarching science question we will be addressing during this project is "How have changes in climate, landcover and water management in northern Eurasia over the last half-century affected the land surface hydrology and flood frequency, and what are the impacts at region to continental scales?" To address this question, we will use land surface modeling, with satellite-based landcover data and in-situ data, to assess the impact on the water and energy fluxes across Northern Eurasia.

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Data Assimilation of Satellite-Based Observations into Land Surface Models

The overall scientific question is how in-situ and satellite data can be combined with land surface model predictions, using data assimilation techniques, to produce improved, coherent merged products that are space-time continuous over the land areas of the globe.

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