Overview of Drought Analyses

Off-line simulations of the global terrestrial water cycle (details here) have been analyzed in terms of soil moisture variability and the occurrence of drought. Drought is characterized by sequences or runs of soil moisture deficits and we have looked at the statistics, trends and variability of these over the latter half of the 20th century. We have also analyzed potential changes in drought regime from the IPCC 4AR simulations of future climates.