Scholars@Duke
Wenhong Li

Wenhong Li

Associate Professor of Climate
Earth and Climate Sciences
wenhong.li@duke.edu
Box 90328, Durham, NC 27708-0328
5113 Environment Hall, Durham, NC 27708
Manage Profile
Embed Profile Data

Selected Publications

Mean flow and eddy summer moisture transport over East Asia in reanalysis data and a regional climate simulation

Journal Article Climate Dynamics · January 1, 2024 Understanding the impact of atmospheric variability on climatological mean moisture transport is crucial because moisture transport determines continental water availability as well as convective organization and resulting precipitation. Here, we analyze t ... Full text Cite

Urbanization alters atmospheric dryness through land evapotranspiration

Journal Article npj Climate and Atmospheric Science · December 1, 2023 ‘Urban Dry (Wet) Islands’ (UDI/UWI) represents microclimate change that impacts ecosystems and human well-being. However, causes of the UDI (UWI) phenomena are not fully understood due to the lack of empirical data. Here, we quantify UDI (UWI) using global ... Full text Cite

Identifying driving hydrogeomorphic factors of coastal wetland downgrading using random forest classification models.

Journal Article The Science of the total environment · October 2023 Coastal wetlands provide critical ecosystem services but are experiencing disruptions caused by inundation and saltwater intrusion under intensified climate change, sea-level rise, and anthropogenic activities. Recent studies have shown that these disturba ... Full text Cite

Assessing reservoir effect on water quality in the Missouri River basin using the soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) model

Journal Article River Research and Applications · December 1, 2022 The flow regimes of the Missouri River Basin (MORB) have been significantly altered by hundreds of large and small reservoirs distributed throughout the basin. However, the impacts of these reservoirs on water quality dynamics have not been systemically st ... Full text Cite

Impacts of different types of El Niño events on water quality over the Corn Belt, United States

Journal Article Hydrology and Earth System Sciences · October 6, 2022 The United States Corn Belt region, which primarily includes two large basins, namely, the Ohio-Tennessee River basin (OTRB) and the Upper Mississippi River basin (UMRB), is responsible for the Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone. Climate patterns such as El Niño ... Full text Cite

North China Spring Rainfall and Its Linkage with SST and Atmospheric Circulation

Journal Article Journal of Climate · September 15, 2022 Spring rainfall is important for agriculture and economics in North China (NC). Thus, there is an imperative need for accurate seasonal prediction of the spring precipitation. This study implements a novel rainfall framework to improve understanding of NC ... Full text Cite

Variability of Remotely Sensed Solar-Induced Chlorophyll Fluorescence in Relation to Climate Indices

Journal Article Environments - MDPI · September 1, 2022 Global remote sensing of solar-induced fluorescence (SIF), a proxy for plant photosynthetic activity, represents a breakthrough in the systematic observation of global-scale gross primary production and other ecosystem functions. Here, we hypothesize that ... Full text Cite

Contribution of Thunderstorms to Changes in Hourly Extreme Precipitation over China from 1980 to 2011

Journal Article Journal of Climate · July 15, 2022 In many countries, thunderstorms are the main contributor to hourly extreme precipitation (HEP). Prior studies have shown that the number of thunderstorms decreased steadily in whole country of China; however, HEP has increased significantly in several are ... Full text Cite

Detecting Coastal Wetland Degradation by Combining Remote Sensing and Hydrologic Modeling

Journal Article Forests · March 1, 2022 Sea-level rise and climate change stresses pose increasing threats to coastal wetlands that are vital to wildlife habitats, carbon sequestration, water supply, and other ecosystem services with global significance. However, existing studies are limited in ... Full text Cite

Urbanization Aggravates Effects of Global Warming on Local Atmospheric Drying

Journal Article Geophysical Research Letters · January 28, 2022 Featured Publication Urbanization is known to cause ‘Urban Heat Island’ (UHI) and elevate storm runoff. However, how urbanization influences local atmospheric moisture under global warming is not well-understood. By examining 140 paired urban-rural weather station data (1980–2 ... Full text Cite

Coastal Wetland Hydrologic Resilience to Climatic Disturbances: Concept, Quantification, and Threshold Response

Chapter · January 1, 2022 Climate change, the rising air temperature and changes in the intensity and frequency of rainfall, and sea level rise (SLR), represents one of the most important threats to coastal wetlands that have numerous ecosystem services from erosion and water quali ... Full text Cite

Moisture source variations for summer rainfall in different intensity classes over Huaihe River Valley, China

Journal Article Climate Dynamics · August 1, 2021 Rainfall is one of the most influential climatic factors on regional development and environment, and changes in rainfall intensity are of specific concern. In the Huaihe River Valley (HRV), heavy rainfall is a primary trigger of floods. However, the diffe ... Full text Cite

Improving forest burn severity estimations with partial least squares regression and orthogonal signal correction methods in Daxing’an Mountains, China

Journal Article Journal of Forestry Research · June 1, 2021 Several indices and simple empirical models and ratios of single band from pre- and post-fire Landsat images have been developed to estimate and/or map burn severity. However, these models and indices are usually site-, time- and vegetation-dependent and t ... Full text Cite

Assessing the Impacts of Recent Crop Expansion on Water Quality in the Missouri River Basin Using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool.

Journal Article Journal of advances in modeling earth systems · May 2021 Featured Publication The Missouri River Basin (MORB) has experienced a resurgence of grassland conversion to crop production, which raised concerns on water quality. We applied the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to address how this conversion would impact water quality. ... Full text Cite

Changes in Hourly Extreme Precipitation Over Eastern China From 1970 to 2019 Dominated by Synoptic-Scale Precipitation

Journal Article Geophysical Research Letters · March 1, 2021 Featured Publication Because of its dense population, extreme precipitation, in particular hourly extreme precipitation (HEP), is receiving increasing attention from both academic and public bodies in eastern China. Based on a continuous 50-year record of hourly precipitation ... Full text Cite

Trends and Variability of Atmospheric Downward Longwave Radiation Over China From 1958 to 2015

Journal Article Earth and Space Science · February 1, 2021 Featured Publication Surface downward longwave radiation (SDLR) is a major component of the energy budget. Although studies have reported the spatiotemporal variations of SDLR in China, the spatiotemporal coverage of the situ measurements used is always limited. In this study, ... Full text Cite

Drought: Progress in broadening its understanding

Journal Article Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water · March 1, 2020 Featured Publication Drought affects many aspects of society and its impact is global. To this end, ren-dering recurrent drought occurrences is a key research focus. Recently, in addition to existing knowledge, progress in scientific advancements regarding drought have been ob ... Full text Cite

A nonmodal instability perspective of the declining northern midlatitude synoptic variability in boreal summer

Journal Article Journal of Climate · February 1, 2020 Featured Publication The Pacific-North America-North Atlantic sector in general experienced a dryer and warmer climate in summer during the past 40 years. These changes are partly associated with declining midlatitude synoptic variability in boreal summer, especially over the ... Full text Cite

Impact of dependence changes on the likelihood of hot extremes under drought conditions in the United States

Journal Article Journal of Hydrology · February 1, 2020 Featured Publication The conditional dependence between droughts and hot extremes in many regions tends to lead to compound dry and hot extremes that may cause serious impacts on the ecosystem, human society and infrastructure. Thus, it is of particular importance to understan ... Full text Cite

Mean flow and eddy summer moisture transport over East Asia in reanalysis data and a regional climate simulation

Journal Article Climate Dynamics · January 1, 2024 Understanding the impact of atmospheric variability on climatological mean moisture transport is crucial because moisture transport determines continental water availability as well as convective organization and resulting precipitation. Here, we analyze t ... Full text Cite

Urbanization alters atmospheric dryness through land evapotranspiration

Journal Article npj Climate and Atmospheric Science · December 1, 2023 ‘Urban Dry (Wet) Islands’ (UDI/UWI) represents microclimate change that impacts ecosystems and human well-being. However, causes of the UDI (UWI) phenomena are not fully understood due to the lack of empirical data. Here, we quantify UDI (UWI) using global ... Full text Cite

Identifying driving hydrogeomorphic factors of coastal wetland downgrading using random forest classification models.

Journal Article The Science of the total environment · October 2023 Coastal wetlands provide critical ecosystem services but are experiencing disruptions caused by inundation and saltwater intrusion under intensified climate change, sea-level rise, and anthropogenic activities. Recent studies have shown that these disturba ... Full text Cite

Assessing reservoir effect on water quality in the Missouri River basin using the soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) model

Journal Article River Research and Applications · December 1, 2022 The flow regimes of the Missouri River Basin (MORB) have been significantly altered by hundreds of large and small reservoirs distributed throughout the basin. However, the impacts of these reservoirs on water quality dynamics have not been systemically st ... Full text Cite

Impacts of different types of El Niño events on water quality over the Corn Belt, United States

Journal Article Hydrology and Earth System Sciences · October 6, 2022 The United States Corn Belt region, which primarily includes two large basins, namely, the Ohio-Tennessee River basin (OTRB) and the Upper Mississippi River basin (UMRB), is responsible for the Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone. Climate patterns such as El Niño ... Full text Cite

North China Spring Rainfall and Its Linkage with SST and Atmospheric Circulation

Journal Article Journal of Climate · September 15, 2022 Spring rainfall is important for agriculture and economics in North China (NC). Thus, there is an imperative need for accurate seasonal prediction of the spring precipitation. This study implements a novel rainfall framework to improve understanding of NC ... Full text Cite

Variability of Remotely Sensed Solar-Induced Chlorophyll Fluorescence in Relation to Climate Indices

Journal Article Environments - MDPI · September 1, 2022 Global remote sensing of solar-induced fluorescence (SIF), a proxy for plant photosynthetic activity, represents a breakthrough in the systematic observation of global-scale gross primary production and other ecosystem functions. Here, we hypothesize that ... Full text Cite

Contribution of Thunderstorms to Changes in Hourly Extreme Precipitation over China from 1980 to 2011

Journal Article Journal of Climate · July 15, 2022 In many countries, thunderstorms are the main contributor to hourly extreme precipitation (HEP). Prior studies have shown that the number of thunderstorms decreased steadily in whole country of China; however, HEP has increased significantly in several are ... Full text Cite

Detecting Coastal Wetland Degradation by Combining Remote Sensing and Hydrologic Modeling

Journal Article Forests · March 1, 2022 Sea-level rise and climate change stresses pose increasing threats to coastal wetlands that are vital to wildlife habitats, carbon sequestration, water supply, and other ecosystem services with global significance. However, existing studies are limited in ... Full text Cite

Urbanization Aggravates Effects of Global Warming on Local Atmospheric Drying

Journal Article Geophysical Research Letters · January 28, 2022 Featured Publication Urbanization is known to cause ‘Urban Heat Island’ (UHI) and elevate storm runoff. However, how urbanization influences local atmospheric moisture under global warming is not well-understood. By examining 140 paired urban-rural weather station data (1980–2 ... Full text Cite

Coastal Wetland Hydrologic Resilience to Climatic Disturbances: Concept, Quantification, and Threshold Response

Chapter · January 1, 2022 Climate change, the rising air temperature and changes in the intensity and frequency of rainfall, and sea level rise (SLR), represents one of the most important threats to coastal wetlands that have numerous ecosystem services from erosion and water quali ... Full text Cite

Moisture source variations for summer rainfall in different intensity classes over Huaihe River Valley, China

Journal Article Climate Dynamics · August 1, 2021 Rainfall is one of the most influential climatic factors on regional development and environment, and changes in rainfall intensity are of specific concern. In the Huaihe River Valley (HRV), heavy rainfall is a primary trigger of floods. However, the diffe ... Full text Cite

Improving forest burn severity estimations with partial least squares regression and orthogonal signal correction methods in Daxing’an Mountains, China

Journal Article Journal of Forestry Research · June 1, 2021 Several indices and simple empirical models and ratios of single band from pre- and post-fire Landsat images have been developed to estimate and/or map burn severity. However, these models and indices are usually site-, time- and vegetation-dependent and t ... Full text Cite

Assessing the Impacts of Recent Crop Expansion on Water Quality in the Missouri River Basin Using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool.

Journal Article Journal of advances in modeling earth systems · May 2021 Featured Publication The Missouri River Basin (MORB) has experienced a resurgence of grassland conversion to crop production, which raised concerns on water quality. We applied the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to address how this conversion would impact water quality. ... Full text Cite

Changes in Hourly Extreme Precipitation Over Eastern China From 1970 to 2019 Dominated by Synoptic-Scale Precipitation

Journal Article Geophysical Research Letters · March 1, 2021 Featured Publication Because of its dense population, extreme precipitation, in particular hourly extreme precipitation (HEP), is receiving increasing attention from both academic and public bodies in eastern China. Based on a continuous 50-year record of hourly precipitation ... Full text Cite

Trends and Variability of Atmospheric Downward Longwave Radiation Over China From 1958 to 2015

Journal Article Earth and Space Science · February 1, 2021 Featured Publication Surface downward longwave radiation (SDLR) is a major component of the energy budget. Although studies have reported the spatiotemporal variations of SDLR in China, the spatiotemporal coverage of the situ measurements used is always limited. In this study, ... Full text Cite

Drought: Progress in broadening its understanding

Journal Article Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water · March 1, 2020 Featured Publication Drought affects many aspects of society and its impact is global. To this end, ren-dering recurrent drought occurrences is a key research focus. Recently, in addition to existing knowledge, progress in scientific advancements regarding drought have been ob ... Full text Cite

A nonmodal instability perspective of the declining northern midlatitude synoptic variability in boreal summer

Journal Article Journal of Climate · February 1, 2020 Featured Publication The Pacific-North America-North Atlantic sector in general experienced a dryer and warmer climate in summer during the past 40 years. These changes are partly associated with declining midlatitude synoptic variability in boreal summer, especially over the ... Full text Cite

Impact of dependence changes on the likelihood of hot extremes under drought conditions in the United States

Journal Article Journal of Hydrology · February 1, 2020 Featured Publication The conditional dependence between droughts and hot extremes in many regions tends to lead to compound dry and hot extremes that may cause serious impacts on the ecosystem, human society and infrastructure. Thus, it is of particular importance to understan ... Full text Cite

Heatwaves, medications, and heat-related hospitalization in older Medicare beneficiaries with chronic conditions.

Journal Article PloS one · January 2020 Featured Publication BackgroundHeatwaves kill more people than floods, tornadoes, and earthquakes combined and disproportionally affect older persons and those with chronic conditions. Commonly used medications for chronic conditions, e.g., diuretics, antipsychotics d ... Full text Open Access Cite

Research progress on moisture source change of precipitation over the Tibetan Plateau and its surrounding areas

Journal Article Transactions of Atmospheric Sciences · January 1, 2020 This paper provides a comprehensive review of recent studies on the moisture sources of precipitation over the Tibetan Plateau and its surrounding areas, focusing on the characteristics of moisture sources (regions of evaporation) for precipitation, the sp ... Full text Cite

Quasi-Biweekly Oscillation of the South Asian High and Its Role in Connecting the Indian and East Asian Summer Rainfalls

Journal Article Geophysical Research Letters · December 28, 2019 Featured Publication Investigation into the intraseasonal variation of the South Asian high (SAH) and its relationship with the Indian and East Asian summer monsoon rainfalls indicates that the 10–20 day period dominates the subseasonal zonal oscillation of the SAH between the ... Full text Cite

Dynamic effect of the South Asian high on the interannual zonal extension of the western North Pacific subtropical high

Journal Article International Journal of Climatology · November 30, 2019 Featured Publication The South Asian high (SAH) and the North Pacific subtropical high (NPSH) are two crucial systems affecting the summer rainfall over East Asia. Features of the relative vorticity of the SAH and its dynamic effect on zonal extension of the western NPSH (WNPS ... Full text Cite

Evaluation of Bayesian multimodel estimation in surface incident shortwave radiation simulation over high latitude areas

Journal Article Remote Sensing · August 1, 2019 Surface incident shortwave radiation (SSR) is crucial for understanding the Earth's climate change issues. Simulations from general circulation models (GCMs) are one of the most practical ways to produce long-term global SSR products. Although previous stu ... Full text Cite

Heatwaves and heat-sensitizing medications in vulnerable older adults

Conference PHARMACOEPIDEMIOLOGY AND DRUG SAFETY · August 1, 2019 Link to item Cite

Correction to: Intraseasonal variation of the summer rainfall over the Southeastern United States (Climate Dynamics, (2019), 53, 1-2, (1171-1183), 10.1007/s00382-018-4345-6)

Journal Article Climate Dynamics · July 1, 2019 The HTML version of this article was published with incorrect copyright line. The correct copyright line is “The Author(s) 2018”. This error has been corrected. ... Full text Cite

An Operational Approach for Generating the Global Land Surface Downward Shortwave Radiation Product from MODIS Data

Journal Article IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing · July 1, 2019 Surface shortwave net radiation (SSNR) and surface downward shortwave radiation (DSR) are the two surface shortwave radiation components in earth's radiation budget and the fundamental quantities of energy available at the earth's surface. Although several ... Full text Cite

Moisture source changes contributed to different precipitation changes over the northern and southern Tibetan Plateau

Journal Article Journal of Hydrometeorology · February 1, 2019 Precipitation on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) showed different spatial changes during 1979-2016, with an increasing trend over the northern Tibetan Plateau (NTP) and a slightly negative trend over the southern Tibetan Plateau (STP). The changes in precipitatio ... Full text Cite

Response of subtropical stationary waves and hydrological extremes to climate warming in boreal summer

Journal Article Journal of Climate · November 30, 2018 Featured Publication Subtropical stationary waves act as an important bridge connecting regional hydrological extremes with global warming. Observations show that the boreal summer stationary-wave amplitude (SWA) has a significantly positive trend during 1979-2013. Here, we i ... Full text Cite

Coastal Wetland Resilience to Climate Variability: A Hydrologic Perspective

Journal Article Journal of Hydrology · October 27, 2018 Featured Publication Climate-induced disturbances are expected to increase in frequency and intensity and affect wetland ecology by altering its hydrology. Investigating how wetland hydrology responds to climate disturbances is an important first step to understand the ecologi ... Full text Cite

Ecohydrological Processes Explain Urban Dry Island Effects in a Wet Region, Southern China

Journal Article Water Resources Research · September 23, 2018 Featured Publication Conversion of agricultural lands to urban uses affects regional and global climate not only through the release of greenhouse gases but also through altering land surface physical processes such as energy and water balances. Most existing studies on the me ... Full text Cite

Understanding coastal wetland hydrology with a new regional scale process-based hydrologic mode

Journal Article Hydrological Processes · July 27, 2018 Featured Publication Coastal wetlands represent an ecotone between ocean and terrestrial ecosystems, providing important services, including flood mitigation, fresh water supply, erosion control, carbon sequestration, and wildlife habitat. The environmental setting of a wetlan ... Full text Cite

Intraseasonal variation of the summer rainfall over the Southeastern United States

Journal Article Climate Dynamics · July 6, 2018 Featured Publication This study characterizes the intraseasonal variability (ISV) in the Southeastern United States (SE US) rainfall in boreal summer and delineates the associated dynamical processes featuring three-way interactions among the SE US rainfall, the central US low ... Full text Open Access Cite

Responses of Hail and Storm Days to Climate Change in the Tibetan Plateau

Journal Article Geophysical Research Letters · April 30, 2018 Featured Publication There is increasing concern that local severe storm occurrence may be changing as a result of climate change. The Tibetan Plateau (TP), as one of the world’s most sensitive areas to climate change, became significantly warmer during recent decades. Since 1 ... Full text Open Access Cite

Modeling the Potential Impacts of Climate Change on the hydrology of selected forested wetlands in the Southeastern United States

Journal Article Hydrology and Earth System Sciences · October 29, 2017 Featured Publication Cite

Change in the magnitude and mechanisms of global temperature variability with warming

Journal Article Nature Climate Change · September 4, 2017 Featured Publication Natural unforced variability in global mean surface air temperature (GMST) can mask or exaggerate human-caused global warming, and thus a complete understanding of this variability is highly desirable. Significant progress has been made in elucidating the ... Full text Cite

Heat-Related Outcomes and Medication Use in Older Adults with Heart Failure

Conference PHARMACOEPIDEMIOLOGY AND DRUG SAFETY · August 1, 2017 Link to item Cite

An interbasin comparison of tree-ring reconstructed streamflow in the eastern United States

Journal Article Hydrological Processes · June 30, 2017 Featured Publication Tree-ring reconstructions of streamflow are uncommon in the eastern United States compared with the western United States. Although the east has not experienced severe drought on the scale of the west over the last 100 years, multiyear droughts have stress ... Full text Cite

Dynamical and thermodynamical coupling between the North Atlantic subtropical high and the marine boundary layer clouds in boreal summer

Journal Article Climate Dynamics · June 10, 2017 Featured Publication This study investigates dynamical and thermodynamical coupling between the North Atlantic subtropical high (NASH), marine boundary layer (MBL) clouds, and the local sea surface temperatures (SSTs) over the North Atlantic in boreal summer for 1984–2009 usin ... Full text Open Access Cite

Modeling the Potential Impacts of Climate Change on the Hydrology of Selected Forested Wetlands in the Southeastern United States

Journal Article · April 18, 2017 Abstract. Riverine floodplains and coastal margins of the southeastern United States host extensive forested wetlands, providing myriad ecosystem services including carbon sequestration, water quality improvement, groundwater recharge, and wildlife ... Full text Open Access Cite

Impact of two different types of El Niño events on runoff over the conterminous United States

Journal Article Hydrology and Earth System Sciences · January 15, 2016 Featured Publication Full text Link to item Cite

The necessity of cloud feedback for a basin-scale Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation

Journal Article Geophysical Research Letters · 2016 Featured Publication The Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), characterized by basin-scale multidecadal variability in North Atlantic sea surface temperatures (SSTs), has traditionally been interpreted as the surface signature of variability in oceanic heat convergence (OH ... Full text Cite

Hydrological Response of East China to the Variation of East Asian Summer Monsoon

Journal Article Advances in Meteorology · 2016 Featured Publication The sensitivity of hydrologic variables in East China, that is, runoff, precipitation, evapotranspiration, and soil moisture to the fluctuation of East Asian summer monsoon (EASM), is evaluated by the Mann-Kendall correlation analysis on a spatial resoluti ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Unforced surface air temperature variability and its contrasting relationship with the anomalous TOA energy flux at local and global spatial scales

Journal Article Journal of Climate · December 8, 2015 Featured Publication Unforced global mean surface air temperature () is stable in the long-term primarily because warm anomalies are associated with enhanced outgoing longwave radiation (↑ LW) to space and thus a negative net radiative energy flux (, positive downward) at the ... Full text Open Access Cite

Amplified subtropical stationary waves in boreal summer and their implications for regional water extremes

Journal Article Environmental Research Letters · October 14, 2015 Featured Publication The linkage between climate change and increased frequency/magnitude of weather extremes remains an open question in the scientific field. Here we investigate such a dynamical linkage by focusing on an amplification trend of the northern subtropical statio ... Full text Link to item Cite

Impact of two different types of El Niño events on runoff over the conterminous United States

Journal Article Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions · September 4, 2015 The responses of river runoff to shifts of large-scale climatic patterns are of increasing concerns to water resource planners and managers for long-term climate change adaptation. El Niño is one of the most dominant modes of climate variability that is cl ... Full text Cite

Thermodynamic and dynamic contributions to future changes in regional precipitation variance: focus on the Southeastern United States

Journal Article Climate Dynamics · July 26, 2015 Featured Publication The frequency and severity of extreme events are tightly associated with the variance of precipitation. As climate warms, the acceleration in hydrological cycle is likely to enhance the variance of precipitation across the globe. However, due to the lack o ... Full text Open Access Cite

Contribution of the North Atlantic subtropical high to regional climate model (RCM) skill in simulating southeastern United States summer precipitation

Journal Article Climate Dynamics · July 26, 2015 Featured Publication This study assesses the skill of advanced regional climate models (RCMs) in simulating southeastern United States (SE US) summer precipitation and explores the physical mechanisms responsible for the simulation skill at a process level. Analysis of the RCM ... Full text Open Access Cite

Impact of the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation on Tropical Cyclone Activity in the North Atlantic and Eastern North Pacific

Journal Article Scientific Reports · July 24, 2015 Featured Publication Tropical cyclones (TCs) are among the most devastating weather systems affecting the United States and Central America (USCA). Here we show that the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO) strongly modulates TC activity over the North Atlantic (NA) and east ... Full text Open Access Cite

CMIP5 model simulations of Ethiopian Kiremt-season precipitation: current climate and future changes

Journal Article Climate Dynamics · July 2015 Featured Publication Kiremt-season (June–September) precipitation provides a significant water supply for Ethiopia, particularly in the central and northern regions. The response of Kiremt-season precipitation to climate change is thus of great concern to water resource manage ... Full text Open Access Cite

Interannual variation of the surface temperature of tropical forests from satellite observations

Journal Article Advances in Meteorology · May 17, 2015 Featured Publication Land surface temperatures (LSTs) within tropical forests contribute to climate variations. However, observational data are very limited in such regions. This study used passive microwave remote sensing data from the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Regions of Significant Influence on Unforced Global Mean Surface Temperature Variability in Climate Models

Journal Article Journal of Geophysical Research – Atmospheres · 2015 Featured Publication We document the geographic regions where local variability is most associated with unforced global mean surface air temperature (GMT) variability in Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 coupled global climate models (GCMs) at both the subdecadal a ... Full text Open Access Cite

Mass footprints of the north pacific atmospheric blocking highs

Journal Article Journal of Climate · January 1, 2015 Featured Publication The mass footprints associated with atmospheric blocks over the North Pacific are evaluated by constructing daily tendencies of total mass over the blocking domain from three-dimensional mass fluxes throughout the life cycle of a composite blocking event. ... Full text Open Access Cite

Top-of-atmosphere radiative contribution to unforced decadal global temperature variability in climate models

Journal Article Geophysical Research Letters · July 28, 2014 Featured Publication Much recent work has focused on unforced global mean surface air temperature (T) variability associated with the efficiency of heat transport into the deep ocean. Here the relationship between unforced variability in T and the Earth's top-of-atmosphere (TO ... Full text Open Access Cite

What controls the interannual variation of the wet season onsets over the amazon?

Journal Article Journal of Geophysical Research · March 16, 2014 Featured Publication Previous studies have established that sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTAs) in the tropical Pacific and Atlantic are the main forcing of the interannual variation of the wet season onsets in the Amazon. However, this variation appears to be complex an ... Full text Cite

CMIP5 Climate Model Analyses: Climate Extremes in the United States

Journal Article The Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society · 2014 Featured Publication Open Access Cite

Comments on 'Influences of the Bermuda High and atmospheric moistening on changes in summer rainfall in the Atlanta, Georgia region, USA'

Journal Article International Journal of Climatology · November 30, 2013 Featured Publication In a recent article, Diem (2012) examined the impact of the North Atlantic Subtropical High (NASH) and atmospheric moistening on summer rainfall variability in the Atlanta, Georgia region. In his paper, he indicated that the results concerning the variabil ... Full text Cite

Intensification of the Southern Hemisphere summertime subtropical anticyclones in a warming climate

Journal Article Geophysical Research Letters · November 28, 2013 Featured Publication The Southern Hemisphere subtropical anticyclones (SAs) are important features of the Earth's climate. A broad consensus among Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 3 and phase 5 climate models suggests an intensification of summer SAs over SH oceans ... Full text Cite

Increased dry-season length over southern Amazonia in recent decades and its implication for future climate projection

Journal Article PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA · 2013 Featured Publication Full text Cite

Southeastern United States summer rainfall framework and its implication for seasonal prediction

Journal Article Environmental Research Letters · January 1, 2013 Featured Publication A new rainfall framework is constructed to describe the complex probability distribution of southeastern United States (SE US) summer (June-July-August) rainfall, which cannot be well represented by traditional kernel fitting methods. The new framework is ... Full text Cite

Summer rainfall variability over the Southeastern United States in the 21st century as assessed by the CMIP5 Models

Journal Article Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres · 2013 Featured Publication The variability of the Southeast (SE) United States (U.S.) summer precipitation in current and future climate is analyzed using phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) models. By comparing the simulated historical precipitation variabi ... Full text Cite

Local kinetic energy budget of high-frequency and intermediate-frequency eddies: winter climatology and interannual variability

Journal Article Climate Dynamics · 2013 Featured Publication The local budget of eddy kinetic energy (EKE) for both high-frequency (HF, 2-6 days) and intermediate-frequency (IF, 7-29 days) eddies are evaluated for Northern Hemisphere boreal winter using the 31-year (1979/80-2010/11) NCEP-DOE reanalysis. A new form o ... Full text Open Access Cite

"North drying and south wetting" summer precipitation trend over China and its potential linkage with aerosol loading

Journal Article Atmospheric Research · 2013 Featured Publication Changes in summer precipitation over China and their linkage to aerosol loading during 1957-2008 were analyzed. Increased (decreased) summer precipitation has been observed over the Southern (Northern) China, presenting a "north drying and south wetting" p ... Full text Cite

Variation of the North Atlantic subtropical high western ridge and its implication to Southeastern US summer precipitation

Journal Article Climate Dynamics · 2012 Featured Publication Variations of the North Atlantic subtropical high (NASH) western ridge and their implication to the Southeastern United States (SE US) summer precipitation were analyzed for the years 1948-2007. The results show that the movement of the NASH western ridge ... Full text Cite

Intensification of Northern Hemisphere subtropical highs in a warming climate

Journal Article Nature Geoscience · 2012 Featured Publication Semi-permanent high-pressure systems over the subtropical oceans, known as subtropical highs, influence atmospheric circulation, as well as global climate. For instance, subtropical highs largely determine the location of the world's subtropical deserts, t ... Full text Cite

Impact of two different types of El Niño events on the Amazon climate and ecosystem productivity

Journal Article Journal of Plant Ecology · 2011 Featured Publication Aims The Amazon basin plays an important role in the global carbon budget. Interannual climate variability associated with El Niño can affect the Amazon ecosystem carbon balance. In recent years, studies have suggested that there are two different types of ... Full text Cite

Atmospheric moisture budget and its regulation of the summer precipitation variability over the Southeastern United States

Journal Article Climate Dynamics · 2011 Featured Publication The atmospheric moisture budget and its regulation of the summer (June-July-August) precipitation over the Southeastern United State (SE U.S.) are examined during 1948-2007 using PRECipitation REConstruction over Land (Prec/L) and multiple reanalysis datas ... Cite

Changes to the North Atlantic subtropical high and its role in the intensification of summer rainfall variability in the southeastern United States

Journal Article Journal of Climate · 2011 Featured Publication This study investigates the changes of the North Atlantic subtropical high (NASH) and its impact on summer precipitation over the southeastern (SE) United States using the 850-hPa geopotential height field in the National Centers forEnvironmental Predictio ... Full text Open Access Cite

Changes in cloudiness over the Amazon rainforests during the last two decades: Diagnostic and potential causes

Journal Article Climate Dynamics · 2011 Featured Publication This study shows a decrease of seasonal mean convection, cloudiness and an increase of surface shortwave down-welling radiation during 1984-2007 over the Amazon rainforests based on the analysis of satellite-retrieved clouds and surface radiative flux data ... Full text Cite

Intensification of summer rainfall variability in the southeastern United States during recent decades

Journal Article Journal of Hydrometeorology · 2010 Featured Publication The variability of summer precipitation in the southeastern United States is examined in this study using 60-yr (1948-2007) rainfall data. The Southeast summer rainfalls exhibited higher interannual variability with more intense summer droughts and anomalo ... Full text Open Access Cite

Changes in cloudiness during the last two decades over the Amazon forests

Journal Article Climate Dynamics · 2010 Featured Publication This study shows a decrease of seasonal mean convection, cloudiness and an increase of surface shortwave (SW) down-welling radiation during 1984 to 2007 over the Amazon rainforests based on the analysis of satellite-retrieved clouds and surface radiative f ... Link to item Cite

Multi-scale forcing and the formation of subtropical desert and monsoon

Journal Article Annales Geophysicae · December 1, 2009 This study investigates three types of atmospheric forcing across the summertime subtropics that are shown to contribute in various ways to the occurrence of dry and wet climates in the subtropics. To explain the formation of desert over the western parts ... Full text Cite

Comparison of precipitation dataset over tropical lands

Journal Article Journal of Hydrometeorology · February 2009 Featured Publication Six rainfall datasets are compared over the Amazon basin, Northeast Brazil, and the Congo basin. These datasets include three gauge-only precipitation products from the Climate Prediction Center (CPC), Global Precipitation Climatology Center (GPCC), and Br ... Link to item Cite

Comparison of precipitation data sets over the tropical South American and African continents

Journal Article Journal of Hydrometeorology · 2009 Six rainfall datasets are compared over the Amazon basin, Northeast Brazil, and the Congo basin. These datasets include three gauge-only precipitation products from the Climate Prediction Center (CPC), Global Precipitation Climatology Center (GPCC), and Br ... Full text Cite

Climate Change, deforestation and the fate of the Amazon

Journal Article Science · 2008 Featured Publication The forest biome of Amazonia is one of Earth's greatest biological treasures and a major component of the Earth system. This century, it faces the dual threats of deforestation and stress from climate change. Here, we summarize some of the latest findings ... Full text Link to item Cite

Observed change of the standardized precipitation index, its potential cause and implications to future climate change in the Amazon region

Journal Article Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences · 2008 Featured Publication Observations show that the standard precipitation index (SPI) over the southern Amazon region decreased in the period of 1970-1999 by 0.32 per decade, indicating an increase in dry conditions. Simulations of constant pre-industrial climate with recent clim ... Full text Open Access Cite

Future precipitation changes and their implications for tropical peatlands

Journal Article Geophysical Research Letters · 2007 Featured Publication Carbon (C) in tropical peatlands over Southeast Asia and Amazonia, if released to the atmosphere, can substantially increase the growth rate of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Over Southeast Asia, where the most extensive tropical peatlands in the world occur, ... Full text Cite

Seasonal change of the atmospheric boundary layer over Huaihe River basin in China

Journal Article Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering · December 1, 2006 The Huaihe River basin has dry winter and wet summer seasons, and the structure of the atmospheric boundary layer shows the seasonal march. The change was continuously observed using a flux tower, a Doppler sodar, and a boundary layer profiler for more tha ... Full text Cite

Influence of cold air intrusions on the wet season onset over Amazonia

Journal Article Journal of Climate · 2006 Featured Publication Using 15-yr data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Re-Analysis (ERA-15), the authors found that rapid southeastward expansion of the rainy area from the western Amazon to southeastern Brazil is a result of midlatitude cold air int ... Full text Cite

Rainfall and its seasonality over the Amazon in the 21st century as assessed by the coupled models for the IPCC AR4

Journal Article Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres · 2006 Featured Publication The global climate models for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report (IPCC AR4) predict very different changes of rainfall over the Amazon under the SRES A1B scenario for global climate change. Five of the eleven models pred ... Full text Cite

Transition of the large-scale atmospheric and land surface conditions from the dry to the wet season over Amazonia as diagnosed by the ECMWF re-analysis

Journal Article Journal of Climate · 2004 Featured Publication Using 15-yr instantaneous European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Re-Analysis (ERA) data, the authors have examined the large-scale atmospheric conditions and the local surface fluxes through the transition periods from the dry to wet seasons ov ... Full text Cite

Influence of land surface on transition from dry to wet season in Amazonia

Journal Article Theoretical & Applied Climatology · 2004 Featured Publication Analysis of the fifteen years of European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) reanalysis suggests that the transition from dry to wet season in Southern Amazonia is initially driven by increases of surface latent heat flux. These fluxes rapid ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Impacts of land use change and climate variations on annual inflow into Miyun Reservoir,Beijing, China

Journal Article Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., Featured Publication The Miyun Reservoir, the only surface water source for Beijing city, has experienced water supply decline in recent decades. Previous studies suggest that both land use change and climate contribute to the changes of water supply in this critical watershed ... Open Access Cite

Spread in the magnitude of climate model interdecadal global temperature variability traced to disagreements over high-latitude oceans

Journal Article Geophysical Research Letters Featured Publication Unforced variability in global mean surface air temperature can obscure or exaggerate global warming on interdecadal timescales, thus understanding both the magnitude and generating mechanisms of such variability is of critical importance for both attribut ... Full text Cite

Impacts of the North Atlantic Subtropical High on Interannual Variation of Summertime Heat Stress over the Conterminous United States

Journal Article Climate Dynamics Featured Publication Heat index (HI) provides a proven indicator of heat stress concerns and discomfort for the general public. The index takes into account of the integrated effects of temperature and humidity on heat events, both factors regulated by large-scale circulation ... Full text Cite