Mechanism behind Mega-Heatwaves Pinpointed. Hoag, H.
Mechanism behind Mega-Heatwaves Pinpointed [link]Paper  doi  abstract   bibtex   
Two recent record hot spells traced to feedback loop between dry soils and trapped air. [Excerpt] The 'mega-heatwaves' that parched Europe in 2003 and Russia in 2010 were exacerbated by a vicious feedback loop between soil and atmosphere, researchers report today in Nature Geoscience1. Drying ground added more heat into air close to Earth's surface, a process that repeated over time to produce record-breaking warmth that shrivelled crops, set forests ablaze and claimed tens of thousands of lives. Without the extraordinarily dry surface and the anomalous high-pressure conditions in the lowest level of the atmosphere occurring at the same time, the extreme, persistent hot spells wouldn't have occurred, says paper co-author Diego Miralles, a climate hydrologist at Ghent University in Belgium. [...] Other studies suggest the probability of deadly heatwaves on this scale will become 5-10 times more likely in coming years4. ” If we expect to have more drier summers in the future,” says Miralles, ” we will be more vulnerable to more mega-heatwaves.”
@article{hoagMechanismMegaheatwavesPinpointed2014,
  title = {Mechanism behind Mega-Heatwaves Pinpointed},
  author = {Hoag, Hannah},
  date = {2014-04},
  journaltitle = {Nature},
  issn = {1476-4687},
  doi = {10.1038/nature.2014.15078},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/nature.2014.15078},
  abstract = {Two recent record hot spells traced to feedback loop between dry soils and trapped air.

[Excerpt] The 'mega-heatwaves' that parched Europe in 2003 and Russia in 2010 were exacerbated by a vicious feedback loop between soil and atmosphere, researchers report today in Nature Geoscience1. Drying ground added more heat into air close to Earth's surface, a process that repeated over time to produce record-breaking warmth that shrivelled crops, set forests ablaze and claimed tens of thousands of lives. Without the extraordinarily dry surface and the anomalous high-pressure conditions in the lowest level of the atmosphere occurring at the same time, the extreme, persistent hot spells wouldn't have occurred, says paper co-author Diego Miralles, a climate hydrologist at Ghent University in Belgium. [...] Other studies suggest the probability of deadly heatwaves on this scale will become 5-10 times more likely in coming years4. ” If we expect to have more drier summers in the future,” says Miralles, ” we will be more vulnerable to more mega-heatwaves.”},
  keywords = {*imported-from-citeulike-INRMM,~INRMM-MiD:c-13148138,climate-extremes,complexity,extreme-events,extreme-weather,feedback,fire-fuel,forest-resources,heatwaves,non-linearity,soil-resources,vegetation,wildfires}
}

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