Hi! Thanks for your interest in this work. You are welcome to download three papers discussing important contributions of my PhD work, completed with Elfatih Eltahir at MIT.
Atmospheric Controls on Soil Moisture-Boundary Layer Interactions; Part I: Framework Development
In this first paper, we first describe a one-dimensional boundary layer (BL) model that was modified for initialization with observed early-morning soundings. We then define a new atmospheric thermodynamic measure, the Convective Triggering Potential (CTP) and provide case study examples to demonstrate how the CTP can distinguish early-morning atmospheric conditions favoring convection in regions of high sensible heat flux from early-morning atmospheric conditions favoring convection in regions of high latent heat flux.
The BL model described above is used with hundreds of early-morning soundings, primarily from Illinois but also from four other locations, to analyze the impact of soil saturation on BL development and the triggering of convection in different atmospheric settings. A framework for describing the important characteristics of early-morning soundings is developed to distinguish those soundings favoring convection over dry soils from those favoring convection over wet soils, and from those whose convective potential is unaffected by surface flux partitioning. This framework involves both the CTP and a low-level humidity index, HIlow.
Atmospheric Controls on Soil Moisture-Boundary Layer Interactions; Part II: Feedbacks Within the Continental United States
In the next paper, soundings from stations across the contiguous United States are analyzed in the context of the CTP-HIlow framework to determine regions where a positive feedback between soil moisture and rainfall may be active, where a negative feedback may be active, and where the land surface condition does little to influence the development and depth of rainfall.
Atmospheric Controls on Soil Moisture-Boundary Layer Interactions: Three-dimensional Wind Effects (Journal of Geophysical Research, in press)
In the third paper, a third and crucial dimension is added to the CTP-HIlow framework: the three-dimensional profile of the winds. Wind effects are analyzed in the context of simulations using MM5 over Illinois, and data from FIFE reveal the great importance of the low-level winds.
