TY - JOUR
T1 - Increase in ocean-onto-land droughts and their drivers under anthropogenic climate change
AU - Guan, Yansong
AU - Gu, Xihui
AU - Slater, Louise J.
AU - Yin, Jiabo
AU - Li, Jianfeng
AU - Gebrechorkos, Solomon Hailu
AU - Zhang, Xiang
AU - Kong, Dongdong
AU - Yan, Xuesong
N1 - This work is supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2023YFE0103900), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42371041 and 41901041), the Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province, China (2023AFB566), Knowledge Innovation Program of Wuhan-Shuguang (2023020201020333), the Belt and Road Special Foundation of the National Key Laboratory of Water Disaster Prevention (2022nkms03), the CRSRI Open Research Program (CKWV20231194/KY), and the open funding from the Institute of Arid Meteorology, China Meteorological Administration, Lanzhou (IAM202214). L.J.S. is supported by UKRI (MR/V022008/1) and NERC (NE/S015728/1).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s).
PY - 2023/11/22
Y1 - 2023/11/22
N2 - Ocean-onto-land droughts (OTLDs)—i.e., droughts originating over the oceans and migrating onto land—are a recently identified phenomenon with severe natural and human impacts. However, the influence of anthropogenic emissions on past and future changes in OTLDs and their underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Here, using precipitation-minus-evaporation deficits to identify global OTLDs, we find OTLDs have intensified due to anthropogenic climate change during the past 60 years. Under a future high-emissions scenario, the OTLDs would become more frequent (+39.68%), persistent (+54.25%), widespread (+448.92%), and severe (+612.78%) globally. Intensified OTLDs are associated with reduced moisture transport driven by subtropical anticyclones in the northern hemisphere and complex circulation patterns in the southern hemisphere. The reduction in moisture transport during OTLDs is mainly caused by the atmospheric thermodynamic responses to human-induced global warming. Our results underscore the importance of improving understanding of this type of drought and adopting climate mitigation measures.
AB - Ocean-onto-land droughts (OTLDs)—i.e., droughts originating over the oceans and migrating onto land—are a recently identified phenomenon with severe natural and human impacts. However, the influence of anthropogenic emissions on past and future changes in OTLDs and their underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Here, using precipitation-minus-evaporation deficits to identify global OTLDs, we find OTLDs have intensified due to anthropogenic climate change during the past 60 years. Under a future high-emissions scenario, the OTLDs would become more frequent (+39.68%), persistent (+54.25%), widespread (+448.92%), and severe (+612.78%) globally. Intensified OTLDs are associated with reduced moisture transport driven by subtropical anticyclones in the northern hemisphere and complex circulation patterns in the southern hemisphere. The reduction in moisture transport during OTLDs is mainly caused by the atmospheric thermodynamic responses to human-induced global warming. Our results underscore the importance of improving understanding of this type of drought and adopting climate mitigation measures.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85177441498&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41612-023-00523-y
DO - 10.1038/s41612-023-00523-y
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85177441498
SN - 2397-3722
VL - 6
JO - npj Climate and Atmospheric Science
JF - npj Climate and Atmospheric Science
M1 - 195
ER -
