Deliberate enhancement of rainfall using desert plantations

Branch, Oliver; Wulfmeyer, Volker

doi:10.1073/pnas.1904754116

Cited by 56 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Regardless of the small rain amounts in summer, favorable conditions for rain events can still exist, leading to convection initation (CI) over the Al Hajar mountain range and convergence zones over the west. The understanding and correct simulation of these effects is crucial for the prediction of extreme events and for the application of weather modification efforts like cloud seeding and and rain enhancement by using desert plantations (Branch and Wulfmeyer, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Sensitivity study of the planetary boundary layer and microphysical schemes to the initialization of convection over the Arabian Peninsula

Schwitalla

Branch

Wulfmeyer

2019

Quart J Royal Meteoro Soc

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In this study, we present a five‐member Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) physics ensemble over the Arabian Peninsula on the convection‐permitting (CP) scale and investigate the ability to simulate convection and precipitation by varying the applied cloud microphysics and planetary boundary layer (PBL) parametrizations. The study covers a typical precipitation event ocurring during summertime over the eastern part of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Our results show that the best results are obtained by using water‐ and ice‐friendly aerosols combined with aerosol‐aware Thompson cloud microphysics and the Mellor‐Yamada‐Nakanishi‐Niino (MYNN) PBL parametrization. The diurnal cycle of 2‐m temperature over the desert is well captured by all members, although a cold bias is present during the morning and evening transition. All members are capable of simulating the correct timing of the onset of convection. Simulations with the MYNN PBL and Thompson scheme produce the highest convective available potential energy (CAPE) and convective inhibition (CIN), associated with stronger mixing inside the PBL, leading to the formation of more dense liquid water clouds. The WDM6 microphysics scheme is not a suitable option, as there are hardly any liquid water clouds; mainly ice clouds are simulated. Precipitation is best captured by applying the MYNN and Thomspon scheme. Although the ensemble size is relatively small, this allows for the provision of cloud probability maps suitable for cloud‐seeding applications.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Sensitivity study of the planetary boundary layer and microphysical schemes to the initialization of convection over the Arabian Peninsula

Schwitalla

Branch

Wulfmeyer

2019

Quart J Royal Meteoro Soc

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“…e main flagship of these actions is revegetation programmes [15]. ey seek to control soil erosion, carbon sequestration, and even the reversal of water imbalances, emphasizing that increasing forest cover raises water yield [16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

SAT: A Software for Assessing the Risk of Desertification in Spain

Martínez‐Valderrama

Ibáñez

Alcalá

et al. 2020

Scientific Programming

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Desertification is a major global environmental issue exacerbated by climate change. Strategies to combat desertification include prevention which seeks to reverse the process before the system reaches the stable desertified state. One of these initiatives is to implement early warning tools. This paper presents SAT (the Spanish acronym for Early Warning System), a decision support system (DSS), for assessing the risk of desertification in Spain, where 20% of the land has already been desertified and 1% is in active degradation. SAT relies on three versions of a Generic Desertification Model (GDM) that integrates economics and ecology under the predator-prey paradigm. The models have been programmed using Vensim, a type of software used to build and simulate System Dynamics (SD) models. Through Visual Basic programming, these models are operated from the Excel environment. In addition to the basic simulation exercises, specially designed tools have been coupled to assess the risk of desertification and determine the ranking of the most influential factors of the process. The users targeted by SAT are government land-use planners as well as desertification experts. SAT tool is implemented for five case studies, each one of them representing a desertification syndrome identified in Spain. Given the general nature of the tool and the fact that all United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) signatory countries are committed to developing their National Plans to Combat Desertification (NPCD), SAT could be exported to regions threatened by desertification and expanded to cover more case studies.

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“…The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model (Skamarock et al, 2008) has been used in arid regions for various forecasting and verification (e.g Branch et al, 2014;Fonseca et al, 2020;Schwitalla et al, 2020;Valappil et al, 2019;Wehbe et al, 2019), and process studies (Becker et al, 2013;Branch and Wulfmeyer, 2019;Karagulian et al, 2019;Nelli et al, 2020a;Wulfmeyer et al, 2014). To the best of our knowledge though, there have been few seasonal-to-annual scale verification studies with WRF a daily forecasting mode at such a high spatial and temporal resolution (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonal and diurnal performance of daily forecasts with WRF-NOAHMP V3.8.1 over the United Arab Emirates

Branch¹,

Schwitalla²,

Temimi³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Abstract. Effective numerical weather forecasting is vital in arid regions like the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where extreme events like heat waves, flash floods and dust storms are severe. Hence, accurate forecasting of quantities like surface temperatures and humidity is very important. To date, there have been few seasonal-to-annual scale verification studies with WRF at high spatial and temporal resolution. This study employs a convection-permitting scale (2.7 km grid scale) simulation with WRF-NOAHMP, in daily forecast mode, from January 01 to November 30 2015. WRF was verified using measurements of 2 m air temperature (T-2m), dew point (TD-2m), and 10 m windspeed (UV-10m) from 48 UAE surface stations. Analysis was made of seasonal and diurnal performance within the desert, marine and mountain regions of the UAE. Results show that WRF represents temperature (T-2m) quite adequately during the daytime with biases ≤ +1 ˚C. There is however a nocturnal cold bias (−1 to −4 ˚C), which increases during hotter months in the desert and mountain regions. The marine region has the lowest T-2m biases (≤−0.75 ˚C). WRF performs well regarding TD-2m, with mean biases mostly ≤ 1 ˚C. TD-2m over the marine region is overestimated though (0.75–1 ˚C), and nocturnal mountain TD-2m is underestimated (~ −2 ˚C). UV-10m performance on land still needs improvement, and biases can occasionally be large (1–2 m s−1). This performance tends to worsen during the hot months, particularly inland with peak biases reaching ~ 3 m s−1. UV-10m are better simulated in the marine region (bias ≤ 1 m s−1). There is an apparent relationship between T-2m bias and UV-10m bias, which may indicate issues in simulation of the daytime sea breeze. TD-2m biases tend to be more independent. Studies such as these are vital for accurate assessment of WRF nowcasting performance and to identify model deficiencies. By combining sensitivity tests, process and observational studies with seasonal verification, we can further improve forecasting systems for the UAE.

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Deliberate enhancement of rainfall using desert plantations

Cited by 56 publications

References 44 publications

Sensitivity study of the planetary boundary layer and microphysical schemes to the initialization of convection over the Arabian Peninsula

Sensitivity study of the planetary boundary layer and microphysical schemes to the initialization of convection over the Arabian Peninsula

SAT: A Software for Assessing the Risk of Desertification in Spain

Seasonal and diurnal performance of daily forecasts with WRF-NOAHMP V3.8.1 over the United Arab Emirates

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