@phdthesis{8718306,
  abstract     = {{Dry soils are known to foster hot conditions: if less water is available to evaporate, more sunlight is used to heat the air. While this interaction of land surface and atmosphere has been studied extensively at the local scale, less is known about the impacts further downwind, that is, where the winds blow to. In this thesis, a novel atmospheric heat and moisture tracking framework is developed, so that the downwind impacts of dry land can be unraveled. For the
first time, droughts are shown to 'self-propagate'. Analyzing the largest droughts around the globe in recent history, it is demonstrated that through a reduction in atmospheric moistening, dry soils can cause downwind precipitation deficits,
leading to the expansion of drought conditions. Moreover, reductions in moisture transport due to soil drought are accompanied by increased heat transport: upwind droughts can also fuel downwind heatwaves, which was the case for both the 2003 and 2010 mega-heatwaves in Europe. This highlights that not only local, but also upwind soil moisture
anomalies are crucial for the development of compound hot–dry events. Finally, the detrimental impact of anomalous heat and moisture advection due to soil drought on the primary productivity of water-limited ecosystems is revealed. This
emphasizes the far-reaching impacts of land–atmosphere interactions and their role in the downwind propagation of climatic ecosystem disturbances.}},
  author       = {{Schumacher, Dominik}},
  isbn         = {{9789463574280}},
  keywords     = {{land–atmosphere interactions,heatwave,drought,hot and dry event,downwind impact}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{XVI, 180}},
  publisher    = {{Ghent University. Faculty of Bioscience Engineering}},
  school       = {{Ghent University}},
  title        = {{Downwind impact of land–atmosphere interactions}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}