The earth's hydrological cycle Lennart Bengtsson ... [and more], editors

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Bengtsson, Lennart, editor.

Series:

Space sciences series of ISSI ; 1385-7525 46

Space Sciences Series of ISSI 1385-7525 46

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hydrology.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Dordrecht Springer 2014

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book gives a comprehensive presentation of our present understanding of the Earth's Hydrological cycle and the problems, consequences and impacts that go with this topic. Water is a central component in the Earth's system. It is indispensable for life on Earth in its present form and influences virtually every aspect of our planet's life support system. On relatively short time scales, atmospheric water vapor interacts with the atmospheric circulation and is crucial in forming the Earth's climate zones. Water vapor is the most powerful of the greenhouse gases and serves to enhance the tropospheric temperature. The dominant part of available water on Earth resides in the oceans. Parts are locked up in the land ice on Greenland and Antarctica and a smaller part is estimated to exist as groundwater. If all the ice over the land and all the glaciers were to melt, the sea level would rise by some 80 m. In comparison, the total amount of water vapor in the atmosphere is small; it amounts to ̃25 kg/m2, or the equivalent of 25 mm water for each column of air. Yet atmospheric water vapor is crucial for the Earth's energy balance. The book gives an up to date presentation of the present knowledge. Previously published in Surveys in Geophysics, Volume 35, No. 3, 2014

Contents:

Foreword

Review of understanding of Earth's hydrological cycle: Observations, theory and modeling

Challenges in water cycle research

Physically consistent responses of the global atmospheric cycle in models and observations

Quantifying and reducing uncertainties in the large scale response of the water cycle

Conceptual problems in Land Surface Data Assimilation

Initialisation of land surface variables for Numerical Weather Prediction

Closing the gaps in our knowledge of the hydrological cycle over land: Conceptual problems

Toward improved estimation of the dynamic topography and ocean circulation in the high latitude and Arctic Ocean

Sea Surface Salinity Observations from Space with SMOS satellite: a new tool to better monitor the marine branch of the water cycle

Role of ocean in the variability of Indian summer monsoon rainfall

Perspectives in modeling climate-hydrology interactions

Downscaling satellite precipitation with emphasis on extremes

Global snow mass measurements and the effect of stratigraphic detail on inversion of microwave brightness temperatures

Glaciers in the Earth's hydrological cycle: Assessments of glacier mass and runoff changes on global and regional scales

Observing global surface water flood dynamics

Arctic climate and water change: Model and observation relevance for assessment and adaptation

Irrigation effects on hydro-climatic change: Basin-wise water balance-constrained quantification and cross-regional comparison

Notes:

"Previously published in Surveys in geophysics, Volume 35, Issue 3, 2014"

Online resource; title from PDF title page (SpringerLink, viewed May 13, 2014)

Includes bibliographical references at the end of each chapters

Other Format:

Printed edition:

ISBN:

9789401787895

9401787891

9401787883

9789401787888

OCLC:

879595024

Publisher Number:

10.1007/978-94-017-8

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license