Abstract
The characteristics of drought phenomena at mid-latitudes are analyzed by means of a simplified general circulation model. The geophysical system is excited by a temperature wave to simulate the persistence of an anticyclonic high pressure center over a geographical region. A positive-feedback mechanism, by which an anomalous thermal equilibrium is induced in the system, is shown to cause a water storage depletion corresponding to a drought. The peak severity of the drought occurs one year after the priming and it takes several years to recover from such a moisture depletion. Priming intensity and drought characteristics are shown to be non-linearly related. Therefore, in principle, drought severities and durations could be reduced by acting adequately upon the geophysical system during the priming.
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© 1992 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Bravar, L. (1992). The Priming and Duration of Droughts. In: Singh, V.P., Fiorentino, M. (eds) Entropy and Energy Dissipation in Water Resources. Water Science and Technology Library, vol 9. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-2430-0_24
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-2430-0_24
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
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