At WVU, we worked with a public health scientist (Heather Basara) to investigate the roles of land and atmosphere interaction associated with heat waves that have affected the Chickasaw Nation, a Native American community in south central Oklahoma (supported by NIH R21 grant #7R21 ES022598-02). We found that the higher sensible heat from dry soil could cause significant warming from the near surface to the lower troposphere, and accumulated boundary layer heat could induce higher geopotential height and enhance anticyclonic circulations at the midtroposphere. We conclude that the anomalous anticyclonic winds could intensify the hot and dry conditions [Lee et al., 2016 JGR-Atmospheres]. These results suggest that a positive land-atmosphere feedback associated with heat waves and call attention to the need for region-specific climate adaptation planning.

Publications

Lee, E., R. Beida, J. Shanmugasundaram, and H. Basara Richter (2016), Land surface and atmospheric conditions associated with heat waves over the Chickasaw Nation in the South Central United States, J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., 121, 6284–6298, doi:10.1002/2015JD024659. [Link]

Funding sources

NIH Exploratory/Development Research Grant Award (R21) [2014-2015].