Abstract

The emergence of flash drought has attracted widespread attention due to its rapid onset. However, little is known about the recent evolution of flash droughts in terms of the speed of onset and the causes of such a rapid onset phase of flash droughts. Here, we present a comprehensive assessment of the onset development of flash droughts and the underlying mechanisms on a global scale. We find that 33.64−46.18% of flash droughts with 5-day onset of drying, and there is a significant increasing trend in the proportion of flash droughts with the 1-pentad onset time globally during the period 2000−2020. Flash droughts do not appear to be occurring more frequently in most global regions, just coming on faster. In addition, atmospheric aridity is likely to create a flash drought-prone environment, and the joint influence of soil moisture depletion and atmospheric aridity further accelerates the rapid onset of flash droughts.

The occurrence of flash droughts has attracted widespread attention due to their rapid onset. Here, the authors find that the joint influence of soil moisture depletion and atmospheric aridity further accelerates the rapid onset of flash droughts.

Details

Title
Accelerating flash droughts induced by the joint influence of soil moisture depletion and atmospheric aridity
Author
Yamin, Qing 1 ; Wang, Shuo 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Ancell, Brian C 3 ; Zong-Liang, Yang 4 

1  The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics and Research Institute for Land and Space, Hong Kong, China (GRID:grid.16890.36) (ISNI:0000 0004 1764 6123) 
2  The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics and Research Institute for Land and Space, Hong Kong, China (GRID:grid.16890.36) (ISNI:0000 0004 1764 6123); The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Shenzhen Research Institute, Shenzhen, China (GRID:grid.16890.36) (ISNI:0000 0004 1764 6123) 
3  Texas Tech University, Department of Geosciences, Lubbock, USA (GRID:grid.264784.b) (ISNI:0000 0001 2186 7496) 
4  University of Texas at Austin, Department of Geological Sciences, The John A. and Katherine G. Jackson School of Geosciences, Austin, USA (GRID:grid.89336.37) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 9924) 
Publication year
2022
Publication date
2022
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20411723
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28752-4
ProQuest document ID
2635335598
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2022. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.