Using the evaporative stress index to monitor flash drought in Australia
Article
Article Title | Using the evaporative stress index to monitor flash drought in Australia |
---|---|
ERA Journal ID | 36365 |
Article Category | Article |
Authors | Nguyen, Hanh (Author), Wheeler, Matthew C. (Author), Otkin, Jason A. (Author), Cowan, Tim (Author), Frost, Andrew (Author) and Stone, Roger (Author) |
Journal Title | Environmental Research Letters |
Journal Citation | 14 (6), pp. 1-9 |
Article Number | 064016 |
Number of Pages | 9 |
Year | 2019 |
Publisher | IOP Publishing |
Place of Publication | United Kingdom |
ISSN | 1748-9326 |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab2103 |
Web Address (URL) | https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab2103 |
Abstract | Flash drought is a term and concept that has gained increasing attention in the research literature and media since it was first coined in the United States in the early 2000s to describe a drought that has undergone rapid intensification. In Australia the term has recently been used in reference to the 2017/18 drought in eastern Australia. Due to its rapid intensification, the impacts of flash droughts will likely occur too quickly for many of the usual drought-coping mechanisms to be deployed. This study proposes the use of the evaporative stress index (ESI), the standardized anomaly of the actual evapotranspiration to potential evapotranspiration ratio, to identify flash droughts in Australia computed using daily outputs from the Bureau of Meteorology's land surface water balance model AWRA-L. The case study of the January 2018 flash drought in eastern Australia is used to assess and demonstrate the suitability of the ESI. Results show that the ESI accurately highlighted the event and offered potential for flash drought pre-warning by a few weeks. In addition, the availability of long term high-resolution outputs from AWRA-L offers the ability to investigate multiple flash drought events in detail for greater understanding and to inform stakeholders. |
Keywords | evaporative stress index; Australia; flash drought |
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020 | 370108. Meteorology |
370202. Climatology | |
Byline Affiliations | Australian Bureau of Meteorology |
University of Wisconsin-Madison, United States | |
Centre for Applied Climate Sciences | |
Institution of Origin | University of Southern Queensland |
https://research.usq.edu.au/item/q5476/using-the-evaporative-stress-index-to-monitor-flash-drought-in-australia
Download files
Published Version
Nguyen_Wheeler_Otkin_Frost_Stone_Cowan_PV.pdf | ||
License: CC BY 3.0 | ||
File access level: Anyone |
574
total views161
total downloads1
views this month0
downloads this month