Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.1038/s41467-025-58729-y
Licence creative commons licence
Title (Primary) Observational evidence of increased afternoon rainfall downwind of irrigated areas
Author Greve, P.; Schmitt, A.U.; Miralles, D.G.; McDermid, S.; Findell, K.L.; García-García, A. ORCID logo ; Peng, J. ORCID logo
Source Titel Nature Communications
Year 2025
Department RS
Volume 16
Page From art. 3415
Language englisch
Topic T5 Future Landscapes
Data and Software links https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MCD12C1.061
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14028492
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7809342
https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.7504448.v5
Supplements https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs41467-025-58729-y/MediaObjects/41467_2025_58729_MOESM1_ESM.pdf
Abstract Irrigation plays a vital role in addressing the growing food demand of an increasing global population. It represents one of the most critical and direct human interventions on the coupled water and energy cycles. As irrigated farmland continues to expand, understanding the climate impact of extensive irrigation becomes increasingly important. Yet, the effect on rainfall patterns near irrigated areas remains unclear. Here, using two global, high-resolution, sub-daily precipitation datasets, we show that afternoon rain events occur more often 10 km to 50 km downwind and less often upwind of extensively irrigated land. However, we also find that the total amount of heavy afternoon rain downwind of irrigated areas is lower than upwind. Our results establish large-scale observational evidence of the local precipitation dynamics surrounding irrigated areas; these insights will help constrain the representation of these processes in next-generation climate and weather forecasting models and provide valuable insights for regional water management.
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=30762
Greve, P., Schmitt, A.U., Miralles, D.G., McDermid, S., Findell, K.L., García-García, A., Peng, J. (2025):
Observational evidence of increased afternoon rainfall downwind of irrigated areas
Nat. Commun. 16 , art. 3415 10.1038/s41467-025-58729-y