The Hydroclimatology of the Continental-US Boundary Outflow

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19316288 Georgakakos One of the most important problems in hydroclimatology is to understand the linkage between short period climate variability and surface hydrologic variability on regional to continental scales. We propose to study the relation between regional to continental scales. We propose to study the relation between regional- continental scales hydrologic processes and monthly-decade atmospheric variations using observed data, large-scale watershed budgets and conceptual models to test hypothesized physical mechanisms. While data availability precludes a comprehensive study over all of North America, the conterminous United States domain includes a well-observed and important segment of the spatial and temporal variability contained by the continent. Fifty years of daily outflows through the boundaries of the continental United States have been determined based on observations recorded by U.S.G.S. stations. By integrating over monthly, seasonal and annual totals, effects of storage and diversion are minimized. This newly created database will be used together with existing climatic databases that span several decades. Primary goals of the study include: (a) determination of the spatio-temporal scales of the continental-United States outflow: (b) study sub-continental and regional hydrologic budgets of the conterminous United States; (c) identification of forcing/feedback mechanisms active on those scales in the atmosphere-land system. The proposed research is a two year interdisciplinary effort involving the hydrology Research group of the University of Iowa and the climate research group of the Scripps Institutional of Oceanography. The proposed research is in line with the stated research areas of the NRC report on Opportunities in the Hydrologic Sciences (NRC, 1991, see also Georgakakos, 1992), as it tackles the issues of continental and regional scale hydrology and atmosphere/land surface interaction. Also, the proposed study is hig hly relevant to the GEWEX (Continental Energy and Water Cycle Experiment) Continental-Scale International Project (GCIP).