Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Part I The dryland environment
- Part II The meteorological background
- Part III The climatic environment of drylands
- 9 Defining aridity: the classification and character of dryland climates
- 10 Desert microclimate
- 11 Precipitation in the drylands
- 12 Hydrologic processes in the drylands
- 13 Desert winds and dust
- Part IV The earth’s drylands
- Part V Life and change in the dryland regions
- Index
- References
11 - Precipitation in the drylands
from Part III - The climatic environment of drylands
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2011
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Part I The dryland environment
- Part II The meteorological background
- Part III The climatic environment of drylands
- 9 Defining aridity: the classification and character of dryland climates
- 10 Desert microclimate
- 11 Precipitation in the drylands
- 12 Hydrologic processes in the drylands
- 13 Desert winds and dust
- Part IV The earth’s drylands
- Part V Life and change in the dryland regions
- Index
- References
Summary
The nature of rainfall in the drylands
The major characteristics of the precipitation regime of dryland regions have been summarized in Chapter 9. Some of the most universal are the skewed distribution of rainfall, the extreme spatial and temporal variability, the relationship between variability and mean rainfall, and the concentration of rainfall in a few large events. These characteristics, and the extent to which they, and other axioms about dryland climates are valid, are briefly reviewed in this chapter. Characteristics of the rainy season and rainfall occurrences and their quantification are also dealt with. Since many of the points are related to the issue of frequency distributions, this topic is treated extensively.
These characteristics of the dryland rainfall regime have been known for some time from analyses of gauge data, but the physical reasons were never explained in detail until remote sensing techniques allowed for a more thorough look at the physical characteristics of storms. The most important work has resulted from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite, which was launched in 1997. It provides coverage from roughly 35° N to 35° S – an area that includes most of the dryland regions of Africa, Australia, South America, and the Middle East, India, Mexico, and a small sector of the southwestern deserts of the USA.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Dryland Climatology , pp. 188 - 211Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011
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