Climate/Land Surface Interactions:

Our previous research has focused upon the impacts of temperature and precipitation variability upon vegetation growth at both global and regional scales. Recently, we have made great progress in using satellite-based observations to develop improved metrics that allow us to better quantify vegetation activity and its response to changing climate in highly-sensitive regions. Global maps of these metrics at local and regional scales can be employed for near real-time crop monitoring, yield estimation, and famine mitigation. In addition our research has identified and analyzed causal mechanisms in which vegetation variability significantly affects the local precipitation and temperature fields, resulting in regional ecohydrological feedbacks. Research in this area has also led to the development of a new “precipitation recycling” metric for diagnosing the influence of land/atmosphere interactions upon regional precipitation variations.

Publications:

Xu. L, R.B. Myneni, B.T. Anderson, et al., 2012: Diminishing seasonality over northerly lands from anthropogenic forcing of climate, Nature-Geoscience. (in review).

Anderson, B.T. 2011: Intensification of seasonal extremes given a 2°C global warming target, Climatic Change. DOI 10.1007/s10584-011-0213-7

Anderson, B.T. 2011: Near-term increase in frequency of seasonal temperature extremes prior to the 2 °C global warming target, Climatic Change Letters. DOI 10.1007/s10584-011-0196-4.

Zhang, P., B.T. Anderson, and R. B. Myneni, 2010: Application of a satellite-based climate-variability impact index for crop yield forecasting in drought-stricken regions, African J. of Plant Sci. 4, 82-94.

Anderson, B.T., A. Ruane, M. Kanamitsu, and J.O. Roads, 2009: Estimating the influence of evaporation and moisture-flux convergence upon seasonal precipitation rates. Part II: An analysis for North America based upon the NCEP-DOE Reanalysis II Model, J. Hydrometeor, 10, 893-911.

Anderson, B.T., G. Salvucci, A. Ruane, M. Kanamitsu, and J.O. Roads, 2008: A new metric for estimating the influence of evaporation upon seasonal precipitation rates, J. Hydrometeor. 9, 576-588

Wang, W., B.T. Anderson, D. Entekhabi, D. Huang, R. K. Kaufmann, C. Potter, and R. B. Myneni, 2007: Intraseasonal Interactions between Temperature and Vegetation over the Boreal Forests. Earth Interactions, 11, Art. No. 18

Wang, W., B.T. Anderson, D. Entekhabi, D. Huang, R. K. Kaufmann, C. Potter, and R. B. Myneni, 2006: Feedbacks of Vegetation on Summertime Climate Variability over North American Grasslands: 1. Statistical Analysis. Earth Interactions, 10, Art. No. 17

Wang, W., B.T. Anderson, N. Phillips, D. Entekhabi, R. K. Kaufmann, D. Huang, C. Potter, and R. B. Myneni, 2006: Feedbacks of Vegetation on Summertime Climate Variability over North American Grasslands: 2. A Coupled Stochastic Model. Earth Interactions, 10, Art. No. 16

Zhang, P., B.T. Anderson, B. and R. B. Myneni, 2006: Monitoring 2005 corn-belt yields from space, EOS., 87 (15), 150.

Ozdogan, M., G. Salvucci, and B.T. Anderson, 2006: Examination of the Bouchet-Morton complementary relationship using a mesoscale climate model and observations under a progressive irrigation scenario, J. Hydrometeor., 7, 235-251.

Zhang, P., B.T. Anderson, B. Tan, D. Huang and R. B. Myneni, 2005: Potential monitoring of crop yield using a satellite-based climate variability impact index, Agricultural and Forest Meteor., 131, 344-358.

Lotsch, A., M.A. Friedl, B.T. Anderson, and C.J. Tucker, 2005: Response of Terrestrial Ecosystems to Recent Northern Hemispheric Drought, Geophys. Res. Lett. 32, L06705, doi:10.1029/2004GL022043

Wang, W., B. T. Anderson, R. K. Kaufmann, and R. B. Myneni, 2004: The relation between the North Atlantic Oscillation and SSTs in the North Atlantic basin. J. Climate, 17, 4752-4759

Zhang, P., B.T. Anderson, M. Barlow, B. Tan, and R. B. Myneni, 2004: Climate related vegetation characteristics derived from MODIS LAI and NDVI, J. Geophys. Res., 109, D20105, doi:10.1029/2004JD004720

Buermann, W. and Anderson, B.T., C.J. Tucker, R.E. Dickinson, W. Lucht, C.S. Potter, and R.B. Myneni, 2002: Interannual covariability in Northern Hemisphere air temperatures and greenness associated with El Nino-Southern Oscillation and the Arctic Oscillation, J. Geophys. Res. 108, Art. No. 4396.

Lotsch, A., M.A. Friedl, B.T. Anderson, and C.J Tucker, 2003: Coupled vegetation-precipitation variability observed from satellite and climate records. Geophys. Res. Lett., 30, 10.1029/2003GL017506