Improving Estimates of Land–Atmosphere Coupling Through a Novel Framework of Land Aridity Classification

Abstract

AbstractThe evapotranspiration (ET) regime is an illustration of the water‐energy interactions at the land surface and is important for regional climate. In this study, we propose a revised framework for land aridity classification based on the ET regime and the conditional mutual information method. The proposed framework effectively captures the influences of short‐term water and energy supply on ET and highlights their potential roles in extreme events. This framework can be a supplement to the traditional classification schemes that rely on long‐term mean climate. Furthermore, we examine the sensitivity of this land aridity framework to different model physics parameterization schemes. The cumulus schemes are found to have the most important impact, followed by the radiation and microphysics schemes, while the planetary boundary layer schemes have the weakest impact. These findings provide valuable insights for the identification of land aridity and its relationship with land–atmosphere interactions.