Dataset associated with "Analysis of Kenya's Atmospheric Moisture Sources and Sinks"

Keys, Patrick W.

Dataset associated with "Analysis of Kenya's Atmospheric Moisture Sources and Sinks"

dc.contributor.author	Keys, Patrick W.
dc.coverage.spatial	Global	en_US
dc.coverage.temporal	1980-2019	en_US
dc.date.accessioned	2022-07-13T19:26:10Z
dc.date.available	2022-07-13T19:26:10Z
dc.date.issued	2022
dc.description	The data are a gridded set of files that contain data on the evaporative sources that provide precipitation to Kenya, and the destinations to which Kenya's evaporation will later fall as precipitation. The data are further described in the README document and the original publication.	en_US
dc.description	School of Global Environmental Sustainability
dc.description	Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability
dc.description	Department of Atmospheric Science
dc.description	Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory (NREL)
dc.description.abstract	Achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are contingent on understanding the potential interactions among human and natural systems. In Kenya, the goal of conserving and expanding forest cover to achieve SDG 15 ‘Life on land’ may be related to other SDGs because it plays a role in regulating some aspects of Kenyan precipitation. We present a 40-year analysis of the sources of precipitation in Kenya, and the fate of the evaporation that arises from within Kenya. Using MERRA2 climate reanalysis and the Water Accounting Model 2-layers, we examine the annual and seasonal changes in moisture sources and sinks. We find that most of Kenya’s precipitation originates as oceanic evaporation, but that 10% of its precipitation originates as evaporation within Kenya. This internal recycling is concentrated in the mountainous and forested Kenyan highlands, with some locations recycling more than 15% of evaporation, to Kenyan precipitation. We also find that 75% of Kenyan evaporation falls as precipitation elsewhere over land, including 10% in Kenya, 25% in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and around 5% falling in Tanzania and Uganda. Further, we find a positive relationship between increasing rates of moisture recycling and fractional forest cover within Kenya. By beginning to understand both the seasonal and biophysical interactions taking place, we may begin to understand the types of leverage points that exist for integrated atmospheric water cycle management. These findings have broader implications for disentangling environmental management and conservation and have relevance for large-scale discussions about sustainable development.	en_US
dc.description.sponsorship	The authors gratefully acknowledge Elizabeth A. Barnes for advice on modifying the WAM-2layers to accommodate different reanalysis data. PK, RW, KG, and RB acknowledge support from NASA Program ‘Sustaining Living Systems in a Time of Climate Variability and Change’ (award #80NSSC19K0182: ‘Cross-scale Impacts of SDG 15 achievement’). RE acknowledges funding from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), project number 016.Veni.181.015.	en_US
dc.format.medium	PDF
dc.format.medium	MATLAB
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/10217/235433
dc.identifier.uri	http://dx.doi.org/10.25675/10217/235433
dc.language	English	en_US
dc.language.iso	eng	en_US
dc.publisher	Colorado State University. Libraries	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Research Data
dc.relation.isreferencedby	Keys, P. W., Warrier, R., van der Ent, R. J., Galvin, K. A., & Boone, R. B. (2022). Analysis of Kenya’s Atmospheric Moisture Sources and Sinks, Earth Interactions, 26(1), 139-150. https://doi.org/10.1175/EI-D-21-0016.1	en_US
dc.rights.license	This material is open access and distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).
dc.rights.uri	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
dc.subject	climate services	en_US
dc.subject	land-atmosphere interactions	en_US
dc.subject	water vapor	en_US
dc.subject	water cycle	en_US
dc.subject	Africa	en_US
dc.subject	sustainability	en_US
dc.title	Dataset associated with "Analysis of Kenya's Atmospheric Moisture Sources and Sinks"	en_US
dc.type	Dataset	en_US