They developed an AI model to predict rapid dehydration

Scientists analyze the meteorological effects of climate change You notice increases in extreme events, such as Tornadoes According to their conclusions, this is a consequence of Global Warming. A new analysis opens the doors to important economic implications of this situation: Drought

Researchers at the US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory I developed a file Evaluation method The possibility of severe drought conditions in several different regions of the United States than what is expected in the rest of the century. They have just published the results of their analysis in the specialized journal Scientific Reports. Using this method, based on very detailed regional climate models, they found that it is likely Droughts are exacerbated by global warming.

This result is particularly likely in regions such as Midwest, Northwestern United States, and Central Valley of California. He explained that “exacerbation of expected droughts as a result of global warming is likely to have severe consequences in terms of crop failure, forest fires and the demand for water resources.” Raw Kuttamarthi Argonne is an ecologist and author of the new paper.

The Argonne National Laboratory It seeks solutions to pressing domestic problems that combine science and technology. Argonne, America’s first national laboratory, conducts cutting edge basic and applied scientific research in nearly every scientific discipline. Its specialists work hard on the application of technology to establish the scientific foundations that help professionals, governments and individuals make decisions about the consequences of climate change.

Researchers are looking at future drought projections over the rest of the century They think the new technology can help them understand sudden dehydration events that have a rapid onset period and can be as short as a few weeks.

Rapid dehydration occurs very quickly. Although the traditional types are associated with a prolonged lack of precipitation, the surprise is caused by high temperatures and very high rates of evaporation. Cottamarthi.

Unlike hurricanes, which have a strict rating scale, scientists use different methodologies for measuring droughts. These range from Farmers have reported rain shortages To assess areas that were experiencing a lack of moisture. “In some areas of the country that typically experience fairly low rainfall, such as the southwestern United States, the lack of rainfall may not be sufficient to adequately represent the impact of drought,” Kotamarthy warned.

Instead of using precipitation deficits to determine drought, the researchers turned to a new measure called precipitation deficiency. Vapor pressure or VPD. VPD is calculated based on a combination of temperature and relative humidity and consists of The difference between the amount of water vapor that the air can hold at saturation and the total amount of water vapor available.

“A prolonged period of VPD above average can mean dehydration has occurred,” he said. Brandy Gamelin, Ecologist Argonne, and also the paper’s author. “We look at droughts differently by ignoring precipitation completely, primarily to consider the effect of temperature and future changes in drought.”

Since the amount of water an air can hold depends on its temperature, warmer air usually has a higher VPD than cold air. “It retains less moisture than heat, so the hotter the air is, the more water vapor it can hold, which may provide moisture to the surface and dry it out,” Gamelin said. Because current drought monitoring indicators are based on weekly or monthly data, they are generally lagging indicators of actual drought. “Because SVDI uses daily data, it is useful to identify droughts that occur over a shorter period of time”Gamelin concluded.

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