Controls of variability in the Laurentian Great Lakes terrestrial water budget

In this study, we analyze the Great Lakes terrestrial water budget using the Noah-MP land surface model to characterize the catchment hydrological regimes and identify the dominant quantities contributing to the variability in the land surface hydrology.

We show that the Great Lakes domain is not hydrologically uniform and strong spatiotemporal differences exist in the regulators of the hydrological budget at daily, monthly, and annual timescales. Subseasonally, precipitation and soil moisture explain nearly all the terrestrial water budget variability in the southern basins, while the northern latitudes are snow-dominated regimes. Seasonal assessments reveal greater differences among the basins.