Regional energy and water cycles: Transports from ocean to land

Strong compensation between variations in LE and DSE transports onto land means that their sum is more stable over time, and the net transport of energy onto land is largely that associated with the hydrological cycle (LE). A more detailed examination is given of the energy and water budgets for Eurasia, North and South America, Australia, and Africa, making use of Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) data for water storage on land and data on river discharge into the ocean.

With ERA-I, the new land estimates for both water and energy are closer to achieving balances than in previous studies. As well as the annual means, the mean annual cycles are examined in detail along with uncertainty sampling estimates, but the main test used here is that of closure.