Enhancement of convective precipitation by mesoscale variations in vegetative covering in semiarid regions.

Abstract

It is hypothesized that planting bands of vegetation with widths of the order of 50-100 km in semiarid regions could, under favourable large-scale atmospheric conditions, result in increases of convective precipitation. A number of observational and theoretical studies which have a bearing on the above hypothesis are reviewed. Although individual studies may contain large uncertainties, taken together they provide considerable support for the hypothesis. In these studies, convective rainfall appears to be associated with increases in vegetation and with variations in surface characteristics in many parts of the world on scales ranging from 10 km to large fractions of continents.-from Author