Interannual variability of soil moisture in the European part of Russia in summer

Abstract

Interannual and interdecadal variability of soil moisture in the European part of Russia in summer months is investigated using the data for 1948-2012. It is found that the two first empirical orthogonal functions (EOFs) describe about 50% of total variability of soil moisture. The spatial pattern of the first EOF is indicative of coherent changes in soil moisture in the whole European part of Russia. The second EOF is represented by the meridional dipole with the opposite signs of soil moisture variations in the northern and southern parts of the region. It is revealed that the spatiotemporal pattern of the principal EOFs of soil moisture variability in the European part of Russia almost does not vary during summer that is indicative of the uniform (for each EOF) mechanism of the formation of interan-nual variability of soil moisture.