Differential impacts of irrigation on precipitation across the United States

作者：Stefano Casirati, Paolo D’Odorico, Inez Fung, Andrea Molod, Manuela Girotto · 发表于：Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 年份：2026 · DOI：10.5281/zenodo.15059468 · 被引用次数：1 · 研究领域：Environmental science、Atmospheric sciences、Climatology

These data are used in "Differential impacts of irrigation on precipitation across the United States", Environmental Research Letters. Stefano Casirati¹, Paolo d’Odorico¹, Inez Fung¹, Andrea Molod², and Manuela Girotto¹¹Environmental Science and Policy Management, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA;²Global Modeling and Assimilation Office, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA; AbstractIrrigation is a major anthropogenic modification of the land surface that can influence regional precipitation patterns. Its effects vary across regions and seasons, yet previous studies show no consensus on whether irrigation enhances or suppresses rainfall. Using the NASA GEOS Earth System Model with a physically based irrigation module, we simulated irrigated and control scenarios to quantify irrigation-induced changes in precipitation and evapotranspiration across the contiguous United States. We quantify how irrigation drives land-atmosphere mechanisms underlying irrigation-induced changes in precipitation both regionally and seasonally. Focusing on key agricultural regions of the United States, we show that during summer, the Western United States shows negligible precipitation response despite irrigation rates reaching local maxima of ~100 mm month⁻¹; the Great Plains generally exhibits average precipitation increases of ~7 mm month⁻¹ in both irrigated and adjacent rainfed areas, though intensively irrigated zones may experience negligible or even slightly negativ...