A global monthly climatology of soil moisture and water balance

Global monthly climatology of available soil moisture content is derived on a 4° by 5° grid from observed precipitation and air surface temperature by use of a simple water budget model. The governing equations and methods of calculation for deriving these fields, which follow the formulation of Thornthwaite, are first described and the importance of the various assumptions and simplifications of this approach are discussed. The derived global fields are then presented. A comparison of some of the derived fields with other calculations is also made in order to permit an evaluation of the results: For example, our indirect estimate of the river run-off is generally in good agreement with more direct estimates, except for high latitude regions where the freezing of the soil may play an important role.

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