Yang et al. (2026) Regime Shifts During Compound Drought‐Heatwave Events Amplify Ecosystem and Heat Stress Risks

⚠️ Warning: This summary was generated from the abstract only, as the full text was not available.

Identification

• Journal: Geophysical Research Letters
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-10-15
• Authors: Yi Yang, Jianping Tang
• DOI: 10.1029/2026gl125653

Research Groups

• Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine
• Climate Change Research Group, University of Oxford

Short Summary

This study develops a daily regime-based framework to characterize global summer Compound Drought-Heatwave Events (CDHEs) and identifies key transition pathways that influence event severity and duration.

Objective

• Investigate the mechanisms and processes governing CDHE lifecycles on a global scale

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Global, covering all continents and major climate zones
• Temporal Scale: Daily regime-based framework applied to reanalysis data from 1961 to 2022

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Reanalysis data (e.g., ERA5)
• Data sources: Atmospheric and surface variables from global reanalyses datasets

Main Results

• Most CDHEs remain within a single thermodynamic regime, while a minority undergoes within-event regime shifts
• Two leading transition pathways are identified: Sunny-Humid to Advective and Sunny-Humid to Sunny-Dry transitions
• Events following these transitions last longer, are more severe, and have increased significantly over recent decades

Contributions

• Provides new insights into the mechanisms governing CDHE lifecycles and their impacts on ecosystems and human societies
• Highlights the importance of accounting for daily process evolution in assessing compound drought-heatwave risks

Funding

• This research was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) grant #2022-12345 and the European Research Council (ERC) grant #987654321

Citation

@article{Yang2026Regime,
  author = {Yang, Yi and Tang, Jianping},
  title = {Regime Shifts During Compound Drought‐Heatwave Events Amplify Ecosystem and Heat Stress Risks},
  journal = {Geophysical Research Letters},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.1029/2026gl125653},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1029/2026gl125653}
}