Department of Environment

Prof. dr. Diego Miralles

Hydrology and Climate teamDiego Miralles

Diego Miralles' scientific interests are wide, and strive towards the general understanding of the dynamics of the global water cycle, the impact of climate change on hydrology and ecosystems, and the influence of land on climate. His earlier work comprised the development of global satellite products of soil moisture and evaporation. In recent years, the work of his research team has evolved along the use of satellite data to identify land–atmospheric feedbacks, the investigation of hydro-meteorological extremes, the impact of hydro-climatic anomalies on vegetation, and the study of ocean–atmospheric oscillations and their impact on terrestrial hydrology.

 

Research topics: ecohydrology, land–atmosphere interactions, global hydrology, hydro-climatic extremes, satellite remote sensing.

CONTACT

Address: Coupure links 653 - Room A2.028

               9000 Ghent, Belgium

Phone: +32 9 264 61 35

E-mail:

ORCID | ResearcherID | Scopus | Google Scholar | ResearchGate | LinkedIn

TRAJECTORY (CV here)

    ONGOING PROJECTS

    • DRY–2–DRY (ERC) – Do droughts self-propagate and self-intensify? (2017–2022)

    • DOWN2EARTH (EU) – Translation of climate information into multilevel decision support for social adaptation, policy development, and resilience to water scarcity in the Horn of Africa Drylands (2020–2024)

    • Digital Twin Earth (DTE) – Hydrology (ESA) (2020–2021)

    • ET–Sense (BELSPO) – High resolution terrestrial evaporation from Sentinels (2019–2021)

    • ALBERI (BELSPO) – Assessing Links between Biogenic Emissions and Remotely-sensed photosynthesis Indicators (2019–2021)

    RECENT PROJECTS

    • Veni (NWO) – Dry soils: A driving force of droughts and heatwaves? (2014–2017)
    • WACMOS–ET (ESA) – Advancing the production of evaporation from satellite observations (2012–2016)
    • STR3S (BELSPO) – Stress on TRanspiration Sensed from Satellite Systems (2016–2018)
    • SAT–EX (BELSPO) – Global impacts of hydrological and climatic extremes on vegetation (2014–2018)
    • LandFlux (GEWEX) – Evaluation and inter-comparison of existing land evaporation products (2010–2018)

    SELECTED PUBLICATIONS (complete list here)

    1. Schumacher, D.L., Keune, J., van Heerwaarden, C.C., Vilà-Guerau de Arellano, J.,  Teuling, A.J., Miralles, D.G. Amplification of mega-heatwaves through heat torrents fuelled by upwind drought. Nature Geoscience, 12, 712–717, 2019.

    2. Miralles, D.G., Gentine, P., Seneviratne, S.I., and Teuling, A.J. Land–atmospheric feedbacks during droughts and heatwaves: state of the science and current challenges. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1436, 19–35, 2019.

    3. Forzieri, G., Alkama, R., Miralles, D.G., and Cescatti, A. Satellites reveal contrasting responses of regional climate to the widespread greening of Earth. Science, 2017.
    4. Mccabe, M.F., Rodell, M., Alsdorf, D.E., Miralles, D.G., Uijlenhoet, R., Wagner, W., et al. The future of Earth observation in hydrology. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 21(7), 3879–3914, 2017.
    5. Teuling, A.J., Taylor, C.M., Meirink, J.-F., Melsen, L.A., Miralles, D.G., van Heerwaarden, C.C., Vautard, R., Stegehuis, A.I., Nabuurs, G.-Y., and Vilá-Guerau de Arellano, J.: Observational evidence for cloud cover enhancement over Western European forests, Nature Communications, 7:14065, 1–7, 2017.
    6. Miralles, D.G., Nieto, R., McDowell, N., Dorigo, W.A., Verhoest, N.E.C., Liu, Y.Y., Teuling, A.J., Dolman, A.J., Good, S.P., and Gimeno, L.: Contribution of water-limited regions to their own supply of rainfall, Environmental Research Letters, 11, 124007, 2016.
    7. Guillod, B.P., Orlowsky, B., Miralles, D.G., Teuling, A.J., Seneviratne, S.I.: Reconciling spatial and temporal soil moisture effects on afternoon rainfall, Nature Communications, 6, 6443, 2015.
    8. Miralles, D.G., van den Berg, M.J., Gash, J.H., Parinussa, R.M., de Jeu, R.A.M., Beck, H.E., Holmes, T.R.H., Jiménez, C., Verhoest, N.E.C., Dorigo, W.A., Teuling, A.J., and Dolman, A.J.: El Niño–La Niña cycle and recent trends in continental evaporation, Nature Climate Change, 4(12), 122–126, 2014.
    9. Miralles, D.G., Teuling, A.J., van Heerwaarden, C.C., De Jeu, R.A.M., and Vilá-Guerau de Arellano, J.: Mega-heatwave temperatures due to combined soil desiccation and atmospheric heat accumulation, Nature Geoscience, 7, 345–349, 2014.
    10. Miralles, D.G., Holmes, T.R.H., De Jeu, R.A.M., Gash, J. H., Meesters, A.G.C.A., and Dolman, A.J.: Global land-surface evaporation estimated from satellite-based observations, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 15, 453–469, 2011.