NOAA's Climate Project Office is funding Profs. Paul Dirmeyer and Bohua Huang, along with Dr. Chul-Su Shin, to investigate the drivers of drought over the US through the combined effects of regional soil moisture anomalies and remote sea surface temperatures. The research applies an Earth system context using observations, reanalyses, subseasonal forecasts and global model sensitivity studies. Given that probabilistic predictability is derived from both land and ocean components on subseasonal-to-seasonal time scales, there is great potential to harvest more forecast skill in a complete approach. More information is available in this Mason new article.