About

Francina Dominguez is a hydroclimatologist whose work focuses on the interactions between the land and the atmosphere, specifically on changes in hydrology and climate due to human modification of land surface and greenhouse gas emissions. Her research primarily investigates the effects of climate variability and change, especially extreme events, on surface hydrology, as well as how alterations in surface hydrology influence climate. She holds the position of Associate Head and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Climate, Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where she is also a professor. Additionally, she is affiliated with the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Her educational background includes a Ph.D. and M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Geology
• Geography
• Engineering
• Meteorology
• Computer Science
• Climatology
• Environmental science
• Law

Selected publications

• Exploring the formation of convective clouds in the Tropical Eastern Andes

  2025-03-15

  preprintOpen access

  Mountains cover approximately one-quarter of the Earth's land surface, with a significant proportion of the global population residing in their vicinity. Orography plays a pivotal role in shaping weather processes across multiple spatial and temporal scales. When combined with factors such as land-cover heterogeneity and mesoscale atmospheric processes, it generates substantial spatial variability in mountain weather, as exemplified by the Tropical Andes. This study focuses on the diurnal dynamics of convective cloud entities, particularly small-scale cells associated with moderate convective rainfall, over the eastern slopes of the Tropical Andes. The analysis is based on high-resolution observations from a scanning X-band rain radar and numerical simulations performed using the WRF model. The results reveal that the formation of convective clouds in the lowland regions of the study area is modulated by varying advection velocities. A nocturnal enhancement in the formation of convective cells was observed, with advection velocities around 10 m/s. In contrast, during the period between 12:00 and 16:00, these cells exhibited rapid advection, with velocities reaching approximately 20 m/s. We will present the thermodynamic mechanisms driving the cloud formation, as well as the link with mesoscale convective systems.

  PublisherDOI

• Observational evidence of compensatory influences of deforestation on downwind precipitation in Brazilian breadbaskets

  npj Climate and Atmospheric Science · 2025-07-22

  articleOpen access

  Stable and predictable wet-season rainfall is crucial for soybean production in Brazil. However, climate and land-use changes, particularly Amazon deforestation, have increased rainfall variability in the region in recent decades. Here, we investigate long-term growing-season rainfall changes over two major soybean breadbaskets in Brazil from the perspective of atmospheric moisture transport. Utilising a novel moisture tracking framework based on a Lagrangian model guided by observations, we identify moisture source regions where evaporation contributed to rainfall over these breadbaskets. Furthermore, we quantify the relative contributions of source evaporation versus atmospheric (thermo)dynamics changes to downwind rainfall variability. Our results indicate that deforestation-induced evaporation declines have negatively impacted downwind rainfall in the breadbasket regions. However, strengthened circulation, evidenced by increased water vapour transport and low-level wind speeds consistent with decreased tree cover, has enhanced moisture transport from upwind regions (including Amazonia and the Atlantic Ocean) to the Brazilian soybean breadbaskets. This highlights the compensatory effects of deforestation on rainfall through decreased evaporation and altered atmospheric (thermo)dynamics, and how these effects may influence downwind soybean productivity in South America. Further understanding these interactions is critical for developing land management strategies to mitigate the agricultural impacts of climate change in the region.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Relationship between hydrocarbon generation–expulsion and deformation in an exhumated Early Cretaceous kitchen in the Austral-Magallanes Basin, southern Patagonia

  Journal of the Geological Society · 2025-02-05 · 1 citations

  article

  We characterized the thermal evolution of the exhumated hydrocarbon kitchen of the Rio Mayer Formation (Lower Cretaceous) in the Austral-Magallanes Basin in two profiles outcropping in the southern Patagonian Andes. We integrated data from fluid inclusion, organic petrology, geochemistry and apatite fission track studies into a one-dimensional basin and petroleum system model to evaluate the timing of hydrocarbon generation–expulsion processes. At the Estancia La Federica locality (internal fold–thrust belt domain), the lower organic-rich interval of the Rio Mayer Formation at present day conditions is in the oil window, with the development of natural fractures filled with fibrous calcite crystals. By contrast, at the Estancia Cristina locality (basement domain), the unit is in the dry gas window with natural fractures filled with granular calcite and quartz. The kitchens began the generation–expulsion processes from the west (Early Cretaceous) to east (Late Cretaceous–Eocene) – that is, from the basement to the internal and external fold–thrust belt domains. The advance of the orogenic wedge deactivated and exhumated these kitchens from west to east. The western kitchen was deactivated during the Late Cretaceous, whereas the eastern kitchen was deactivated during the Eocene. These successive compressional pulses conditioned the eastward migration of the hydrocarbon generation front and favoured the charge of reservoirs located in the westward (foreland) region. The results of this study emphasize the importance of considering the temporal activation of source kitchens related to Andean deformation in our understanding of the basin-scale controls on source rock evolution and the development of petroleum systems.

  PublisherDOI

• The impact of large-scale land surface conditions on the South American low-level jet

  2025-05-15

  preprintOpen access

  The South American low-level jet (SALLJ) is a major source of moisture transport to southeastern South America, influencing rainfall, agriculture, and hydropower. While past research has emphasized atmospheric controls, we examine the role of antecedent soil moisture in modulating jet dynamics. We focus on the Chaco jet, a subset of SALLJ with anomalous southward extent. Strong Chaco jet events can transport an average of 37.9 Gt of water daily—twice the Amazon River’s discharge. Using reanalysis data, we identify 54 Chaco jet events and categorize them based on antecedent soil moisture conditions over northern Argentina. We find that dry soil is associated with increased surface sensible heat flux, enhanced lower-tropospheric warming, and a deepened thermal low, which intensifies the Chaco jet. These results highlight the importance of land-atmosphere interactions in modulating SALLJ dynamics and suggest that improved understanding of antecedent soil moisture conditions could enhance jet forecasting in the region.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Implementing deep soil and dynamic root uptake in Noah-MP (v4.5): impact on Amazon dry-season transpiration

  Geoscientific model development · 2025-06-23 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract. Plant roots act as critical pathways of moisture from the subsurface to the atmosphere. Deep moisture uptake by plant roots can provide a seasonal buffer mechanism in regions with a well-defined dry season, such as the southern Amazon. Here, mature forests maintain transpiration (a critical source of atmospheric moisture in this part of the world) during drier months. Most existing state-of-the-art Earth system models do not have the necessary features to simulate subsurface-to-atmosphere moisture variations during dry-downs. These features include groundwater dynamics, a sufficiently deep soil column, dynamic root water uptake (RWU), and a fine model spatial resolution (<5 km). To address this, we present DynaRoot, a dynamic root water uptake scheme implemented in the Noah-Multiparameterization (Noah-MP) land surface model, a widely used model for studying kilometer-scale regional land surface processes. Our modifications include the implementation of DynaRoot, eight additional resolved soil layers reaching a depth of 20 mm, and soil properties that vary with depth. DynaRoot is computationally efficient and ideal for regional- or continental-scale climate simulations. We perform four 20-year uncoupled Noah-MP experiments for a region in the southern Amazon basin. Each experiment incrementally adds physical complexity. The experiments include the default Noah-MP with free drainage (FD), a case with an activated groundwater scheme that resolves water table variations (GW), a case with eight added soil layers and soil properties that vary with depth (SOIL), and a case with DynaRoot activated (ROOT). Our results show that DynaRoot allows mature forests in upland regions to avoid water stress during dry periods by taking up moisture from the deep vadose zone (where antecedent precipitation still drains downward). Conversely, RWU in valleys can access moisture from groundwater (while remaining constrained by the water table). Temporally, we capture a seasonal shift in RWU from shallower layers in wetter months to deeper soil layers in drier months, particularly over regions with dominant evergreen broadleaf (forest) vegetation. Compared to the control case, there is a domain-averaged increase in transpiration of about 29 % during dry months in the ROOT experiment. Critically, the ROOT experiment performs best in simulating the temporal evolution of dry-season transpiration using an observation-based ET (evapotranspiration) product as the reference. Future work will explore the effect of the DynaRoot uptake scheme on atmospheric variables in a coupled modeling framework.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Convection-permitting climate simulations over South America: Experimentation during different phases of ENSO

  Atmospheric Research · 2025-01-23 · 3 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Moisture Sources of Precipitation Using Convection‐Permitting Simulations: A Study Over South America

  Geophysical Research Letters · 2025-11-30

  articleOpen accessCorresponding

  Abstract Climatological analyses of moisture sources of precipitation have traditionally relied on reanalyses or models that parameterize convection. Convection‐permitting models (CPMs) are increasingly used in climate studies, as they better represent many precipitation processes than non‐CPMs. We found significant differences in precipitation moisture sources over the Amazon Basin using 1‐year CPM and non‐CPM WRF simulations with moisture tracers. Notably, the CPM estimates that about half of precipitation in the central Andes comes from the Amazon basin; a 20%–30% higher estimate than the non‐CPM. This suggests long‐term CPMs with tracers could improve climatological estimates. However, their high computational cost is prohibitive. To overcome this, we developed a revised 2L‐DRM model that replicates CPM‐with‐tracers estimates at a fraction of the cost, using only standard outputs. We applied this model to South America, analyzing precipitation moisture sources across 15 regions. 2L‐DRM can be used for other regions as continental‐scale CPM climatological simulations become available.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Integrating a Water Tracer Model Into WRF‐Hydro for Characterizing the Effect of Lateral Flow in Hydrologic Simulations

  Water Resources Research · 2024-07-01 · 7 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Most current land models approximate terrestrial hydrological processes as one‐dimensional vertical flow, neglecting lateral water movement from ridges to valleys. Such lateral flow is fundamental at catchment scales and becomes crucial for finer‐scale land models. To test the effect of incorporating lateral flow toward three‐dimensional representations of hydrological processes in the next generation land models, we integrate a water tracer model into the WRF‐Hydro framework to track water movement from precipitation to discharge and evapotranspiration. This hydrologic‐tracer integrated system allows us to identify the key mechanisms by which lateral flow affects the flow paths and transit times in WRF‐Hydro. By comparing modeling experiments with and without lateral routing in two contrasting catchments, we determine the impacts of lateral flow on the transit times of precipitation event‐water. Results show that with limited hydrologic connectivity, lateral flow extends the transit times by reducing (increasing) event‐water drainage loss (accumulation) in ridges (valleys) and allowing reinfiltration of infiltration‐excess flow, which is missing in most land models. On the contrary with high hydrologic connectivity, lateral flow can effectively accelerate the water release to streams and reduce the transit time. However, the transit times are substantially underestimated by the model compared with isotope‐derived estimates, indicating model limitations in representing flow paths and transit times. This study provides some insights on the fundamental differences in terrestrial hydrology simulated by land models with and without lateral flow representation.

  PublisherDOI

• Implementing deep soil and dynamic root uptake in Noah-MP (v4.5): Impact on Amazon dry-season transpiration

  2024-08-22 · 1 citations

  preprintOpen accessCorresponding

  Abstract. Plant roots act as critical pathways of moisture from the subsurface to the atmosphere. Deep moisture uptake by plant roots can provide a seasonal buffer mechanism in regions with a well-defined dry season such as the southern Amazon. Most existing state-of-the-art earth system models cannot fully capture the required subsurface-to-atmosphere processes, including groundwater dynamics, a sufficiently deep soil column, dynamic root water uptake, and a fine model spatial resolution (<5 km). To address this, we present DynaRoot, a dynamic root water uptake (RWU) scheme implemented within the Noah-MultiParameterization (Noah-MP) land surface model, a widely used model for studying kilometer-scale regional land surface processes. Our modifications include the implementation of DynaRoot, eight additional resolved soil layers reaching a depth of 20 m, and soil properties that vary with depth. DynaRoot is computationally efficient and ideal for regional- or continental-scale climate simulations. We perform four 20 year uncoupled Noah-MP experiments for a region in the southern Amazon basin. Each experiment incrementally adds physical processes. The experiments include default Noah-MP with free drainage (FD); addition of a groundwater scheme that resolves water table variations (GW); addition of eight soil layers and soil properties that vary with depth (SOIL), and addition of DynaRoot (ROOT). Our results show that DynaRoot allows mature forests in upland regions to avoid water stress during dry periods by taking up moisture from the deep vadose zone (where antecedent precipitation is still draining downward). Conversely, RWU in valleys can take up moisture from groundwater (while remaining constrained by the water table). Temporally, we capture a seasonal shift in RWU from shallower layers in the wet season to deeper soil layers in the dry season, particularly over regions with dominant evergreen broadleaf (forest) vegetation. Compared to the control case, there is a domain-average increase in transpiration of about 29 % during dry months in the ROOT experiment. Critically, the ROOT experiment performs best in simulating the temporal evolution of dry-season transpiration and evapotranspiration (ET) compared with an observational ET product. Future work will explore the effect of the DynaRoot uptake scheme on atmospheric variables in a coupled modeling framework.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Mesoscale structures in the Orinoco basin during an extreme precipitation event in the tropical Andes

  Frontiers in Earth Science · 2024-01-04 · 7 citations

  articleOpen access

  During the night of March 31st, 2017, a severe precipitation event affected the city of Mocoa, in the tropical Andes. Total 24-h accumulated precipitation during that day was the fourth largest on record. Satellite data shows that the event was associated with a Mesoscale Convective System (MCS) that formed over the Amazon and moved westward, reaching the tropical Andes. Reanalysis data suggests that a rapid intensification of the Orinoco Low-Level Jet (OLLJ) traveling southwestward parallel to the Andes was a precursor that favored the zones of convergence for MCS formation. Upstream intensification of the OLLJ was evident 8 h prior to the Mocoa precipitation event. Given the lack of a dense network of observations in this understudied region, we use the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF) to explore the plausible mesoscale structures in the OLLJ region associated with the initiation and development of the MCS. We study an ensemble of simulations with different grid spacings (12, 4 and 1.3 km) and Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL) schemes (YSU, MYNN and QNSE). The more realistic MCSs were obtained with the QNSE and YSU schemes, given that the corresponding simulations included a density current in the lowest levels moving parallel to the Andes, with a sharp line of convergence and large vertical velocities over the leading edge of the mesoscale disturbance. In contrast, the MYNN scheme produced a weaker OLLJ and no density current. It is suggested that the stronger vertical mixing in the MYNN scheme was associated with the vertical dilution of the OLLJ, and with a much weaker low-level traveling perturbation via the upward radiation of energy by gravity waves. Our results help to better understand flood-producing extreme events over the poorly studied Andes-Amazon region and provide the groundwork for improved predictability of such storms.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: Dynamic Roots as the Biophysical Link Between Deep Moisture and the Atmosphere

  NSF · $406k · 2019–2025

• CAREER: Hydroclimatic Response to Natural and Anthropogenic Land Cover Change over South America: A Focus on the La Plata River Basin

  NSF · $574k · 2015–2021

• Collaborative Research: The Amazon Groundwater and Its Impact on Evapotranspiration and the Climate of South America

  NSF · $226k · 2011–2015

Frequent coauthors

• L. Ruby Leung

  Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

  88 shared

• Matthew Rodell

  83 shared

• Wade T. Crow

  United States Department of Agriculture

  82 shared

• Yu Zhang

  The University of Texas at Arlington

  82 shared

• Konstantinos M. Andreadis

  University of Massachusetts Amherst

  82 shared

• Viviana Maggioni

  82 shared

• Guy Brasseur

  Max Planck Institute for Meteorology

  81 shared

• Gonzalo Míguez-Macho

  Universidade de Santiago de Compostela

  27 shared