Articles | Volume 21, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-779-2017
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-779-2017
Research article
 | 
08 Feb 2017
Research article |  | 08 Feb 2017

The residence time of water in the atmosphere revisited

Ruud J. van der Ent and Obbe A. Tuinenburg

Related authors

Atmospheric moisture tracking with WAM2layers v3
Peter Kalverla, Imme Benedict, Chris Weijenborg, and Ruud J. van der Ent
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3401,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3401, 2024
Short summary
Flood drivers and trends: a case study of the Geul River catchment (the Netherlands) over the past half century
Athanasios Tsiokanos, Martine Rutten, Ruud J. van der Ent, and Remko Uijlenhoet
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 3327–3345, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-3327-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-3327-2024, 2024
Short summary
Influence of irrigation on root zone storage capacity estimation
Fransje van Oorschot, Ruud J. van der Ent, Andrea Alessandri, and Markus Hrachowitz
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 2313–2328, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-2313-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-2313-2024, 2024
Short summary
Catchments do not strictly follow Budyko curves over multiple decades but deviations are minor and predictable
Muhammad Ibrahim, Miriam Coenders-Gerrits, Ruud van der Ent, and Markus Hrachowitz
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2024-120,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2024-120, 2024
Revised manuscript under review for HESS
Short summary
Effects of idealized land cover and land management changes on the atmospheric water cycle
Steven J. De Hertog, Carmen E. Lopez-Fabara, Ruud van der Ent, Jessica Keune, Diego G. Miralles, Raphael Portmann, Sebastian Schemm, Felix Havermann, Suqi Guo, Fei Luo, Iris Manola, Quentin Lejeune, Julia Pongratz, Carl-Friedrich Schleussner, Sonia I. Seneviratne, and Wim Thiery
Earth Syst. Dynam., 15, 265–291, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-15-265-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-15-265-2024, 2024
Short summary

Related subject area

Subject: Hydrometeorology | Techniques and Approaches: Theory development
Accelerated soil moisture drought onset link to high temperatures and asymmetric responses associated with the hit timing
Yi Liu, Zhimin Wang, Xinyu Zhang, Ye Zhu, Liliang Ren, Shanshui Yuan, and Junliang Jin
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2024-199,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2024-199, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for HESS
Short summary
Variation and attribution of probable maximum precipitation of China using a high-resolution dataset in a changing climate
Jinghua Xiong, Shenglian Guo, Abhishek, Jiabo Yin, Chongyu Xu, Jun Wang, and Jing Guo
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 1873–1895, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-1873-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-1873-2024, 2024
Short summary
Drought cascades across multiple systems in Central Asia identified based on the dynamic space–time motion approach
Lu Tian, Markus Disse, and Jingshui Huang
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 27, 4115–4133, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-4115-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-4115-2023, 2023
Short summary
What is the Priestley–Taylor wet-surface evaporation parameter? Testing four hypotheses
Richard D. Crago, Jozsef Szilagyi, and Russell J. Qualls
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 27, 3205–3220, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-3205-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-3205-2023, 2023
Short summary
Understanding the diurnal cycle of land–atmosphere interactions from flux site observations
Eunkyo Seo and Paul A. Dirmeyer
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 5411–5429, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-5411-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-5411-2022, 2022
Short summary

Cited articles

Bodnar, R. J., Azbej, T., Becker, S. P., Cannatelli, C., Fall, A., and Severs, M. J.: Whole Earth geohydrologic cycle, from the clouds to the core: The distribution of water in the dynamic Earth system, in: Web Geol. Sci. Adv. Impacts, Interact. Geol. Soc. Am. Spec. Pap. 500, edited by: Bickford, M. E., The Geological Society of America, Boulder, Colorado, USA, 431–461, https://doi.org/10.1130/2013.2500(13), 2013.
Bosilovich, M. G. and Schubert, S. D.: Water vapor tracers as diagnostics of the regional hydrologic cycle, J. Hydrometeorol., 3, 149–165, https://doi.org/10.1175/1525-7541(2002)003<0149:WVTADO>2.0.CO;2, 2002.
Bosilovich, M. G., Sud, Y., Schubert, S. D., and Walker, G. K.: GEWEX CSE sources of precipitation using GCM water vapor tracers, GEWEX News, 12, 6–7, 2002.
Chow, V. T., Maidment, D. R., and Mays, L. W.: Applied Hydrology, McGraw-Hill, Singapore, 1988.
Download
Short summary
This research seeks out to answer a fundamental question about the functioning of the water cycle in the atmosphere: how much time does a water particle spend in the atmosphere? Based on state-of-the-art data, we derive a global average residence time of water in the atmosphere of 8–10 days. We further show in this paper how the residence time of water varies in time and space. This serves to illustrate why it is so difficult to make weather predictions on timescales longer than a week.