A complete view of the atmospheric hydrologic cycle
- 1Department of Meteorology, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
- 2College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
- 1Department of Meteorology, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
- 2College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
Abstract. The global atmospheric water transport from the evaporation to the precipitation regions has been traced using Lagrangian trajectories. A matrix has been constructed by selecting various group of trajectories based on their surface starting(evaporation) and ending (precipitation) positions to show the connectivity of the atmospheric water transport within and between the three major ocean basins and the global landmass. The analysis reveals that a major portion of the evaporated water precipitates back into the same region, namely 67 % for the Indian, 64 % for the Atlantic, 85 % for the Pacific Ocean and 72 % for the global landmass. The evaporation from the subtropical regions of the Indian, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans is found to be the primary source of atmospheric water for precipitation over the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) in the corresponding basins. The evaporated waters from the subtropical and western Indian Ocean were traced as the source for precipitation over the South Asian and Eastern African landmass, while Atlantic Ocean waters are responsible for rainfall over North Asia and Western Africa. Atlantic storm tracks were identified as the carrier of atmospheric water that precipitates over Europe, while the Pacific storm tracks were responsible for North American, eastern Asian and Australian precipitation. The bulk of South and Central American precipitation is found to have its source in the tropical Atlantic Ocean. The recycling of evapotranspirated water from land is pronounced over the western coast of South America, Northeastern Asia, Canada and Greenland. The ocean-to-land and land-to-ocean water transport through the atmosphere was computed to be 2 × 109 kg/s and 1 × 109 kg/s, respectively. The difference between them (net ocean-to-land transport), i.e. 1 × 109 kg/s, is transported to land. This net transport is approximately the same as found in previous Eulerian estimates.
Dipanjan Dey et al.
Status: final response (author comments only)
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CC1: 'Comment on hess-2021-509', Andreas Link, 14 Dec 2021
This application of Lagrangian Modelling to track atmospheric moisture globally from source to sink regions is a valuable contribution to get a better understanding on the global atmospheric moisture flows. The manuscript is well written while providing insights in various aspects of the global atmospheric water cycle. In particular, the compilation of moisture flows between the various ocean basins and overall land should be emphasized. Furthermore, information on the atmospheric water movement in the horizontal and the vertical planes was displayed as well as global information on average residence times of atmospheric moisture.
I would also have 2 general comments:
1)
The authors wrote that earlier studies focused more on the regional or basin-scale water budget analysis and perhaps miss two studies within this field, which were conducted on a global scale:
One of these studies refers to a publication at which I worked with other researcher on the global fate of land evaporation (“The fate of land evaporation – A global dataset”):
ESSD - The fate of land evaporation – a global dataset (copernicus.org)
The other one, in turn, refers to the following publication: “High-resolution global atmospheric moisture connections from evaporation to precipitation”
ESSD - High-resolution global atmospheric moisture connections from evaporation to precipitation (copernicus.org)
While other global studies are available, one point of improvement could be to put the determined results into the context of those. Some of the determined patterns / key numbers could, for instance, directly be compared and discussed to those studies. The work of Tuinenburg et al., for instance, determined that 70% of global land evaporation rains down over land, which is the range of the author’s work. Our work, however, determined a recycling ratio over land of appr. 59%. Perhaps, a comparison of some key numbers would generally be interesting.
2)
Figure 6 of the work provides the average residence time in days for water travelling from specific types of source to receptor regions. Is it perhaps possible to put them into context of resident times which have been determined in previous studies (e.g. overall residence time in atmosphere independent from its source: 8 days as estimated by Shiklomanov and Rodda; Shiklomanov, I. A.; Rodda, J. C. World Water Resources at the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century. International Hydrology Series; Cambridge University of Press, 2004.).
- AC1: 'Reply on CC1', Dipanjan Dey, 10 Mar 2022
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RC1: 'Comment on hess-2021-509', Dominik Schumacher, 03 Jan 2022
- AC2: 'Reply on RC1', Dipanjan Dey, 10 Mar 2022
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RC2: 'Review', Ruud van der Ent, 08 Feb 2022
- AC3: 'Reply on RC2', Dipanjan Dey, 10 Mar 2022
Dipanjan Dey et al.
Dipanjan Dey et al.
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