Impact of deep convection on the isotopic amount effect in tropical precipitation

Abstract

AbstractThe empirical “amount effect” observed in the distribution of stable water isotope ratios in tropical precipitation is used in several studies to reconstruct past precipitation. Recent observations suggest the importance of large‐scale organized convection systems on amount effect. With a series of experiments with Community Atmospheric Model version 3.0 with water isotope tracers, we quantify the sensitivity of amount effect to changes in modeled deep convection. The magnitude of the regression slope between long‐term monthly precipitation amount and isotope ratios in precipitation over tropical ocean reduces by more than 20% with a reduction in mean deep convective precipitation by about 60%, indicating a decline in fractionation efficiency. Reduced condensation in deep convective updrafts results in enrichment of lower level vapor with heavier isotope that causes enrichment in total precipitation. However, consequent increases in stratiform and shallow convective precipitation partially offset the reduction in the slope of amount effect. The net result is a reduced slope of amount effect in tropical regions except the tropical western Pacific, where the effects of enhanced large‐scale ascent and increased stratiform precipitation prevail over the influence of reduced deep convection. We also find that the isotope ratios in precipitation are improved over certain regions in the tropics with reduced deep convection, showing that analyses of isotope ratios in precipitation and water vapor are powerful tools to improve precipitation processes in convective parameterization schemes in climate models. Further, our study suggests that the precipitation types over a region can alter the fractionation efficiency of isotopes with implications for the reconstructions of past precipitation.