Influence of Below-Cloud Evaporation on Deuterium Excess in Precipitation of Arid Central Asia and Its Meteorological Controls

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

AbstractThe deuterium excess is a second-order parameter linking water-stable oxygen and hydrogen isotopes and has been widely used in hydrological studies. The deuterium excess in precipitation is greatly influenced by below-cloud evaporation through unsaturated air, especially in an arid climate. Based on an observation network of isotopes in precipitation of arid central Asia, the difference in deuterium excess from cloud base to ground was calculated for each sampling site. The difference on the southern slope of the Tian Shan is generally larger than that on the northern slope, and the difference during the summer months is greater than that during the winter months. Generally, an increase of 1% in evaporation of raindrops causes deuterium excess to decrease by approximately 1‰. Under conditions of low air temperature, high relative humidity, heavy precipitation, and large raindrop diameter, a good linear correlation is exhibited between evaporation proportion and difference in deuterium excess, and a linear regression slope of <1‰ %−1 can be seen; in contrast, under conditions of high air temperature, low relative humidity, light precipitation, and small raindrop diameter, the linear relationship is relatively weak, and the slope is much larger than 1‰ %−1. A sensitivity analysis under different climate scenarios indicates that, if air temperature has increased by 5°C, deuterium excess difference decreases by 0.3‰–4.0‰ for each site; if relative humidity increases by 10%, deuterium excess difference increases by 1.1‰–10.3‰.