Abstract

The Heihe River Basin (HRB), located on the northeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau, is the second-largest inland river basin in China, with an area of 140,000 km2. The HRB is a coupling area of the westerlies, the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau monsoon and the Southeast monsoon circulation system, and is a relatively independent land-surface water-circulating system. The refined characteristics of moisture recycling over the HRB was described by using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model for a long-term simulation, and the “finer box model” for calculating the net water-vapor flux. The following conclusions were drawn from the results of this study: (1) The water vapor of the HRB was dominantly transported by the wind from the west and from the north, and the west one was much larger than the north one. The net vapor transported by the west wind was positive, and by the north wind was negative. (2) The precipitation over the HRB was triggered mainly by the vapor from the west, which arose from the lower vertical layer to higher one during transporting from west to east. The vapor from the north sank from a higher layer to a lower one, and crossed the south edge of the HRB. (3) The moisture-recycling ratio of evapotranspiration to precipitation over the HRB was much higher than the other regions, which may be due to the strong land–atmosphere interaction in the arid inland river basin.

Highlights

  • Moisture recycling is the contribution of regional moisture to precipitation in a region [1,2,3,4]

  • The aim of this study was to describe the refined characteristics of the water-vapor transport over the inland river basin, and calculate the contribution of local evapotranspiration to precipitation over the Heihe River Basin (HRB)

  • Based on the long-term Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) simulation and finer box model, the net water-vapor flux as calculated grid by grid, the quantitative change trend of the atmospheric water storage, and the refined characteristics of moisture cycling over the inland Heihe River, the following conclusions were drawn: (1)

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Summary

Introduction

Moisture recycling is the contribution of regional moisture to precipitation in a region [1,2,3,4]. It has the ability to inhibit extreme precipitation-induced hydrological events [5,6], and reflects the memory of soil moisture and the continuous abnormality of dry and wet conditions [7]. The rate of moisture recycling depends heavily on the spatial scale of the study area and its regional atmospheric circulation. The smaller the spatial scale is, the lower the moisture-recycling rate [1]. The moisture-recycling rate is nearly 1 at the global scale, approximately 40% at the continent scale, and generally less than 20% at a scale of

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