An Idealized Study of Water Vapor Isotopes in Cold Pools
Abstract
Stable water isotopes are a powerful tool to study different aspects of the climate system. In spite of their importance and their wide application, however, a quantitative understanding of how different atmospheric processes affect them is still missing. Here, I will concentrate on essential components of convective precipitating systems, called cold pools, and I will present results regarding their water vapor isotopic composition in an idealized setting. Using a combination of a Lagrangian and an Eulerian model, I will begin by analyzing the precipitation-driven downdrafts that give rise to cold pools, and I will show that mixing with environmental air has an enriching effect, while rain evaporation tends to deplete the downdraft in the initial stages, mostly in the free troposphere, and to enrich it in the final stages, when the downdraft is in the sub-cloud layer. I will then consider the question of what processes influence the isotopic composition of cold pools during their propagation, and I will show that surface latent heat fluxes play a greater role than entrainment in the cold pool gust front. Finally, I will show how water isotopes could potentially be used to diagnose the origin of water vapor in cold pool moist patches.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2020
- Bibcode:
- 2020AGUFMPP005..05T
- Keywords:
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- 3305 Climate change and variability;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES;
- 3344 Paleoclimatology;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES;
- 1041 Stable isotope geochemistry;
- GEOCHEMISTRY;
- 1655 Water cycles;
- GLOBAL CHANGE