Detecting moisture transport pathways to the subtropical North Atlantic free troposphere using paired H2O-δ D in situ measurements

• Published in: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
• Main Authors: González Ramos, Yenny, Schneider, Matthias, Dyroff, Christoph, Rodríguez González, Sergio, Christner, Emanuel, García Rodríguez, Omaira Elena, Cuevas Agulló, Emilio, Bustos Seguela, Juan José de, Ramos López, Ramón, Guirado-Fuentes, Carmen, Barthlott, Sabine, Wiegele, Andreas, Sepúlveda Hernández, Eliezer
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: European Geosciences Union 2016
• Subjects: Water vapour; Isotopologue ratio; Free troposphere; Isotopólogos; Vapor de agua; Humedad atmosférica; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11765/1288

We present two years of measurements of water vapour (H2O) and its isotopologue ratio (δD, the standardized ratio between H216O and HD16O) made at two remote mountain sites on Tenerife Island in the subtropical North Atlantic. We show that the data – if measured during nighttime – are well representative for the lower/middle free troposphere. We use the measured H2O-δD pairs, together with dust measurements and back-trajectory modelling for analysing the moisture pathways to this region. We can identify four principally different transport pathways. The first two pathways are linked to transport from high altitudes and high latitudes, whereby the respective air can be dry, due to last condensation occurring at low temperatures, as well as humid, due to cross isentropic mixing with lower level and more humid air during transport since last condensation. The third pathway is transport from lower latitudes and lower altitudes, whereby we can identify rain re-evaporation as an occasional source of moisture. The fourth pathway is linked to the African continent, where during summer dry convection processes over the Sahara very effectively inject humidity from the boundary layer to higher altitudes. This so-called Saharan Air Layer (SAL) is then advected westward over the Atlantic and contributes to moisten the free troposphere. We demonstrate that different pathways leave distinct fingerprints on the measured H2O-δD pairs. This study has been conducted in the framework of the project MUSICA (MUlti-platform remote Sensing of Isotopologues for investigating the Cycle of Atmospheric water), funded by the European Research Council under the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013/ ERC Grant agreement number 256961). Aerosol measurements are part of the project POLLINDUST (CGL2011-26259), funded by the Minister of Economy and Competitiveness of Spain. The AERONET sun photometer at Izana (PI: Emilio Cuevas) has been calibrated within AERONET EUROPE TNA supported by the European Community Research ...