Meridional and vertical variations of the water vapour isotopic composition in the marine boundary layer over the Atlantic and Southern Ocean ...

• Main Authors: Thurnherr, Iris, Kozachek, Anna, Graf, Pascal, Weng, Yongbiao, Bolshiyanov, Dimitri, Landwehr, Sebastian, Pfahl, Stephan, Schmale, Julia, Sodemann, Harald, Steen-Larsen, Hans C., Toffoli, Alessandro, Wernli, Heini, Aemisegger, Franziska
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: ETH Zurich 2020
• Subjects: Antarc*; Antarctic; Southern Ocean
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000417466; http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/417466

Stable water isotopologues (SWIs) are useful tracers of moist diabatic processes in the atmospheric water cycle. They provide a framework to analyse moist processes on a range of timescales from large-scale moisture transport to cloud formation, precipitation and small-scale turbulent mixing. Laser spectrometric measurements on research vessels produce high-resolution time series of the variability of the water vapour isotopic composition in the marine boundary layer. In this study, we present a 5-month continuous time series of such ship-based measurements of δ2H and δ18O from the Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition (ACE) in the Atlantic and the Southern Ocean in the time period from November 2016 to April 2017. We analyse the drivers of meridional SWI variations in the marine boundary layer across diverse climate zones in the Atlantic and Southern Ocean using Lagrangian moisture source diagnostics and relate vertical SWI differences to near-surface wind speed and ocean surface state. The median values of ... : Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 20 (9) ...