Title: Amazonian Moisture Recycling Revisited Using WRF With Water Vapor Tracers

Abstract

Previous studies have estimated that 25%–35% of Amazonian precipitation comes from evapotranspiration (ET) within the basin. However, due to simplifying assumptions of traditional models, these studies primarily focus on large spatial and temporal scales. This study is the first to analyze the moisture of Amazonian origin at the annual to daily timescale in four different subregions of the Amazon. We analyze the sources, sinks and stores of moisture that originates as Amazonian ET. To do this, we use the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) regional meteorological model with the added capability of water vapor tracers to track this moisture. Moisture of Amazonian origin shows strong annual and semi-annual signals, with contrasting behavior between the northern and southern parts of the basin. The tracers reveal a strong diurnal cycle of Amazonian water vapor which had not been previously reported. This signal is related to the diurnal cycle of ET, convective precipitation and advected moisture. ET's contribution to atmospheric moisture increases from early morning into the afternoon. Some of this moisture is rained out through convective storms in the early evening. Later in the night and following morning, strong winds associated with the South American Low Level Jet advect moisture downwind. Overall,more » the beating pattern becomes apparent when visualizing the Amazonian water vapor as an animation.« less

Authors:

Dominguez, Francina  ^[1];

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Dominguez, Francina"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0003-2674-3382"

Eiras‐Barca, Jorge  ^[2];

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Eiras‐Barca, Jorge"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0003-4401-5944"

Yang, Zhao  ^[3];

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Yang, Zhao"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-8802-7130"

Bock, David ^[4]; Nieto, Raquel  ^[5];

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Nieto, Raquel"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-8984-0959"

Gimeno, Luis  ^[5]

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Gimeno, Luis"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-0778-3605"

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+ Show Author Affiliations

1. Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL (United States)
2. Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL (United States); Univ. de Vigo, Ourense (Spain). Environmental Physics Laboratory (EPhysLab); The Spanish Naval Academy, Marín (Spain). Defense University Center
3. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
4. Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL (United States). National Center for Supercomputing Applications
5. Univ. de Vigo, Ourense (Spain). Environmental Physics Laboratory (EPhysLab)

Publication Date:

Sat Jan 22 00:00:00 EST 2022

Research Org.:

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Data Center; Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER); National Science Foundation (NSF)

OSTI Identifier:

1841545

Alternate Identifier(s):

OSTI ID: 1975187

Report Number(s):

PNNL-SA-162460
Journal ID: ISSN 2169-897X

Grant/Contract Number:  

AC06-76RL01830; AGS 1454089; AC05-76RL01830

Resource Type:

Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:

Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Volume: 127; Journal Issue: 4; Journal ID: ISSN 2169-897X

Publisher:

American Geophysical Union

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES