National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Publication Abstracts

Schmidt et al. 2005

Schmidt, G.A., G. Hoffmann, D.T. Shindell, and Y. Hu, 2005: Modelling atmospheric stable water isotopes and the potential for constraining cloud processes and stratosphere-troposphere water exchange. J. Geophys. Res., 110, D21314, doi:10.1029/2005JD005790.

Stable water isotope tracers (HDO and H₂¹⁸O) are incorporated into the ModelE version of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies Atmospheric (GISS) General Circulation Model (GCM). Details of the moist convective parameterisation, cloud phase, background ozone, isotope kinetics and vertical resolution are varied and we examine their impacts, particularly in the upper troposphere (UT) and lower stratosphere. We find that isotopes in precipitation, except in Antarctica, are largely unaffected by these changes and thus are not a useful metric for evaluating model skill above the lower troposphere. Simulated isotopic entry values into the stratosphere over all experiments range between -750 and -600‰ for HDO, and -130 to -90‰ for H¹⁸₂O, demonstrating that the mixing processes simulated by the model can explain a significant part of the observed offset from pure Rayleigh distillation. Isotope fields are shown to be sensitive to the parameterisation of cloud physics and representation of UT processes and therefore may be useful in constraining modelled cloud physics and mechanisms of stratosphere-troposphere water vapour exchange.

• Get PDF (2.0 MB)
• PDF documents require the free Adobe Reader or compatible viewing software to be viewed.
• Go to journal webpage
• Read related feature

Export citation: [ BibTeX ] [ RIS ]

@article{sc04200b,
  author={Schmidt, G. A. and Hoffmann, G. and Shindell, D. T. and Hu, Y.},
  title={Modelling atmospheric stable water isotopes and the potential for constraining cloud processes and stratosphere-troposphere water exchange},
  year={2005},
  journal={Journal of Geophysical Research},
  volume={110},
  pages={D21314},
  doi={10.1029/2005JD005790},
}

TY  - JOUR
ID  - sc04200b
AU  - Schmidt, G. A.
AU  - Hoffmann, G.
AU  - Shindell, D. T.
AU  - Hu, Y.
PY  - 2005
TI  - Modelling atmospheric stable water isotopes and the potential for constraining cloud processes and stratosphere-troposphere water exchange
JA  - J. Geophys. Res.
JO  - Journal of Geophysical Research
VL  - 110
SP  - D21314
DO  - 10.1029/2005JD005790
ER  -

• Return to 2005 Publications

• Return to Publications Homepage