Premium
Low stable isotope ratios of tropical cyclone rains
Author(s) -
Lawrence Robert James,
Gedzelman David Stanley
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/96gl00425
Subject(s) - tropical cyclone , precipitation , tropical cyclone rainfall forecasting , environmental science , climatology , atmospheric sciences , stable isotope ratio , isotope , geology , cyclone (programming language) , meteorology , geography , physics , field programmable gate array , computer science , computer hardware , quantum mechanics
Tropical cyclone rains have distinctly lower stable isotope ratios than rains in other tropical and summer precipitation systems, with a mean value slightly above that of water vapor near the sea surface. The isotope ratios also decrease radially inward to the eye wall, but appear to be anomalously low even near the periphery of the rain shield. These findings indicate that tropical cyclones are highly efficient precipitation systems and suggest the use of stable isotope ratios as dynamic tracers of a tropical cyclone's water and energy budgets.