Composition and Chemistry

The hydrogen isotopic composition of water vapor entering the stratosphere inferred from high-precision measurements of δD-CH4 and δD-H2

  1. M. C. McCarthy1,7,
  2. K. A. Boering1,8,
  3. T. Rahn2,9,
  4. J. M. Eiler2,
  5. A. L. Rice3,10,
  6. S. C. Tyler4,
  7. S. Schauffler5,
  8. E. Atlas5,11,
  9. D. G. Johnson6

Article first published online: 9 APR 2004

DOI: 10.1029/2003JD004003

Issue

Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres (1984–2012)

Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres (1984–2012)

Additional Information

How to Cite

McCarthy, M. C., K. A. Boering, T. Rahn, J. M. Eiler, A. L. Rice, S. C. Tyler, S. Schauffler, E. Atlas, and D. G. Johnson (2004), The hydrogen isotopic composition of water vapor entering the stratosphere inferred from high-precision measurements of δD-CH4 and δD-H2, J. Geophys. Res., 109, D07304, doi:10.1029/2003JD004003.

Author Information

  1. 1

    Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA

  2. 2

    Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA

  3. 3

    Department of Chemistry, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California, USA

  4. 4

    Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California, USA

  5. 5

    Atmospheric Chemistry Division, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, USA

  6. 6

    Laser and Electro-Optics Branch, NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia, USA

  7. 7

    Now at Sonoma Technology, Inc., Petaluma, California, USA.

  8. 8

    Also at Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, and Earth Science Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California, USA.

  9. 9

    Now at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA.

  10. 10

    Now at the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA.

  11. 11

    Now at Rosensteil School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, Miami, Florida, USA.

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 9 APR 2004
  2. Article first published online: 9 APR 2004
  3. Manuscript Accepted: 24 DEC 2003
  4. Manuscript Revised: 18 DEC 2003
  5. Manuscript Received: 24 JUL 2003

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Keywords:

  • hydrogen isotopic composition;
  • water vapor;
  • stratosphere;
  • tropical troposphere layer

[1] The hydrogen isotopic composition of water vapor entering the stratosphere provides an important constraint on the mechanisms for dehydration of air ascending through the tropical tropopause layer. We have inferred the annual mean hydrogen isotopic composition of water vapor entering the stratosphere (or δD-H2O0) for the mid to late 1990s based on high-precision measurements of the hydrogen isotopic compositions of stratospheric H2 and CH4 from whole air samples collected on the NASA ER-2 aircraft between 1996 and 2000 and remote observations of δD-H2O from the FIRS-2 far infrared spectrometer. We calculate an annual mean value for δD-H2O0 of −653 (+24/−25)‰ relative to Vienna standard mean ocean water (VSMOW). Previous inferences from balloon-borne and spacecraft remote-sensing observations are ∼20‰ lighter than the value from this analysis. We attribute the difference to an underestimation of deuterium in the molecular H2 reservoir in earlier work. This precise and more accurate value for the annual mean δD-H2O0 will be useful as a 1990's benchmark for detecting future changes in the details of the dehydration of air due to the impact of climate change on convection intensity, cloud microphysics, or tropical tropopause layer temperatures. In addition, we report a value for the total deuterium content in the three main stratospheric hydrogen reservoirs HDO, HD, and CH3D of 1.60 (+0.02/−0.03) ppbv.

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