On the importance of cascading moisture recycling in South America

Continental moisture recycling is a crucial process of the South American climate system. In particular, evapotranspiration from the Amazon basin contributes substantially to precipitation regionally as well as over other remote regions such as the La Plata basin. Here we present an in-depth analysis of South American moisture recycling...

Potential contribution of hydro power plants to the energy consumption of East Asian islands

Population growth, increasing energy demand and depleting fossil fuel resei-ves put a pressure on conventional methods of electricity generation. Hydropower is an alternative energy source that is known to have a large capacity potential. However, previous estimations of the potential capacity have been inconsistent and incomplete. In this study...

A new view on the hydrological cycle over continents

Where does precipitation come from? It is not easy to answer this question because of the complex and energy-intensive processes that bring moisture to a certain location and cause moisture to precipitate highly heterogeneously in space and variable over time. Part of the precipitation comes from so-called “moisture recycling”, which is moisture...

Should we use a simple or complex model for moisture recycling and atmospherix moisture tracking?

This paper compares state-of-the-art atmospheric moisture tracking models. Such models are typically used to study the water component of coupled land and atmosphere models, in particular quantifying moisture recycling and the source-sink relations between evaporation and precipitation. There are several atmospheric moisture tracking methods in...

Oceanic sources of continental precipitation and the correlation with sea surface temperature

Identifying the sources of continental precipitation has received increasing attention in recent years. With the use of various numerical methods, sources of precipitation have been identified from local to global scales. In this paper we identify the oceanic sources based on an atmospheric backtracking analysis of continental precipitation. We...

Should we use a simple or complex model for moisture recycling and atmospheric moisture tracking?

This paper compares three state-of-the-art atmospheric moisture tracking models. Such models are typically used to study the water component of coupled land and atmosphere models, in particular quantifying moisture recycling and the source-sink relations between evaporation and precipitation. However, there are several atmospheric moisture...

An analytical model for soil-atmosphere feedback

Soil-atmosphere feedback is a key for understanding the hydrological cycle and the direction of potential system changes. This paper presents an analytical framework to study the interplay between soil and atmospheric moisture, using as input only the boundary conditions at the upstream end of trajectory, assuming advective moisture transport...

Analyzing precipitationsheds to understand the vulnerability of rainfall dependent regions

It is well known that rivers connect upstream and downstream ecosystems within watersheds. Here we describe the concept of precipitationsheds to show how upwind terrestrial evaporation source areas contribute moisture for precipitation to downwind sink regions. We illustrate the importance of upwind land cover in precipitationsheds to sustain...

Length and time scales of atmospheric moisture recycling

It is difficult to quantify the degree to which terrestrial evaporation supports the occurrence of precipitation within a certain study region (i.e. regional moisture recycling) due to the scale- and shape-dependence of regional moisture recycling ratios. In this paper we present a novel approach to quantify the spatial and temporal scale of...

Origin and fate of atmospheric moisture over continents

There has been a long debate on the extent to which precipitation relies on terrestrial evaporation (moisture recycling). In the past, most research focused on moisture recycling within a certain region only. This study makes use of new definitions of moisture recycling to study the complete process of continental moisture feedback. Global maps...

Leven met de overstromingen 2007

Introduction In May 2006 many rivers and creeks in the interior of Suriname caused flooding and a lot of inhabitants were surprised by the water. Over 22,000 people were struck in a way that their houses were (temporarily) uninhabitable. In the most places the duration of the flooding was limited to three to six days, after that the waterlevel...