Moisture recycling

Short description: Contribution to precipitation over some area by water previously precipitated in that area

In hydrology, moisture recycling or precipitation recycling refer to the process by which a portion of the precipitated water that evapotranspired from a given area contributes to the precipitation over the same area. Moisture recycling is thus a component of the hydrologic cycle. The ratio of the locally derived precipitation (PL) to total precipitation (P) is known as the recycling ratio, ρ:[1] ρ=PLP.

The recycling ratio is a diagnostic measure of the potential for interactions between land surface hydrology and regional climate.[2][3][4][5] Land use changes, such as deforestation or agricultural intensification, have the potential to change the amount of precipitation that falls in a region. The recycling ratio for the entire world is one, and for a single point is zero. Estimates for the recycling ratio for the Amazon basin range from 24% to 56%, and for the Mississippi basin from 21% to 24%.[6]

The concept of moisture recycling has been integrated into the concept of the precipitationshed. A precipitationshed is the upwind ocean and land surface that contributes evaporation to a given, downwind location's precipitation. In much the same way that a watershed is defined by a topographically explicit area that provides surface runoff, the precipitationshed is a statistically defined area within which evaporation, traveling via moisture recycling, provides precipitation for a specific point.

## See also

* Water cycle
* Precipitationshed
* Land surface effects on climate
* Al Baydha Project

## References

1. ↑ Eltahir, E.A. "Precipitation Recycling in the Amazon Basin". Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. http://web.mit.edu/people/eltahir/www/Publications_files/1994 Eltahir Bras precip recy Amazon basin QJRMetSoc.pdf.
2. ↑ Koster, R.; Jouzel, J.; Suozzo, R.; Russell, G.; Broecker, W.; Rind, D.; Eagleson, P. (February 1986). "Global sources of local precipitation as determined by the Nasa/Giss GCM". Geophysical Research Letters 13 (2): 121–124. doi:10.1029/GL013i002p00121. Bibcode: 1986GeoRL..13..121K.
3. ↑ Trenberth, Kevin E. (May 1999). "Atmospheric Moisture Recycling: Role of Advection and Local Evaporation". Journal of Climate 12 (5): 1368–1381. doi:10.1175/1520-0442(1999)012<1368:amrroa>2.0.co;2. Bibcode: 1999JCli...12.1368T.
4. ↑ Brubaker, Kaye L.; Entekhabi, Dara; Eagleson, P. S. (June 1993). "Estimation of Continental Precipitation Recycling". Journal of Climate 6 (6): 1077–1089. doi:10.1175/1520-0442(1993)006<1077:eocpr>2.0.co;2. Bibcode: 1993JCli....6.1077B.
5. ↑ van der Ent, Rudi J.; Savenije, Hubert H. G.; Schaefli, Bettina; Steele-Dunne, Susan C. (1 September 2010). "Origin and fate of atmospheric moisture over continents" (in en). Water Resources Research 46 (9): W09525. doi:10.1029/2010WR009127. ISSN 1944-7973. Bibcode: 2010WRR....46.9525V. http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:365bc45f-fb92-41ce-864e-03812be8a440.
6. ↑ Moisture recycling

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