Abstract

Stable isotopes of water (H2O, HDO, and (H2O)-O-18) are tracers that provide powerful constraints on water transport processes in the atmosphere. This paper presents a description of an atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) simulation system called ISOLESC that couples water isotope fractionation proc... Show moreStable isotopes of water (H2O, HDO, and (H2O)-O-18) are tracers that provide powerful constraints on water transport processes in the atmosphere. This paper presents a description of an atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) simulation system called ISOLESC that couples water isotope fractionation processes with a land surface model, a large eddy simulation model, and a two-moment cloud microphysics parameterization. Results from two model configurations-one with shallow precipitating cumulus and the other for a cloud-free ABL-are presented to evaluate the model performance and determine its sensitivity to isotopic parameterizations. The coupled model successfully reproduces important ABL statistics (ABL height, cloud fraction, and cloud liquid water content), the expected effects of mixing and fractionation on the time evolution of ABL vapor isotopic composition, and observed diurnal variations of near-surface water vapor isotopic composition. For the current configuration, nondiscriminating entrainment contributes 17% to the subdaily time variation of near-surface vapor deuterium excess, while surface evapotranspiration contributes 83%. The isotopic compositions of water vapor and cloud water are insensitive to mesh resolution, but the profiles of cloud water specific humidity, rainwater specific humidity, and its isotopic ratios show moderate response to changes in grid size. Since ISOLESC resolves the energy containing scales of turbulent motions in the ABL and incorporates microphysical processes, it can be used for constraining ABL parameterizations. We find that a further improvement of raindrop reevaporation in the current cloud microphysical scheme is required in order to produce realistic near-surface raindrop deuterium excess for the case simulated here. We suggest that ISOLESC provides a quantitative framework for utilizing vapor-phase isotopic measurements to study local hydrological processes. Show less