Water vapour isotopes over West Africa as observed from space: which processes control tropospheric H<sub>2</sub>O&thinsp;∕&thinsp;HDO pair distributions?

Diekmann, Christopher Johannes; Schneider, Matthias; Knippertz, Peter; Trent, Tim; Boesch, Hartmut; Roehling, Amelie Ninja; Worden, John; Ertl, Benjamin; Khosrawi, Farahnaz; Hase, Frank

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5409-2025

Articles | Volume 25, issue 11

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5409-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5409-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 25, issue 11

Research article

|

02 Jun 2025

Research article |

| 02 Jun 2025

Water vapour isotopes over West Africa as observed from space: which processes control tropospheric H₂O ∕ HDO pair distributions?

Christopher Johannes Diekmann, Matthias Schneider, Peter Knippertz, Tim Trent, Hartmut Boesch, Amelie Ninja Roehling, John Worden, Benjamin Ertl, Farahnaz Khosrawi, and Frank Hase

Data sets

MUSICA IASI water isotopologue pair product (a posteriori processing version 2) C. J. Diekmann et al. https://doi.org/10.35097/415

TROPESS AIRS-Aqua L2 Deuterated Water Vapor for Reanalysis Stream, Summary Product V1 Kevin W. Bowman https://doi.org/10.5067/55XVECXA26EK

University of Leicester TROPOMI Stable Water Vapour Isotopologue (H2O-ISO) Prototype Product (Vesrion 1.0.1) T. Trent and H. Boesch https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15465255

GPM IMERG Final Precipitation L3 Half Hourly 0.1 degree x 0.1 degree V07 G. J. Huffman et al. https://doi.org/10.5067/GPM/IMERG/3B-HH/07

GPM IMERG Final Precipitation L3 1 month 0.1 degree x 0.1 degree V07 G. J. Huffman et al. https://doi.org/10.5067/GPM/IMERG/3B-MONTH/06

Short summary

The West African Monsoon is the main source of rainfall over West Africa, and understanding the development of the monsoon remains challenging due to complex interactions of atmospheric processes. We make use of new satellite datasets of isotopes in tropospheric water vapour to characterize processes controlling the monsoon convection. We find that comparing different water vapour isotopes reveals effects of rain–vapour interactions and air mass transport.

Water vapour isotopes over West Africa as observed from space: which processes control tropospheric H2O ∕ HDO pair distributions?

Data sets

Water vapour isotopes over West Africa as observed from space: which processes control tropospheric H₂O ∕ HDO pair distributions?