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Science 5 December 2003:
Vol. 302. no. 5651, pp. 1742 - 1745
DOI: 10.1126/science.1089496
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Reports

Water Isotope Ratios D/H, 18O/16O, 17O/16O in and out of Clouds Map Dehydration Pathways

Christopher R. Webster1* and Andrew J. Heymsfield2

Water isotope ratios have been measured by laser absorption spectroscopy in and out of cirrus clouds formed in situ and convectively generated in anvils over subtropical regions. Water vapor in the tropical and subtropical upper troposphere shows a wide range of isotopic depletion not observed previously. The range suggests that dehydration of upper tropospheric air occurs both by convective dehydration and by gradual dehydration mechanisms. Twenty-five percent of upper tropospheric water sampled is in ice particles whose isotopic signatures are used to identify those grown in situ from those lofted from below.

1 Earth and Space Sciences Division, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA.
2 National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Boulder, CO 80301, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: chris.r.webster{at}jpl.nasa.gov

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Dynamic Processes Governing Lower-Tropospheric HDO/H2O Ratios as Observed from Space and Ground.
C. Frankenberg, K. Yoshimura, T. Warneke, I. Aben, A. Butz, N. Deutscher, D. Griffith, F. Hase, J. Notholt, M. Schneider, et al. (2009)
Science 325, 1374-1377
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