Relating Moisture Transport to Stable Water Vapor Isotopic Variations of Ambient Wintertime along the Western Coast of Korea

Abstract

Atmospheric water vapor transfers energy, causes meteorological phenomena and can be modified by climate change in the western coast region of Korea. In Korea, previous studies have utilized precipitation isotopic compositions in the water cycle for correlations with climate variables, but there are few studies using water vapor isotopes. In this study, water vapor was directly collected by a cryogenic method, analyzed for its isotopic compositions, and used to trace the origin and history of water vapor in the western coastal region of Korea during the winter of 2015/2016. Our analysis of paired mixing ratios with water vapor isotopes can explain the mechanism of water vapor isotopic fractionation and the extent of the mixing of two different air masses. We confirm the correlation between water vapor isotopes and meteorological parameters such as temperature, relative humidity, and specific humidity. The main water vapor in winter was derived from the continental polar region of northern Asia and showed an enrichment of 10 per mil (δ18O) through the evaporation of the Yellow Sea. Our results demonstrate the utility of using ground-based isotope observations as a complementary resource for constraining isotope-enabled Global Circulation Model in future investigations of atmospheric water cycles. These measurements are expected to support climate studies (speleothem) in the west coast region of Korea.