Climatic controls on the stable isotopic composition of precipitation in Northeast Asia

Abstract

CR Climate Research Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsSpecials CR 23:137-148 (2003) - doi:10.3354/cr023137 Climatic controls on the stable isotopic composition of precipitation in Northeast Asia Kwang-Sik Lee1,*, Andrew J. Grundstein2, David B. Wenner3, Man-Sik Choi1, Nam-Chil Woo4, Dae-Ha Lee5 1Korea Basic Science Institute, Eoeun-dong 52, Yusung-gu, Daejeon 305-333, Korea 2Department of Geography, and 3Department of Geology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602, USA 4Department of Earth System Sciences, Yonsei University, Seoul 120-749, Korea 5Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, Gajeong-dong 30, Yusung-gu, Daejeon 305-350, Korea *Email: [e-mail] ABSTRACT: An examination of oxygen and hydrogen isotopic compositions of precipitation in NE Asia from the IAEA/WMO data set reveals that many sites have a distinct winter-summer seasonal pattern in deuterium excess (d-) values that appears to reflect different climatic conditions. To further understand this pattern, stable isotopic data were obtained for individual rainfall events over a 2 yr period at Jeju Island, Korea. The δ18O- and δD-values of precipitation at Jeju Island are not dependent upon temperature. However, the deuterium excess values, which range from 3.0 to 40.6‰, show a distinct seasonal variation with higher d-values in winter (>~15‰) and lower values in summer (~10‰). Such a seasonal variation is closely related to different air masses affecting the island during different seasons: a cold-dry continental polar air mass in winter and a hot-humid maritime tropical air mass in summer. KEY WORDS: Oxygen · Hydrogen · Isotopic composition · Precipitation · Deuterium excess values · Northeast Asia · Jeju Island · Korea Full text in pdf format PreviousNextExport citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in CR Vol. 23, No. 2. Online publication date: January 31, 2003 Print ISSN: 0936-577X; Online ISSN: 1616-1572 Copyright © 2003 Inter-Research.