A revised picture of the atmospheric moisture residence time

Abstract

Refined Lagrangian moisture source diagnostics are applied on an air mass transport climatology covering the period 1979-2013 to provide an estimate of the atmospheric moisture residence time. Our diagnostics yield an estimate of about 4-5 days for the global mean residence time, which is about half compared to depletion times that are commonly interpreted as proxies for the residence time. The discrepancies to depletion times are mainly explained by the fact that these are based on simplified representations of precipitation processes. The revised picture given by our results is supported by the overall consistency with the footprints of precipitation producing weather systems in different regions of the Earth.