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Precipitation RecyclingThe water cycle regulates and reflects natural variability in climate at the regional and global scales. Large-scale human activities that involve changes in land cover, such as tropical deforestation, are likely to modify climate through changes in the water cycle. In order to understand, and hopefully be able to predict, the extent of these potential global and regional changes, we need first to understand how the water cycle works. In the past, most of the research in hydrology focused on the land branch of the water cycle, with little attention given to the atmospheric branch. The study of precipitation recycling which is defined as the contribution of local evaporation to local precipitation, aims at understanding hydrologic processes in the atmospheric branch of the water cycle. Simply stated, any study on precipitation recycling is about how the atmospheric branch of the water cycle works, namely, what happens to water vapor molecules after they evaporate from the surface, and where will they precipitate?
Document ID
19990018738
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
External Source(s)
Authors
Eltahir, Elfatih A. B.
(Massachusetts Inst. of Tech. Cambridge, MA United States)
Bras, Rafael L.
(Massachusetts Inst. of Tech. Cambridge, MA United States)
Date Acquired
August 19, 2013
Publication Date
August 1, 1996
Publication Information
Publication: Reviews of Geophysics
Volume: 34
Issue: 3
ISSN: 8755-1209
Subject Category
Meteorology And Climatology
Report/Patent Number
Paper-96RG01927
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NAG5-1615
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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