Deuterium, Oxygen-18, and Tritium as Tracers for Water Vapour Transport in the Lower Stratosphere and Tropopause Region

Simultaneous measurements of the three rare isotopes Deuterium (D), Tritium (T), and Oxygen-18 (18O) in water vapour were made for the first time in the vicinity of the northern hemisphere tropopause. In contrast to expectation, high D/H and 18O/16O ratios, but relatively low T/H ratios, were found within the lowermost stratosphere. Since water vapour in the low-latitude upper troposphere shows a similar isotopic signature, we conclude that in the mid-latitudes considerable amounts of tropospheric water vapour are injected into the lowermost stratosphere, probably resulting in a hydration of the lower stratosphere. In addition, T can serve as tracer for precipitation of water containing stratospheric aerosol particles, because the T/H ratio in stratospheric water vapour is orders of magnitude higher than in the upper troposphere. Thus, even a small contribution of water of stratospheric origin should be detectable in the tropopause region. In our measurements performed in the Arctic we did not find isotopic evidence for sedimentation of PSC particles down to the tropopause. This may be caused by the low spatial and temporal coverage of our observations; however, it may also be due to the much weaker wintertime dehydration of the Arctic vortex compared to the Antarctic.