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Read Full Article (file size: 131711 bytes) Cited by
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS,
VOL. 29, NO. 24,
2231,
doi:10.1029/2002GL016201,
2002
Transit time distributions in Lake Issyk-Kul
Darryn W. Waugh
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences,
Johns Hopkins University,
Baltimore,
Maryland,
USA
Martin K. Vollmer
Max Planck Institute for Chemistry,
Mainz,
Germany
Ray F. Weiss
Scripps Institution of Oceanography,
University of California, San Diego,
La Jolla,
USA
Thomas W. N. Haine
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences,
Johns Hopkins University,
Baltimore,
Maryland,
USA
Timothy M. Hall
NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies,
New York,
USA
Abstract
Measurements of sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are used to constrain the timescales for deep-water renewal in Lake Issyk-Kul. As these tracers
have different tropospheric histories their combination provides more transport information than one tracer alone. In particular,
from these measurements the mean, Γ, and standard deviation, σ, of the distributions of transit times since water made last
contact with the surface can be tightly constrained. Γ is older than the age determined from SF6 and younger than the ages from the CFCs, and increases from around 4 yrs at 200 m to around 10.5 yrs at the deepest location
(655 m). σ also increases with depth and equals around 0.7 to 0.8 Γ, which corresponds to large ranges of transit times, and
implies mixing processes play a major role in the transport. The approach used can also be applied to similar tracer measurements
in the oceans and groundwaters to constrain transport in these geophysical systems.
Published 28
December
2002.
Index Terms: 4808 Oceanography: Biological and Chemical: Chemical tracers; 4239 Oceanography: General: Limnology; 1832 Hydrology: Groundwater transport.
Read Full Article (file size: 131711 bytes) Cited by
Citation: Waugh, D. W., M. K. Vollmer, R. F. Weiss, T. W. N. Haine, and T. M. Hall
(2002),
Transit time distributions in Lake Issyk-Kul,
Geophys. Res. Lett.,
29(24),
2231,
doi:10.1029/2002GL016201.
Copyright 2002 by the American Geophysical Union.
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