Author(s)

Jiamin Li, Ruirui Si

Key Laboratory of Arid Climate Change and Disaster Reduction of Gansu Province, College of Atmospheric Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China.

The degree of water vapour recycling in terrestrial precipitation is still a debatable topic, particularly in arid regions. Here, the spatiotemporal evolution of evaporation, calculated via the water balance method [1], and the precipitation recycling ratio, calculated using a water recycling model [2], are investigated across Asia and Africa for the 1984-2013 time period. The results show that the precipitation recycling ratio in North Africa and China-Mongolia is stronger in summer but weaker in winter. However, it is stronger in winter and spring in West Asia but weaker in summer. Evaporation accounts for a small proportion of the precipitation uptake in arid regions, with external water vapour transportation exerting the primary influence on precipitation recycling. Increasing global temperatures and evaporation potentials over the past 30 years have driven the actual evaporation and precipitation recycling ratio increases in North Africa and West Asia and corresponding decreases in China-Mongolia.

Evaporation, Precipitation Recycling, Arid Regions

Li, J. and Si, R. (2018) Spatiotemporal Distribution of Precipitation Recycling across the Arid Regions of Asia and Africa. Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection, 6, 195-206. doi: 10.4236/gep.2018.69015.