Relation between isotopic composition of precipitation and atmospheric circulation patterns

•Monitoring of stable isotopes in precipitation.•Precipitation events related to atmosphere circulation patterns.•Isotopic composition of precipitation dependent on elementary circulation mechanism - ECM of atmosphere.•ECM-isotopic model for estimating statistical distribution of isotope composition in precipitation.

SummaryPrecipitation generating processes depend on atmospheric circulation patterns and consequently it is expected that its water stable isotopic composition of hydrogen and oxygen is related to them. Precipitation generated at similar atmospheric circulation patterns should have similar empirical distribution of δ2H and δ18O values. Mathematical model based on the linear combination of δ2H and δ18O values and on precipitation amount weighted average related to elementary air circulation mechanisms - ECM is proposed. The model enables estimation of average δ2H and δ18O values and their standard deviation for the precipitation generated at distinctive atmospheric circulation patterns. Approach in which atmospheric circulation patterns were classified as ECM based on the Dzerdzeevskii classification was applied. Application of the model is illustrated on the long term precipitation record from Ljubljana GNIP station Slovenia. Estimated values of the parameters for empirical distributions of δ2H and δ18O of each ECM subtype have shown that calculated estimates are reasonable. Further applications of the proposed model enable new insight into the understanding of isotopes spatial and temporal distribution in precipitation important also for better understanding of climate proxies.