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Stable isotopic composition of precipitation in the River Bhagirathi Basin and identification of source vapour

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Abstract

River Ganges one of important rivers in the northern part of India receives water from two of its tributaries, Alaknanda and Bhagirathi. In this present study, we have tried to characterise the precipitation in the Bhagirathi River Basin. The study shows that isotopic composition of precipitation shows depleted nature during monsoon period due to moisture source from the oceanic region and from African region of Indian Ocean and enriched isotopic composition during non-monsoon period due to moisture source from westerlies and local evaporation. The study also shows that temperature and amount show expected positive and negative relationship with individual locations. A positive relationship is exhibited by amount for the entire region due to depleted isotopic composition with increase in altitude. The altitude effect shows that there is a depletion of up to −0.24 to −0.29 ‰ of isotopic composition with an increase in 100 m of elevation.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to Dr. Pradeep Aggarwal, Head, Isotope Hydrology Section, IAEA, Vienna, Austria for getting some of our precipitation samples analysed at the IAEA, Isotope Hydrology Laboratory at Vienna. The authors express their sincere gratitude to Mr. S. K. Verma and Mr. Pankaj Garg of National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee for help during sampling in the Bhagirathi Basin and to the Director, National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee, for administrative and financial support. Authors are thankful to Mr. Vishal Gupta (RA) and Mr. Jamil Ahmad (SRA) for laboratory to analyse the sample. The authors thank Gunter Doerhoefer, Editor in Chief, EES and the anonymous reviewers for critically reviewing the manuscript. The authors are grateful to Department of Atomic Energy for funding the project entitled: “Streamflow Modelling of Bhagirathi River: Hydrograph Separation Using Isotopic and Geochemical Techniques” through BRNS, Mumbai.

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  1. P. Purushothaman

    Present address: Department of Civil Engineering, Saveetha School of Engineering, Saveetha University, Chennai, 602105, Tamil Nadu, India

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hydrological Investigations Division, National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee, 247667, Uttarakhand, India

    S. P. Rai, P. Purushothaman, B. Kumar & Y. S. Rawat

  2. Isotope Hydrology Section, Division of Physical and Chemical Sciences, International Atomic Energy Agency, 1400, Vienna, Austria

    B. Kumar

  3. Isotope Hydrology Section, Isotope Applications Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, 400085, India

    Noble Jacob

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Rai, S.P., Purushothaman, P., Kumar, B. et al. Stable isotopic composition of precipitation in the River Bhagirathi Basin and identification of source vapour. Environ Earth Sci 71, 4835–4847 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-013-2875-0

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