Atmospheric moisture recycling in Mediterranean-type climate regions across the world

Please cite the corresponding manuscript when using this data:

... (information will follow as soon as the manuscript is published)

This dataset includes the local precipitation recycling ratios and the regional moisture recycling ratios for five major Mediterranean-type climate regions across the globe. Below we list these five regions and explain the concepts of local precipitation recycling and regional moisture recycling. 

Mediterranean-type climate regions

Region 1: South West Australia

Region 2: West coast of the US (California)

Region 3: Central Chile

Region 4: Mediterranean Basin (region around the Mediterranean Sea)

Region 5: The Cape region of South Africa

Local precipitation recycling ratio

The local precipitation recycling ratio is the fraction of precipitation that originated within approximately 50 km from where it rains out, i.e., it evaporated from the grid cell where it rains out and the 8 surrounding grid cells. The grid cells have a resolution of 0.5DEGx0.5DEG. A more detailed explanation is provided in the journal article Theeuwen et al. (2024). 

The files that include local precipitation recycling ratios are:

File name
Study region
Time dimension (month)
Latitude range
Longitude range

PLMR_SWAustralia.nc
South West Australia
January-December
-15:-48 DEGN
106:154 DEGE

PLMR_California.nc
West coast of the US (California)
January-December
52:20 DEGN
-131:-105 DEGE

PLMR_CentralChile.nc
Centra Chile
January-December
-10:-54 DEGN
-80:-60 DEGE

PLMR_Med_Basin.nc
Mediterranean Basin
January-December
48:23 DEGN
-20:-45 DEGE

PLMR_SWCapeSA.nc
The Cape region of South Africa
January-December
-26:-40 DEGN
10:38 DEGE

Regional moisture recycling ratio

The regional moisture recycling ratio data includes both regional evaporation recycling ratios as well as regional precipitation recycling ratios. 

The regional evaporation recycling ratio is the fraction of evaporated water that rains out within the Mediterranean region it evaporated from. 

The regional precipitation recycling ratio is the fraction of precipitation that originated from the Mediterranean region it rains out in. 

This data has a resolution of 0.5DEGx0.5DEG and is a multi-year average (years: 2008-2017). A more detailed description is provided in the journal article Theeuwen et al. (2024). 

Filename
Type of recycling
Study region

ERMR_SWAustralia.nc
Regional evaporation recycling
South West Australia 

ERMR_California.nc
Regional evaporation recycling
West coast of the US (California)

ERMR_CentralChile.nc
Regional evaporation recycling
Centra Chile

ERMR_Med-Basin.nc
Regional evaporation recycling
Mediterranean Basin

ERMR_CapeSA.nc
Regional evaporation recycling
The Cape region of South Africa

PRMR_SWAustralia.nc
Regional precipitation recycling
South West Australia 

PRMR_California.nc
Regional precipitation recycling
West coast of the US (California)

PRMR_CentralChile.nc
Regional precipitation recycling
Centra Chile

PRMR_Med-Basin.nc
Regional precipitation recycling
Mediterranean Basin

PRMR_CapeSA.nc
Regional precipitation recycling
The Cape region of South Africa