A Multi-Phased Journey The hydrologic cycle describes the pilgrimage of water as water molecules make their way from the Earth's surface to the atmosphere, and back again. This gigantic system, powered by energy from the sun, is a continuous exchange of moisture between the oceans, the atmosphere, and the land. In the hydrologic cycle, individual water molecules travel between the oceans, water vapor in the atmosphere, water and ice on the land, and underground water. (Image by Hailey King, NASA GSFC.) Studies have revealed that the oceans, seas, and other bodies of water (lakes, rivers, streams) provide nearly 90% of the moisture in our atmosphere. Liquid water leaves these sources as a result of evaporation, the process by which water changes from a liquid to a gas. In addition, a very small portion of water vapor enters the atmosphere through sublimation, the process by which water changes from a solid (ice or snow) to a gas. (The gradual shrinking of snow banks, even though the temperature remains below the freezing point, results from sublimation.) The remaining 10% of the moisture found in the atmosphere is released by plants through transpiration. Plants take in water through their root systems to deliver nutrients to their leaves, then release it through small pores, called stomates, found on the undersides of their leaves. Together, evaporation, sublimation, and transpiration, plus volcanic emissions, account for all the water vapor in the atmosphere. While evaporation from the oceans is the primary vehicle for driving the surface-to-atmosphere portion of the hydrologic cycle, transpiration is also significant. For example, a cornfield 1 acre in size can transpire as much as 4000 gallons of water every day. After the water enters the lower atmosphere, rising air currents carry it upward, often high into the atmosphere, where the air cools and loses its capacity to support water vapor. As a result, the excess water vapor condenses (i.e., changes from a gas to a liquid) to form cloud droplets, which can eventually grow and produce precipitation (including rain, snow, sleet, freezing rain, and hail), the primary mechanism for transporting water from the atmosphere back to the Earth's surface. When precipitation falls over the land surface, it follows various routes. Some of it evaporates, returning to the atmosphere, and some seeps into the ground (as soil moisture or groundwater). Groundwater is found in two layers of the soil, the "zone of aeration," where gaps in the soil are filled with both air and water, and, further down, the "zone of saturation," where the gaps are completely filled with water. The boundary between the two zones is known as the water table, which rises or falls as the amount of groundwater increases or decreases. The rest of the water runs off into rivers and streams, and almost all of this water eventually flows into the oceans or other bodies of water, where the cycle begins anew (or, more accurately, continues). At different stages of the cycle, some of the water is intercepted by humans or other life forms. The water table is the top of the zone of saturation and intersects the land surface at lakes and streams. Above the water table lies the zone of aeration and soil moisture belt, which supplies much of the water needed by plants. (Image by Hailey King, NASA GSFC.) Even though the amount of water in the atmosphere is only 12,900 cubic kilometers (a minute fraction of Earth's total water supply that, if completely rained out, would cover the Earth's surface to a depth of only 2.5 centimeters), some 495,000 cubic kilometers of water are cycled through the atmosphere every year, enough to uniformly cover the Earth's surface to a depth of 97 centimeters. Because water continually evaporates, condenses, and precipitates, with evaporation on a global basis approximately equaling global precipitation, the total amount of water vapor in the atmosphere remains approximately the same over time. However, over the continents, precipitation routinely exceeds evaporation, and conversely, over the oceans, evaporation exceeds precipitation. In the case of the oceans, the routine excess of evaporation over precipitation would eventually leave the oceans empty if they were not being replenished by additional means. Not only are they being replenished, largely through runoff from the land areas, but, over the past 100 years, they have been over-replenished, with sea level around the globe rising by a small amount. Sea level rises both because of warming of the oceans, causing water expansion and thereby a volume increase, and because of a greater mass of water entering the ocean than the amount leaving it through evaporation or other means. A primary cause for increased mass of water entering the ocean is the calving or melting of land ice (ice sheets and glaciers). Throughout the hydrologic cycle, there are an endless number of paths that a water molecule might follow. Water at the bottom of Lake Superior may eventually fall as rain in Massachusetts. Runoff from the Massachusetts rain may drain into the Atlantic Ocean and circulate northeastward toward Iceland, destined to become part of a floe of sea ice, or, after evaporation to the atmosphere and precipitation as snow, part of a glacier. Water molecules can take an immense variety of routes and branching trails that lead them again and again through the three phases of ice, liquid water, and water vapor. For instance, the water molecules that once fell 100 years ago as rain on your great grandparents' farmhouse in Iowa might now be falling as snow on your driveway in California. next: The Water Cycle and Climate Change back: Introduction		The Water Cycle Introduction A Multi-Phased Journey The Water Cycle and Climate Change The Aqua Mission and the Water Cycle The Aqua Spacecraft References Plants return water to the atmosphere through transpiration. In this process, water evaporates from pores in the plant’s leaves, after being drawn, along with nutrients, from the root system through the plant. (Image by Hailey King, NASA GSFC.)

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