Moisture sources and pathways over the Limpopo River Basin (LRB) in southern Africa were identified using the Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model applied to NCEP II (2.5° × 2.5°) reanalysis data for 1981–2016. The 10-day air parcel backward trajectories were produced for the extended wet season (October–April) as well as the early and late summer. Analysis of a 36-year climatology of air parcel trajectories indicated seven moisture source regions for the LRB; namely, local continental, tropical southeast Atlantic Ocean, midlatitude South Atlantic Ocean, tropical northwest Indian Ocean, tropical southwest Indian Ocean, subtropical southwest Indian Ocean, and the Agulhas Current. The results have shown that important differences in moisture source regions and pathways exist between early (October–December) and late (January–April) summers, with the tropical northwestern Indian Ocean and the northern Agulhas Current sources more prominent during JFMA than OND. On interannual time scales, there are notable differences in moisture source regions between anomalously wet and dry summers, with the South Indian Ocean moisture contribution and transport over the LRB smaller during dry summers than wet summers. Changes in specific humidity for trajectory linked to heavy daily rainfall events (defined from CHIRPS data) showed that subtropical South Indian Ocean source is more extensive for the heavy rainfall than for the moderate case. Generally, moisture source regions and transport pathways for LRB tend to be influenced by both the regional summer season circulation and the synoptic setting.

使用适用于1981-2016年NCEP II（2.5°×2.5°）再分析数据的混合单颗粒拉格朗日综合轨迹（HYSPLIT）模型，确定了南部非洲林波波河盆地（LRB）上的水分来源和路径。在延长的湿季（10月至4月）以及夏初和夏末，产生了10天的航空包裹向后轨迹。对36年航空包裹轨迹的气候学分析表明，LRB有七个湿度源区域。分别是本地大陆，热带东南大西洋，中纬度南大西洋，热带西北印度洋，热带西南印度洋，亚热带西南印度洋和Agulhas Current。结果表明，在夏初（10月至12月）和夏末（1月至4月）之间，水分源区域和途径存在重要差异，热带西北印度洋和北部Agulhas在JFMA期间比OND更为突出。在年际时间尺度上，异常湿润和干燥夏季之间的水分来源区域存在显着差异，南印度洋在LRB上的水分贡献和运移在干燥夏季期间要比湿润夏季小。与每天的强降雨事件相关的轨迹的特定湿度变化（根据CHIRPS数据定义）表明，强降雨的南亚热带亚热带来源比中度情况更为广泛。通常，