Atmospheric River Families: Definition and Associated Synoptic Conditions

Fish, Meredith A.; Wilson, Anna M.; Ralph, F. Martin

doi:10.1175/jhm-d-18-0217.1

Cited by 49 publications

(64 citation statements)

References 52 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…AR detection is based on the algorithm originally introduced in Guan and Waliser (2015), refined in Guan et al (2018), and further enhanced in Guan and Waliser (2019) with tracking capability. Flood damages in the Western U.S. were retrieved through the National Flood Insurance Program retrieved from the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, originally downloaded 2019-10-25 (https://www.fema.gov/openfema-data-page/fima-nfip-redacted-claims-v1, accessible at https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.4b8gthtd9).The text ends with an acknowledgment section and statement that includes: AR family catalogue (Fish et al, 2019) used within analysis was kindly provided by Meredith Fish.…”

Section: Data Availability Statementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genesis Locations of the Costliest Atmospheric Rivers Impacting the Western United States

Prince

Gibson

DeFlorio

et al. 2021

Geophysical Research Letters

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Atmospheric rivers (ARs) are filamentary corridors of enhanced atmospheric water vapor transport that can produce extreme precipitation in mid-latitude and polar regions, particularly when an AR undergoes topographic ascent (Nash et al., 2018;Neiman et al., 2008;Zhu & Newell, 1998). The magnitude and duration of the moisture flux directly relates to the intensity of precipitation with the highest precipitation rates being associated with strong, prolonged ARs (Eiras- Barca et al., 2021;Konrad & Dettinger, 2017;Prince et al., 2021;Ralph et al., 2019). Given the association between ARs and precipitation, the occurrence of ARs brings the potential for substantial environmental and socioeconomic impacts (Corringham et al., 2019). On the West Coast of the U.S., landfalling ARs are the primary cause of flooding with ∼90% of all floods occurring during ARs (Dettinger et al., 2011;Paltan et al., 2017). The occurrence of these hydrological extremes often results in damage to property and infrastructure, a noteworthy event being the damage to the Oroville Dam in northern California resulting in mass evacuations and financial damages exceeding USD$1 billion

show abstract

Section: Data Availability Statementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genesis Locations of the Costliest Atmospheric Rivers Impacting the Western United States

Prince

Gibson

DeFlorio

et al. 2021

Geophysical Research Letters

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The rapid succession of individual landfalling ARs over a short period (less than a week) can supplant the initially beneficial supply of water resources. These AR 'families' are modulated by large-scale dynamics 55,56 and are most notably linked to the events leading to damage of the Oroville Dam in February 2017 (reF. 57 ).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Responses and impacts of atmospheric rivers to climate change

Payne

Demory

Leung

et al. 2020

Nat Rev Earth Environ

Self Cite

250

240

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Atmospheric rivers (ARs) are synoptic-scale features characterized by their striking geometry-extending thousands of kilometres in length and an order of magni tude less in width 1-and vertically coherent low-level moisture transport concentrated in the bottom 3 km of the atmosphere 2 (Fig. 1). In total, ARs are estimated to accomplish as much as 90% of poleward moisture transport 3,4 , which, in the North Pacific, averages 700 kg m −1 s −1 (Fig. 1b), more than twice the mean annual discharge found at the mouth of the Amazon River 5. ARs do not describe continuous moisture transport. Rather, they are continually evolving pathways that incorporate moisture from local convergence and evaporation along their track 6,7 or, in select cases, from distant source regions in the tropics or subtropics 8-12. Owing to the complexity of their evolution, our baseline knowledge of AR characteristics at the global scale is uncertain due to the dependency on identification algorithms (Box 1), with factors such as genesis, development and termination only recently being explored 13,14. However, ARs are known to operate as one part of a larger, synoptic-scale dynamical system driving the poleward transport of sensible and latent heat 4,15. They are generally found in the vicinity of extratropical cyclones. Over the North Pacific, for example, 85% of ARs are paired with extratropical cyclones 16 , consistent with their observed relationship with baroclinic instabilities and the mid-latitude storm track 3,6. However, this relationship is nuanced; only 45% of extratropical cyclones over the same region are associated with an AR 16. Similar non-linear relationships are observed in the North Atlantic, where the evolution and life cycle of a single AR can span that of several cyclones 9. While the phenomena are clearly related, their relationship is interactive, with potential implications on the inten sification of storms and the severity of precipitation impacts on land 17,18. Indeed, given their intense moisture transport and moist-neutrality, ARs exhibit conditions that are ideal for forced precipitation, either through interaction with topography or ascent along a warm conveyor belt or frontal boundary 19. Thus, when ARs make landfall, they can have a range of hydrological impacts, including precipitation extremes and related hazards,

show abstract

“…Several procedures are in practice to detect, track, and forecast ARs in advance using observational, reanalysis, and numerical models Fish et al 2019;Lavers et al 2018). Integrated water vapor (IWV) (Ralph et al 2004;Neiman et al 2008b;Guan et al 2010) and integrated vapor transport (IVT) (Zhu and Newell 1998;Roberge et al 2009; Jiang and Deng 2011) are the two most common techniques used to define, detect, and track ARs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatio-temporal variability of atmospheric rivers and associated atmospheric parameters in the Euro-Atlantic region

Thandlam

Rutgersson

2021

Theor Appl Climatol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We study the spatio-temporal variability of Atmospheric Rivers (ARs) and associated integrated water vapor and atmospheric parameters over the Euro-Atlantic region using long-term reanalysis datasets. Winds, temperature, and specific humidity at different pressure levels during 1979–2018 are used to study the water vapor transport integrated between 1000 and 300 hPa (IVT300) in mapping ARs. The intensity of ARs in the North Atlantic has been increasing in recent times (2009–2018) with large decadal variability and poleward shift (~ 5° towards the North) in landfall during 1999–2018. Though different reanalysis datasets show similar spatial patterns of IVT300 in mapping ARs, bias in specific humidity and wind components led to IVT300 mean bias of 50 kg m−1 s−1 in different reanalysis products compared to ERA5. The magnitude of winds and specific humidity in the lower atmosphere (below 750 hPa) dominates the total column water vapor and intensity of ARs in the North Atlantic. Reanalysis datasets in the central North Atlantic show an IVT300 standard deviation of 200 kg m−1 s−1 which is around 33% of the ARs climatology (~ 600 kg m−1 s−1). Though ARs have a higher frequency of landfalling over Western Europe in winter half-year, the intensity of IVT300 in winter ARs is 3% lower than the annual mean. The lower frequency of ARs in the summer half-year shows 3% higher IVT300 than the annual mean. While ARs in the North Atlantic show a strong decadal change in frequency and path, the impact of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and Scandinavian blocking on the location of landfall of ARs are significant. Furthermore, there is a strong latitudinal dependence of the source of moisture flux in the open ocean, contributing to the formation and strengthening ARs.

show abstract

Atmospheric River Families: Definition and Associated Synoptic Conditions

Cited by 49 publications

References 52 publications

Genesis Locations of the Costliest Atmospheric Rivers Impacting the Western United States

Genesis Locations of the Costliest Atmospheric Rivers Impacting the Western United States

Responses and impacts of atmospheric rivers to climate change

Spatio-temporal variability of atmospheric rivers and associated atmospheric parameters in the Euro-Atlantic region

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About