Evaluation of the Moisture Sources in two Extreme Landfalling
Atmospheric River Events using an Eulerian WRF-Tracers tool

Eiras‐Barca, Jorge; Domínguez, Francina; Hu, Huancui; Garaboa-Paz, Daniel; Míguez-Macho, Gonzalo

doi:10.5194/esd-2017-63

Cited by 14 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 5 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Temperatures rose 17 • C in less than 2 h ahead of the cold front (NOAA, 2008). Along this warm southwesterly tropical air mass, more than 70 % of the water vapor and precipitation that reached the coast was of direct tropical origin (Eiras-Barca et al, 2017). The catastrophic flooding along the Chehalis River basin was primarily due to unusually high and sustained hourly rainfall rates concentrated in less than 24 h, mainly on 3 December.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tracking an atmospheric river in a warmer climate: from water vapor to economic impacts

et al. 2018

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Atmospheric rivers (ARs) account for more than 75 % of heavy precipitation events and nearly all of the extreme flooding events along the Olympic Mountains and western Cascade Mountains of western Washington state. In a warmer climate, ARs in this region are projected to become more frequent and intense, primarily due to increases in atmospheric water vapor. However, it is unclear how the changes in water vapor transport will affect regional flooding and associated economic impacts. In this work we present an integrated modeling system to quantify the atmospheric-hydrologic-hydraulic and economic impacts of the December 2007 AR event that impacted the Chehalis River basin in western Washington. We use the modeling system to project impacts under a hypothetical scenario in which the same December 2007 event occurs in a warmer climate. This method allows us to incorporate different types of uncertainty, including (a) alternative future radiative forcings, (b) different responses of the climate system to future radiative forcings and (c) different responses of the surface hydrologic system. In the warming scenario, AR integrated vapor transport increases; however, these changes do not translate into generalized increases in precipitation throughout the basin. The changes in precipitation translate into spatially heterogeneous changes in sub-basin runoff and increased streamflow along the entire Chehalis main stem. Economic losses due to stock damages increase moderately, but losses in terms of business interruption are significant. Our integrated modeling tool provides communities in the Chehalis region with a range of possible future physical and economic impacts associated with AR flooding.

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tracking an atmospheric river in a warmer climate: from water vapor to economic impacts

et al. 2018

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The uncertainty of the method is almost entirely due to the WRF model errors. A more in-depth description of the Eulerian tracer tool and validation results can be found in in [5] and in [13].…”

Section: Eulerian Tracer Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[18], for a review). Eulerian methods, generally known as water vapor tracers (WVTs) are based on coupling a moisture tagging technique with a global or regional meteorological model [27,13,5]. This strategy allows the model to explicity account for all physical processes affecting atmospheric moisture, but on the other hand, it cannot be run offline and thus cannot be coupled to an atmospheric reanalysis, for example.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

<strong>Tagging moisture sources with Eulerian and Lagrangian tracers: Application to an intense atmospheric river event.</strong><strong></strong>

Pérez‐Muñuzuri

Eiras‐Barca

Garaboa-Paz

et al. 2017

Proceedings of First International Electronic Conference on the Hydrological Cycle

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:One Eulerian and two Lagrangian tracers tools are evaluated for studies on atmospheric moisture sources and pathways. The first method has been recently implemented into the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) mesoscale model, while the Lagrangian methods are described here. In these methods, a moisture volume is assigned to each particle, which is then advected by the wind flow. Usual Lagrangian methods consider this volume to remain constant and the particle follows flow path lines exactly. In a different approach,, the initial moisture volume can be considered to depend on time as it's advected by the flow, due to thermodynamic processes. In this case, the tracer volume drag must be taken into account. Equations have been implemented and moisture convection was represented in both Lagrangian models. We apply these methods to evaluate the intense atmospheric river that devastated the Pacific North West region of the United States, with flooding rains and intense winds in early November 2006. We note that the usual Lagrangian method underestimates moisture availability in the continent while active tracers (both Eulerian and Lagrangian) achieve more realistic results.

show abstract

“…Finite-size or inertial particle dynamics in fluid flows can differ markedly from Lagrangian particle dynamics, in both, their motion and clustering behavior (e.g. Michaelides tagging technique with a global or regional meteorological model (Singh et al, 2016;Insua-Costa and Miguez-Macho, 2017;Eiras-Barca et al, 2017). This strategy allows the model to explicitly account for all physical processes affecting atmospheric moisture, but on the other hand, it cannot be run offline and thus cannot be coupled to an atmospheric reanalysis, for example.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tagging moisture sources with Lagrangian and inertial tracers: Application to intense atmospheric river events

Pérez‐Muñuzuri¹,

Eiras‐Barca²,

Garaboa-Paz³

2018

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract.Two Lagrangian tracers tools are evaluated for studies on atmospheric moisture sources and pathways. In these methods, a moisture volume is assigned to each particle which is then advected by the wind flow. Usual Lagrangian methods consider this volume to remain constant and the particle follows flow path lines exactly. In a different approach, the initial moisture volume can be considered to depend on time as it is advected by the flow, due to thermodynamic processes. In this case, the tracer 5 volume drag must be taken into account. Equations have been implemented and moisture convection was taken into account for both Lagrangian and inertial models. We apply these methods to evaluate the intense atmospheric rivers that devastated (i) the Pacific North West region of the United States, and (ii) the Western of the Iberian Peninsula, with flooding rains and intense winds in early November 2006, and May 20, 1994, respectively. We note that the usual Lagrangian method underestimates moisture availability in the continent while active tracers achieve more realistic results.

show abstract

Evaluation of the Moisture Sources in two Extreme Landfalling Atmospheric River Events using an Eulerian WRF-Tracers tool

Cited by 14 publications

References 5 publications

Tracking an atmospheric river in a warmer climate: from water vapor to economic impacts

Tracking an atmospheric river in a warmer climate: from water vapor to economic impacts

<strong>Tagging moisture sources with Eulerian and Lagrangian tracers: Application to an intense atmospheric river event.</strong><strong></strong>

Tagging moisture sources with Lagrangian and inertial tracers: Application to intense atmospheric river events

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About