A NOAA website
on atmospheric rivers contains this fascinating statistic that illustrates just how much moisture can be transported by winds in the mid-to-upper atmosphere: «A strong atmospheric river transports an amount of water vapor roughly equivalent to 7.5 - 15 times the average flow of liquid water at the mouth of the Mississippi River.»
The research emerged from a graduate seminar
on atmospheric rivers developed by UGA Distinguished Research Professor Tom Mote, one of the authors of the study.
Not exact matches
Using information
on how
atmospheric rivers have previously behaved in response to these oscillations, they found that the quasi-biennial oscillation matters — a lot.
«To date, most methods used to identify
atmospheric rivers are based
on their water vapor flux or wind speed,» Perez - Munuzuri said.
In 2016, researchers reported the first use of a deep - learning system to identify tropical cyclones,
atmospheric rivers and weather fronts: loosely defined features whose identification depends
on expert judgement.
These included model structure complexity,
atmospheric forcing and the human influences
on streamflow reflected in the observed streamflow in regulated
rivers.
The fractional increase in
atmospheric river days falls between 50 % and 600 %, depending
on the seasons and landfall locations.
Why It Matters:
On average,
atmospheric rivers hit the western United States only a few times each winter, but they transport significant amounts of moisture that converges in the mountains producing heavy precipitation.
The preliminary results of this study have been
on our website since the time the flooding happened, but now we have looked not only at the rainfall, but also the influence of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions
on the
atmospheric circulation and how this propagates from rainfall, to
river flow down to the direct impact of flooded houses in the
river catchment zones.
It's fun to punctuate this
atmospheric peace with a trip
on a jet boat
on the lake or
river, and be intoxicated by the speed of the boat.
The treatment room had the most
atmospheric of settings; a bamboo room with an open deck
on to a cascading sacred
river below.
See all of Geoff's Classes
on ArtTutor Living and working in the Peak District, it's no surprise that many of Geoff's
atmospheric paintings feature the diverse and beautiful landscape of the region, with its meandering
rivers, steep dales and valleys, farms and villages.
During the ice - free period in August and September 2007, the prevailing cyclonic
atmospheric circulation deflected the freshwater plume of the
River Lena to the east, which increased the salinity
on the mid-shelf north of the Lena Delta.
Oceans are wide and changes of
atmospheric CO2 concentration has its influence everywhere while supply from weathering occurs
on the coasts and through the
river discharges.
Everything is fully deterministic — including the «
atmospheric rivers» that transport moisture from oceanic hot - spots to drop it
on land — but so complex and dynamic as to be seemingly random and unpredictable.
After six years of drought, California was deluged in 2017 by sequential «
atmospheric rivers» causing the highest January / February rainfall
on recent record.
This chart helps show how
atmospheric rivers are formed and end up causing precipitation
on land.
During an
atmospheric river event in southern California
on February 17 — 18, new rainfall records were set in Death Valley (0.65 inches) and Santa Barbara (4.16 inches).
Climate change is expected to make California more dependent
on extreme «
atmospheric river» storm events, scientists say.
After a record - breaking rainless January in San Francisco and much of the Bay Area, an «
atmospheric river» will bring a rainstorm to the region this weekend — and one team of scientists will ride into the storm to study the phenomenon and its potential impact
on California's devastating three - year drought.
What is pretty clear, though, is that this year's extreme wetness
on the seasonal scale has pushed parts of California's aging water infrastructure to the brink — and had even a single additional warm, wet
atmospheric river come ashore during the peak of winter, the overall flood situation might have been considerably more serious.
[8] Rain -
on - snow - producing
atmospheric river storms are,
on average, only 2 °C warmer than others storm types that preserve snow pack.
On January 3 and 4, the first of two back - to - back
atmospheric river storms brought heavy rain, mountain snow, and localized flooding to central California.
[26] Historically, the most intense storms and precipitation events in California have been tied to wintertime
atmospheric rivers that fed
on high levels of water vapor in the air.
On January 3 and 4, the first of two back - to - back
atmospheric river storms (wide paths of moisture in the atmosphere composed of condensed water vapor), brought heavy rain and mountain snow to central California, ahead of an even more intense round of heavy precipitation brought by a powerful, long - duration
atmospheric river storm pulling warm and moist air to California from the subtropical and equatorial region southeast of Hawaii.
The second storm, fueled by a powerful, long - duration
atmospheric river funneling warm and moist air from southeast of Hawaii, hit central and northern California beginning late
on January 7 and pushed major
rivers past flood stage levels and drove extreme gusts, leading to power outages as well as rock and mudslides.
The second
atmospheric river storm hit late
on January 7, causing a prolonged period of heavy rainfall.
Prior to 2004, fewer than 10 studies mentioned
atmospheric rivers in any given year; in 2015, about 200 studies were published
on the matter.
«Fortunately for the Oroville Dam situation, the very strong / warm
atmospheric river on Friday will likely be aimed well to the south, toward the Los Angeles area.»
-- It seems perfectly reasonable to me that if we imagine the surface never emits that energy in the first place, - energy that is stored in the surface and just below, i.e. oceans, lakes,
rivers, ground, and air, — just to mention a few, then any surface temperature change would be completely reliant
on variations in Solar irradiation and advection mainly by Water Vapor (WV) but also by other GHGs that have the ability to contain more heat than the rest of the
atmospheric gases.
It seems perfectly reasonable to me that if we imagine the surface never emits that energy in the first place, - energy that is stored in the surface and just below, i.e. oceans, lakes,
rivers, ground, and air, — just to mention a few, then any surface temperature change would be completely reliant
on variations in Solar irradiation and advection mainly by Water Vapor (WV) but also by other GHGs that have the ability to contain more heat than the rest of the
atmospheric gases.