Storms, floods, and the science of atmospheric rivers

Eos, Transactions, American Geophysical Union
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Abstract

Imagine a stream of water thousands of kilometers long and as wide as the distance between New York City and Washington, D. C., flowing toward you at 30 miles per hour. No, this is not some hypothetical physics problemit is a real river, carrying more water than 7-15 Mississippi Rivers combined. But it is not on land. It's a river of water vapor in the atmosphere. Atmospheric rivers (ARs) are narrow corridors of water vapor transport in the lower atmosphere that traverse long swaths of the Earth's surface as they bind together the atmospheric water cycle (Figure 1). The characteristic (indeed defining) dimensions of these ARs are (1) integrated water vapor (IWV) concentrations such that if all the vapor in the atmospheric column were condensed into liquid water, the result would be a layer 2 or more centimeters thick; (2) wind speeds of greater than 12.5 meters per second in the lowest 2 kilometers; and (3) a shape that is long and narrow, no more than 400-500 kilometers wide, and extending for thousands of kilometers, sometimes across entire ocean basins.
Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Storms, floods, and the science of atmospheric rivers
Series title Eos, Transactions, American Geophysical Union
DOI 10.1029/2011EO320001
Volume 92
Issue 32
Year Published 2011
Language English
Larger Work Type Article
Larger Work Subtype Journal Article
Larger Work Title Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union
First page 265
Last page 266
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