An international group of researchers examined the relationship between atmospheric rivers (ARs), which are long, narrow bands of concentrated water vapor, and Arctic climate. The team included University of California, Santa Barbara scientist Qinghua Ding, who is supported by a grant from the Climate Program Office’s Climate Variability & Predictability (CVP) program. Through transporting moisture from lower latitudes to the Arctic, ARs can significantly impact the Arctic’s climate. In a new study, the researchers describe how large-scale circulation shifts have played a significant role in a recent increase in AR activity, which has contributed to an overall rise in summer moisture in the Arctic.
The study, published in Nature Communications, used both observational data and model experiments to describe how changes in large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns have influenced the frequency and intensity of ARs reaching the Arctic in summer. The work highlights the importance of ARs in the context of arctic amplification, the phenomenon of the Arctic warming faster than the global average. The authors emphasize the need for further research to understand how ARs might continue to affect Arctic climate and ice melt in a warming world. Through improving model precipitation biases, Qinghua Ding works toward the CVP goal of identifying and understanding key land-atmosphere processes that influence coupled-model precipitation biases in the continental United States. The project also contributes to the objectives of NOAA’s Precipitation Prediction Grand Challenge (PPGC).
For more information, contact Clara Deck.
