Structure, Process, and Mechanism


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Date

2020

Publication Type

Book Chapter

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yes

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Abstract

Questions this chapter tries to answer include: how do ARs work, why are there ARs, and what is their place in global water and energy cycles? Sect. 2.2, drawing from the substantial body of published literature, explores what ARs are, phenomenologically. Based on observations, what do the horizontal and vertical sections of ARs look like? Section 2.3 covers concepts related to ARs: warm conveyor belts and TMEs, including climatologies and their relevance—all helping delineate their differences and similarities to ARs, and thus helping to define what is—and is not—an AR. Section 2.4 focuses on the water transport in ARs, reviewing the different approaches to quantify moisture transport, and to identify moisture sources, all of which contribute to the current understanding of the moisture budget of ARs, and links phenomenology (Sect. 2.2) with dynamic understanding (Sect. 2.4). Section 2.5 combines the complex picture of ARs and their embedding in atmospheric dynamics, including aspects of how extratropical dynamics affect ARs, and their links to (a) upper-level dynamics (Rossby wave breaking and cutoff lows, (b) extratropical cyclones and alternative concepts, and (c) high-latitude dynamics.

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published

Book title

Atmospheric Rivers

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Volume

Pages / Article No.

15 - 43

Publisher

Springer

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Subject

Water vapor transport; AR structure; Warm conveyor belt; Tropical moisture export; Water budget; Mid-latitude cyclone

Organisational unit

03854 - Wernli, Johann Heinrich / Wernli, Johann Heinrich check_circle

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