Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 27, 2025

Surface Renewal: An Advanced Micrometeorological Method for Measuring and Processing Field-Scale Energy Flux Density Data
Published on: December 12, 2013
A regionally refined quarter-degree global atmospheric rivers database based on ERA5
Bin Guan1,2, Duane E Waliser3,4
1Joint Institute for Regional Earth System Science and Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA. bin.guan@jpl.nasa.gov.
Abstract:
Atmospheric rivers (ARs) are narrow, elongated, synoptic jets of water vapor that play important roles in the global water cycle. The continually developing Tracking Atmospheric Rivers Globally as Elongated Targets (tARget) algorithm identifies AR objects at individual time steps based on thresholding integrated water vapor transport (IVT) and other requirements, and tracks each AR object in time and space. Building on previous versions of tARget, this paper discusses further refinements to the algorithm to better handle ARs in tropical and polar areas, as well as "zonal" ARs which the previous versions of the algorithm were not designed to capture. This further regionally refined algorithm is applied to the ERA5 reanalysis over 1940-2023 at 6 h intervals and a 0.25° × 0.25° horizontal resolution. The AR detection results are evaluated in terms of key AR characteristics. We anticipate this regionally refined global AR database will aid further understanding of ARs such as AR process studies, evaluation of AR simulations and predictions, and assessment of climate change impacts on ARs.
Related Concept Videos
Precipitation Processes
Precipitation Gravimetry
In determining nickel by gravimetric analysis, a precipitant of ethanolic dimethylglyoxime is added to a hot nickel salt solution. This is quickly followed by the dropwise addition of dilute ammonia solution until precipitation occurs. A...
Precipitation and Co-precipitation
Types of Coprecipitation
Sometimes, ions in a crystal lattice can undergo isomorphous replacement by inclusions of similar charge and size. For...
Influence of Earth's Curvature and Atmospheric Refraction on Leveling
Selected Data About Geographic Locations

