Atmospheric Rivers: Water Extremes that Shape Our Weather and Climate

Atmospheric rivers (ARs) — long, narrow filaments of large vertically-integrated horizontal water vapor transport — are associated with weather, water and climate extremes, including precipitation and wind extremes, flooding, and droughts when they are absent. Most work in recent decades has been focused on regional characterization and impacts of ARs, namely western N. America and Europe. Here we describe the application of a global detection algorithm for atmospheric rivers to illustrate the widespread global impacts of atmospheric rivers in shaping our weather and climate, as well as describe global evaluations of model simulation fidelity, prediction skill, and climate projections of ARs.