Tropospheric rivers? – A pilot study

1992/12/24 by Reginald E. Newell, Nicholas E. Newell, Yong Zhu +2 · 1 voice · 6 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · #Atmospheric Ozone and Climate #Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols #Climate variability and models

paper · doi:10.1029/92gl02916

openalex publication_date 1992/12/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

Computations of daily global tropospheric water vapor flux values show the presence of a filamentary structure. The filaments, here called rivers, have lengths many times their widths and persist for many days while being translated through the atmosphere. They are present in data analysed for both 1984 and 1991. The water vapor flux maxima coincide quite closely to reflectivity features (averaged from wavelengths of 380 and 360 nm) as revealed by the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS). It is suggested that the filamentary structure may also be present in other trace constituents.

Citations

• Stratospheric-Tropospheric Exchange Based on Radioactivity, Ozone and Potential Vorticity

Cited by

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Discussions

• A friend asked about the recent onslaught of storms fueled by "atmospheric rivers." They are not new phenomena. The term was coined in 1992, to describe a structure that was frequently observed in the [bsky, 2 points, 0 comments]

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