Abstract
Atmospheric rivers (ARs) transport vast amounts of moisture from low to high latitude regions. One region particularly impacted by ARs is Interior Alaska (AK). We analyze the impact of ARs on the annual river ice breakup date for 26 locations in AK. We investigate the AR-driven rise in local air temperatures and explore the relationship between ARs and precipitation, including extremes and interannual variability. We found that AR events lead to an increase in local air temperatures for over 1 week (by (Formula presented.)). ARs account for 40% of total precipitation, explain 47% of precipitation variability, and make up 59% of extreme precipitation events, each year. By estimating the heat transfer between winter precipitation and the river ice surface, we conclude that increased precipitation during the coldest period of the year delays river ice breakup dates, while precipitation occurring close to the breakup date has little impact on breakup timing.
Original language | English |
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Article number | e2024GL111544 |
Journal | Geophysical Research Letters |
Volume | 51 |
Issue number | 23 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 16 2024 |
Funding
This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research (BER) Regional and Global Model Analysis (RGMA) program, as part of The Interdisciplinary Research for Arctic Coastal Environments (InteRFACE) project. Development of the AR database was supported by NASA and the California Department of Water Resources. This manuscript has been authored in part by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The publisher acknowledges the US government license to provide public access under the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan). This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research (BER) Regional and Global Model Analysis (RGMA) program, as part of The Interdisciplinary Research for Arctic Coastal Environments (InteRFACE) project. Development of the AR database was supported by NASA and the California Department of Water Resources. This manuscript has been authored in part by UT\u2010Battelle, LLC, under contract DE\u2010AC05\u201000OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The publisher acknowledges the US government license to provide public access under the DOE Public Access Plan ( http://energy.gov/downloads/doe\u2010public\u2010access\u2010plan ).
Keywords
- Alaska
- atmospheric rivers
- daily temperature
- precipitation
- river ice
- river ice breakup