Meteorological characteristics and overland precipitation impacts of atmospheric rivers affecting the West coast of North America based on eight years of SSM/I satellite observations

Journal of Hydrometeorology

Volumn 9, Issue 1, 2008, Pages 22-47

  Neiman, Paul J ^a   Ralph, F Martin ^a   Wick, Gary A ^a   Lundquist, Jessica D ^b   Dettinger, Michael D ^c  

^a EARTH SYSTEM RESEARCH LABORATORY   (United States)

^b NOAA EARTH SYSTEM RESEARCH LABORATORY   (United States)

^c UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ATMOSPHERIC TRANSPORT; EXTRATROPICAL ENVIRONMENT; JET; MICROWAVE IMAGERY; OROGRAPHIC EFFECT; PRECIPITATION ASSESSMENT; PRECIPITATION INTENSITY; RAINFALL; SATELLITE DATA; SATELLITE IMAGERY; STORM SURGE; TROPOSPHERE; WATER VAPOR; WEATHER FORECASTING;

NORTH AMERICA; PACIFIC OCEAN; PACIFIC OCEAN (EAST);

EID: 40349101982     PISSN: 1525755X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1175/2007JHM855.1     Document Type: Article

References (35)

1. Beaumont, R. T., 1965: Mt. Hood pressure pillow snow gage. J. Appl. Meteor., 4, 626-631.
2. Bergeron, T., 1937: On the physics of fronts. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 18, 265-275.
3. Browning, K. A., 1990: Organization of clouds and precipitation in extratropical cyclones. Extratropical Cyclones: The Erik Palmén Memorial Volume, C. W. Newton and E. Holopainen, Eds., Amer. Meteor. Soc., 129-153.
4. Browning, K. A., and C. W. Pardoe, 1973: Structure of low-level jet streams ahead of mid-latitude cold fronts. Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 99, 619-638.
5. Carlson, T. N., 1991: Mid-Latitude Weather Systems. HarperCollins, 507 pp.
6. Dettinger, M. D., 2004: Fifty-two years of "pineapple-express" storms across the West Coast of North America. U.S. Geological Survey, Scripps Institution of Oceanography for the California Energy Commission, PIER Project Rep. CEC-500-2005-004, 20 pp. [Available online at http://www.energy.ca.gov/2005publications/CEC-500-2005-004/ CEC-500-2005-004.PDF.]
7. Farnes, P. E., 1967: Criteria for determining mountain snow pillow sites. Proc. 35th Western Snow Conf., Boise, ID, Western Snow Conference, 59-62.
8. Ferraro, R. R., S. J. Kusselson, and M. Colton, 1998: An introduction to passive microwave remote sensing and its application to meteorological analysis and forecasting. Natl. Wea. Dig., 22, 11-23.
9. Ferriday, J. G., and S. K. Avery, 1994: Passive microwave remote sensing of rainfall with SSM/I: Algorithm development and implementation. J. Appl. Meteor., 33, 1587-1596.
10. Goodberlet, M. A., C. T. Swift, and J. C. Wilkerson, 1990: Ocean surface wind speed measurements of the special sensor microwave/imager (SSM/I). IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens., 28, 823-828.
11. Higgins, W., and Coauthors, 2006: The NAME 2004 field campaign and modeling strategy. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 87, 79-94.
12. Hollinger, J. P., J. L. Peirce, and G. A. Poe, 1990: SSM/I instrument evaluation. IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens., 28, 781-790.
13. Junker, N. W., R. H. Grumm, R. Hart, L. F. Bosart, K. M. Bell, and F. J. Pereira, 2008: Use of normalized anomaly fields to anticipate extreme rainfall in the mountains of northern California. Wea. Forecasting, in press.
14. Kalnay, E., and Coauthors, 1996: The NCEP/NCAR 40-Year Reanalysis Project. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 77, 437-471.
15. Katsaros, K. B., and R. M. Lewis, 1986: Mesoscale and synoptic-scale features of North Pacific weather systems observed with the Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer on Nimbus-7. J. Geophys. Res., 91, 2321-2330.
16. Lackmann, G. M., and J. R. Gyakum, 1999: Heavy cold-season precipitation in the northwestern United States: Synoptic climatology and an analysis of the flood of 17-18 January 1986. Wea. Forecasting, 14, 687-700.
17. McMurdie, L. A., and K. B. Katsaros, 1991: Satellite-derived integrated water-vapor distribution in oceanic midlatitude storms: Variation with region and season. Mon. Wea. Rev., 119, 589-605.
18. Mendell, T., 1992: Integration of automated hydrological data. Preprints, ASCE Conf. on Interdisciplinary Approaches in Hydrology and Hydrogeology, Portland, OR, American Society of Civil Engineers. [Available from NOAA/California-Nevada River Forecast Center, 3310 El Camino Ave., Sacramento, CA 95821-6308.]
19. Morss, R. E., and F. M. Ralph, 2007: Use of information by National Weather Service forecasters and emergency managers during CALJET and PACJET-2001. Wea. Forecasting, 22, 539-555.
20. Neiman, P. J., F. M. Ralph, A. B. White, D. E. Kingsmill, and P. O. G. Persson, 2002: The statistical relationship between upslope flow and rainfall in California's coastal mountains: Observations during CALJET. Mon. Wea. Rev., 130, 1468-1492.
21. Palmén, E., and C. W. Newton, 1969: Atmospheric Circulation Systems: Their Structure and Physical Interpretation. Academic Press, 603 pp.
22. Pandey, G. R., D. R. Cayan, and K. P. Georgakakos, 1999: Precipitation structure in the Sierra Nevada of California during winter. J. Geophys. Res., 104, 12 019-12 030.
23. Ralph, F. M., P. J. Neiman, and G. A. Wick, 2004: Satellite and CALJET aircraft observations of atmospheric rivers over the eastern North Pacific Ocean during the winter of 1997/98. Mon. Wea. Rev., 132, 1721-1745.
24. Ralph, F. M., P. J. Neiman, and R. Rotunno, 2005: Dropsonde observations in low-level jets over the northeastern Pacific Ocean from CALJET-1998 and PACJET-2001: Mean vertical-profile and atmospheric-river characteristics. Mon. Wea. Rev., 133, 889-910.
25. Ralph, F. M., P. J. Neiman, G. A. Wick, S. I. Gutman, M. D. Dettinger, D. R. Cayan, and A. B. White, 2006: Flooding on California's Russian River: Role of atmospheric rivers. Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L13801, doi:10.1029/2006GL026689.
26. Rhea, J. O., 1978: Orographic precipitation model for hydrometeorological use. Ph.D. dissertation, Colorado State University, Dept. of Atmospheric Science Paper 287, 198 pp.
27. Rotunno, R., and R. Ferretti, 2001: Mechanisms of intense alpine rainfall. J. Atmos. Sci., 58, 1732-1749.
28. Schluessel, P., and W. J. Emery, 1990: Atmospheric water vapour over oceans from SSM/I measurements. Int. J. Remote Sens., 11, 753-766.
29. Schneidereit, M., and C. Schär, 2000: Idealized numerical experiments of Alpine flow regimes and southside precipitation events. Meteor. Atmos. Phys., 72, 233-250.
30. Smith, R. B., 1979: The influence of mountains on the atmosphere. Advances in Geophysics, Vol. 21, Academic Press, 87-230.
31. Trabant, D. C., and G. P. Clagett, 1990: Measurement and evaluation of snowpacks. Cold Regions Hydrology and Hydraulics, W. L. Ryan and R. D. Crissman, Eds., American Society of Civil Engineers, 39-93.
32. Waliser, D. E., and R. C. J. Somerville, 1994: Preferred latitudes of the intertropical convergence zone. J. Atmos. Sci., 51, 1619-1639.
33. Weng, F., and N. C. Grody, 1994: Retrieval of cloud liquid water using the special sensor microwave imager. J. Geophys. Res., 99, 25 535-25 551.
34. Wentz, F. J., 1997: A well-calibrated ocean algorithm for special sensor microwave/imager. J. Geophys. Res., 102, 8703-8718.
35. Zhu, Y., and R. E. Newell, 1998: A proposed algorithm for moisture fluxes from atmospheric rivers. Mon. Wea. Rev., 126, 725-735.