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The changing nature of atmospheric rivers

Lexi Henny,Kyu-Myong Kim

Published 2025 in Journal of Climate

ABSTRACT

Atmospheric rivers (ARs) are expected to strengthen in a warming climate, largely due to the thermodynamic (moistening) effect. Here, we show that this trend is already evident in historical reanalysis data using ARTMIP Tier 2 atmospheric river detection tools (ARDTs) and variants of our own global AR detection applied to ERA5, MERRA-2, and JRA-55 reanalysis data. Over the 1980-2019 (ARTMIP) and 1980-2023 (variants) periods, total AR area increased by 6-9%. AR integrated water vapor (IWV) increased by 2-3% while integrated vapor transport (IVT) increased by less than 1% and 850 hPa wind speed (|V850|) and vertically integrated moisture flux convergence (VIMFC) both decreased. IWV increases were the most robust overall. All trend magnitudes were sensitive to subsetting, with fixed-frequency subsets consisting of most-intense AR grid points showing larger increases of 3-4% IVT, 4-6% IWV, and 5-9% VIMFC, this last opposing a decreasing AR-mean VIMFC trend likely associated with large area increases. For individual ARs, maximum IVT and IWV increased at ~3-6x and ~1.5-2x the rate of AR-mean values, respectively. Regional changes were often even larger, particularly for extreme events, though most geospatial trends had low detectability under a false discovery rate control framework. Ultimately, despite considerable ARDT and methodological diversity, we found robust consensus moistening and expansion of ARs between 1980 and 2023. However, further research is required to determine the extent to which these trends are affected by reanalysis observational assimilation changes. For example, previous studies indicate that certain reanalyses misrepresent 1980-1994 atmospheric moistening and so may underestimate historical AR expansion and intensification rates.

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