The atmospheric moisture transport plays an important role in the global water circulation and it is proven to be related to the hydrometeorological extremes (e.g. extreme precipitation and flooding) in recent years. The Atmospheric Rivers (ARs) is defined as long narrow corridors with enhanced moisture transport in the lower atmosphere, which transport plenty of moisture from tropical ocean to extratropical continental regions, and also have a significant contribution to the hydrometeorological extremes in the extratropical continents. There are considerable ARs occur in the East Asia (EA), while the study of ARs receive less scientific attention in the EA, compare to other regions (e.g., the west coast of the US and the Europe). The flood events and extreme precipitation caus...[ Read more ]

The atmospheric moisture transport plays an important role in the global water circulation and it is proven to be related to the hydrometeorological extremes (e.g. extreme precipitation and flooding) in recent years. The Atmospheric Rivers (ARs) is defined as long narrow corridors with enhanced moisture transport in the lower atmosphere, which transport plenty of moisture from tropical ocean to extratropical continental regions, and also have a significant contribution to the hydrometeorological extremes in the extratropical continents. There are considerable ARs occur in the East Asia (EA), while the study of ARs receive less scientific attention in the EA, compare to other regions (e.g., the west coast of the US and the Europe). The flood events and extreme precipitation caused by the ARs can bring enormous socioeconomic impacts in the EA, including the Yangtze River Basin (YRB). Because of the complicated and distinct climate system in the EA, the approaches for AR identification in other regions are not suitable to be applied in the EA directly, which implies the necessity of a specific algorithm for AR identification in the EA. In this study, regarding the Flood Triggering Extreme Precipitation Sequences (FTEPSs) in the YRB as a pilot, a trajectory identification algorithm is proposed for the ARs identification via the Integrated Water Vapor Transport (IVT) field. Based on the identified ARs, the spatiotemporal association between the ARs and the hydrometeorological extremes is addressed and the spatiotemporal characteristics of the ARSs in the YRB is analyzed. 37 of the 56 FTEPSs are related to ARSs in this study. For the flooding and extreme precipitation in the YRB, oceanic start regions of AR are the Bay of Bengal, South China Sea, even the Arabian Sea. Also, there exist some ARs start from the Pacific Ocean. In addition, the algorithm proposed in this study can be extended to other regions by adjusting a few parameters properly.