The Role of Nearshore Air-Sea Interactions for Landfalling Atmospheric Rivers on the U.S. West Coast

Details

• Journal Title:
  Geophysical Research Letters
• Personal Author:
  Bartusek, Samuel T. ; Seo, Hyodae ; Ummenhofer, Caroline C. ; Steffen, John
• NOAA Program & Office:
  OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research) ; CPO (Climate Program Office)
• Description:
  Research on Atmospheric Rivers (ARs) has focused primarily on AR (thermo)dynamics and hydrological impacts over land. However, the evolution and potential role of nearshore air-sea fluxes during landfalling ARs are not well documented. Here, we examine synoptic evolutions of nearshore latent heat flux (LHF) during strong late-winter landfalling ARs (1979–2017) using 138 overshelf buoys along the U. S. west coast. Composite evolutions show that ARs typically receive upward (absolute) LHF from the coastal ocean. LHF is small during landfall due to weak air-sea humidity gradients but is strongest (30–50 W/m2 along the coast) 1–3 days before/after landfall. During El Niño winters, southern-coastal LHF strengthens, coincident with stronger ARs. A decomposition of LHF reveals that sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies modulated by the El Niño Southern Oscillation dominate interannual LHF variations under ARs, suggesting a potential role for nearshore SST and LHF influencing the intensity of landfalling ARs.
• Keywords:
  Air-sea Interaction Atmospheric Rivers Coastal Oceans Hydroclimate Latent Heat Flux Air-sea Interaction Atmospheric Rivers Coastal Oceans Latent Heat Flux
• Source:
  Geophysical Research Letters, 48, e2020GL091388
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL091388
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  Grant no. NA17OAR4310255
• Rights Information:
  Other
• Compliance:
  Submitted
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:6a2794da66b8dca247775400b192259f838fd03f203465c0b547eecd57567fb9
• Download URL:
  https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/32665/noaa_32665_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.79 MB ]