Lauer, Melanie; Viceto, Carolina; Gorodetskaya, Irina V (2025): Arctic Atmospheric Rivers catalog based on a polar-specific algorithm and ERA5 reanalysis data from 1979 to 2020 [dataset]. PANGAEA, https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.979916
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Published: 2025-06-16 • DOI registered: 2025-07-15
Abstract:
The dataset includes hourly-detected Arctic Atmospheric River (AR) shapes from 1979 to 2020, based on the ERA5 reanalysis product (Hersbach et al., 2020). We use the ERA5 specific humidity and temperature from 1000 hPa up to 300 hPa in the Northern Hemisphere (from equator to 90°N) as input variables for applying the algorithm. To detect ARs, we used the polar-specific algorithm developed by Gorodetskaya et al. (2014, 2020), originally designed for Antarctica's cold and dry conditions and later adapted and applied to the Arctic by Viceto, Gorodetskaya et al. (2022) and Lauer et al. (2023). This detection algorithm relies on the vertically integrated water vapor (IWV). It considers both a threshold calculated using the moisture holding capacity of the polar troposphere (represented by an integral of saturation specific humidity, IWVsat) and geometric constraints. An object is classified as an AR if the IWV exceeds the IWVsat-related threshold for at least 2000 km within a maximum width of 40 longitudes, and it reaches or crosses 70°N. To apply the algorithm, we first determined the input variables—IWV and IWVsat—and then used them within the algorithm. The resulting hourly output files were combined into yearly netCDF files, each containing the detected Arctic AR shapes as a mask.
References:
Gorodetskaya, Irina V; Silva, Tiago; Schmithüsen, Holger; Hirasawa, N (2020): Atmospheric River Signatures in Radiosonde Profiles and Reanalyses at the Dronning Maud Land Coast, East Antarctica. Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, 37(5), 455-476, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00376-020-9221-8
Gorodetskaya, Irina V; Tsukernik, Maria; Claes, Kim; Ralph, Martin F; Neff, William D; van Lipzig, Nicole P M (2014): The role of atmospheric rivers in anomalous snow accumulation in East Antarctica. Geophysical Research Letters, 41(17), 6199-6206, https://doi.org/10.1002/2014GL060881
Hersbach, Hans; Bell, B; Berrisford, Paul; Hirahara, Shoji; Horányi, A; Muñoz-Sabater, Joaquín; Nicolas, J; Peubey, C; Radu, R; Schepers, D; Simmons, Adrian; Soci, C; Abdalla, Saleh; Abellan, Xavier; Balsamo, Gianpaolo; Bechtold, P; Biavati, G; Bidlot, J; Bonavita, Massimo; De Chiara, Giovanna; Dahlgren, Per; Dee, Dick; Diamantakis, Michail; Dragani, R; Flemming, Johannes; Forbes, Richard; Fuentes, Manuel; Geer, Alan; Haimberger, Leo; Healy, Sean; Hogan, Robin J; Hólm, Elías; Janisková, Marta; Keeley, Sarah; Laloyaux, Patrick; Lopez, Philippe; Lupu, Cristina; Radnoti, Gabor; de Rosnay, Patricia; Rozum, I; Vamborg, Freja; Villaume, Sebastian; Thépaut, Jean-Noël (2020): The ERA5 global reanalysis. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, 146(730), 1999-2049, https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.3803
Lauer, Melanie; Rinke, Annette; Gorodetskaya, Irina V; Sprenger, Michael; Mech, Mario; Crewell, Susanne (2023): Influence of atmospheric rivers and associated weather systems on precipitation in the Arctic. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 23(15), 8705-8726, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-8705-2023
Viceto, Carolina; Gorodetskaya, Irina V; Rinke, Annette; Maturilli, Marion; Rocha, Alfredo; Crewell, Susanne (2022): Atmospheric rivers and associated precipitation patterns during the ACLOUD and PASCAL campaigns near Svalbard (May–June 2017): case studies using observations, reanalyses, and a regional climate model. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 22(1), 441-463, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-441-2022
Project(s):
Arctic Amplification (AC3)
Funding:
German Research Foundation (DFG), grant/award no. 268020496: TRR 172: ArctiC Amplification: Climate Relevant Atmospheric and SurfaCe Processes, and Feedback Mechanisms
Coverage:
Latitude: 90.000000 * Longitude: 0.000000
Date/Time Start: 1979-01-01T00:00:00 * Date/Time End: 2020-12-31T00:00:00
Parameter(s):
| # | Name | Short Name | Unit | Principal Investigator | Method/Device | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | DATE/TIME | Date/Time | Lauer, Melanie | Geocode – start | ||
| 2 | DATE/TIME | Date/Time | Lauer, Melanie | Geocode – end | ||
| 3 | netCDF file | netCDF | Lauer, Melanie | |||
| 4 | netCDF file (File Size) | netCDF (Size) | Bytes | Lauer, Melanie |
License:
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY-4.0)
Status:
Curation Level: Enhanced curation (CurationLevelC)
Size:
42 data points
Data
All files referred to in data matrix can be downloaded in one go as ZIP or TAR. Be careful: This download can be very large! To protect our systems from misuse, we require to sign up for an user account before downloading.
| 1 Date/Time (start) | 2 Date/Time (end) | 3 netCDF | 4 netCDF (Size) [Bytes] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1979-01-01 | 1979-12-31 | Arctic_AR_mask_1979.nc | 38.4 MBytes |
| 1980-01-01 | 1980-12-31 | Arctic_AR_mask_1980.nc | 20.9 MBytes |
| 1981-01-01 | 1981-12-31 | Arctic_AR_mask_1981.nc | 38.2 MBytes |
| 1982-01-01 | 1982-12-31 | Arctic_AR_mask_1982.nc | 38.7 MBytes |
| 1983-01-01 | 1983-12-31 | Arctic_AR_mask_1983.nc | 38.1 MBytes |
| 1984-01-01 | 1984-12-31 | Arctic_AR_mask_1984.nc | 21.4 MBytes |
| 1985-01-01 | 1985-12-31 | Arctic_AR_mask_1985.nc | 38.5 MBytes |
| 1986-01-01 | 1986-12-31 | Arctic_AR_mask_1986.nc | 38.5 MBytes |
| 1987-01-01 | 1987-12-31 | Arctic_AR_mask_1987.nc | 38.3 MBytes |
| 1988-01-01 | 1988-12-31 | Arctic_AR_mask_1988.nc | 20.9 MBytes |
| 1989-01-01 | 1989-12-31 | Arctic_AR_mask_1989.nc | 38.4 MBytes |
| 1990-01-01 | 1990-12-31 | Arctic_AR_mask_1990.nc | 37.8 MBytes |
| 1991-01-01 | 1991-12-31 | Arctic_AR_mask_1991.nc | 38.3 MBytes |
| 1992-01-01 | 1992-12-31 | Arctic_AR_mask_1992.nc | 21.7 MBytes |
| 1993-01-01 | 1993-12-31 | Arctic_AR_mask_1993.nc | 38.8 MBytes |
| 1994-01-01 | 1994-12-31 | Arctic_AR_mask_1994.nc | 38.4 MBytes |
| 1995-01-01 | 1995-12-31 | Arctic_AR_mask_1995.nc | 37.9 MBytes |
| 1996-01-01 | 1996-12-31 | Arctic_AR_mask_1996.nc | 21.1 MBytes |
| 1997-01-01 | 1997-12-31 | Arctic_AR_mask_1997.nc | 37.7 MBytes |
| 1998-01-01 | 1998-12-31 | Arctic_AR_mask_1998.nc | 38.2 MBytes |
| 1999-01-01 | 1999-12-31 | Arctic_AR_mask_1999.nc | 38.1 MBytes |
| 2000-01-01 | 2000-12-31 | Arctic_AR_mask_2000.nc | 21 MBytes |
| 2001-01-01 | 2001-12-31 | Arctic_AR_mask_2001.nc | 37.9 MBytes |
| 2002-01-01 | 2002-12-31 | Arctic_AR_mask_2002.nc | 37.8 MBytes |
| 2003-01-01 | 2003-12-31 | Arctic_AR_mask_2003.nc | 38.3 MBytes |
| 2004-01-01 | 2004-12-31 | Arctic_AR_mask_2004.nc | 21.3 MBytes |
| 2005-01-01 | 2005-12-31 | Arctic_AR_mask_2005.nc | 38.1 MBytes |
| 2006-01-01 | 2006-12-31 | Arctic_AR_mask_2006.nc | 38.3 MBytes |
| 2007-01-01 | 2007-12-31 | Arctic_AR_mask_2007.nc | 38.5 MBytes |
| 2008-01-01 | 2008-12-31 | Arctic_AR_mask_2008.nc | 20.9 MBytes |
| 2009-01-01 | 2009-12-31 | Arctic_AR_mask_2009.nc | 38.5 MBytes |
| 2010-01-01 | 2010-12-31 | Arctic_AR_mask_2010.nc | 37.6 MBytes |
| 2011-01-01 | 2011-12-31 | Arctic_AR_mask_2011.nc | 38.3 MBytes |
| 2012-01-01 | 2012-12-31 | Arctic_AR_mask_2012.nc | 21.1 MBytes |
| 2013-01-01 | 2013-12-31 | Arctic_AR_mask_2013.nc | 38.1 MBytes |
| 2014-01-01 | 2014-12-31 | Arctic_AR_mask_2014.nc | 37.8 MBytes |
| 2015-01-01 | 2015-12-31 | Arctic_AR_mask_2015.nc | 38.5 MBytes |
| 2016-01-01 | 2016-12-31 | Arctic_AR_mask_2016.nc | 21 MBytes |
| 2017-01-01 | 2017-12-31 | Arctic_AR_mask_2017.nc | 38.5 MBytes |
| 2018-01-01 | 2018-12-31 | Arctic_AR_mask_2018.nc | 38 MBytes |
| 2019-01-01 | 2019-12-31 | Arctic_AR_mask_2019.nc | 37.8 MBytes |
| 2020-01-01 | 2020-12-31 | Arctic_AR_mask_2020.nc | 20.7 MBytes |