Quantifying the impacts of atmospheric rivers on the surface energy budget of the Arctic based on reanalysis

Zhang, Chen; Cassano, John J.; Seefeldt, Mark W.; Wang, Hailong; Ma, Weiming; Tung, Wen-wen

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-4671-2025

Articles | Volume 19, issue 10

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-4671-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-4671-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 19, issue 10

Research article

|

20 Oct 2025

Research article |

| 20 Oct 2025

Quantifying the impacts of atmospheric rivers on the surface energy budget of the Arctic based on reanalysis

Chen Zhang, John J. Cassano, Mark W. Seefeldt, Hailong Wang, Weiming Ma, and Wen-wen Tung

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-4671-2025-supplement

Data sets

Arctic Atmospheric River Labels and Climatology Based on 3-hourly ERA5 and MERRA-2 From 1980 to 2019 W. Tung et al. https://doi.org/10.4231/EHZ2-DP09

ERA5 hourly data on single levels from 1940 to present H. Hersbach et al. https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.adbb2d47

Short summary

An atmospheric river (AR) is a long, narrow corridor of moisture transport in the atmosphere. ARs are crucial for moisture and heat transport into the polar regions. Our study examines the role of ARs in the surface energy budget (SEB) in the Arctic. The results reveal distinct seasonality and land–sea–sea ice contrasts due to the impacts of ARs on the SEB. The conclusions provide greater insights into the current and future role of ARs in the Arctic climate system.