Phys.org December 16, 2021
Researchers at the University of Miami will present a new meteorological phenomenon called “atmospheric lakes,” at the 2021 AGU meeting. Atmospheric lakes start as filaments of water vapor in the Indo-Pacific. They begin as water vapor streams that flow from the western side of the South Asian monsoon and pinch off to become their own measurable, isolated objects. They then float along ocean and coastal regions at the equatorial line in areas where the average wind speed is around zero. They researchers used five years of satellite data to spot 17 atmospheric lakes lasting longer than six days and within 10 degrees of the equator, in all seasons. Lakes farther off the equator also occur, and sometimes those become tropical cyclones. If all the water vapor from these lakes were liquified, it would form a puddle only a few centimeters (a couple inches) deep and around 1,000 kilometers (about 620 miles) wide. This amount of water can create significant precipitation for the dry lowlands of eastern African countries. They are working to understand why atmospheric lakes pinch off from the river-like pattern from which they form, and how and why they move westward, are self-propelled by winds generated during rain production…read more.
Atmospheric lakes start as filaments of water vapor in the Indo-Pacific that become their own measurable, isolated objects. Credit: Brian Mapes/ NOAA ERA-Interim reanalysis data sets.