CW3E Hosts the 2025 Atmospheric River Reconnaissance Workshop at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, CA
November 12, 2025
The 2025 Atmospheric River Reconnaissance (AR Recon) Workshop, hosted by CW3E, took place at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography on the campus of UC San Diego, in La Jolla, CA, from October 27-30, 2025. This event brought together AR Recon partners and experts to discuss recent advancements, coordinate future efforts, and explore methods to enhance collaborative research on atmospheric rivers.
The four-day workshop featured presentations and panels from AR Recon partners, showcasing the collaborative nature of AR Recon. A key theme of the 2025 workshop was the expansion of AR Recon to the Global Atmospheric River Reconnaissance Program (GARRP), reflecting the program’s growth from a regional initiative to a globally coordinated effort to advance AR observation and forecasting through international collaboration.
Meenakshi Wadhwa, Director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, delivered a keynote address highlighting the importance of atmospheric river research, observational data, and the collaborative efforts required to advance this field. Karla Nemeth, Director of the California Department of Water Resources, also delivered a keynote focusing on the importance of AR Recon and how the data collected from it has vastly improved water management efforts across the state. She closed by emphasizing the continued partnership between CA DWR and CW3E. Other keynote speakers featured were Grant Davis, General Manager of Sonoma Water, Cary Talbot, US Army Corps Engineer Research and Development Center, and Chuck Cullom, Executive Director of the Upper Colorado River Commission.
There were featured presentations, panel discussions, and a poster session featuring the latest findings in atmospheric river studies, new data assimilation and modeling technologies, operational strategy discussions, and extensive collaboration across different agencies and programs. Participants discussed exciting innovations in atmospheric data collection, such as the use of Global Sounding Balloons (WindBorne Systems), Airborne Radio Occultation (ARO, Scripps PI Jennifer Haase), and mobile radar development and deployment (Jon Rutz/CW3E & Jana Houser/OSU) to improve observations. Two panel discussions focused on the modeling, data assimilation, and impact studies, as well as AR Recon coordination in the Western Pacific Ocean, with the goals of improving weather forecasting and water management.
The workshop showcased a major milestone for Forecast Informed Reservoir Operations (FIRO), the recent Water Control Manual update for Coyote Valley Dam and Lake Mendocino in Northern California. The FIRO Research and Operations Partnership (RAOP), led by CW3E and the US Army Corps of Engineers, which leverages data collected through AR Recon campaigns to improve forecasting models and enhance floor control practices, has now been formally incorporated into the USACE protocol at Lake Mendocino. This emphasizes the importance of the RAOP approach, which aims to improve predictions of land-falling atmospheric rivers across the U.S. through enhanced collaboration between research and operational communities. This milestone was mentioned by several of the keynote speakers.
GARRP was a central focus of the workshop, expanding AR Recon’s reach through coordinated campaigns across the northern hemisphere. These campaigns include NASA’s NURTURE, operating out of Goose Bay, Canada, NAWDIC led by Germany’s Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, operating out of Shannon, Ireland, the US Office of Naval Research’s SAFARI program, placing a moored buoy north of Hawai’i, and Environment and Climate Change Canada’s PONEX, operating out of Inuvik, Canada. Also highlighted was the geographic expansion of AR Recon to include a third year of flight campaigns out of the west Pacific. Aircraft assets are planned to be based in Japan in early 2026. Plans were discussed for additional reconnaissance missions in the Northeast, Northwest Pacific, and Atlantic.
As AR Recon enters its 2025-26 season, the program continues to build on prior successes and demonstrations of value. AR Recon’s transition to GARRP strives to expand capacity, regularly collecting impactful observations across the northern hemisphere. Cross institutional collaboration has ensured AR Recon’s success thus far and is key to achieving this new expansion. The workshop was an excellent opportunity to bring partners together to celebrate accomplishments, work through challenges, and develop new goals together to transform weather forecasting and our understanding of fundamental physical processes.