2018 International Atmospheric Rivers Conference: Multi-disciplinary studies and high-impact applications of atmospheric rivers

July 30, 2019

CW3E scientists Anna Wilson and Mike DeFlorio, along with CW3E director F. Martin Ralph, recently co-authored a meeting report led by Alexandre Ramos and published in the Royal Meteorological Society’s Atmospheric Science Letters: Ramos, A.M., A.M. Wilson, M.J. DeFlorio, M.D. Warner, E.A. Barnes, R. Garreaud, I.V. Gorodetskaya, D.A. Lavers, B. Moore, A. Payne, C. Smallcomb, H. Sodemann, M. Wehner, and F.M. Ralph, 2019: 2018 International Atmospheric Rivers Conference: Multidisciplinary studies and high-impact applications of atmospheric rivers. Atmos. Sci. Lett., e935, https://doi.org/10.1002/asl.935, early online release.

The article highlighted the second International Atmospheric Rivers Conference held during 25-28 June, 2018 at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego. The conference was sponsored by the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes (CW3E). A total of 120 people attended the Conference with 94 abstracts submitted and 30 participating students (Fig. 1, group photograph). In addition to the conference, CW3E held a Student Forecasting Workshop in the same week. The main goal of this conference was to bring together experts from hydrology, atmospheric, oceanic, and polar sciences, as well as water management, civil engineering, and ecology to advance the state of AR science and to explore the future directions for the field. The conference was organized into traditional oral and poster presentations, along with panel discussions and Breakout Groups. This format allowed enhanced interaction between participants, driving progress within the scientific community and the enhanced communication of societal needs by various stakeholders. Several emerging topics of research were highlighted, including subseasonal-to-seasonal (S2S) prediction of ARs and an overview of the AR Reconnaissance campaign. In addition to providing a forum to disseminate and debate new results from scientific talks and posters, the conference was equally effective and useful in linking scientists to users and decision-makers that require improved knowledge on ARs to manage resources and prepare for hazards.

The third International Atmospheric Rivers Conference will be held in Chile in 2020, and hosted by the University of Chile, Santiago.

Figure 1: Group photo of IARC2018 participants.