Read the title of this post again. Atmospheric River. When I first saw the title of this presentation by one of the scientists onboard, who is also one of the Instructors of the NABOS Summer School onboard, I don’t think my brain processed how cool that really sounded until I read it twice. It sounds like something you might read about in a fairy tale, but really it is cutting-edge area of atmospheric research, and a phenomenon that is still in the process of being completely understood. Masha Tsukernik of Brown University talked about these occurrences based on her experience and research at the OTHER end of the Earth, in Antarctica. Atmospheric rivers are filamentary features of high water vapor in the atmosphere. Imagine that – water vapor organizes itself in a stream of at least 2000 km long and less than 1000 km wide. At the surface, atmospheric rivers are associated with strong precipitation events. One of the most well-known atmospheric rivers is called the “pineapple express.” This is associated with water vapor originating in Hawaii that gets deposited as extreme rain at the California coast. New data have shown integrated water vapor in the atmosphere that can be seen as “rivers” that stretch all the way from the Indian or Atlantic Ocean to the coast of East Antarctica. Such atmospheric rivers are an important connection between the tropical regions and polar regions. I am completely enthralled by this connection, which has not been directly studied until now.
Why are one of the most well-known atmospheric rivers called “Pineapple Express”?
Dear Erica, that atmospheric river has nothing to do with pineapples in the literal sense, but it is called the “pineapple express” because it runs between Hawaii and California – Hawaii has amazing pineapples, so it is a reference to the “express” track that pineapples would take to the mainland. 🙂