Atmospheric Rivers

Featured Speaker: Marty Ralph, Ph.D.

Atmospheric rivers (ARs) are a type of storm that
causes over 80 percent of the flood damage along
the U.S. West Coast yet is also critical for water
supply. The AR Reconnaissance (Recon) Program,
led by the Center for Western Weather and Water
Extremes and in partnership with operational
agencies such as NOAA and the Airforce, aims at
improving forecasts of atmospheric rivers. AR Recon
uses aircraft and various types of instruments to
gather data over the oceans that are then used
by weather forecasting models to produce better
forecasts of ARs.

Presenter Biography

Marty Ralph is a researcher at
UCSD’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
His interests are in climate sciences and landsurface
hydrology. He has been involved in
diagnosing the key physical processes controlling
precipitation formation and in the development of
new methods for monitoring. His work in water
resources includes tool development to balance
water supply and flood control in a changing
climate. Ralph earned his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees
in Atmospheric Sciences at UCLA.

Coordinator: Jim Brown