Tropical, Subtropical, and Extratropical Atmospheric Rivers in the Australian Region

Abstract

Studies of atmospheric rivers (ARs) over Australia have, so far, only focused on northwest cloudband-type weather systems. Here we perform a comprehensive analysis of AR climatology and impacts over Australia that includes not only northwesterly systems, but easterly and extratropical ARs also. We quantify the impact of ARs on mean and extreme rainfall including assessing how the origin location of ARs can alter their precipitation outcomes. We found a strong relationship between ARs and extreme rainfall in the agriculturally significant Murray-Daring basin region. We test the hypothesis that the tropical and subtropical originating ARs we observe in Australasia differ from canonical extratr..