About How Airplanes are used for Atmospheric River Recon

On Friday, January 13th I made a reference to how the U.S. Air Force is helping to forecast atmospheric river events but I had no video to share. Today I have a YouTube video to share as well as a good New York Times article that I am gifting to you. If this works, this article should be available without a paywall for ten days, through January 25th. The New York Times article, dated January 13th is called "Getting Inside California's Wild Weather 8 Miles over the Pacific," it is a very good read about the Atmospheric River (AR) Recon Program out of the Scripps Institute for Oceanography at the University of California in San Diego. A New York Times reporter and a photographer went along on a Gulfstream jet on an AR Recon Mission.The AR Recon Program works in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Air Force who supply the aviation resources. This excerpt from the NY Times article describes the importance of the AR Recon Program:

Atmospheric rivers have caused weeks of flooding, power outages and evacuations up and down California and killed at least 19 people. But the devastation would almost certainly be even greater were it not for the weather forecasts that roll in before each storm. Emergency responders, dam operators and farmers now have piles of rapidly updated information at their fingertips about where these storms are headed, how soon they might arrive, and how much rain and snow they could bring when they get there.

Assembling those predictions still begins, however, by getting close to the action.  …

A program called Atmospheric River Reconnaissance, or AR Recon, is trying to plug this data void. It is led by scientists at the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes, part of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.

AR Recon is partly a research initiative, but since 2019 it has also been part of the federal government’s winter meteorological operations, with support from the Air Force and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This winter, AR Recon started flying missions earlier than ever, in November, to sample more of the early-season storms that have caused devastating flooding on the Pacific Coast in recent years.

The January 13th video that I am embedding below is from KBPS Public Media. In this two minute video you will hear about what atmospheric area and a little about the aviation resources used in Scripp's AR Recon Program.

Direct link the January 13th video from KPBS Public Media on YouTube