Aerosol atmospheric rivers: availability, spatio-temporal characterization, predictability and impacts

Abstract

Aerosol atmospheric rivers (AARs) are long and narrow corridors of concentrated suspended aerosols in the atmosphere that transport vast amounts of pollutants over long distances. This phenomenon is important because it significantly impacts ecosystems, air quality, and climatic trends due to their complex transport mechanisms, which include turbulent mixing and atmospheric circulation patterns in the regions where they are present. AARs are similar to Atmospheric Rivers (ARs) in shape, typically as long as several kilometres and a few hundred kilometres in width. The AARs are characterized by a strong horizontal transport of various key aerosols such as black carbon (BC), dust (DU), organic carbon (OC), sea salts (SS) and sulphates (SU) which come in wide ranges of sizes and compositions from both natural and anthropogenic sources, ranging from mineral dust to pollutants released during the industrial process, vehicular transmission and biomass burning. affects clouds in a variety of ways, causing changes in their characteristics, absorbing, and reflecting solar energy, and aggravating respiratory and cardiovascular conditions.