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An atmospheric river is a narrow corridor or filament of concentrated moisture in the atmosphere. Atmospheric rivers consist of narrow bands of enhanced water vapor transport, typically along the boundaries between large areas of divergent surface air flow, including some frontal zones in association with extratropical cyclones that form over the oceans. The term was originally coined by researchers Reginald Newell and Young Zhu of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the early 1990s, to reflect the narrowness of the moisture plumes involved.〔〔 Atmospheric rivers are typically several thousand kilometers long and only a few hundred kilometers wide, and a single one can carry a greater flux of water than the Earth's largest river, the Amazon River.〔 There are typically 3–5 of these narrow plumes present within a hemisphere at any given time. Atmospheric rivers have a central role in the global water cycle. On any given day, atmospheric rivers account for over 90% of the global meridional (north-south) water vapor transport, yet they cover less than 10% of the Earth's circumference.〔 They also are the major cause of extreme precipitation events which cause severe flooding in many mid-latitude, westerly coastal regions of the world, including the West Coast of North America, western Europe,〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/blog/archives/3838 )〕 and the west coast of North Africa.〔 ==See also== * Pineapple Express, an atmospheric river which affects the West Coast of North America * Tropical upper tropospheric trough, a band of moisture common in tropical regions * ARkStorm, a hypothetical storm by the same name that could possibly affect California * Great Flood of 1862 (massive flooding in US West) 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Atmospheric river」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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