Earth  ID: 4555

California Gets Slammed Again

Visualizations by Horace Mitchell Released on February 23, 2017
California has been experiencing a drought since 2012, but the first months of 2017 have brought some relief in the form of torrential rains. These rains have been brought to California in a series of atmospheric rivers, long narrow channels of water vapor in the atmosphere that reach from tropical latitudes to the coast of California. These channels bring rainfall to the state when they are disrupted by atmospheric conditions over California's eastern mountains. This visualization of atmospheric water vapor and precipitation during the first three weeks of February clearly show the successive atmospheric rivers and the resulting rainfall.

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This visualization combines precipitation data from the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission's Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals (IMERG) and water vapor data from the Goddard Earth Observing System Model (GEOS). These datasets show the extreme rainfall that occurred in California during the first three weeks of February 2017 and the atmospheric rivers that transported the rain to the area.
This video is also available on our YouTube channel.
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A global view of the IMERG precipitation and GEOS water vapor during the first three weeks of February 2017.
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A north pole view of the IMERG precipitation and GEOS water vapor during the first three weeks of February 2017.
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This is the color table for water vapor.
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This is the color table for liquid precipitation.
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This is the color table for frozen precipitation.
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Triple color table for water vapor, liquid precipitation and solid precipitation
 

Used Elsewhere In

Torrential Atmospheric Rivers

Visualization Credits

Horace Mitchell (NASA/GSFC): Lead Visualizer
Duane Waliser (NASA/JPL CalTech): Scientist
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

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https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4555

Data Used:
GEOS Atmospheric Model
Model - NASA GMAO - 2/1/2017 - 2/20/2017
view all stories where this data set is used
also referred to as: IMERG
Data Compilation - NASA/GSFC - 2/1/2017 - 2/20/2017
view all stories where this data set is used
Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.

This item is part of this series:
GPM Animations

Keywords:
DLESE >> Atmospheric science
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Atmosphere >> Precipitation
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Atmosphere >> Atmospheric Water Vapor >> Water Vapor
SVS >> Hyperwall
NASA Science >> Earth
SVS >> Presentation

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0