Simple physics-based adjustments reconcile the results of Eulerian and Lagrangian techniques for moisture tracking in atmospheric rivers

Crespo-Otero, Alfredo; Insua-Costa, Damián; Hernández-García, Emilio; López, Cristóbal; Míguez-Macho, Gonzalo

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-16-1483-2025

Articles | Volume 16, issue 5

https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-16-1483-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-16-1483-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 16, issue 5

Research article

|

11 Sep 2025

Research article |

| 11 Sep 2025

Simple physics-based adjustments reconcile the results of Eulerian and Lagrangian techniques for moisture tracking in atmospheric rivers

Alfredo Crespo-Otero, Damián Insua-Costa, Emilio Hernández-García, Cristóbal López, and Gonzalo Míguez-Macho

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-16-1483-2025-supplement

Data sets

ERA5 hourly data on single levels from 1940 to present Hersbach et al. https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.adbb2d47

ERA5 hourly data on pressure levels from 1940 to present Hersbach et al. https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.bd0915c6

Model code and software

MoistureTracking_Comparison_ESD Alfredo Crespo-Otero https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15830864

FLEXPART 10.4 Pisso et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3542278

WRF-WVTs source code Insua-Costa and Miguez-Macho https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-9-167-2018

FLEXPART-WRF Brioude et al. https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-6-1889-2013

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Short summary

We evaluated two Lagrangian moisture tracking tools for computing moisture sources in precipitation events related to atmospheric rivers (ARs) and compared them against the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model with water vapor tracers. Our results show that both tools (the Sodemann et al., 2008, and Dirmeyer and Brubaker, 1999, methodologies) present a systematic underestimation of remote sources. Implementing simple physics-based changes substantially improved both methods, narrowing the disparities among all approaches.