Curved atmospheric rivers and their moisture remnants: a new detection tool for Antarctica

Overview & Synopsis

Atmospheric rivers (ARs) represent the main intrusions of moisture and heat into Antarctica, exerting a major influence on the continent's surface mass balance. Yet, due to geometric and directional constraints, existing detection algorithms often fail to track their evolution inland after landfall or in regions where abrupt directional changes occur. We introduce DARK (Detecting ARs using their Kurvature), a new Antarctic AR detection framework designed to overcome these limitations. DARK applies a strict 98th-percentile threshold to total integrated vapor transport and computes AR length along the curved axis to evaluate the 2000 km AR criterion. This enables the continuous detection of ARs with complex geometries, including those that curve, overturn, or extend across the South Pole. An additional AR-children module identifies smaller but still intense moisture remnants that detach from parent ARs after landfall yet continue to transport vapor and heat inland. The resulting climatology shows that DARK ARs account for about 18 % of total Antarctic precipitation and are linked to roughly half of top 1 % daily precipitation anomalies, 60 % of top 1 % daily maximum temperature anomalies, and 80 % of compound warm-and-wet events. DARK provides a more detailed assessment of AR-related precipitation and temperature impacts in the South Pole region. Despite slightly higher occurrence, risk ratio analysis shows that DARK ARs more effectively capture the most intense events than earlier Antarctic schemes. Including AR-children further strengthens these associations, especially over Victoria Land, where they contribute to about one third of AR-related precipitation.