Atmospheric precipitation refers to all forms of water, liquid or solid, that condense from atmospheric water vapor and fall to the Earth’s surface under gravity, including rain, snow, sleet, freezing rain, and hail. It is governed by microphysical processes such as nucleation, droplet and ice-crystal growth, collision–coalescence, riming, and aggregation within clouds, and by dynamical processes like uplift, frontal systems, and convective motions. Precipitation is quantified using intensity, duration, phase, and spatial distribution, and is central to the hydrological cycle, energy budget, and climate system, serving as a key output variable in weather prediction and climate models.
Haonan Chen, a CSU associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, and his team have published research that could improve the accuracy of precipitation forecasts up to two weeks in advance.
Earth Sciences
30 minutes ago
0
0
Heavy precipitation becomes more intense with every degree Earth warms. This affects flooding. Using hourly data from 384 rivers in the Alps, researchers from the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF modeled ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 16, 2026
0
7
Cleaning up pollution around the world could bring significantly more rainfall to India's monsoon than regional action alone, research from the University of Reading shows and highlights the value of international cooperation ...
Environment
Jul 15, 2026
0
12
Mountain snow and meltwater from glaciers in the Himalayas determine how much water is available for drinking, farming and hydropower for millions of people in India, Pakistan, Nepal, China and Afghanistan.
Environment
Jul 13, 2026
0
6
What happens when weather forecasts do not match reality? How does the public emotionally respond when a disaster unfolds differently from what they expected? A research team led by Professor Jonghun Kam and Kiru Kim from ...
Environment
Jul 11, 2026
0
12
Raindrops form inside clouds when tiny particles of water collide and stick together, forming larger droplets that eventually fall to Earth. This process is hard to model accurately, with current approaches either imprecise ...
Environment
Jul 8, 2026
0
4
For decades, scientists have searched for a clear link between the sun's explosive storms and the weather that occurs on Earth. A breakthrough study from the University of New Hampshire reveals that in the hours and days ...
Earth Sciences
Jun 28, 2026
0
27
A spray made from a biodegradable polymer capable of capturing and redirecting water to crop seeds could be the key to drought-proofing Western Australian farms.
Agriculture
Jun 24, 2026
0
9
Rainfall history is just as critical to predicting air pollution as where the air came from, a team led by University of Michigan Engineering researchers, in collaboration with scientists at the Appalachian Mountain Club ...
Earth Sciences
Jun 17, 2026
0
33
Atmospheric rivers (ARs) are long, narrow bands of intense water vapor transport that move large amounts of moisture from low to midlatitudes, resembling giant rivers in the sky. They are gaining widespread attention because ...
Earth Sciences
Jun 2, 2026
0
9
