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.
Atmospheric rivers are massive plumes of moisture carried across the sky that can dump heavy rains or snow over land.
Environment
Dec 22, 2025
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Warm water and air and unusual weather conditions tracing back as far as tropical cyclone flooding in Indonesia helped supercharge stubborn atmospheric rivers that have drenched Washington state with almost 5 trillion gallons ...
Environment
Dec 11, 2025
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Despite continuous efforts to evaluate and predict changes in Earth's climate, most models still struggle to accurately simulate extreme precipitation events. Models like the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phases 5 ...
The way clusters of differently sized water droplet populations are distributed within clouds affects larger-scale cloud properties, such as how light is scattered and how quickly precipitation forms. Studying and simulating ...
Earth Sciences
Nov 10, 2025
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A new University of California San Diego study uncovers a hidden driver of global crop vulnerability: the origin of rainfall itself.
Ecology
Nov 8, 2025
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Satellite scatterometers play a crucial role in monitoring ocean surface winds, with their accuracy directly impacting weather forecasting and climate research. However, rainfall has consistently challenged precise wind measurements, ...
Earth Sciences
Nov 7, 2025
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High Mountain Asia (HMA), the source region of major Asian rivers, plays a vital role in sustaining downstream water and ecosystem security. Over the past 50 years, summer precipitation in HMA has exhibited a dipole pattern—drying ...
Earth Sciences
Nov 3, 2025
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It matters where the rain that irrigates your food comes from.
Earth Sciences
Nov 3, 2025
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No one can control the weather, but certain clouds can be deliberately triggered to release rain or snow. The process, known as cloud seeding, typically involves dispersing small silver iodide particles from aircraft into ...
General Physics
Nov 3, 2025
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As global warming continues to reshape Earth's climate, both the occurrence and mechanisms of extreme precipitation events, such as rain and snow, are undergoing profound transformation. These changes in frequency and intensity ...
Earth Sciences
Oct 24, 2025
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