The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration plans to build a high-tech meteorological observatory in the Eureka area that should help forecasters better understand the source of California's largest storms.
The observatory would be one of four on the California coast that will be part of a study of so-called atmospheric rivers, which transport massive amounts of water across the Pacific Ocean before dumping it on land. The agency is looking to improve forecasts for storms that might lead to flooding, landslides and severe winds.
The Eureka-area observatory could begin to be built about a year from now, said NOAA research meteorologist Allen White. The unmanned equipment will include Doppler wind-profiling radar, GPS and a meteorological tower, all of which allow meteorologists to determine the speed of winds in an atmospheric river and how much water vapor the winds are transporting. NOAA plans to place other observatories in the Bodega Bay, Big Sur and Santa Barbara areas.
Atmospheric rivers are ribbons of air between 300 and 500 km wide -- about 186 to 310 miles -- that form off cyclones or draw moisture from over the ocean.
"In essence, they are rivers in the sky," said Marty Ralph, chief of the Water Cycle Branch in NOAA's Physical Science Division.
 
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