Atmospheric moisture transport and river runoff in the mid-latitudes

Abstract

Hydrometeorological extremes such as floods and droughts are the result of anomalous transport of water in the atmosphere, impacting the land. Recent examples are the devastating floods in southern Louisiana (United States) in 2016 and drought over Western Europe in 2018. In this thesis the water cycle and its extremes are investigated for the mid-latitudes, on various temporal and spatial scales, encompassing climate science, meteorology and hydrology. The main focus is on the Rhine and Mississippi river basins, two socially, economically and ecologically relevant study areas. From a scientific point of view, studying their different climatic drivers provides insight in different transport mechanisms, and the ability to simulate those. Additionally, anomalous moisture transport associated to extreme precipitation over the coast of Norway is studied. In the