The Armenian highlands (Armenian: Հայկական լեռնաշխարհ, romanized: Haykakan leṙnašxarh; also known as the Eastern Anatolian highlands, Armenian upland, Armenian plateau, or Armenian tableland) comprise the most central and the highest of the three plateaus that together form the northern sector of West Asia. Clockwise starting from the west, the Armenian highlands are bounded by the Anatolian plate Th… The Armenian highlands is part of the Alpide belt, forming part of the Eurasian range that stretches from the Pontic Mountains to the Malay Peninsula. Its total area is about 400,000 km2. The average height of the plateau is between 1000–2000 meters and includes prominent landmarks such as Mount Ararat (5,205 m) and Mount Aragats (4,180 m). Historically, the Armenian highlands have been the scene of great volcanic activity. Geologically recent volcanism on the area has resulted in large volcanic formations and a series of massifs and tectonic movement has formed the three largest lakes in the Highlands: Lake Sevan, Lake Van, and Lake Urmia. Despite the region's rich water resources and fertile soil nourished by rivers like the Euphrates, Tigris, and Arax, the present-day Republic of Armenia occupies one of the least fertile parts of historic Armenia. Armenians who fled their homeland in the Ottoman Empire during the Armenian Genocide have regarded Eastern Armenia as "only a dusty province" without Western Armenia. The central, axial chain of Armenian highland ridges, running from west to east across Western Armenia, is called the Anti-Taurus. In the west, the Anti-Taurus departs to the north from the Central (Cilician) Taurus, and, passing right in the middle of the Armenian plateau, parallel to the Eastern (Armenian) Taurus, ends in the east at the Ararat peaks. To the west is the Anatolian plateau, which rises slowly from the lowland coast of the Aegean Sea and converges with the Armenian highlands to the east of Cappadocia. The Caucasus extends to the northeast o The Armenian highlands (Armenian: Հայկական լեռնաշխարհ, romanized: Haykakan leṙnašxarh; also known as the Eastern Anatolian highlands, Armenian upland, Armenian plateau, or Armenian tableland) comprise the most central and the highest of the three plateaus that together form the northern sector of West Asia. Clockwise starting from the west, the Armenian highlands are bounded by the Anatolian plateau, the Caucasus, the Kura-Aras lowlands, the Iranian Plateau, and Mesopotamia. The highlands are divided into western and eastern regions, defined by the Ararat Valley where Mount Ararat is located. Since the turn of the 20th century, Western Armenia has been relabeled as "Eastern Anatolia" by Ottoman and Turkish authorities. Eastern Armenia is part of Lesser Caucasus, which was historically known by some as the Anti-Caucasus, meaning "opposite of the Caucasus". During the Iron Age, the region was known by variations of the name Ararat (Urartu, Uruatri, Urashtu). Later, the Highlands were known as Armenia Major, a central region to the history of Armenians, and one of the four geopolitical regions associated with Armenians, the other three being Armenia Minor, Sophene, and Commagene. The highlands are primarily defined by the geographical dispersal of its native inhabitants, the Armenians. Prior to the appearance of nominally Armenian people in historical records, historians have hypothesized that the The Armenian highlands is part of the Alpide belt, forming part of the Eurasian range that stretches from the Pontic Mountains to the Malay Peninsula. Its total area is about 400,000 km2. The average height of the plateau is between 1000–2000 meters and includes prominent landmarks such as Mount Ararat (5,205 m) and Mount Aragats (4,180 m). Historically, the Armenian highlands have been the scene of great volcanic activity. Geologically recent volcanism on the area has resulted in large volcanic formations and a series of massifs and tectonic movement has formed the three largest lakes in the Highlands: Lake Sevan, Lake Van, and Lake Urmia. Despite the region's rich water resources and fertile soil nourished by rivers like the Euphrates, Tigris, and Arax, the present-day Republic of Armenia occupies one of the least fertile parts of historic Armenia. Armenians who fled their homeland in the Ottoman Empire during the Armenian Genocide have regarded Eastern Armenia as "only a dusty province" without Western Armenia. The central, axial chain of Armenian highland ridges, running from west to east across Western Armenia, is called the Anti-Taurus. In the west, the Anti-Taurus departs to the north from the Central (Cilician) Taurus, and, passing right in the middle of the Armenian plateau, parallel to the Eastern (Armenian) Taurus, ends in the east at the Ararat peaks. To the west is the Anatolian plateau, which rises slowly from the lowland coast of the Aegean Sea and converges with the Armenian highlands to the east of Cappadocia. The Caucasus extends to the northeast of the Armenian highlands, with the Kura river forming its eastern boundary in the Kura-Aras lowlands. To its southeast is the Iranian plateau, where the elevation drops rapidly by about 600 metres (2,000 ft) to 1,500 metres (5,000 ft) above sea level. To the southwest is Mesopotamia (or Fertile Crescent). According to Thomas A. Sinclair in the third edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam: First Partition (387): Peace of Acilisene between the Sasanian and Byzantine Empires Second Partition (591): Reinforcement of the earlier division after the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 572–591 Third Partition (1555): Treaty of Amasya between the Safavid Empire and the Ottoman Empire Fourth Partition (1639): Treaty of Zuhab, establishing lasting borders between Persia and the Ottoman Empire While these four events mark the major historical partitions of the Armenian highlands, control over Armenian territory shifted many more times, particularly in the 19th and 20th centuries. Notably:

<p>Atmospheric rivers (ARs) are important components of the global water cycle as they are responsible for over 90% of the poleward moisture transport at middle to high latitudes. ARs travelling thousands of kilometers over arid North Africa could interact with the highlands of the Mesopotamia and thus affect the hydrometeorology and water resources of the Euphrates-Tigris Basin. Here, we use a state-of-the-art AR tracking database, and reanalysis and observational datasets to investigate the climatology (1979-2017) and influences of these ARs in snowmelt season (March-April). The Red Sea and northeast Africa are found to be the major source regions of these ARs, which are typically associated with the eastern Mediterranean trough positioned over the Balkan Peninsula and a blocking anticyclone over the Near East-Caspian region, triggering southwesterly air flow towards the highlands of the Euphrates-Tigris Basin. AR days exhibit enhanced precipitation over the crescent-shaped orography of the Euphrates-Tigris Basin. Mean AR days indicate wetter (up to +2 mm day<sup>-1</sup>) and warmer (up to +1.5<sup>o</sup>C) conditions than all-day climatology. On AR days, while snowpack tends to decrease (up to 30%) in the Zagros Mountains, it can show decreases or increases in the Taurus Mountains depending largely on elevation. A further analysis with the aid of observations and reanalysis for the three extreme AR events indicates that ARs coinciding with large scale sensible heat transport can have notable impacts on the surface hydrometeorological conditions such as snowmelt, rain-on-snow precipitation and increasing daily discharges of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. These results suggest that ARs can have notable impacts on the hydrometeorology and water resources of the basin, particularly of lowland Mesopotamia, a region that is famous with great floods in the ancient narratives.</p> CO Meeting Organizer EGU21 1){window.history.go(-1);}return false;">[Back] [Session HS2.4.2] EGU21-3194 https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-3194 EGU General Assembly 2021 © Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Impacts of atmospheric rivers on the hydrometeorology of the Euphrates-Tigris Basin in the snowmelt season Deniz Bozkurt 1,2 , Omer L. Sen 3 , Yasemin Ezber 3 , Bin Guan 4,5 , Maximiliano Viale 6 , and Ferat Caglar 3 Deniz Bozkurt et al. Deniz Bozkurt 1,2 , Omer L. Sen 3 , Yasemin Ezber 3 , Bin Guan 4,5 , Maximiliano Viale 6 , and Ferat Caglar 3 1 Universidad de Valparaíso, Departamento de Meteorología, Valparaíso, Chile (deniboz@gmail.com) 2 Center for Climate and Resilience Research (CR)2, Santiago, Chile 3 Eurasia Institute of Earth Sciences, Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey 4 Joint Institute for Regional Earth System Science and Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA 5 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA 6 Instituto Argentino de Nivología, Glaciología y Ciencias Ambientales (IANIGLA) − Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Mendoza, Argentina 1 Universidad de Valparaíso, Departamento de Meteorología, Valparaíso, Chile (deniboz@gmail.com) 2 Center for Climate and Resilience Research (CR)2, Santiago, Chile 3 Eurasia Institute of Earth Sciences, Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey 4 Joint Institute for Regional Earth System Science and Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA 5 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA 6 Instituto Argentino de Nivología, Glaciología y Ciencias Ambientales (IANIGLA) − Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Mendoza, Argentina Hide Atmospheric rivers (ARs) are important components of the global water cycle ARs travelling thousands of kilometers over arid North Africa could interact with the highlands of the Mesopotamia and thus affect the hydrometeorology and water resources of the Euphrates-Tigris Basin. Here, we use a state-of-the-art AR tracking database, and reanalysis and observational datasets to investigate the climatology (1979-2017) and influences of these ARs in snowmelt season (March-April). The Red Sea and northeast Africa are found to be the major source regions of these ARs, which are typically associated with the eastern Mediterranean trough positioned over the Balkan Peninsula and a blocking anticyclone over the Near East-Caspian region, triggering southwesterly air flow towards the highlands of the Euphrates-Tigris Basin. AR days exhibit enhanced precipitation over the crescent-shaped orography of the Euphrates-Tigris Basin. Mean AR days indicate wetter (up to +2 mm day -1 ) and warmer (up to +1.5 o C) conditions than all-day climatology. On AR days, while snowpack tends to decrease (up to 30%) in the Zagros Mountains, it can show decreases or increases in the Taurus Mountains depending largely on elevation. A further analysis with the aid of observations and reanalysis for the three extreme AR events indicates that ARs coinciding with large scale sensible heat transport can have notable impacts on the surface hydrometeorological conditions such as snowmelt, rain-on-snow precipitation and increasing daily discharges of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. These results suggest that ARs can have notable impacts on the hydrometeorology and water resources of the basin, particularly of lowland Mesopotamia, a region that is famous with great floods in the ancient narratives. How to cite: Bozkurt, D., Sen, O. L., Ezber, Y., Guan, B., Viale, M., and Caglar, F.: Impacts of atmospheric rivers on the hydrometeorology of the Euphrates-Tigris Basin in the snowmelt season, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-3194, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-3194, 2021.