In science news this week: New Scale to Characterize Strength and Impacts of Atmospheric River Storms: “A team of researchers led by Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego has created a scale to characterize the strength and impacts of “atmospheric rivers,” long narrow bands of atmospheric water vapor pushed along by strong winds. They are prevalent over the Pacific Ocean and can deliver to the Western United States much of its precipitation during just a … Continue reading SCIENCE NEWS: New Scale to Characterize Strength and Impacts of Atmospheric River Storms; Study of brine discharge from Carlsbad desalination plant finds good and bad news; Learning to filter water by studying manta rays; and more …