Science of Nowcasting Olympic Weather for Vancouver 2010 (SNOW-V10): a World Weather Research Programme Project

Isaac, George A.; Joe, Paul; Mailhot, Jocelyn; Bailey, Monika; Bélair, Stéphane; Boudala, Faisal S.; Brugman, Melinda M.; Campos, Edwin; Carpenter, Richard L.; Crawford, Robert W.; Cober, Stewart G.; Denis, B.; Doyle, Chris; Reeves, Heather D.; Gültepe, Ismail; Haiden, Thomas; Heckman, Ivan; Huang, Laura; Milbrandt, Jason A.; Mo, Ruping; Rasmussen, Roy; Smith, Trevor; Stewart, Ron; Wang, D.; Wilson, Laurence J.

doi:10.1007/s00024-012-0579-0

Cited by 48 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…An overview of the main Olympic measurement sites and their instrumentation is given in JOE et al ( , 2012, ISAAC et al (2012) and MAILHOT et al (2010). They comprise an Olympic Autostation Network (OAN) of more than 40 standard and special surface observing sites (manual and automatic stations) with hourly or synoptic reports.…”

Section: The Oan Observational Datasetmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An overview of the atmospheric systems is given in MAILHOT et al (2010), and ISAAC et al (2012), while the land surface forecast system is described in detail by BERNIER et al (2011BERNIER et al ( , 2012. The present paper focuses on the description of the high-resolution deterministic NWP system, which consisted of three nested grids (at 15-, 2.5-, and 1-km horizontal grid spacing).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An Experimental High-Resolution Forecast System During the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games

Mailhot

Milbrandt

Giguère³

et al. 2012

Pure Appl. Geophys.

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Abstract-Environment Canada ran an experimental numerical weather prediction (NWP) system during the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, consisting of nested highresolution (down to 1-km horizontal grid-spacing) configurations of the GEM-LAM model, with improved geophysical fields, cloud microphysics and radiative transfer schemes, and several new diagnostic products such as density of falling snow, visibility, and peak wind gust strength. The performance of this experimental NWP system has been evaluated in these winter conditions over complex terrain using the enhanced mesoscale observing network in place during the Olympics. As compared to the forecasts from the operational regional 15-km GEM model, objective verification generally indicated significant added value of the higher-resolution models for near-surface meteorological variables (wind speed, air temperature, and dewpoint temperature) with the 1-km model providing the best forecast accuracy. Appreciable errors were noted in all models for the forecasts of wind direction and humidity near the surface. Subjective assessment of several cases also indicated that the experimental Olympic system was skillful at forecasting meteorological phenomena at high-resolution, both spatially and temporally, and provided enhanced guidance to the Olympic forecasters in terms of better timing of precipitation phase change, squall line passage, wind flow channeling, and visibility reduction due to fog and snow.

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Section: The Oan Observational Datasetmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Experimental High-Resolution Forecast System During the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games

Mailhot

Milbrandt

Giguère³

et al. 2012

Pure Appl. Geophys.

Self Cite

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“…This was the case for the VO2010 region where few observation stations were present before the deployment of the SNOW-V10 observation network in preparation for the Games (e.g., ISAAC et al 2012;JOE et al 2012;GULTEPE et al 2012). High resolution forecasts were thus needed to provide officials and athletes with weather information refined to the local scale using systems that require little to no data training.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assimilation and High Resolution Forecasts of Surface and Near Surface Conditions for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games

Bernier

Bélair

Bilodeau

et al. 2012

Pure Appl. Geophys.

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Abstract-A dynamical model was experimentally implemented to provide high resolution forecasts at points of interests in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and Paralympics Region. In a first experiment, GEM-Surf, the near surface and land surface modeling system, is driven by operational atmospheric forecasts and used to refine the surface forecasts according to local surface conditions such as elevation and vegetation type. In this simple form, temperature and snow depth forecasts are improved mainly as a result of the better representation of real elevation. In a second experiment, screen level observations and operational atmospheric forecasts are blended to drive a continuous cycle of near surface and land surface hindcasts. Hindcasts of the previous day conditions are then regarded as today's optimized initial conditions. Hence, in this experiment, given observations are available, observation driven hindcasts continuously ensure that daily forecasts are issued from improved initial conditions. GEM-Surf forecasts obtained from improved short-range hindcasts produced using these better conditions result in improved snow depth forecasts. In a third experiment, assimilation of snow depth data is applied to further optimize GEM-Surf's initial conditions, in addition to the use of blended observations and forecasts for forcing. Results show that snow depth and summer temperature forecasts are further improved by the addition of snow depth data assimilation.

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“…This allows examining both the along-channel meteorological gradients, as well as the funneling effects o f the gap on the wind behaviour outside the channel. Table 2.2 shows the different sources o f observations used in this study (see Joe et al, 2014;Isaac et al, 2014;Gultepe et al, 2014;and Joe et al, 2010). The half-hourly wind profiles are used along with hourly RASS (Radio Acoustic Sounding System) profiles of virtual temperature to depict the vertical structure o f the wind flows for two outflow wind events.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The wind profiler (refer to Figure 4.1 for location) data are provided by a five-beam boundary layer wind profile (915 MHz by Vaisala), and available half-hourly for the wind data and hourly for RASS (Radio Acoustic Sounding System) profiles o f virtual temperature Isaac et al, 2014;Gultepe et al, 2014;and Joe et al, 2010). Table 2.2.…”

Section: 23i Data Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strong Along-Channel Winds on the Coast of British Columbia: Synoptic Climatology and Case Studies.

Bakri¹

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Science of Nowcasting Olympic Weather for Vancouver 2010 (SNOW-V10): a World Weather Research Programme Project

Cited by 48 publications

References 34 publications

An Experimental High-Resolution Forecast System During the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games

An Experimental High-Resolution Forecast System During the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games

Assimilation and High Resolution Forecasts of Surface and Near Surface Conditions for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games

Strong Along-Channel Winds on the Coast of British Columbia: Synoptic Climatology and Case Studies.

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