The Cariboo Alpine Mesonet: sub-hourly hydrometeorological observations of British Columbia's Cariboo Mountains and surrounding area since 2006

Hernández-Henríquez, Marco A.; Sharma, Aseem R.; Taylor, Mark; Thompson, Hadleigh D.; Déry, Stephen J.

doi:10.5194/essd-10-1655-2018

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Data are also sourced from a peatland ecosystem in Metro Vancouver (British Columbia) (Lee et al, 2017), as well as several locations in central and northern British Columbia. (Déry, 2017;Hernández-Henríquez et al, 2018;Morris et al, 2021). This provides a unique baseline upon which to perform a hemispheric wide assessment of soil temperature in reanalysis and LDAS systems, and to the authors' knowledge, it presents the most comprehensive analysis to date of soil temperatures across Canada and the Great Lakes basin.…”

Section: Observational Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Validation of pan-Arctic soil temperatures in modern reanalysis and data assimilation systems

Herrington,

Fletcher,

Kropp

2024

The Cryosphere

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Abstract. Reanalysis products provide spatially homogeneous coverage for a variety of climate variables in regions such as the Arctic where observational data are limited. Soil temperatures are an important control of many land–atmosphere exchanges and hydrological processes, and permafrost soils are thawing as the climate warms. However, very little validation of reanalysis soil temperatures in the Arctic has been performed to date, because widespread in situ reference observations have historically been limited there. Here we validate pan-Arctic soil temperatures from eight reanalysis and land data assimilation system products, using a newly assembled database of in situ observations from diverse measurement networks across Eurasia and North America. We examine product performance across the extratropical Northern Hemisphere between 1982 and 2018, and find that most products have soil temperatures that are biased cold by 1–5 K, with an RMSE of 2–9 K, and that biases and RMSE are generally largest in the cold season. Monthly mean values from most products correlate well with in situ data (r>0.9) in the warm season but show lower correlations (r=0.55–0.85) in the cold season. Similarly, the magnitude of monthly variability in soil temperatures is well captured in summer but overestimated by 20 %–50 % for several products in winter. The suggestion is that soil temperatures in reanalysis products are subject to much higher uncertainty when the soil is frozen and/or when the ground is snow covered, suggesting that the representation of processes controlling snow cover in reanalysis systems should be urgently studied. We also validate the ensemble mean of all available products and find that, when all seasons and metrics are considered, the ensemble mean generally outperforms any individual product, in terms of its correlation and variability, while maintaining relatively low biases. As such, we recommend the ensemble mean soil temperature product for a wide range of applications, such as the validation of soil temperatures in climate models, and to inform models that require soil temperature inputs, such as hydrological models.

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Section: Observational Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Validation of pan-Arctic soil temperatures in modern reanalysis and data assimilation systems

Herrington,

Fletcher,

Kropp

2024

The Cryosphere

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“…Meteorological data over the continental divide remain sparse and predominantly lie in the valleys where sites are accessible by road and AC power is more readily available (Vionnet et al, 2020). There are even fewer stations at higher elevations, hence the paucity of data over high elevation regions 90 (Pepin et al, 2015;Hernández-Henríquez et al, 2018). Short, cool summers and long, cold winters characterize the region's climate.…”

Section: Climatologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Meteorological observations collected during the Storms and Precipitation Across the continental Divide Experiment (SPADE), April–June 2019

Thériault¹,

Déry²,

Pomeroy³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Abstract. The continental divide along the spine of the Canadian Rockies in southwestern Canada is a critical headwater region for hydrological drainages to the Pacific, Arctic, and Atlantic oceans. Major flooding events are typically attributed to heavy precipitation on its eastern side due to upslope (easterly) flows. Precipitation can also occur on the western side of the divide when moisture originating from the Pacific Ocean encounters the west-facing slopes of the Canadian Rockies. In other storms, substantial precipitation can fall on both sides. Meteorological data over this critical region are sparse, with few stations located at high elevations. Given the importance of all these types of events, the Storms and Precipitation Across the continental Divide Experiment (SPADE) was initiated to enhance our knowledge of the atmospheric processes leading to storms and precipitation on either side of the continental divide. This was accomplished by installing specialized meteorological instrumentation on both sides of the continental divide and carrying out manual observations during an intensive field campaign from 24 April–26 June 2019. On the eastern side, there were two field sites: (i) at Fortress Mountain Powerline (2076 m ASL) and (ii) at Fortress Junction Service, located in a high elevation valley (1580 m ASL). On the western side, Nipika Mountain Resort, also located in a valley (1087 m ASL), was chosen as a field site. Various meteorological instruments were deployed including two Doppler LiDARs, three vertically pointing micro rain radars and three optical disdrometers. The three main sites were nearly identically instrumented, and observers were on site at Fortress Mountain Powerline and Nipika Mountain Resort during precipitation events to take manual observations of precipitation type and microphotographs of solid particles. The objective of the field campaign was to gather high temporal frequency meteorological data and to compare the different conditions on either side of the divide to study the precipitation processes that can lead to catastrophic flooding in the region. Details on field sites, instrumentation used, and collection methods are discussed. Data from the study are publicly accessible from the public Federated Research Data Repository (https://doi.org/10.20383/101.0221) (Thériault et al., 2020). This dataset will serve as a baseline for future work on atmospheric conditions over major orographic features by comparing the varying conditions on either side of a large topographic feature. This paper also provides a sample of the data gathered during a precipitation event.

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“…In North America, the occurrence of rain-snow transitions has been studied in the Western Cordillera of the United States for many decades. This includes research in the Sierra Nevada (Marwitz, 1986), in Washington state with the Improvement of Microphysical Parameterization through Observational Verification Experiment (IMPROVE; Stoelinga et al, 2003) as well as the Olympic Mountains Experiment (OLYMPEX; Houze et al, 2017), and in the Idaho Mountains to study orographic precipitation and weather modification (Tessendorf et al, 2019). In the foothills of the Canadian Rockies in Alberta, the Foothills Orographic Precipitation Experiment (FOPEX; Smith, 2008) studied the changes in precipitation amount and elevation along an east-west transect from 2001 to 2005.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Meteorological observations collected during the Storms and Precipitation Across the continental Divide Experiment (SPADE), April–June 2019

Thériault¹,

Déry

Pomeroy

et al. 2021

Earth Syst. Sci. Data

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. The continental divide along the spine of the Canadian Rockies in southwestern Canada is a critical headwater region for hydrological drainages to the Pacific, Arctic, and Atlantic oceans. Major flooding events are typically attributed to heavy precipitation on its eastern side due to upslope (easterly) flows. Precipitation can also occur on the western side of the divide when moisture originating from the Pacific Ocean encounters the west-facing slopes of the Canadian Rockies. Often, storms propagating across the divide result in significant precipitation on both sides. Meteorological data over this critical region are sparse, with few stations located at high elevations. Given the importance of all these types of events, the Storms and Precipitation Across the continental Divide Experiment (SPADE) was initiated to enhance our knowledge of the atmospheric processes leading to storms and precipitation on either side of the continental divide. This was accomplished by installing specialized meteorological instrumentation on both sides of the continental divide and carrying out manual observations during an intensive field campaign from 24 April–26 June 2019. On the eastern side, there were two field sites: (i) at Fortress Mountain Powerline (2076 m a.s.l.) and (ii) at Fortress Junction Service, located in a high-elevation valley (1580 m a.s.l.). On the western side, Nipika Mountain Resort, also located in a valley (1087 m a.s.l.), was chosen as a field site. Various meteorological instruments were deployed including two Doppler light detection and ranging instruments (lidars), three vertically pointing micro rain radars, and three optical disdrometers. The three main sites were nearly identically instrumented, and observers were on site at Fortress Mountain Powerline and Nipika Mountain Resort during precipitation events to take manual observations of precipitation type and microphotographs of solid particles. The objective of the field campaign was to gather high-temporal-frequency meteorological data and to compare the different conditions on either side of the divide to study the precipitation processes that can lead to catastrophic flooding in the region. Details on field sites, instrumentation used, and collection methods are discussed. Data from the study are publicly accessible from the Federated Research Data Repository at https://doi.org/10.20383/101.0221 (Thériault et al., 2020). This dataset will be used to study atmospheric conditions associated with precipitation events documented simultaneously on either side of a continental divide. This paper also provides a sample of the data gathered during a precipitation event.

show abstract

The Cariboo Alpine Mesonet: sub-hourly hydrometeorological observations of British Columbia's Cariboo Mountains and surrounding area since 2006

Cited by 8 publications

References 29 publications

Validation of pan-Arctic soil temperatures in modern reanalysis and data assimilation systems

Validation of pan-Arctic soil temperatures in modern reanalysis and data assimilation systems

Meteorological observations collected during the Storms and Precipitation Across the continental Divide Experiment (SPADE), April–June 2019

Meteorological observations collected during the Storms and Precipitation Across the continental Divide Experiment (SPADE), April–June 2019

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