Manitoba Network for Isotopes in Precipitation (MNIP)

1. MNIP: A School-Based Network To Study The Synoptic Controls on Precipitation Isotopes Danny Blair1,2, William Mark Buhay1,2 and Heather Robinson3 1Department of Geography, University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3B 2E9 2Centre for Forest Interdisciplinary Research (C-FIR), University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3B 2E9 3Science Council Manitoba, Youth Stewardship in Environmental Sustainability Project, 310 Vaughan Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3B 2N8 Funding Sources: University of Winnipeg, C-FIR, Science Council Manitoba, The Winnipeg Foundation MNIP: Phase 1 and Phase 2 To date, some 50 schools from across the province have expressed interest in becoming participating members of MNIP. At present ~20 schools have been issued precipitation collection stations ( MNIP Phase 1) and a number of other locations are being considered to expand the network in the near future ( MNIP Phase 2). 8” X 6” galvanized plain reducer 6” galvanized fish lock collar 6” galvanized end cap (snow pan) snow collector: galvanized duct plain reducer, fish collar and end cap rain collector: 1” PVC tubing, “T” connector and caps rain gauge: 3” PVC tubing and cap Manitoba Network for Isotopes in Precipitation (MNIP) Building on the initiatives of the Canadian Network for Isotopes in Precipitation (CNIP), the recently established Manitoba Network for Isotopes in Precipitation (MNIP) enlists a network of Manitoba schools to collect precipitation. MNIP has been adopted by the Youth Stewardship in Environmental Sustainability Project (YSESP) and, under the auspices of Science Council Manitoba (and with additional funding from the University of Winnipeg and The Winnipeg Foundation), has been implemented as a curriculum addition to help address climate change issues in public schools. Through these partnerships, each school is equipped with a rain gauge and snow collector constructed from low-cost PVC tubing and galvanized duct parts. The precipitation collecting devices are housed in an MNIP station box constructed from ½” plywood. 500 mb Heights (m): 12Z January 7 1992 The 500 mb map is useful for showing the large scale flow across North America. In this case it shows the presence of a pronounced trough west and south of Manitoba. It appears that the southern part of the province is largely under the influence of air originating from the north and west. Connecting Schools To Science Climate change is arguably the most important environmental problem of the modern age. Importantly, Manitoba is expected to experience some of the most significant changes to climate over the next decades, and beyond. The MNIP program will promote the direct involvement of Manitoban students and teachers in a project designed to assess the nature of climate variability and change. In so doing, it enhances the awareness of the climate change issue, and directly involves teachers and students in the science being conducted to assess the nature of climate change and climate change uncertainty. Ideally, a successful MNIP project will promote the establishment of densely distributed isotope precipitation collection networks in other regions of North America. Precipitation collection and Isotope Analyses Manitoba: An Ideal Air Mass Laboratory Manitoba, quite literally in the heart of North America, is an ideal place to study the influence of air masses on the isotopic composition of precipitation. The province is affected by a wide variety of air masses. Very importantly, the region experiences a remarkable amount of short and long-term atmospheric circulation variability. For example, a particular month can be dominated by deep upper-level troughing in one year (often associated with colder than normal temperatures), but the same month in the following year can be dominated by pronounced upper-level ridging (usually associated with warmer than colder temperatures). Thus, analogues for a wide variety of circulation anomaly scenarios of interest to paleoclimatologists, and others, are observed in Manitoba. 500 mb Heights (m): 1979-1998 January Normal Central North America, including Manitoba, is normally dominated by the North American trough, bringing cold and dry air from the arctic into the heart of the continent. MNIP station Each participating school will have students monitor the weather and collect weekly accumulated precipitation for subsequent analysis at the University of Winnipeg Isotope Laboratory (UWIL). University of Winnipeg Isotope Laboratory 500 mb Height (m) Anomalies (m): 12Z January 7 1992 By subtracting the normal January heights from the map for January 7, 1992, one produces an anomaly map which can be interpreted as a synoptic map. That is, areas of negative heights can be viewed as depressions and positive heights as highs. By inferring geostrophic flows around these anomaly centres, one arrives at a map indicating anomalous flows. In this instance, the anomalous flow into southern Manitoba is from the south and east. This may explain why the δ18O value from precipitation in Winnipeg on this day was –17.32 ‰ (SMOW), higher than the normal for this time of year (about –20 ‰ (SMOW)). That is, the precipitation on this day appears to have been relatively enriched by a moisture flux from the south. MNIP Supports Isotope-Based Atmospheric Model Requirements The oxygen and hydrogen isotopic analyses will be stored in a network data base. The results and subsequent interpretations will be disseminated to students and teachers on an MNIP Project web page. Using MNIP to Study the Effect of Atmospheric Anomalies on the Isotopic Composition of Precipitation With a dense network of stations from across the province of Manitoba, the MNIP team will be in a position to investigate the influence of atmospheric anomalies (e.g., height and flow anomalies) on the isotopic composition of precipitation. With the broad goal of identifying the relative impact of large-scale air mass streams, anomalies at pressure levels from the 850 to 500 mb levels will be investigated, rather than the complex surface and near-surface fields. By developing a synoptic climatology of atmospheric anomalies (at a variety of atmospheric levels, using an eigenvector-based classification), in conjunction with temperature and humidity data, the MNIP team will produce a model which can be used to determine the influence of air mass source, distance traveled, and underlying terrain, especially in the context of large-scale atmospheric anomalies such as ENSO and other teleconnection events. www.uwinnipeg.ca/~blair/mnip 2.8o longitude 110oW 100oW 90oW The dense distribution of MNIP precipitation collection sites supports the spatial resolution (2.8º longitude) necessary to accurately test atmospheric global circulation models such as ECHAM4 (4th generation model developed through a collaborative effort between the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts and Max-Planck-Institüt für Meteorologie, HAMburg, Germany) that incorporate precipitation isotope data.