1 / 19

Overview of Weather and Climate Monitoring For The Rocky Mountain Network

Overview of Weather and Climate Monitoring For The Rocky Mountain Network. Brent Frakes National Park Service Inventory and Monitoring Program Fort Collins, CO April, 2008. Presentation Overview. Objectives Variables Datasets Example Report Integration with NPClime. Monitoring Objectives.

tanith
Download Presentation

Overview of Weather and Climate Monitoring For The Rocky Mountain Network

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Overview of Weather and Climate Monitoring For The Rocky Mountain Network Brent FrakesNational Park ServiceInventory and Monitoring ProgramFort Collins, COApril, 2008

  2. Presentation Overview • Objectives • Variables • Datasets • Example Report • Integration with NPClime

  3. Monitoring Objectives • Monitor climate at numerous spatial and temporal scales • Help interpret/explain observations from other protocols • Determine influence of climate on Vital Signs • Remove climate signal to minimize variance • Provide useful and simple park metrics for application to management decisions • Fire Risk • Drought • Vegetation growth • Consider both drivers and effects of climate variability and change • Sustainable over long term • Cost-effective • Repeatable

  4. Scales of Atmospheric Process • Positive relationship between space and time • Small-scale processes embedded within larger-scale process • Surface environment responds to various processes

  5. Monitoring Variables • Temperature • TMIN, TMAX, TAVG • Frost free days • Precipitation • Accumulated • Maximum • Snow • Snow Water Equivalent • Extent • Drought • Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) • Surface Water Supply Index (SWSI) • Palmer Meteorological Drought Index (PMDI) • Modes of climate variability • Atmosphere – North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), Pacific North American Pattern (PNA) • Oceans – Pacific Multi-decadal Oscillation (PDO), El Nino Southern Oscillation (SOI)

  6. Data Sources • Station-Level Summaries • SNODAS • PRISM • Climate Division Drought Indices • Atmospheric/Oceanic Indices

  7. Representing Scales SPACE/TIME CONTINUUM Monthly Northern hemisphere Atmosphere/Ocean Index Monthly Climate Region Drought Monthly 1 to 4-km grid SWE, PPT,TAVG Daily Weather Index* Park PPT,TMAX,TMIN,TAVG Daily Weather Observations Point PPT,TMAX,TMIN,TAVG NPClime

  8. Daily Station-Level Summaries • Mandatory and useful • Represent point observation • Capture microclimatic effects • Ground truth • TMAX, TMIN, TAVG, PPT, SWE • NSW COOP, SNOTEL, SnowCourse

  9. Daily Park Index • Representative of entire park or meaningful units (from point to polygon…) • Derived from relevant weather stations • Weighted by proximity to park • Account for elevation • Value • Remove local effects and station errors • One dataset vs. many 30-yr TMEAN for West Slope of ROMO

  10. Monthly PRISM Data • Precipitation-elevation Regressions on Independent Slopes Model • 4-km resolution • 1895-present • PPT, TMIN, TMAX, Dewpoint

  11. Monthly SNODAS Data • 1-km resolution • Daily • 2003-present • Variables • Snow Depth • Snow Water Equivalent • Extent • Remotely sensed, ground observations and model

  12. Climate Division Drought Indices • Monthly • 1895 – present • Multiple drought indices to capture meteorological and hydrological drought

  13. Bringing the Data Together Snow -2006 • SWE – Snow Water Equivalent

  14. Current Development • SOPs for Data Collection and Processing • Python Climate Modules • Stations (and other tabular) • Read (SNOTEL, Snowcourse, climate division drought indices, other) • Write to a standard format

  15. To get from here…

  16. To there… • 9 standard output fields

  17. Grid Module • Read PRISM and SNODAS • Unzip • Untar/Untar/Untar…. • Read and clip bils • Average of Many Grids • Grid Percentile • Compare one grid to a climatology of others • Multi-grid Zonal Stats • Drill polygon(s) through multiple grids

  18. Integration With NPClime • Web Interface • Stations module can read other data sources not part of NPClime (e.g., SnowCourse, SNOTEL, Climate Division Drought Indices) • Standard methods for writing data • Stand-alone Module • Enhanced functionality not possible with web • Especially with gridded datasets • Open source and will improve as needed

  19. END

More Related