Snow Cover: Current Capabilities, Snow Cover: Current Capabilities, Gaps Gaps and Issues and Issues (Canadian Perspective) (Canadian Perspective) Anne Walker Climate Research Branch, Meteorological Service of Canada IGOS-Cryosphere Theme Workshop, Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada, March 2-4, 2005 Environment Canada Environnement Canada
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Snow Cover: Current Capabilities, Gaps and Issues (Canadian Perspective) Anne Walker Climate Research Branch, Meteorological Service of Canada IGOS-Cryosphere.
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Snow Cover: Current Capabilities, Gaps Snow Cover: Current Capabilities, Gaps and Issues and Issues
(Canadian Perspective)(Canadian Perspective)
Anne Walker
Climate Research Branch, Meteorological Service of Canada
IGOS-Cryosphere Theme Workshop, Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada, March 2-4, 2005
EnvironmentCanada
EnvironnementCanada
Importance of Snow CoverImportance of Snow Cover
Largest areal extent of any component of the cryosphere (mean max. extent of ~47 x 106 km2)
High spatial and temporal variability in properties
Impacts both global/regional energy and water cycles
high reflectance, thermal insulation, storage of water
CliC Requirements for Observations and MonitoringCliC Requirements for Observations and Monitoring
Validation of coupled climate models (gridded hemispheric-global datasets from observations)
Improved understanding of processes and improved model parameterizations (detailed field datasets)
Monitoring variability and change (long-term, homogeneous data series)
Diagnostic studies of climate-cryosphere interactions (combination of re-analyses, data and modelling)
Canadian Science Issues Related to Snow Observing Canadian Science Issues Related to Snow Observing SystemsSystems
Quantifying the spatial and temporal variability in snow properties (water resource planning, GCM/RCM evaluation, input to NWP)
Quantifying the spatial and temporal variability of liquid and solid precipitation (essential input to climate and hydrological models, operational decision making)
Improved understanding of snow interception, sublimation and redistribution (improved representation of snow in climate and hydrological models)
Snow: Snow: In SituIn Situ Observing Networks in Canada Observing Networks in Canada
passive microwave – only proven satellite technique for SWE retrieval
historical record back to 1978 (SMMR, SSM/I) available in consistent 25 km grid format
requires regionally-tuned algorithms to take into account landscape effects, variation in physical properties validation a challenge!
On-going research into SWE retrieval from active microwave (SAR) – offers higher spatial resolution capability
SSM/I SWE map for Canadian prairie region(produced by MSC weekly for 15+ years)
Global SWE map from AMSR-E(limited validation)
Climate Research Applications of Passive Microwave SWEClimate Research Applications of Passive Microwave SWE
Availability of SMMR and SSM/I in consistent gridded format (EASE-Grid) 25 winter seasons (1978/79 – 2002/03)
Investigation of spatial and temporal variations in snow cover in relation to climate/atmospheric circulation
Evaluation of climate model snow cover outputs – GCM, RCM
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WE
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Pentad winter season (DJF) SWE anomalies produced using passive microwave satellite data time series. Dashed line denotes transition from SMMR to SSM/I.