Detailed Field Information for HMT-West 2012
HMT-West field operations for the 2011-2012 season will focus on data collection from autonomous instrumentation operating at sites across northern and central California, as well as sites in the Pacific Northwest and Colorado River Basin. There will be no intensive observing periods (IOPs) and no staffing of sites in the HMT-West domain; thus there is no need for daily field operations coordination calls. This strategy will allow for greater attention to deployment of the HMT-West Legacy Network, as well as analysis of past data and development of new tools.
Science Objectives
The goals of data collection for the 2012 field season include:
- Calibration of the KPIX C-band radar and quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE) studies using data collected from KPIX, surrounding NEXRAD radars, and rain gauges;
- Testing autonomous operations of the SkyWater radar at the Lincoln, CA field site;
- On-going implementation of the HMT-West Legacy Network in CA; and
- Begin training National Weather Service (NWS) Weather Forecast Office (WFO) forecasters in the use of legacy HMT data including Atmospheric River Observatory (ARO), flux tool, freezing level and soil moisture data. Weekly science coordination calls by Western Region Headquarters (WRH) and unscheduled calls on potential high impact land-falling ARs will provide an opportunity to showcase the HMT legacy data and how it can be applied.
Instrumentation and Field Sites
Data collection will be conducted at many of the traditional HMT-West sites in the Sierra Nevada as well as the California coast.
New instrumentation to be deployed for 2012 will include:
KPIX Radar Calibration/Validation Sites (to be installed in Jan. 2012)
- Central Valley (Yolo County Airport): S-band precipitation profiler (S-Prof), Parsival disdrometer and surface meteorology (including rain gauge)
- Napa Valley (Cal Fire Site near Calistoga): Parsival disdrometer and surface meteorology (including rain gauge)
- Sonoma County Water Agency (Santa Rosa): S-band precipitation profiler (S-Prof), Parsival disdrometer and surface meteorology (including rain gauge)
Together with the existing Cazadero instrumentation in the Coast Range, the measurements at these sites will provide estimates of drop size distribution characteristics and precipitation vertical structure at selected distances ranging from about 30 to 100 km from KPIX. The measurements will be used to calibrate the radar, derive radar reflectivity–rainfall relationships, and develop appropriate vertical profile of reflectivity corrections using the NMQ Q2 QPE framework led by NOAA's National Severe Storms Laboratory.
Additional instrumentation will be deployed at the following sites to support on-going HMT legacy activities:
New Snow-level Radar sites (to be installed Nov.-Dec. 2011):
- Happy Camp, CA near the lower Klamath River (41.791 N, 123.385 W, elev. 1214 ft)
- Oroville, CA below Oroville Dam (39.532 N, 121.488 W, elev. 375 ft)
- Kernville, CA below Lake Isabella (35.754 N, 118.419 W, elev. 2632 ft)
New GPS-Meteorology sites (to be installed Oct.-Nov. 2011):
- Klamath, CA (P316; 41.559 N, 124.086 W, elev. 772 ft)
- Corning, CA (P344; 39.929 N, 122.028 W, elev. 165 ft)
- Leggett, CA (P315; 29.864 N, 123.717 W, elev. 846 ft)
- Oroville, CA (Snow-level radar site; 39.532 N, 121.488 W, elev. 375 ft)
- Baker, CA (P618; 35.142 N, 116.104 W, elev. 864 ft)
- Somis, CA (P729; 34.263 N, 119.096 W, elev. 121 ft)
- Corona, CA (CNPP; 33.858 N, 117.609 W, elev. 985 ft)
- La Quinta, CA (P491; 33.575 N, 116.227 W, elev. 14 ft)
New Soil Science and Surface Meteorology sites (nine additional sites installed Jan.-May 2012):
- Hornbrook, CA (41.904 N, 122.569 W, elev. 2346 ft)
- Plus 8 additional sites
Similar to the 2011 field season, University of California San Diego (UCSD) scientists will collect aerosol data at the Sugar Pine Dam site in the North Fork of the American River Basin to support on-going CalWater activities.
On-going HMT data collection will also be conducted at sites in WA, AZ, and CO in support of atmospheric river monitoring activities in the Pacific Northwest and HMT's Hydrologic and Surface Processes (HASP) objectives in the Colorado River Basin.
NWP Forecasts
The Weather Research Forecast model will be run by NOAA's Global Systems Division (LAPS Real Time Forecast Products) over the western U.S. Output from these model runs will be incorporated into the six AROs deployed in California and Washington. Similar to 2011, the Developmental Testbed Center (DTC) will conduct evaluation and verification of the WRF model runs.
Participants
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