Hydrometdss

2007-2008 WaterNet Meetings and Lectures

WaterNetCalifornia-NevadaRiverForecastCenter

March 24-28, 2008

In late March, Dave Matthews and Will Pozzi met with our WaterNet collaboration team at the CNRFC, Central Valley Operations Office, USBR, and the California Department of Water Resources to discuss progress in developing the WaterNet “Community of Practice” and the CNRFC WaterNet Demonstration Project.Meetings were held with Robert Hartman, Hydrologist in Charge, CNRFC, Art Henkel, Senior Hydrologist, and Alan Haynes, HAS Forecaster regarding progress in the Hydrometeorological Test-bed (HMT) and integration of emerging research into operational river forecasting.We then met with Reclamation water operations manager Paul Fujitani and planner Michael Tansey to discuss current water management decision support tools and needs for improved planning and operations.Maurice Roos, CDWR Chief Hydrologist led a meeting with other CDWR engineers and planners to review their interests and needs for improved water supply analysis and prediction.We discussed their snow survey system and how it is used to improve water resource management in California.

 

 

NCAR Colorado Headwater Research Program Kickoff:

March 19, 2008

 

Dr. Roy Rasmussen’s Research Applications Lab (RAL) TIIMES team hosted a kickoff meeting for the Colorado Headwaters Research Program. Dr. Matthews attended at the request of Dr. Paul Houser, CREW to represent him and ourNASA sponsored WaterNet Project.This planning meeting was designed to develop a scientific framework for better long-term analysis and prediction of climate variability and change impacts on the Colorado headwaters to meet the needs of local, state, and interstate water users in this region. The meeting provided a series of excellent presentations on the goals and objectives of CHRP and related scientific issues and challenges that need to be addressed in order to better understand and predict the complex linkages between atmospheric controls of precipitation, snowpack evolution, runoff, and its impacts on water supplies in this critical headwaters region.The scientists discussed a cutting edge approach to very high resolution (2-4 km grid spacing) Weather Research Forecasting (WRF) modeling dynamically coupled to a sophisticated Land Surface Model – Noah-D, and high resolution surface observations and the need for improved remote sensing and in situ aircraft measurements to understand and validate the physical processes simulated in models. While in the initial planning stage, this CHRP holds much promise for making significant research strides to improve long-term predictions of water supplies in the region.

 

 

WaterNet and Slovenian – U. S. Technology Transfer Project:

January 14- Feb 7, 2008

 

Professor Mitja Brilly, Chair for the Faculty of Hydrology and Hydraulics, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia visited American research and operational forecasting teams at CREW, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Prediction-CPC, EMC, HPC, and Office of Hydrologic Development in Washington, DC area.Paul Houser and his CREW team hosted us in their facilities, then we visited the Hydrologic Sciences Branch, GSFC, NASA to review their work using high performance Weather Research Forecast models coupled to the Land Information System and land surface models.Douglas Lecomte hosted us at the Climate Prediction Center and arranged meetings with NCEP operational forecasters and modelers in the Environmental Modeling Center (EMC), and the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center (HPC).We met with Michael Smith and John Schaake at the Office of Hydrologic Development (OHD) to discuss distributive hydrologic modeling research and ensemble forecasting.

 

In Colorado, we then met with water resource, forecasting and emergency management teams at the Bureau of Reclamation, Earth System Research Lab (ESRL) – Hyrometeorological Test Bed (HMT), Civil Engineering Department, CSU and CU.We also visited the Storm Peak Laboratory (SPL) atop Mt. Werner at Steamboat Springs.Donald Frevert, and Levi Brekke, USBR discussed current water management work and climate studies related to water resource management in the West. Timothy Schneider, HMT Director, led a meeting with his team of observationalists and modelers at ESRL where we discussed progress in mesoscale modeling and hydrologic observations to improve and validate models to support river forecasts in the American River Basin of the high Sierra.Dr. Boha Stankov reviewed her results from the Cold Land Process Experiment (CLPX).

 

 

WaterNet PI Meeting Nov 19-20, 2007 CREW Offices, Calverton, MD

 

WaterNet conducted a co-investigator meeting at the CREW offices November 19-21, 2007.The meeting was designed to bring all investigators up to date on current work for NASA and develop plans for the second year of the project.Paul Houser, WaterNet, PI led the meetings with his CREW team Debbie Belvedere and Will Pozzi, other investigators – Rick Lawford, Clair Welty, Robert Schiffer, UMD; Adam Schlosser MIT,Bachir Imam, UCI, and B Fekete, UNH and I presented our current project status report and lessons learned in developing Candidate Solution Reports and demonstration projects.I reported on our California-Nevada River Forecast Center (CNRFC) demonstration project working with USBR water operations managers, and the California Department of Water Resources climatologists and water managers, and our European candidate solutions for water managers and drought managers in southeastern Europe.

 

Following the WaterNet meetings on 20 November, Will Pozzi and I met with Experts from NASA’s Hydrologic Science Branch, GSFC to discuss their progress in developing a distributed version of the NWSRFS modeling system used for operational forecasting.Their integration of NWSRFS into NASA’s Land Information System may provide enhanced streamflow and snow pack runoff forecasts.We also discussed potential for improved snow and soil moisture monitoring using the GLDAS system for SE Europe at a high resolution of 1 to 5 km grid spacing.

 

On 21 November, I met with John Schaake, OHD to discuss his work with Rob Hartman, HIC, CNRFC, and our demonstration project with the CNRFC.John suggested studying the HEPEX ensemble prediction project, and EFFS European Flood Forecasting System, which Professor Brilly and our EU colleagues are involved in within Slovenia.I then drove to the NCEP offices in Camp Springs, MD to meet with Douglas LeComt to discuss drought analysis and prediction at CPC, NCEP, and he introduced me to Felix Kogan a vegetation remote sensing expert in the STAR program at NCEP, and Peter Romanov, their snow and ice expert.

 

 

WaterNet Climate Change - Cryosphere Lecture, TUG, 25 October 2007

 

Dr. Matthews met with Dr. Knoblauch and other staff and students at the Technical University of Graz, Austria to share recent information from NASA and NSF’s cryosphere research programs.These results describe the very rapid changes in arctic and Antarctic snow and ice fields that may lead to very rapid sea level rise if continued at the current accelerating rate.The presentation focuses on Dr. Konrad Steffen’s Nobel Peace Prize winning team’s work on Greenland and the Antarctic.Members of his CIRES staff contributed to the 2007 IPPC Climate Change Report. Results from Dr. Zally Walley, NASA Cryosphere Program, and JPL's NSCAT NASA Scatterometer (Drs. Son Ngheim and Greg Neuman) measurements of winds and ice changes were reviewed. The following list of URLs provide a set of reference links to web pages and videos of rapid changes in the polar regions.

 

Reference URLs:

Greenland:Dr. Konrad Steffen:http://cires.colorado.edu/steffen/
Arctic melt 2007:http://winds.jpl.nasa.gov/imagesAnim/ArcticSeaIceAnim.cfm
Big Thaw:http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/videos/earth/earth20071001/

West Antarctica Melt:http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2007-058
NASA Cryosphere:http://ice.nasa.gov/
University of Colorado: CIRES, Boulder, CO
May 2005
The NASA-funded research of the Steffen Group is the subject of three BBC News reports:

May 19, 2005 mp4, 63 MB May 20, 2005 mp4, 52 MB May 20, 2005 mp3, 8 MB

Latest Picture from NOAAPacific Marine Environmental Laboratory's
North Pole WebCam
South Pole Web Camera:http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/obop/spo/livecamera.html
USACE Cold Regions Research Lab:http://www.crrel.usace.army.mil/
NOAA Arctic Change:http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/detect/

NOAA Arctic Change:http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/detect/
GEOSummitInternational collaborations:http://www.geosummit.org/

 

 

FGG Hydrology II Lectures Fall 2007

Dr. Matthews began his series of 3 lectures working with Professor Brilly at the FGG University of Ljubljana. The lectures provide an overview of American approaches to various hydro-meteorological aspects of the water cycle that are relevant to water managers including: the water cycle storage and fluxes, land surface models and their interaction with atmospheric models, data assimilation, stream flow analysis and prediction, NWSRFS and AHPS applications at the CNRFC. Lecture 2 examines precipitation physics, and hydrologic predictions including research programs at the ESRL PSD and CDC which are reviewed from the perspective of the HMT and climate change and the NASA WaterNet project. Recent advances in climate change research, snow and ice melting, extreme weather forecasting and weather modification principles are reviewed in the final lecture on 5 November.

Slovenia Flood Damage Survey 2 October 2007

On 18 September 2007 an extreme local flood event caused more than 260 Million Euros in damage to parts of central Slovenia from Cerkno to Smartno. Drs. Mitja Brilly and Dave Matthews toured the area on the Selscica, Davca, and Sava Bohinjka Rivers taking photos of the damage and initial repairs to roads and bridges. Much work is continuing to repair the immediate damage to infrastructure and restore power, communications and road access. See photos in the Media Gallery on right column of web page.

 

 

Recent WaterNet Meetings

Slovenia: University of Ljubljana and Environmental Agency of the Republic of Slovenia October 2007


Meetings at the University and EARS are scheduled to review progress and develop Candidate Solution Reports for water supply and flood forecasting, and drought management applications in Slovenia and Austria. Work is progressing on developing the CSRs.

 

Candidate Solution Reports:

CNRFC Demonstration Project - Submitted to NASA HQ September 2007

TVA Water Management Applications - Under development

Montana Area Office, USBR Water Operations Applications - under development

Hydromet Testbed - WRF enhanced forecasts using SPoRT inputs for California's American River Basin - under development

 

NOAA Physical Science Division, ESRL, Boulder, CO August 2007

Review of plans for the California-Nevada River Forecast Center Demonstration Project with Dr. Timothy Schmidt and the Hydromet Testbed (HMT) team for the winter of 2007-08.

Silverthorne Town Manager, Silverthorne, CO August 22, 2007


Mr. Kevin Batchelder, Town Manager, discussed local mountain community needs for improved water cycle related information for long term planning and management of community issues. Issues ranged from wildfire protection to maintenance of Gold Medal Trout Fishery and improved water supply and quality in the Blue River. Many of the town needs are addressed in NASA's 12 National Priority Areas that WaterNet is focusing on. Specific details are reported on in HydrometDSS's annual report to WaterNet, see draft under Documents, HydrometDSS Progress Report 2 on this web page.


Colorado River Water Conservancy District, Glenwood Springs, CO August 28, 2007

Colorado River Water Conservation District, Chief Engineer, Dave Merritt discussed current needs and interests of this northwestern Colorado water management organization. Future work with CDWR will focus on their interaction with emerging NASA NWR research products of value to water resource decision-makers. See link under "Water" on the top menu of this web page.

………….

EGU Annual Meeting, Vienna April 15 -20, 2007:

EGU Annual Meeting, Vienna April 15 -20, 2007:

Presentation of WaterNet to EGU Scientists, contacts for networking were made, with invitations to join our network of end-users and researchers

Technical University of Graz (TUG) Civil Engineering and JOANNE Research, Graz, Austria May 22, 2007:

Review of WaterNet Status and presentation to new Director of the Institute of Hydraulics Engineering and Water Resources Management, Dr. Gerald Zenz, Dr. Helmut Knoblauch, and Dr. Till Harum. Discussion of networking needs for meta data on end-user DSTs and funding of EU scientists and engineers involved in WaterNet.

Faculty of Hydraulics and Hydrology, University of Ljubljana, April 13, 26, May 11, 24, June various times:

Review of WaterNet and SLOvenian components for networking, development of conference paper for EU Climate and Water Conference, Finland, Sept 3-6, 2007.

You are here: Home Climate Watch 2007-2008 WaterNet Meetings and Lectures