Hydrometdss

Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, Davos

11/13/2008 19:36:50

Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, Davos

At the end of October we met with Drs. Michael Lehning and Jurg Schweizer at the SLF in Davos to discuss WaterNet and including the snow and avalanche experts in our Community of Practice.Their experience in the Alps will provide an outstanding contribution to the NASA land surface modeling teamwork.They are partners and Co-investigators on our DECISIONS08 proposal that follows ourWaterNet EU Candidate Solution Report.SLF research involves many fundamental aspects of alpine hydrology and snow and ice physics. Alpine observatories like Hohler Sonnblick below left are very important monitors of climate variability and change as well as avalanche research.The SLF in Davos has a staff of over 130 scientists and engineers who study Alpine environmental research topics ranging from integrated risk management to the snow metamorphism of ice crystals and the formation of avalanches, and forecasting.

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AGU SanFrancisco WaterNet 2008

12/22/2008 15:00:17

WaterNet CNRFC Demonstration Project and American Geophysical Union Meetings, December 2008

December 11-12, 2008 I met with engineers at the USACE Hydrologic Engineering Center (HEC) in Davis to discuss their modeling framework and efforts supporting the CNRFC and the CHPS-FEWS work with the National Weather Service and Office of Hydrologic Development.  Bill Charley and Fauwaz Hambali met to discuss the HEC modeling developments for FEWS working with Delftares.  On December 12, I visited the Joint Operations Center where I met with California Department of Water Resources, US Bureau of Reclamation, and California-Nevada River Forecast Center experts to disucss end-user needs and progress of the Hydrometeorological Testbed (HMT) in the American River Basin.

USBR, Michael Tansey and CDWR, Maury Roos and Francis Chung discuss potential NASA WaterNet applications for the Central Valley Project (left); WFO Service Hydrologists at the Sacramento WFO and CNRFC demonstrate work stations.

Read more: AGU SanFrancisco WaterNet 2008

WaterNet EARS, ZAMG, EGU CoP Spring 2009

Met with Janez Polajnar and Gregor Gregoic to discuss Slovenian WaterNet plan and development of networking between them as end-users and WaterNet NASA NWRs. Reviewed the PowerPoint presentations at EGU and TUG with new information on our meta data needs. The primary needs at EARS are: snow water equivalent (SWE) estimates, soil moisture estimates, and various drought monitoring information from remote sensing for vegetation indices, and other related information. EARS would like to participate in WaterNet as an end-user to demonstrate value added for drought monitoring in the Drought Monitoring Center for SouthEastern Europe (DMCSEE) and for flood and streamflow forecasting within Slovenia and in the Drava project with Austria.

Below EU and NA Cryosphere and Alpine environment experts review recession of glaciers and climate variability impacts on ecosystems and water supplies.

European Commission’s Joint Research Center (JRC ) sponsors much research related to the water cycle and natural hazards, like floods and droughts.  This paper showed the value of ensemble predictions for improved understanding of forecast uncertainty in hydrology.  

ZAMG, Salzburg Office

ZAMG meeting with Dr. Michael Staudinger, Salzburg, 27 April 2009 to discuss applications of WaterNet for alpine snowpack analysis and integration of INCA data into the avalanche forecast systems in Austria.  Dr. Thomas Heyden, INCA ZAMG coordinator met briefly in Wien to review progress in his work to integrate remote sensing information into their INCA nowcasting system which is used in many parts of Europe.  Below Dr.Staudinger who is taking the lead for ZAMG extreme forecasts and warnings for Austria’s efforts within the EU. 

May 6, 2009, Wageningen University and Research Center (WUR), NL, meeting with Joop Kroes, agricultural soil moisture expert and SWAP international trainer to discuss applications of WaterNet for agrimeteorological decision-making.  The SWAP team at WUR under the leadership of the NL provided a detailed field program with India to examine remote sensing applications for agricultural water productivity.  The RAMS/HYPACT team at WUR is also examining mesoscale modeling applications for decision-makers.  We discussed WaterWatch , WaterWatch is the original developer and intellectual owner of Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land (SEBAL).

Joop Kroes, WRU soil expert at his Atlas Building office (left), Lemmer 1920 steam pump plant that pumps 6 Million m3 per day from the Freysln Polders back into the Illsemeer and Zuiderzee during flooding periods. 

April 19-24th Wien

We participated in the EGU meetings again this spring with a paper on WaterNet that summarized European applications of GLDAS over Slovenia and showed the value of coarse resolution 0.5 degree analyses of precipitation and soil moisture for flood and drought monitoring.  The paper sought further development of the EU-WaterNet Community of Practice of scientists and engineers interested in the Water Cycle.  To this end we made over 30 contacts with direct interests, and they were directed to our WaterNet web site page. Photo below-shows Dr. Mira Kobold, ARSO Hydrology expert and co-author of our WaterNet poster discussing Slovenian flood forecasting-