HMT 2004: NOAA Hydrometeorological Testbed for California's
Flood-prone Russian River Watershed
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The 2004 Hydromet Testbed will focus on the Russian River Area of
Northern California.
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Participants
- NOAA Environmental Technology Laboratory
- NOAA Aeronomy Laboratory
- NOAA Forecast Systems Laboratory
- NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory
- NOAA National Centers for Environmental Prediction
- NOAA National Weather Service-Western Region
- NOAA California/Nevada River Forecast Center
- University of Washington
Background
A demonstration project focused on improvements in quantitative
precipitation estimation (QPE) and quantitative precipitation
forecasting (QPF) in mountainous areas is designed to improve
hydrologic forecasts and warnings. This demonstration project uses
the Hydrometeorological testbed (HMT) approach which has been
proposed to address the nation's regions that are most vulnerable to
fresh-water flooding. The HMT will accelerate critical research and
development and its transition to operations. It has been adopted in
NOAA's and OAR's Strategic Plans, and recommended by the
Hydrology Team of the Science and Technology Infusion Plan
(STIP). The HMT will improve use of existing NOAA observational,
modeling, and human infrastructure, identify critical gaps in
NOAA's current observing and modeling capabilities, and
recommend how to fill those gaps based on proof-of-concept results.
HMT-2004 Field Operations
As in past winters dating back to the 1997/98 El Niño, ETL's Regional Weather and
Climate Applications Division will
operate a network of 915-MHz wind profiling
radars along the Pacific coast from northern Oregon (as part of
NOAA's Coastal Storms Initiative) to southern California, as well as
others in California's central valley and Sierra foothills. From December
8th, 2003 through March 21st, 2004, ETL, NOAA/AL and NOAA/FSL will also
conduct focused observations along the coast in the vicinity of Fort
Ross State Park and in the Alexander Valley on the leeward side of
the coastal mountains. This region of California north of San
Francisco has particularly poor coverage by the NWS's operational
network of WSR-88D radars. These HMT observations will employ
additional advanced-technology instruments, including a
polarimetric X-band scanning weather radar, a trio of S-band
precipitation profiling radars, raindrop disdrometers, soil moisture
probes and special high-resolution rain gauges.
HMT-2004 Goals
- Demonstrate the concept of a regional Hydrometeorological
Testbed as a conduit to infuse new science and technology into
operations.
- Continue to develop a climatology of orographic precipitation
along the coastal mountains of California north of San Francisco to
examine linkages between climate and weather.
- Document storm features that slip beneath coverage of the nearest
WSR-88D radars, and send the X-band radar images to NWS
forecast offices via the Web.
- Study the microphysical features and orographic precipitation
mechanisms in storm clouds over the coastal mountains.
- Continue testing experimental polarimetric radar estimations of
rainfall rate and classifications of hydrometeor types.
- Investigate the impact of a modest coastal barrier on upwind versus leeward
precipitation and integrated precipitable water.
- Deploy an array of rainfall gauges, and soil
moisture probes to provide data for evaluating operational stream
flow models.
- Provide a rigorous test and evaluation of NSSL's QPE-SUMS
(Quantitative Precipitation Estimation and Segregation Using
Multiple Sensors) approach in the challenging environment of a
mountainous watershed basin.
- Develop linkages to the Sacramento River Forecast Center (RFC)
that will enable NSSL to install QPE-SUMS and demo its
capabilities within an operational environment prior to the major
HMT effort in the American River basin planned for FY05 and
FY06.
- Gather data sets with which to refine the performance of
QPE-SUMS algorithms for QPE including removal of bright-band
and ground-clutter contamination and inclusion of numerical
forecast model parameters.
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