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Hydrological Applications
Whereas rainfall can "ruin your picnic", once the water collects on the ground and begins to flow there is the potential for real damage. The HMT Hydrologic Applications major activity area is about coupling the other elements of HMT into an understanding of what will happen on the ground.
The three main objectives of this major activity area include:
- Provide hydrologic evaluation of advanced observations of rain and snow, temperature, soil moisture and other variables in the context of operational forecasting at CNRFC
- Provide a venue to address broader science questions for hydrologic forecasting in mountainous areas based on R&D in the North Fork American River. These questions include:
- Can distributed hydrologic models be used with current observational networks to provide improved river simulations and forecasts?
- What level of hydrologic model complexity is needed in the mountains to improve hydrologic forecasts?
- Can hydrologic models reasonably simulate soil moisture in mountainous areas? Can soil moisture observations be used to calibrate models in such areas?
- What is the impact on hydrologic forecasting of having improved observations of the time evolution of the rain/snow line?
- What observational network density is required to improve mountainous area hydrological forecasting?
- Support the Integrated Water Resources Services (IWRSS) project in Arizona. HMT/PSD soil moisture and other sensors support modeling efforts in the San Pedro River in Arizona.
Major sub-themes in this activity presently include:
- Real-Time Operational Improvements Using HMT Data
- Hydrologic Research in North Fork of the American River and DMIP-2
- Supporting Integrated Water Resources Services (IWRS) in Arizona