Transcript Document

Annual Review of Research
Water Center, University of
Washington, Seattle, WA
February 16, 2006
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Experimental Surface Water Monitor for the Continental US
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OVERVIEW
 We have implemented an experimental real-time surface water
monitoring system that uses Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC)
macroscale hydrology model (Liang et al., 1994) for real-time
estimation of soil moisture, snow water equivalent (SWE) and
runoff over the continental U.S. at 1/2 degree spatial resolution.
 The monitoring system will stage DROUGHT ANALYSIS
PRODUCTS, including those described in Andreadis et al. (2005) in
real-time, as well as maintain an archive of comparative products
extending back to 1915.
 The monitoring system is driven by daily precipitation, temperature
minima and maxima from 2131 COOP stations, and has a 1-day
update lag, with updates each day by 2 p.m. PST.
 The system will also stage weekly outlooks based on similar methods
to the ensemble forecasting techniques used in the UW west-wide
seasonal hydrologic forecast system.
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Ali S. Akanda,Andy W. Wood, and Dennis P. Lettenmaier
Methods
1930s
1955+
NOAA ACIS
Prcp Tmax Tmin
Coop Stations
NOAA ACIS
Prcp Tmax Tmin
Coop Stations
Index Meth.
Index Station Method Gridded Forcing Creation
VIC Retrospective Simulation
Daily, 1915 to Near Current
Hydrologic values,
anomalies, percentiles
w.r.t. retrospective PDF
Hydrologic
State
VIC Real-time
Simulation
(~1 month long)
climatology (PDF) of
hydrologic values
w.r.t. defined period
Nowcast
produced
with 1-2 day
lag from
current
Hydrologic
State
(-1 Day)
vals, anoms
percentiles
w.r.t. PDF
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CPC
A primary goal of this system was to ensure consistency between realtime and retrospective outputs, hence the input stations were limited to
those with BOTH reliable real-time reporting and historical records
extending back at least 40 years. Because this results in many fewer
stations than are available with less stringent criteria, we use the input
stations indirectly. First, we estimate precipitation percentile (for
~month long periods) and (daily) temperature anomalies and interpolate
them to a 1/8 degree grid. Then we extract corresponding values from a
1/8 degree climatological forcing PDF created using a larger set of
station inputs (e.g., not all reporting in real-time, taken from the
Andreadis et al. effort described in an associated poster). Finally,
temporal disaggregation of the precipitation period values is needed.
Currently, the PDF is based on 1915-2003; however, this choice may be
revisited.
Examples of Current Products
COUNTY BLOW-UPS
ARCHIVES
CHANGES IN CURRENT CONDITIONS
Clicking the main maps launches
blow-up views showing the
county delineations.
Andreadis et al.
The Andreadis et al.
retrospective soil
moisture dataset
shows good spatial
and temporal
consistency with the
SW Monitor
simulations
The change in
conditions over
the past week, 2
weeks and one
month help to
characterize the
evolving water
balance.
March 1997: La
Nina conditions bring
the highest recorded
snowfall to the PNW
August 1993: the
highest recorded flow
on the Mississippi R.
March 2002: Virginia
experiences severe
drought, many well
failures
In Development
TIMESERIES ANAYSIS FOR
PIXELS OR REGIONS
Plots of current hydro-climatic
conditions contrasted with
other water years and with the
daily climatological PDF.
(temporal
comparison, left)
(spatial comparison,
right)
Index Station Forcing Approach
Surface Water Monitoring System Products
UW
From a qualitative standpoint,
we find good agreement with
current real-time CPC soil
moisture monitoring tool
(recent plots shown at right)
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VIC Hydrologic Model
(Liang et al., 1994)
Real-time Nowcasting Information Flow
Comparison with Other Datasets
Colorado Cell (39.25, -108.25)
Andreadis et al.
SW Monitor
Univ. of Washington
Images with alternate scale
bars (e.g., that match the
Drought Monitor categories)
Current WEBSITE: http://www.hydro.washington.edu/forecast/monitor/
The “first-cut” implementation of the system has a limited set of products – the primary results
shown currently are nowcasts (with a 1-2 day lag depending on time of day) of soil moisture and
snow water equivalent percentiles. Other products are in development (see Section 5 at right).
1915-2003 climatology
period (PDF)
OUTLOOKS
In addition to
soil moisture, current
SWE and (soon)
runoff percentiles
Weekly outlooks based on
similar methods to those used
in the UW west-wide seasonal
hydrologic forecast system
(using CPC, CFS, NSIPP and
ESP climate ensembles).
Recent trends in
relative soil moisture,
SWE, runoff
(At right are shown a sample
ESP 3-month outlook
initialized Febr. 1)
An archive from
1915-present of soil
moisture and SWE
percentiles on Day 1
of each month, with a
simple interface for
navigation
Other Changes / Ongoing Work
References / Acknowledgements
 improving spatial resolution of the overall monitoring system to 1/8 degree.
 the nowcast / real-time simulation / plot generations have been fully automated.
 incorporating additional products (beyond percentiles), including runoff maps, cumulative
departures from normal, and recovery probabilities (derived from the outlook products)
 explore different PDF periods and station datasets. (It may be better to screen out more stations
to achieve greater consistency with the pre-1950 record).
Andreadis, K.M., E.A. Clark, A.W. Wood, A.F. Hamlet, and D.P. Lettenmaier, 2004, 20th
Century Drought in the Conterminous United States , Journal of Hydrometeorology
(accepted).
Liang, X., D. P. Lettenmaier, E. F. Wood and S. J. Burges, 1994. A Simple hydrologically
Based Model of Land Surface Water and Energy Fluxes for GSMs, J. Geophys. Res.,
99(D7).
The authors acknowledge the support of NOAA/OGP and the NASA Seasonal-toInterannual Prediction Project (NSIPP).