UNSTABLE The UNderstanding Severe Thunderstorms and Alberta Boundary Layers Experiment Testing of Mesonet Instrumentation 41st Annual CMOS Congress, St. John’s Dave Sills1 and Neil Taylor2 1 Cloud Physics and Severe Weather Research Section, Environment Canada 2 Hydrometeorology and Arctic Lab, Environment Canada

41st CMOS Congress – St. John’s Outline ATMOS fixed mesonet station AMMOS mobile mesonet station 2006 field testing in Alberta foothills Summary November 20, 2018 41st CMOS Congress – St. John’s

41st CMOS Congress – St. John’s New EC ATMOS Stations Automated Transportable Meteorological Observing System 10 m Wind 9.5 m T 0.5 m T 10 m aluminum tower in 3 sections Stakes and guys EC/MRD’s Cloud Physics and Severe Weather Research Section had 10 Automated Transportable Meteorological Observing System (ATMOS) stations built by Zephyr North of Burlington, ON. Basic ATMOS design has been used for 20+ years. *MRD = Meteorological Research Directorate, used to be Meteorological Research Branch The following hardware is installed for each of 10 stations: 1 x RM Young 05103-10 wind monitor at 10.0 m 1 x T/H sensor (HMP 45C) at 1.5 m + shield 1 x ‘fast’ T sensor (44212) at 1.5 m + shield 1 x TE 525 tipping bucket rain gauge 1 x thermocouple + shields (0.5 m and 9.5 m) 1 x Vaisala PTB210 pressure sensor + SPH10 static pressure head 1 x radiation sensor (SP-Lite, 1 component - downwelling solar) 1 x CSI CR1000-55 datalogger + enclosure and power supply 1 x telemetry (Redwing CDMA cell phone + antenna) 1 x solar panel 1 x tower hardware (aluminum poles plus connectors and guys, mounting arms, etc.) for 10 m tower November 20, 2018 41st CMOS Congress – St. John’s

41st CMOS Congress – St. John’s New EC ATMOS Stations 1.5 m ‘Fast’ T Rain Gauge Pressure Cell antenna Solar Panel DeltaT Logger Radiation 1.5 m T / RH EC/MRD’s Cloud Physics and Severe Weather Research Section had 10 Automated Transportable Meteorological Observing System (ATMOS) stations built by Zephyr North of Burlington, ON FAST T used outside of T/RH pair inside kevlar membrane to account for lag in temperature changes within the membrane. INSIDE T/RH used to calculate FAST Td and outside T used to calculate RH. The following hardware is installed for each of 10 stations: 1 x RM Young 05103-10 wind monitor at 10.0 m 1 x T/H sensor (HMP 45C) at 1.5 m + shield 1 x ‘fast’ T sensor (44212) at 1.5 m + shield 1 x TE 525 tipping bucket rain gauge 1 x thermocouple + shields (0.5 m and 9.5 m) 1 x Vaisala PTB210 pressure sensor + SPH10 static pressure head 1 x radiation sensor (SP-Lite, 1 component - downwelling solar) 1 x CSI CR1000-55 datalogger + enclosure and power supply 1 x telemetry (Redwing CDMA cell phone + antenna) 1 x solar panel 1 x tower hardware (aluminum poles plus connectors and guys, mounting arms, etc.) for 10 m tower November 20, 2018 41st CMOS Congress – St. John’s Needs no foundation, no electrical or comm lines

How will the ATMOS units be used? June 1 – August 31 Collect data as 1 min averages Use both grid and line siting approaches: grid for surface contouring, line for time evolution ~10-25 km spacing Augment ATMOS with other networks for ~28 (full observation) station mesonet November 20, 2018 41st CMOS Congress – St. John’s

Why collect 1 min avg mesonet data? SBF = sea breeze front GF2 = gust front 2 SCGF = storm C gust front RFD = storm C rear flank downdraft 4 boundary passages within ~ 1 hr, 3 in 18 min! Sydney 2000 Project 1 min average surface station data November 20, 2018 41st CMOS Congress – St. John’s

41st CMOS Congress – St. John’s New EC AMMOS Station Automated Mobile Meteorological Observing System Measurements can be made while stationary OR mobile Wind GPS Logger Pressure T / RH + ‘Fast’ T (ventilated) Compass EC/MRD’s Cloud Physics and Severe Weather Research Section also had one Automated Mobile Meteorological Observing System (AMMOS) station built by Presentey Engineering of Ottawa, ON. A second AMMOS station will likely be obtained for UNSTABLE in 2008. *MRD = Meteorological Research Directorate, used to be Meteorological Research Branch The following hardware is installed for this station: 1 x RM Young 05103-10 wind monitor 1 x T/H sensor (HMP 45C) + housing with aspiration fan 1 x ‘fast’ T sensor (44212EC) 1 x Vaisala PTB210 pressure sensor + SPH10 static pressure head 1 x CSI CR1000-55 logger + housing, power supply and software 1 x CSI GPS16-HVS Garmin GPS receiver with antenna and mount kit 1 x RMY 32500 flux-gate compass and serial interface 1 x RS-232 interface 1 x vehicle mounting hardware Rugged Laptop + Backup Dash-cam November 20, 2018 41st CMOS Congress – St. John’s

How will the AMMOS unit(s) be used? Collect data at 1 s intervals (22 m @ 80 km/h) Measure gradients across convergence and land use boundaries Fill in holes in mesonet as needed Visual documentation First intensive use in field will be with BAQS-Met this summer Data will collected at 1 second intervals to capture variability Will try a variety of different patterns / roles to see what works best Visual documentation as well (dash-mounted digital video camera, digital photography) Experience with BAQS-met will be very helpful in determining how best to use this platform for UNSTABLE November 20, 2018 41st CMOS Congress – St. John’s

Mixing Ratio – mobile and fixed AMMOS data 1 min. averages 2334-2349 0008-0038 0052-0109 Good correlation between AMMOS and ATMOS measurements when in close proximity Significant variability in 1 minute average AMMOS over 5 minute average ATMOS even when stationary How representative are hourly surface observations used by forecasters? Mixing ratio observed to vary significantly over short space and time scales in AMMOS data. Temperature much more consistent. November 20, 2018 41st CMOS Congress – St. John’s

41st CMOS Congress – St. John’s Are hi-res / fast-response obs. needed? AMMOS data 1 min. averages Less lag with ‘Fast’ Temp Ventilation turned off First experimental use summer 2006 in UNSTABLE study area 5 min data from ATMOS stations 1 min data from AMMOS station Show areas where comparisons are valid Discuss effect of ventilation Discuss time lag introduced by Kevlar housing in HMP45C November 20, 2018 41st CMOS Congress – St. John’s

41st CMOS Congress – St. John’s Summary ATMOS / AMMOS will be a critical aspect of UNSTABLE investigations (especially ABL moisture and convergence boundaries) During testing in Alberta foothills in 2006, stations proved to be robust and data collected agreed well with other fixed stations High temporal resolution measurements needed to capture sharp gradients and variability First intensive use of ATMOS / AMMOS will be during BAQS-Met June – August 2006 November 20, 2018 41st CMOS Congress – St. John’s

41st CMOS Congress – St. John’s Thank You! David.Sills@ec.gc.ca (416) 514-2636 November 20, 2018 41st CMOS Congress – St. John’s