The Foothills Climate Array Manda Adams Shawn Marshall Shannon Fargey

Motivation for FCA The local climate of southwestern Alberta is dominated by mesoscale processes The primary objective of the FCA is to characterize the spatial-temporal patterns of meteorological variability and to develop physically-based models of the controls of topography and surface environment on surface weather patterns. Insights from the FCA will be used to develop improved climate downscaling strategies, climate change impact assessments, and boundary-layer process parameterizations in regional climate models

Foothills Climate Array

Cross-section of study area

Instrumentation

Station Elevations

Instrumentation FCA station Veriteq temperature-humidity datalogger HOBO tipping bucket rain gauge

0.85 moose

2.5m 1.5m 2.0m Mountain Stations Farm Stations

Data Quality – some issues... attack of the horse death by avalanche taken out by cows serious clog by birds

Automatic Weather Stations 5 full met stations –Incoming radiation –Pressure –Wind Speed and Direction –Sonic Snow Depth Simpson AWS – West of Cochrane Elbow AWS – Near Elbow Falls (Kananaskis Country)

A Tale of 2 Sites Site 530 –Elevation 1164m –Latitude: –Longitude: Site 538 –Elevation 946m –Latitude: –Longitude: Distance Between: 42km

Temperature

Relative Humidity

Rain Events

Convective Events 2005

Examples of the variability in Convective Rain Events

Relating Surface Variables

Contributions to UNSTABLE Prairie stations: change sampling strategy –Require: 1 grad student Operational Running of UW-NMS and/or WRF in support of IOPs –Require: programmer or grad student

UW-NMS

SPC

Science Questions well suited for the FCA Under what conditions do t-storms generated in the central Alberta Foothills intensify and move southeast over the Calgary area? Can the influence of mesoscale circulations and boundaries be seen in the severe weather climatology of the region?

Questions? Contact Information: Manda Adams Funding provided by: Canadian Foundation for Innovation Alberta Science and Research and Investments Project