J. Bytheway, W. Currier, Mimi Hughes, Kelly Mahoney, Rob Cifelli
{"title":"Evaluation of wintertime precipitation estimates and forecasts in the mountains of Colorado","authors":"J. Bytheway, W. Currier, Mimi Hughes, Kelly Mahoney, Rob Cifelli","doi":"10.1175/jhm-d-23-0158.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1175/jhm-d-23-0158.1","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Wintertime precipitation poses many observational and forecasting challenges, especially in the complex topography of the western US where radar beam blockage and difficulty siting in situ observations yields more sparse observations than in the eastern US. Uncertainty in western US winter precipitation is known to be high, so much so that some studies have found model simulated precipitation to produce similar or better large-scale estimates of annual precipitation than gridded observational products during climatologically anomalous years. This study evaluates high-resolution gridded precipitation estimates from Multi-Radar Multi-Sensor (MRMS) and Stage IV as well as forecasts from NOAA’s High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) model in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Gridded precipitation estimates and forecasts are compared to in situ SNOTEL measurements for two seasons of wintertime precipitation. The influence of forecast length, lead time, and model elevation on seasonal precipitation predictions from the HRRR are investigated. Additional comparisons are made to the relatively dense network of observations deployed in Colorado’s East River Watershed during the Study of Precipitation, the Lower Atmosphere and Surface for Hydrometeorology (SPLASH) campaign. Gridded products and forecasts are found to underestimate cold season precipitation by 25–65% compared to in situ and aircraft measurements, with longer forecast periods and lead times (6–24 h) having smaller biases (25–30%) than shorter forecast periods and lead times (55–65%). The assessment of multiple years of observations indicates that these biases are related more to the data and methods used to create the gridded products and forecasts than to precipitation characteristics.","PeriodicalId":503314,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Hydrometeorology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139777591","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
J. Bytheway, W. Currier, Mimi Hughes, Kelly Mahoney, Rob Cifelli
{"title":"Evaluation of wintertime precipitation estimates and forecasts in the mountains of Colorado","authors":"J. Bytheway, W. Currier, Mimi Hughes, Kelly Mahoney, Rob Cifelli","doi":"10.1175/jhm-d-23-0158.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1175/jhm-d-23-0158.1","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Wintertime precipitation poses many observational and forecasting challenges, especially in the complex topography of the western US where radar beam blockage and difficulty siting in situ observations yields more sparse observations than in the eastern US. Uncertainty in western US winter precipitation is known to be high, so much so that some studies have found model simulated precipitation to produce similar or better large-scale estimates of annual precipitation than gridded observational products during climatologically anomalous years. This study evaluates high-resolution gridded precipitation estimates from Multi-Radar Multi-Sensor (MRMS) and Stage IV as well as forecasts from NOAA’s High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) model in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Gridded precipitation estimates and forecasts are compared to in situ SNOTEL measurements for two seasons of wintertime precipitation. The influence of forecast length, lead time, and model elevation on seasonal precipitation predictions from the HRRR are investigated. Additional comparisons are made to the relatively dense network of observations deployed in Colorado’s East River Watershed during the Study of Precipitation, the Lower Atmosphere and Surface for Hydrometeorology (SPLASH) campaign. Gridded products and forecasts are found to underestimate cold season precipitation by 25–65% compared to in situ and aircraft measurements, with longer forecast periods and lead times (6–24 h) having smaller biases (25–30%) than shorter forecast periods and lead times (55–65%). The assessment of multiple years of observations indicates that these biases are related more to the data and methods used to create the gridded products and forecasts than to precipitation characteristics.","PeriodicalId":503314,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Hydrometeorology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139837194","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nika Tsitelashvili, Trent Biggs, Ye Mu, V. Trapaidze
{"title":"Regional precipitation regimes and evaluation of national precipitation datasets against satellite-based precipitation estimates, Republic of Georgia","authors":"Nika Tsitelashvili, Trent Biggs, Ye Mu, V. Trapaidze","doi":"10.1175/jhm-d-23-0116.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1175/jhm-d-23-0116.1","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Analyzing water resources in areas with few hydrometeorological stations, such as those in post-Soviet countries, is difficult due to station closures after 1989. In Caucasus, evaluations often rely on outdated data from nearby rivers. We evaluated one national-level precipitation dataset, the Water Balance of Georgia (WBG) with two satellite-based precipitation products from 1981 to 2021, including the Climate Hazards Group Infrared Precipitation with station data (CHIRPS), and CHIRPS blended with a dense rain gauge network (geoCHIRPS). We modelled mean annual precipitation from geoCHIRPS as a function of coastal distance and elevation. CHIRPS underestimated precipitation in the cold and wet seasons (R2 = 0.74, r = 0.86), and overestimated dry season precipitation, while geoCHIRPS performed well in all seasons (R2 = 0.86, r = 0.92). Distance from the coast was a more important predictor of precipitation than elevation in Western Georgia, while precipitation correlated positively with elevation in the East. At four hydroelectric plants, the underperformance as a percentage of capacity (∼37%) corresponds with the percentage difference between difference in precipitation products (∼38%), suggesting that plants designed based on WBG may be systematically over-designed, but further work is needed to determine the reasons for the underperformance of the plants and frequency. We conclude that 1) existing WBG does not accurately reflect elevation-precipitation relationships near the coast and 2) for accurate analysis of spatiotemporal precipitation variability and its impacts on hydropower generation, environmental and sustainable water resource management, it is essential to calibrate satellite-based precipitation estimates with additional rain gauge data.","PeriodicalId":503314,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Hydrometeorology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139777521","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Tess W. P. Jacobson, R. Seager, A. P. Williams, I. Simpson, Karen A. McKinnon, Haibo Liu
{"title":"An unexpected decline in spring atmospheric humidity in the interior Southwestern United States and implications for forest fires","authors":"Tess W. P. Jacobson, R. Seager, A. P. Williams, I. Simpson, Karen A. McKinnon, Haibo Liu","doi":"10.1175/jhm-d-23-0121.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1175/jhm-d-23-0121.1","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000On seasonal timescales, vapor pressure deficit (VPD) is a known predictor of burned area in the Southwestern United States (“the Southwest”). VPD increases with atmospheric warming due to the exponential relationship between temperature and saturation vapor pressure. Another control on VPD is specific humidity, such that increases in specific humidity can counteract temperature-driven increases in VPD. Unexpectedly, despite the increased capacity of a warmer atmosphere to hold water vapor, near-surface specific humidity decreased from 1970-2019 in much of the Southwest, particularly in spring, summer, and fall. Here, we identify declining near-surface humidity from 1970-2019 in the Southwestern U.S. with both reanalysis and in situ station data. Focusing on the interior Southwest in the months preceding the summer forest fire season, we explain the decline in terms of changes in atmospheric circulation and moisture fluxes between the surface and the atmosphere. We find that an early spring decline in precipitation in the interior region induced a decline in soil moisture and evapotranspiration, drying the lower troposphere in summer. This prior season precipitation decline is in turn related to a trend towards a Northern Hemisphere stationary wave pattern. Finally, using fixed humidity scenarios and the observed exponential relationship between VPD and burned forest area, we estimate that with no increase in temperature at all, the humidity decline alone would still lead to nearly one-quarter of the observed VPD-induced increase in burned area over 1984-2019.","PeriodicalId":503314,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Hydrometeorology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139787712","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Tess W. P. Jacobson, R. Seager, A. P. Williams, I. Simpson, Karen A. McKinnon, Haibo Liu
{"title":"An unexpected decline in spring atmospheric humidity in the interior Southwestern United States and implications for forest fires","authors":"Tess W. P. Jacobson, R. Seager, A. P. Williams, I. Simpson, Karen A. McKinnon, Haibo Liu","doi":"10.1175/jhm-d-23-0121.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1175/jhm-d-23-0121.1","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000On seasonal timescales, vapor pressure deficit (VPD) is a known predictor of burned area in the Southwestern United States (“the Southwest”). VPD increases with atmospheric warming due to the exponential relationship between temperature and saturation vapor pressure. Another control on VPD is specific humidity, such that increases in specific humidity can counteract temperature-driven increases in VPD. Unexpectedly, despite the increased capacity of a warmer atmosphere to hold water vapor, near-surface specific humidity decreased from 1970-2019 in much of the Southwest, particularly in spring, summer, and fall. Here, we identify declining near-surface humidity from 1970-2019 in the Southwestern U.S. with both reanalysis and in situ station data. Focusing on the interior Southwest in the months preceding the summer forest fire season, we explain the decline in terms of changes in atmospheric circulation and moisture fluxes between the surface and the atmosphere. We find that an early spring decline in precipitation in the interior region induced a decline in soil moisture and evapotranspiration, drying the lower troposphere in summer. This prior season precipitation decline is in turn related to a trend towards a Northern Hemisphere stationary wave pattern. Finally, using fixed humidity scenarios and the observed exponential relationship between VPD and burned forest area, we estimate that with no increase in temperature at all, the humidity decline alone would still lead to nearly one-quarter of the observed VPD-induced increase in burned area over 1984-2019.","PeriodicalId":503314,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Hydrometeorology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139847800","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Impact of land surface snow processes on the Arctic stable boundary layer","authors":"Xiaodong Hong, Qingfang Jiang","doi":"10.1175/jhm-d-23-0040.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1175/jhm-d-23-0040.1","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The impact of land surface snow processes on the Arctic stable boundary layer (ASBL) is investigated using the Navy’s Coupled Ocean/Atmosphere Mesoscale Prediction System (COAMPS) to reduce the cold bias caused by decoupling between the land surface and atmosphere. The Noah land surface model (LSM) with improved snow processes is examined using COAMPS forecast forcing in the one-dimension mode for one month. The new snow physics shows that the snow properties, roughness length, and sensible heat flux are modified as expected to compensate for the old LSM deficiency. These new snow processes are incorporated into the COAMPS Noah LSM, and the 48-h forecasts using both old and new Noah LSMs are performed for January 2021 with every 6-h data assimilation update cycle. Standard verifications of the 48-h forecasts have used all available ADP observational data sets and the snow depth from the Land Information System (LIS) analyses. The statistics have shown reduced monthly mean cold biases ∼1 °C by the new snow physics. The weaker strength of surface inversion and stronger turbulence kinetic energy (TKE) from the new snow physics provides a higher boundary layer due to significantly stronger eddy mixing. The simulations have also shown the insignificant impact of different lateral boundary conditions obtained from the global forecasts or analyses on the results of the new snow physics. This study highlights the importance of the revised snow physics in Noah LSM for reducing the decoupling problem, improving the forecasts, and studying ASBL physics over the Arctic region.","PeriodicalId":503314,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Hydrometeorology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139797816","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Impact of land surface snow processes on the Arctic stable boundary layer","authors":"Xiaodong Hong, Qingfang Jiang","doi":"10.1175/jhm-d-23-0040.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1175/jhm-d-23-0040.1","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The impact of land surface snow processes on the Arctic stable boundary layer (ASBL) is investigated using the Navy’s Coupled Ocean/Atmosphere Mesoscale Prediction System (COAMPS) to reduce the cold bias caused by decoupling between the land surface and atmosphere. The Noah land surface model (LSM) with improved snow processes is examined using COAMPS forecast forcing in the one-dimension mode for one month. The new snow physics shows that the snow properties, roughness length, and sensible heat flux are modified as expected to compensate for the old LSM deficiency. These new snow processes are incorporated into the COAMPS Noah LSM, and the 48-h forecasts using both old and new Noah LSMs are performed for January 2021 with every 6-h data assimilation update cycle. Standard verifications of the 48-h forecasts have used all available ADP observational data sets and the snow depth from the Land Information System (LIS) analyses. The statistics have shown reduced monthly mean cold biases ∼1 °C by the new snow physics. The weaker strength of surface inversion and stronger turbulence kinetic energy (TKE) from the new snow physics provides a higher boundary layer due to significantly stronger eddy mixing. The simulations have also shown the insignificant impact of different lateral boundary conditions obtained from the global forecasts or analyses on the results of the new snow physics. This study highlights the importance of the revised snow physics in Noah LSM for reducing the decoupling problem, improving the forecasts, and studying ASBL physics over the Arctic region.","PeriodicalId":503314,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Hydrometeorology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139857852","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
R. Koster, A.F. Feldman, T. R. Holmes, M. C. Anderson, W. Crow, C. Hain
{"title":"Estimating Hydrological Regimes from Observational Soil Moisture, Evapotranspiration, and Air Temperature Data","authors":"R. Koster, A.F. Feldman, T. R. Holmes, M. C. Anderson, W. Crow, C. Hain","doi":"10.1175/jhm-d-23-0140.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1175/jhm-d-23-0140.1","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Evapotranspiration has long been understood to vary with soil moisture in drier regions and to be relatively insensitive to soil moisture in wetter regions. A number of recent studies have quantified this behavior with various model and observational datasets. However, given the disparate approaches and datasets used, uncertainty persists in how the underlying relationships vary in space and time. Here we complement the existing studies by analyzing two datasets as yet untapped for this purpose: a satellite-based evapotranspiration (E) product retrieved using geostationary thermal imagery and a meteorological station-based dataset of daily 2m air temperature (T2M) diurnal amplitudes. Both datasets are analyzed synchronously with soil moisture from the Soil Moisture Active/Passive (SMAP) satellite. We thereby derive maps of evaporative regimes that vary in space and time as one might expect, that is, the water-limited regime grows eastward across the conterminous United States (CONUS) as spring moves into summer, only to shrink again going into winter. The relationship between the E and soil moisture data appears particularly tight, which is encouraging given that the E data (like the T2M data) were not constructed using any soil moisture information whatsoever. The general agreement between the two independent sets of results gives us confidence that the generated maps correctly represent, to first order, evaporative regime behavior in Nature. The T2M results have the added benefit of highlighting the significant connection between soil moisture and overlying air temperature, a connection relevant to T2M predictability.","PeriodicalId":503314,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Hydrometeorology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139798546","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
R. Koster, A.F. Feldman, T. R. Holmes, M. C. Anderson, W. Crow, C. Hain
{"title":"Estimating Hydrological Regimes from Observational Soil Moisture, Evapotranspiration, and Air Temperature Data","authors":"R. Koster, A.F. Feldman, T. R. Holmes, M. C. Anderson, W. Crow, C. Hain","doi":"10.1175/jhm-d-23-0140.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1175/jhm-d-23-0140.1","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Evapotranspiration has long been understood to vary with soil moisture in drier regions and to be relatively insensitive to soil moisture in wetter regions. A number of recent studies have quantified this behavior with various model and observational datasets. However, given the disparate approaches and datasets used, uncertainty persists in how the underlying relationships vary in space and time. Here we complement the existing studies by analyzing two datasets as yet untapped for this purpose: a satellite-based evapotranspiration (E) product retrieved using geostationary thermal imagery and a meteorological station-based dataset of daily 2m air temperature (T2M) diurnal amplitudes. Both datasets are analyzed synchronously with soil moisture from the Soil Moisture Active/Passive (SMAP) satellite. We thereby derive maps of evaporative regimes that vary in space and time as one might expect, that is, the water-limited regime grows eastward across the conterminous United States (CONUS) as spring moves into summer, only to shrink again going into winter. The relationship between the E and soil moisture data appears particularly tight, which is encouraging given that the E data (like the T2M data) were not constructed using any soil moisture information whatsoever. The general agreement between the two independent sets of results gives us confidence that the generated maps correctly represent, to first order, evaporative regime behavior in Nature. The T2M results have the added benefit of highlighting the significant connection between soil moisture and overlying air temperature, a connection relevant to T2M predictability.","PeriodicalId":503314,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Hydrometeorology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139858486","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Evaluation of Multi-Source Datasets in Characterizing Spatio-Temporal Characteristics of Extreme Precipitation from 2001 to 2019 in China","authors":"Jiayi Lu, Kaicun Wang, Guocan Wu, Yuna Mao","doi":"10.1175/jhm-d-23-0162.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1175/jhm-d-23-0162.1","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The spatio-temporal characteristics of extreme precipitation intensity is crucial for hydroclimatic studies. This study delineates the spatio-temporal distribution features of extreme precipitation intensity across China from 2001 to 2019 using the gridded daily precipitation dataset CN05.1, constructed from an observation network of over 2400 stations. Furthermore, we evaluate the reliability of 12 widely used precipitation datasets (including gauge-based, satellite retrieval, reanalysis, and fusion products) in monitoring extreme precipitation events. Our findings indicate the following: 1) CN05.1 reveals a consistent spatial distribution characterized by a decline in extreme precipitation intensity from the southeastern coastal regions towards the northwestern inland areas of China. From 2001 to 2019, more pronounced declining intensity trends are discernible in the northern and southwestern regions of China, whereas marked increasing trends manifest in the northeastern and the Yangtze River plain regions. National mean extreme precipitation indices consistently exhibit significant increasing trends throughout China. 2) Datasets based on station observations generally exhibit superior applicability concerning spatiotemporal distribution. 3) Multi-source weighted precipitation fusion products effectively capture the temporal variability of extreme precipitation indices.4) Satellite retrieval datasets exhibit notable performance disparities in representing various intensity indices. Most products tend to overestimate the increasing trends of national mean intensity indices.5) Reanalysis datasets tend to overestimate extreme precipitation indices, and inadequately capture the trends. ERA5 and JRA55 underestimate trends, while CFSR and MERRA2 significantly overestimate the trends. These findings serve as a basis for selecting reliable precipitation datasets for extreme precipitation and hydrological simulation research in China.","PeriodicalId":503314,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Hydrometeorology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139858769","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}