Improvement of Land Surface Schemes for Cold Region Processes: Recent Results from the Changing Cold Regions Network in Western Canada

Howard S. Wheater, University of Saskatchewan, Centre for Hydrology and Global Institute for Water Security, Saskatoon, SK, Canada, Naveed Khaliq, National Research Council, Ocean, Coastal and River Engineering, Ottawa, ON, Canada, Kwok Pan (Sun) Chun, Hong Kong Baptist University, Geography, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong, Alan Barr, Environment Canada, Climate Research Division, Saskatoon, SK, Canada, Andrew M Ireson, Global Institute for Water Security, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada, Paul A Bartlett, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Climate Research Division, Toronto, ON, Canada, Murray MacKay, Environment Canada Toronto, Science and Technology Branch, Toronto, ON, Canada, Patricia Pernica, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada and Yanping Li, University of Saskatchewan, Global Institute for Water Security, Saskatoon, SK, Canada

Contact First Author: Howard S. Wheater; howard.wheater@usask.ca

Previously Published Material: Findings have been previously reported in the following two publications: (1) Chun, K.P., Wheater, H.S. and Barr, A.G. 2014. A multivariate comparison of the BERMS flux tower observations and Canadian Coupled Global Climate Model (CGCM3) outputs. Journal of Hydrology, 519 Part B, 1537-1550, doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2014.08.059.(2) Khaliq, M.N., Sushama, L., MOnette, A. and Wheater H.S. 2014. Seasonal and extreme precipitation characteristics for the watersheds of the Canadian Prairie Provinces as simulated by teh NARCCAP multi-RCM ensemble. Climate Dynamics, doi:10.1007/s00382-014-2235-0.

Abstract ID#: 35057

 

English Abstract:
Recent North American Regional Climate Change Assessment Program (NARCAAP) Regional Climate Model ensemble results for Western Canada shows reasonable inter-model consistency for future precipitation change, but analysis of historical performance shows large (positive and negative) biases. Clearly there is need to understand and overcome model limitations to improve model performance. The Changing Cold Regions Network is maintaining a set of observatories across Western Canada, focussed on the Saskatchewan and Mackenzie River Basins, which provides a basis for model performance analysis and the development of improved land surface schemes. Results from a set of boreal forest flux towers are used to illustrate systemic differences between the inter-variable dependencies of observed and GCM simulations which show new insights into potential model limitations. The paper will also review results of ongoing comparisons between ground-based observation and land surface scheme performance over the CCRN network, and hence discuss the prioritisation of improvements in representation of cold region processes.
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