The Foothills Climate Array

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The Foothills Climate Array

• Manda Adams
• Shawn Marshall
• Shannon Fargey

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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

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Foothills Climate Array
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Cross-section of study area
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Instrumentation
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Station Elevations
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Instrumentation

• FCA station

HOBO tipping bucket rain gauge
Veriteq temperature-humidity datalogger
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Mountain Stations
Farm Stations
2.0m
1.5m
2.5m
2.0m
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Data Quality some issues . . .
attack of the horse
death by avalanche
serious clog by birds
taken out by cows
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Automatic Weather Stations

• 5 full met stations
• Incoming radiation
• Pressure
• Wind Speed and Direction
• Sonic Snow Depth

Elbow AWS Near Elbow Falls (Kananaskis Country)
Simpson AWS West of Cochrane
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A Tale of 2 Sites

• Site 530
• Elevation 1164m
• Latitude 50.9098
• Longitude -114.315
• Site 538
• Elevation 946m
• Latitude 50.9359
• Longitude -113.703
• Distance Between 42km

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Temperature
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Relative Humidity
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Rain Events
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Rain Events
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Convective Events 2005
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Examples of the variability in Convective Rain
Events
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Relating Surface Variables
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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

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UW-NMS
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SPC
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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?

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Questions?

• Contact Information
• Manda Adams
• manda.adams_at_ucalgary.ca

Funding provided by Canadian Foundation for
Innovation Alberta Science and Research and
Investments Project