HR: 08:45h
AN: GC31C-04    [Abstracts]
TI: Deriving high resolution historical and future climate databases for mountainous environments
AU: * MacDonald, R J
EM: ryan.macdonald@uleth.ca
AF: University of Lethbridge, Dept of geography, Lethbridge, AB T1K 3M4, Canada
AU: Byrne, J M
EM: byrne@uleth.ca
AF: University of Lethbridge, Dept of geography, Lethbridge, AB T1K 3M4, Canada
AU: Kienzle, S
EM: stefan.kienzle@uleth.ca
AF: University of Lethbridge, Dept of geography, Lethbridge, AB T1K 3M4, Canada
AB: General circulation model (GCM) and regional climate model (RCM) data are currently available in resolutions sufficient to conduct reasonable climate change studies for hydrologic systems on a scale of thousands of square kilometers and/or for terrains with minimal topographic variability. The Canadian Forest Service has created monthly climate datasets for North America at a 10 km resolution by interpolating climate station data (McKenney et al Agric. For. Meteorol, 138, 69-81, 2006). However, much finer spatial resolutions are needed to investigate changes in watershed and ecosystem processes, particularly in regions of diverse topography. This work is building a series of interpolated high resolution hydro-meteorological surfaces for predicting hydrologic change in mountainous regions. Level A climate stations (with complete historical record 1961-2006) are interpolated using the ANUSPLIN thin plate smoothing spline technique to create historical daily climate field for the study region. Error surfaces from ANUSPLIN define regions within the study area where data availability limits confidence in the analysis. To minimize these errors we are synthesizing climate data using multiple regression infilling techniques for level B stations – with limited data records; and where needed, we use the SIMGRID alpine microclimate model to create level C climate stations with wholly synthetic data. SIMGRID has been used to successfully simulate snow pillow data and to provide high-resolution spatiotemporal climate data for hydrological simulations (Lapp et al., IJOC 25 (4), 521-526, 2005). The goals are two fold: first, to develop a technique for creating high resolution hydro-meteorological surfaces in mountainous regions; and second, a classified series of alpine climate response units for application in hydrologic and ecologic research.
DE: 0736 Snow (1827, 1863)
DE: 1616 Climate variability (1635, 3305, 3309, 4215, 4513)
DE: 1630 Impacts of global change (1225)
DE: 1840 Hydrometeorology
DE: 1879 Watershed
SC: Global Environmental Change [GC]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting