The Tahoe Climate Information Management System (Tahoeclim)

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "The Tahoe Climate Information Management System (Tahoeclim)"

Theodora Gardner
5 years ago
Views:

1 The Tahoe Climate Information Management System (Tahoeclim) Final Report August 2016 Kelly T. Redmond 1, Geoff Schladow 2 1 Desert Research Institute Reno, NV 2 Tahoe Environmental Research Center, UC Davis Incline Village, NV Agency Collaborators: Shane Romsos- Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, Stateline, NV Patrick Wright- California Tahoe Conservancy, South Lake Tahoe, CA Project team: Nina Oakley DRI, web design, development, and outreach Grant Kelly DRI, Google Map layouts, WRF archive Hauss Reinbold DRI, Westmap for Tahoe Matthew Fearon WRF archive Greg McCurdy DRI, development of data ingest processes Stephan Ross DRI, assistance in web development Bill Fleenor UC Davis, REMOTE network data This research was supported through an agreement with the USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station using funds provided by the Bureau of Land Management through the sale of public lands as authorized by the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act (Round 10). The contributions of the project team are greatly appreciated, and without their efforts the project could not have been undertaken.

Executive summary: This project addressed SNPLMA Round 10 Subtheme 3c, understanding basin meteorology and the issue of improving access to meteorological data to support research and decision-making

2 Executive summary: This project addressed SNPLMA Round 10 Subtheme 3c, understanding basin meteorology and the issue of improving access to meteorological data to support research and decision-making in the basin. The main deliverable for this project is a website called Tahoeclim (Figure 1; housed at the Desert Research Institute. Tahoeclim aggregates meteorological and climatological data for the basin that were previously accessed through a variety of different sites or unavailable online. Tahoeclim provides access to: 1) station data from a variety of networks in the basin; 2) Real-time and daily updated maps of weather/climate information; 3) links to a variety of tools for data analysis; 4) archived highresolution Weather Research and Forecasting model output for the basin; 5) a guide on using data from the Tahoeclim site. The project was developed in response to identified needs for recognizing past and current meteorological measurement efforts and compiling them into a publically available database for the Tahoe Basin, as well as the need for support of air quality monitoring, burn day decisions, and understanding climate variability and watershed runoff process. Figure 1: The Tahoeclim website landing page.

3 1. Background and problem statement Climate is a pervasive influence in the Lake Tahoe Basin. The fluctuations of weather and climate constitute a major environmental driver for the region. Hydrologic processes are greatly affected by average and extreme conditions experienced around the lake. Air quality within the basin is affected by meteorological conditions, which in turn affect airflow trajectories, and the transport and transformation of atmospheric constituents related to air quality and visibility. Vegetative growth and fire conditions are significantly determined by atmospheric conditions, and decisions on the timing of controlled burns and firefighting operations during wildfires need to be based on the most accurate and current meteorological conditions. In addition, climate and weather are integral to the recreation-based economy in both winter and in summer. To date, there has been no systematic effort to identify gaps in atmospheric monitoring, nor a basin-wide strategy to identify such deficiencies. There is high demand for data and information about weather and climate, but at present, this information is widely scattered and must be assembled from a variety of existing sources. This places an undue, unnecessary, and ultimately expensive burden on each user or project that requires such data. There is no single authoritative source that provides easy access to the major data sets pertinent to the basin. The purpose of this project is to address these deficiencies and create a system that may be easily continued or expanded in the future. 2. Objectives The main objectives for the project were: 1) Develop a web site for the provision of meteorological and atmospheric data relevant to the Lake Tahoe Basin. 2) Identify potential datasets and develop automated methods for ingest to continuously update the website. 3). Highlight gaps in current Tahoe Basin environmental monitoring activities. Augment and improve measurements at selected key sites. 4) Produce a range of standard value added meteorological products including hourly, daily, and monthly interpolated wind fields on a fine scale grid over the lake surface. There are no formal hypotheses being tested.

4 3. Approach and methodology Website The Tahoeclim site was custom built using standard HTML and CSS, with JavaScript and JQuery applications supporting the functionality of the site. The Google Maps API was utilized for the display of stations locations and information. Station Data A variety of atmospheric data networks were explored for feasibility of integration with the Western Regional Climate Center database or direct links from the Tahoeclim site. Some networks, such as Caltrans and NASA-JPL, for example, were not available online in a way that WRCC could reliably access and the provider was unwilling to work with WRCC to provide archived data and a data stream. These networks were not included in Tahoeclim. Networks incorporated are described in the next section. Ingest of meteorological data from the eight UC Davis REMOTE network was established and current and historic data were made available online through Tahoeclim for these stations. However, a change in transmission format in late 2014 caused a break in the data posting; this issue has not been resolved. Gridded Data Gridded data for the Tahoe Basin were made available through several mechanisms. Historic: PRISM (Daly et al. 2008) data, monthly temperature and precipitation, from 1895-present through the Westmap for Tahoe application Archive 4km and 6 km WRF forecasts for the Tahoe Basin provided by CANSAC Current/Forecast: CANSAC WRF forecasts for the Tahoe Basin (updated 2x/day; 3-hourly forecasts Other data sources Links to a variety of tools that provide information on the Tahoe Basin are provided through Tahoeclim and are described in greater detail in the following section. 4. Deliverables The Tahoeclim website (Figure 1) features a variety of data sources, including station data, gridded data, and value-added products. Descriptions of each are as follows:

5 Station data: Station networks included on Tahoeclim are as follows, and it is noted whether they are ingested into the WRCC database or links are provided to their managing agency through the Tahoeclim interface. These networks provide a variety of meteorological and atmospheric observations that differ from network to network. Desert Research Institute (ingest) CA Snow Survey (ingest) Nevada DOT (link) USGS Gauging Stations (link) NWS COOP (ingest) NRCS SNOTEL (link) Airports (ingest) Snow Course (link) UC Davis REMOTE (ingest) NIFC RAWS (ingest) Reno-Carson network (ingest) CA Air Resources Board (link) NASA-JPL (link) Tahoeclim also provides access to GIS shapefiles of all stations and all active stations in the Lake Tahoe region to support research activities. Gridded data Westmap for Tahoe (Figure 2) allows users to generate time series graphs and data lists of maximum, minimum and average temperature and precipitation for the Tahoe lake surface, Tahoe Basin, and Tahoe Domain for the period 1895-present (Figure 3). The Westmap tool utilizes PRISM data.

Figure 2: Westmap for Tahoe Figure 3: June-July-August average temperature for the Lake Tahoe Basin 1895- present generated by Westmap.

6 Figure 2: Westmap for Tahoe Figure 3: June-July-August average temperature for the Lake Tahoe Basin present generated by Westmap. The CANSAC WRF model provides high-resolution (2-4 km; Figure 4) forecasts of several variables over the Lake Tahoe Basin. These data are valuable for fire weather and air quality monitoring, recreation, and research. Tahoeclim provides a link to the CANSAC WRF current forecast model output. A portion of the Tahoeclim

project involved putting CANSAC WRF/MM5 archive data online for public use. The archived data span 2005-2015. Figure 4: Example CANSAC WRF 2 km forecast for 10 m winds over the Tahoe domain.

7 project involved putting CANSAC WRF/MM5 archive data online for public use. The archived data span Figure 4: Example CANSAC WRF 2 km forecast for 10 m winds over the Tahoe domain. Monitoring current conditions Tahoeclim provides a small dashboard to help users of the site determine current conditions at a glance. Images displayed include: Departure from average temperature and percent of normal precipitation over the Southwest US for the past 30 days Current radar Current GOES West Infrared (to evaluate cloudiness, storminess) Year-to-date precipitation, temperature values and departures from normal for South Lake Tahoe Mesonet current weather observations SNOTEL snowpack summary for Lake Tahoe Value-added tools for the Lake Tahoe region Several tools for the Lake Tahoe region are linked through the Tahoeclim website (Figure 5). Tahoeclim assists users of climate data in the Tahoe Basin by providing these links all in one location for convenience. These tools include: California and Nevada Climate Trackers allow users to create time series of temperature and precipitation data from PRISM for a variety of regions in these states

8 RCC Climate Anomaly maps maps for the western US and individual states showing totals, averages, departures for temperature and precipitation over a variety of timescales North American Freezing Level Tracker time series maps of freezing level (and other levels) for grid points over North America. Links to Tahoe weather blogs and imagery Figure 5: A sample from the links to tools section on the Tahoeclim page. Guide to Tahoeclim The guide to Tahoeclim, linked from the website ( assists users in determining which data is the best for their applications and provides several examples of the capabilities of the variety of available tools. This guide was developed at the request of potential Tahoeclim users to help them sort through the large amounts of data available. 5. Outreach and engagement After the completion of a beta version of Tahoeclim, several presentations were made to collect input on user needs and potential improvements to the website. These included: Presentation on Tahoeclim at the Tahoe Science Consortium meeting in 2013 Presentation to a select group of potential users (USFS, TRPA, non-profit organizations working in Tahoe such as League to Save Lake Tahoe, and others) in South Lake Tahoe in presentation made to group on capabilities, and feedback requested through a survey process

9 Presentation at the American Geophysical Union fall meeting in San Francisco in 2013 Tahoeclim has also been shared with a variety of users and potential users through informal interactions with WRCC and UC Davis research partners, and also through the data provision services of the WRCC. Feedback from outreach efforts was used to improve the beta version to create the final version. Some of the user-inspired improvements include: Addition of Tahoeclim guide Addition of station finder sorting tool Addition of SNOTEL snowpack summary WRCC and UC Davis/TERC continue to promote the use of the Tahoeclim website among their customers and research partners looking for data in the Tahoe Basin. WRCC maintains the site, but is unable to add more networks at this time due to funding limitations. WRCC hopes to obtain funding in the future to support updating some of the network feeds that are currently not operational in Tahoeclim as well as adding new networks to the Tahoeclim station map. Tahoeclim also served as a testbed for WRCC s study of web usability in 2014 (Oakley and Daudert 2016). A group of graduate students in the physical sciences who use weather and climate data were given a set of tasks to accomplish using the Tahoeclim site. Their responses and challenges in performing the tasks were used to make improvements to Tahoeclim layout and wording, as well as aid in the development of testing methods for web usability. References Daly, C., Halbleib, M., Smith, J. I., Gibson, W. P., Doggett, M. K., Taylor, G. H.,... & Pasteris, P. P. (2008). Physiographically sensitive mapping of climatological temperature and precipitation across the conterminous United States. International journal of climatology, 28(15), Oakley, N. S., & Daudert, B. (2016). Establishing Best Practices to Improve Usefulness and Usability of Web Interfaces Providing Atmospheric Data. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 97(2),

University of California - Davis

University of California - Davis The Tahoe Climate Information Management System (TahoeClim) A Proposal to SNPLMA (Southern Nevada Land Planning and Management Agency) Round 10 Air Quality and Meteorology Sub-theme: 3c. Understanding