11.6
High-resolution land surface prediction system for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games
Natacha Bernier, Environment Canada, Dorval, QC, Canada; and S. Bélair, L. Tong, M. Abrahamowicz, and J. Mailhot
The 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games will take place in Vancouver, Canada, from 12 to 28 February 2010 and from 12 to 21 March 2010, respectively. In order to provide the best possible guidance achievable with current state-of-the-art science and technology, Environment Canada is currently setting up an experimental numerical prediction system for these special events. This includes several new and original tools that will be used to adapt and refine predictions near and at the surface. A very high-resolution two-dimensional surface system, with 100-m grid size, will cover the Vancouver Olympic area. Using adaptation methods to improve the forcing from the lower-resolution atmospheric models, these 2D surface models better represent surface processes, and thus lead to better predictions of snow conditions and near-surface air temperature. Based on a similar strategy, a single-point model will be implemented to better predict surface characteristics at each station of an observing network especially deployed for the 2010 events. The main advantage of this single-point system is that surface observations can be used as forcing for the land surface models, and can even be assimilated to improve initial conditions of surface variables such as snow depth and surface temperatures. The configuration of the experimental numerical prediction system will be presented at the conference, together with an evaluation of its performance for winter 2007-2008.
Session 11, Verification of Hydrological Forecasts—II
Thursday, 15 January 2009, 1:30 PM-3:00 PM, Room 127B
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