CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Ainslie, B.; and Jackson, P.
Date : 2008.
Title : Development of high resolution climatological temperature and precipitation fields over B.C. for use in statistical downscaling and glacier mass balance studies.
Publication : Water, Weather, and Climate: Science Informing Decisions. Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society 2008 Congress. May 25-29, 2008, Kelowna, British Columbia.
Issue :
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Abstract
Glacier melt provides an important source of water in Western Canada during the summer months. Potential changes in glacier runoff, due to climate change is of great importance to electric utilities, agriculture, fisheries, forestry and tourism. In the Pacific Northwest, glacier mass melt is largely driven by summertime temperatures and and compensated by wintertime precipitation. In order to properly assess the sensitivity of glacier mass balance to climate change, it is necessary to know the present spatio-temporal distributions of both temperature and precipitation. Due do the region's complex topography and coastal boundaries, the climatology of both these fields show large variability which is difficult to characterize either solely from observations or via low resolution numerical weather prediction models. In this research, we present high resolution temperature and precipitation fields over BC developed using the RAMS meso-scale model. We compare these fields with equivalent gridded temperature and precipitation fields developed using statistical methods (PRISM and CRU) as well as by dynamical methods (NARR) using an independent observational dataset comprised of measurements from BC ministry of Highways, Ministry of Forestry and Ministry of the Environment meteorological stations. We show the value added through the dynamical development of meteorological fields in regions of complex terrain. We then use these dynamically developed temperature and precipitation fields to develop statistical relationships with GCM model output. We compare the resulting statistically downscaled fields at the regional level with similar fields developed using other gridded temperature and precipitation products.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology