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Abstract
During Northern Hemisphere winters, the West Coast of North America is battered by extratropical storms. The impact of these storms is of paramount concern to California, where aging water supply and flood protection infrastructures are challenged by increased standards for urban flood protection, an unusually variable weather regime, and projections of climate change. Additionally, there are inherent conflicts between releasing water to provide flood protection and storing water to meet requirements for the water supply, water quality, hydropower generation, water temperature and flow for at-risk species, and recreation. To improve reservoir management and meet the increasing demands on water, improved forecasts of precipitation, especially during extreme events, are required. Here, the authors describe how California is addressing their most important and costliest environmental issue—water management—in part, by installing a state-of-the-art observing system to better track the area’s most severe wintertime storms.
Abstract
During Northern Hemisphere winters, the West Coast of North America is battered by extratropical storms. The impact of these storms is of paramount concern to California, where aging water supply and flood protection infrastructures are challenged by increased standards for urban flood protection, an unusually variable weather regime, and projections of climate change. Additionally, there are inherent conflicts between releasing water to provide flood protection and storing water to meet requirements for the water supply, water quality, hydropower generation, water temperature and flow for at-risk species, and recreation. To improve reservoir management and meet the increasing demands on water, improved forecasts of precipitation, especially during extreme events, are required. Here, the authors describe how California is addressing their most important and costliest environmental issue—water management—in part, by installing a state-of-the-art observing system to better track the area’s most severe wintertime storms.
Abstract
Enhancements to signal processing and data collection in the dual-polarization Weather Surveillance Radar-1988 Doppler (WSR-88D) to increase its detection capability yield observations of “fine” structures from Bragg scatterers. Several types of the fine structures observed in and above the boundary layer are discussed. These Bragg scatter structures include the top of the convective boundary layer, nonprecipitating clouds, strong convective plumes above the boundary layer, and a layer of weak reflections associated with decaying boundary layer turbulence. A conclusion that data from polarimetric WSR-88Ds can be used to obtain the depth of the convective boundary layer is made.
Abstract
Enhancements to signal processing and data collection in the dual-polarization Weather Surveillance Radar-1988 Doppler (WSR-88D) to increase its detection capability yield observations of “fine” structures from Bragg scatterers. Several types of the fine structures observed in and above the boundary layer are discussed. These Bragg scatter structures include the top of the convective boundary layer, nonprecipitating clouds, strong convective plumes above the boundary layer, and a layer of weak reflections associated with decaying boundary layer turbulence. A conclusion that data from polarimetric WSR-88Ds can be used to obtain the depth of the convective boundary layer is made.
