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| NAME Hydrometeorological Working Group | ||||
Executive Summary
The overarching goals of the NAME program are to improve understanding of the primary mechanisms responsible for establishing the warm season circulation and its associated variability and to improve the prediction of warm season precipitation over North America. The NAME Hydrometeorological Working Group (NHWG) was formed to address critical issues pertaining to hydrometeorology, hydroclimatology and water resources throughout the NAME region. From recent analyses, it is clearly evident that there exists an increasing warm season influence on hydrologic systems, in general, and streamflow, in particular, as one proceeds southward from the southern Rocky Mountain region into the core region of the North American Monsoon (NAM) in western Mexico. Catchments within the core region of the NAM exhibit, on average, maximum precipitation and runoff during the summer and early fall months from July through October. Most of the precipitation falling in these catchments is derived from diurnal, topographically -forced convection although organized transient features such as tropical easterly waves and tropical cyclones also contribute. While the North American Monsoon Experiment (NAME) Science Plan acknowledges surface hydrologic processes as important elements in the generation and sustenance of the NAM climate system and its associated variability, many key issues related to the generation of streamflow, soil moisture and, more broadly, water resources are not specifically addressed. It is the intent of the of the NAME Hydrometeorology Working Group (NHWG) to define such critical issues and provide, in the context of NAME, process critical data and research which address current uncertainties in hydrologic understanding in the NAM region. The synthesis of such findings is aimed at the underlying goal of NAME itself, which is to increase predictability in warm season hydroclimatic processes.
Preliminary discussions among NHWG members have identified the following core issues which require address during the NAME research effort:
- Build relationships to Mexican and U.S. water resource managers and the NAME atmospheric research community for determination of critical information requirements necessary for dynamic water resources management.
- Inventory and document the availability and quality of current hydrographic and physiographic data over Mexico and the southwestern United States. To the degree possible, provide cost-effective recommendations for obtaining critical but unavailable data during NAME.
- Identify critical processes and scales, which govern the generation of surface runoff, its movement over catchments, streamflow and moisture recycling to the atmosphere.
- Improve, through increased process knowledge, existing frameworks for hydrologic simulations, ultimately resulting in measured increases in hydrologic predictability.
Powerpoint presentation overview of the goals of the NHWG.
Mail comments to Dave Gochis at ucar.edu