CRCMD 5th Meeting, November 14th, 2008 Katja Winger presented CRCM5 for beginners. CRCMD 6th Meeting, January 20th, 2009 The first meeting of the year was about the discussions that were to come later this year. CRCMD 7th Meeting, March 19th, 2009 Minwei Qian explained the « Difficulties of Arctic Climate Simulation using a Regional Climate Model and their Solutions ». CRCMD 8th Meeting, April 21st 2009 Ping Du presented a workshop on the « Evaluation of Four Bulk Microphysics schemes for the simulation of Arctic Mixed-phased clouds during SHEBA and M_PACE ». CRCMD 9th Meeting, June 23rd 2009 Debasish Pai Mazumder presented his PhD work at University of Alaska : « A Concept to Assess the Performance of a Permafrost Model Run Fully Coupled with a Climate Model ».

Group Meetings Since June 12th, there were CRCMD group meetings scheduled approximately every month. The intent of these meetings is to give an opportunity to students and researchers to present their projects and share their latest results.

CRCMD 2nd Meeting, July 8th, 2008 Bernard Dugas presented the fifth version of CRCM and Pierre-Luc Carpentier gave a summary of the 18-th AMS

Symposium on boundary layer and turbulence. CRCMD 3rd Meeting, August 19th, 2008 Mathieu Moretti discussed about « Spectral nudging and CRCMD sensitivity to domain size», followed by Phillippe Doyon-Poulin who presented some results on « Parameterisation of Lakes in CRCM ».

CRCMD 4th Meeting, September 23rd, 2008 Leo Separovic presented “First results and methodological approach to parameter perturbations in GEM-LAM seasonal simulations“ from his PhD, and Étienne Tourigny concluded the meeting with a slide show featuring his travel to South America.

René Laprise in the Excellence Circle of the University of Quebec René Laprise is the only author from Quebec who contributed to writing the 4th Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report. This report received, on October 12th 2007, the Nobel Peace Prize. For this distinction, on August 27th 2008, Mr. Laprise was named in the Excellence Circle of the University of Quebec. Dr Laprise is the director of the ESCER Center for study and simulation of regional climate since 2003. He was the leader of the Canadian Regional Climate Modelling and Diagnostics network (CRCMD).

CRCMD Network/ESCER Centre Biannual Journal

A joint publication of

the CRCMD Network

and the ESCER Centre

August 18th, 2009

Volume 1, Number 3

News Highlights

New faculty in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Laxmi Sushama Dr. Sushama obtained her Bachelor of Sciences in Engineering from University of Kerala, India and a Master’s degree in Hydromechanics and Water Resources Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. She also holds a Master’s degree in Hydrology from University of Ireland. She obtained her doctoral degree from University of Melbourne, Australia, where she studied the dynamics of mid-latitude ocean currents. She continued her post-doctoral studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she investigated the low frequency variability of the mid-latitude wind-driven circulation using Dynamical Systems Theory. In December 2002, she joined the CRCMD Network as a post-doc and later on she worked for Ouranos Consortium. Dr. Sushama joined UQAM as a new faculty in December 2008. She holds a Canada Research Chair in Regional Climate Modelling; her primary area of interest is land surface modelling, land climate interactions, and hydrology in climate models.

ArcticNet conference 2008 Coinciding with the pinnacle of the International Polar Year and the 400th anniversary of Quebec City, Arctic Change 2008 welcomed researchers from all fields of Arctic research and all countries to address the global challenges brought by climate change in the circum-Arctic. The conference was held at Quebec City Convention Centre from 9-12 December 2008. Laxmi Sushama and Anne Frigon organized a session on land surface processes and land climate interactions. Patrick Samuelsson, from SMHI, was invited to present in this session; In addition, Éric Girard, Jean-Pierre Blanchet, Andrey Martynov, Minwei Qian, Tarek Ayache, Jean-Philippe Blanchette, Patrick Grenier et Rodrigo Munoz-Alpizar presented their results at the meeting.

RCM Workshop 2009 in Lund This workshop on Regional Climate Modeling was held in Lund, Sweden, from May 4th to 8th 2009. Developments and progress of the last five years were reviewed along with an open discussion of issues and expected future challenges related to regional climate modelling. René Laprise, Adelina Alexandru, Marko Markovic, Alejandro Di Luca, Dorina Surcel, Martin Leduc and Leo Separovic attended the workshop; some researchers from Ouranos Consortium were also present at this meeting; certains chercheurs du Consortium Ouranos étaient également présents à cette réunion. Toledo Great Lakes IAGLR 2009 The University of Toledo in Ohio hosted the 52nd annual conference of the IAGLR (International Association of Great Lakes Research), from May 18th to 22nd, 2009. The meeting focused on the emerging concerns and the interrelationships between ecosystems and environmental health. The conference also addressed other research subjects among which were invasive species, environmental toxins and the Great Lakes corridors. Andrey Martynov from CRCMD Network participated in this meeting.

CRCMD Science Meeting 2009 The Canadian Regional Climate Modelling and Diagnostics network (CRCMD) Science Meeting was organized from May 26

th to 29th, 2009 at the holiday resort Mont Gabriel, at Sainte-Àdèle. Most of the Network co-investigators and students, post-docs and RAs attended the meeting. Annette Rinke from the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany, Jens Christensen from the Danish Meteorological Institute, William Gutowski from Iowa State University, Diana Verseghy from the Climate Research Division in Downsview, Francis Zwiers from the Climate Research Division, and Jia Wang from NOAA/GLERL, in USA attended the meeting. André Musy, the director of OURANOS Consortium, and researchers Hélène Côté, Sébastien Biner, Ross Brown, Michel Giguère, Anne Frigon and Dominique Paquin also participated in the event.

Tim Aston from CFCAS and Ian Rutherford, executive director of the Canadian Meteorology and Oceanography Society (CMOS), were also present.

http://www.mrcc.uqam.ca/programmation_wsA.html CMOS Congress The annual congress of the Canadian Meteorology and Oceanography Society (CMOS) was held this year from May 31st to June 4th 2009 at the World Trade and Convention Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia. A session on Regional Climate

Modelling was convened at CMOS by Laxmi Sushama, René Laprise and Daniel Caya. Some of our members participated: Minwei Qian, Andrey Martynov, Maya Rapaic, Jean-Philippe Paquin, Micheal Jr. Powers, Dragana Kornic, Oumarou Nikiema, Raphaël Bresson, Jean-Philippe Blanchette, Bratislav Mladjic, Danahé Paquin-Ricard, Marco Braun, Vincent Poitras, Katja Winger and Zav Kothavala.

2nd International Summit on Hurricanes and Climate Change Building on the successful inaugural summit on hurricanes and climate change held in spring 2007, the second summit was held during May 31-Jun 5, 2009, in Corfu, Greece. The purpose was to bring together researchers from all over the world to discuss new research related to global warming and hurricanes. Louis-Philippe Caron was present at this meeting.

Summer school on « Climate Variability and Climate Change : Estimating and Reducing Uncertainties» A Summer School on "Climate Variability and Climate Change: Estimating and Reducing Uncertainties" was organized in Visegrád between 8th and 17th of June, 2009. Laxmi Sushama was an invited speaker; Emilia Diaconescu and Leo Separovic from the Network were also present at this international school.

CWRA 2009 « Trends and New Challenges in Water Resources Management » The Canadian Water Resources Association’s (CWRA) 62nd annual conference on trends and new challenges related to water quantity and quality was held in Quebec City. More than 400 participants attended the meeting from June 9-12. René Laprise was a plenary speaker. In addition to Andrey Martynov, some researchers from Ouranos Consortium attended the meeting. Arctic System Model Workshop III International Collaboration in Arctic System Modelling The third Arctic System Modelling workshop was held at UQAM, July 16-17, 2009. Laxmi Sushama was a member of the

organizing committee. The theme of the workshop was International Collaboration in Arctic System Modelling. More details are available at : http://www.iarc.uaf.edu/workshops/2009/arctic_system_model_09/

MOCA 2009 « Our Warming Planet » MOCA, the joint assembly of IAMAS (International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences), IAPSO (International Association of the Physical Sciences of the Oceans) and IACS (International Association for the Cryospheric Sciences) was held in July 2009 in Montréal, Québec, Canada. René Laprise and Pierre Gauthier of UQAM were invited speakers on Regional Climate Modelling, and, respectively on Advanced in Data Assimilation for Earth System Science. A session on Regional Climate Modelling was also convened by René Laprise, Jens Christensen (DMI) and Marcus Meier (SMHI). Most of CRCMD Network students, post-docs also presented their research results at this assembly. The next general assembly, the 25th, of IUGG, will be held at Melbourne, Australia from June 27- July 8, 2011.

Informations

Page 2 / 5

Lake Erie Center

Toledo great

lakes

IAGLR 2009

CRCMD Science

Meeting

Mont Gabriel

2009

« Sea and Sky

Come to Life »

CMOS 2009

«Welcome to

Quebec city»

CWRA 2009

Pursuing Graduate Studies News Post-Docs in the CRCMD Network : Marco Braun, Debasish Pai Mazumber and Loubna Benyahya Dr. Marco Braun studied geography, Spanish, and politics at the University of Augsburg in Germany. During an internship in Nepal, mapping glacier lake outburst flood hazards, he developed his interest for remote sensing. He obtained his Master’s degree in Geography and Remote Sensing from the University of Augsburg. Joining a small company in Munich, he worked on land-use classifications of satellite imagery to produce input data for hydrological models and assessed the possibilities of using remote sensing for different precision farming. Upon returning to University, he engaged in the validation of SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) topographic data and later joined the GLOWA-Danube research initiative, a research and development program on the comprehensive analysis of the future of water resources of the Upper Danube. During this time Marco earned his PhD developing a method for downscaling leaf area index derived from MODIS imagery.

Dr. Debasish Pai Mazumder obtained, in 2002, his BSc in Physics from University of Calcutta in India. From the same University, he obtained, two years later, his Master’s degree in Atmospheric Sciences for his work on atmospheric turbulence. He obtained his doctorate in 2009 in Atmospheric Sciences from the Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, USA, for his work entitled « A concept to assess the performance of a permafrost model run fully coupled with a climate model ». Both, Marco and Debasish are working on the assessment of climate change impacts on Canadian water resources through systematic analysis of hydro-meteorological fields simulated by different RCMs.

Page 3 / 5

In this third edition, we introduce a PhD student of the network, Danahé Paquin-Ricard. She finished her undergraduate studies in physics at University of Montreal in 2005 and her master’s degree in atmospheric sciences in 2008 at UQAM under the supervision of Colin Jones and Paul Vaillancourt. She is currently doing her PhD under the supervision of Paul Vaillancourt and René Laprise. Q : How did you choose atmospheric sciences? During my undergraduate studies in physics, I had done different summer jobs (in astrophysics and solid state physics) and those fields seemed pretty theoretical to me and far from our society issues. Then I turned to medical physics but the research schedule discouraged me. Finally, I discovered, a bit by chance, atmospheric sciences and the master’s degree at UQAM. It was everything I wanted: continuing studies in physics but in a field where the impacts on society are more direct, at least in my opinion. After a summer working under the supervision of Colin Jones, I was convinced and I started the master’s degree. Q : What is your PhD subject and why did you choose it?

I intend to pursue cloud-radiation interaction in the GEM model during my PhD research after having investigated this topic during my master's degree. As many researchers would undoubtedly say about their own area, I think that the simulation of clouds and their feedback in models still need improvement as such errors are responsible for a large portion of climate projection uncertainties. Thus, I will work on simulation of sub-grid scale cloud properties in the model. Q : On the personal side, what do you enjoy in life? Well, a lot of things! Recently, I got interested in biking and plan to go on a world bike tour in future. Meanwhile, I have discovered some talents of mine and I am practicing them during my free time while renovating my duplex! Q : You have just received a NSERC Scholarship of $105 000 for 2009-2012. Have you received other means of financing previously? Yes, I obtained $5000 scholarship from the J.A De Sève foundation for 2006-2007 and another one of $5000 from the Power Corporation for the year 2007-2008. These two scholarships were used to finance my master’s degree studies. Then, for the year 2008-2009, I obtained an amount of $6000 from the Zoom Media Scholarship, the FARE scholarship of $6000 for 2009-2010, and finally, the one from the NSERC. These last ones are for my doctorate.

Profile – Danahé Paquin-Ricard

“As many researchers would

undoubtedly say about their

own area, I think that the

simulation of clouds and their

feedback in models still need

improvement ”.

CRCMD Network Seminars

Comings and goings...

Page 4 / 5

We would like to congratulate all our 2008-2009 graduates and wish them good luck: M.Sc. in Atmosphere Sciences at UQAM: Samira Ben Said Étienne Tourigny, Mariane Peltier-Champigny, Elena Pison San Pedro, Aleksandra Tatarevic, Danahé Paquin-Picard, Philippe Roy, Dimitri Parishkura, Alejandro Di Luca, Pierre-Luc Carpentier, Nacera Chergui, Fayçal Lamraoui, Raphaël Bresson et Oumarou Nikiema.

July 15th 2008 Résulats récents et perspectives de recherche au Centre Européen de Prévision Météorologique à Moyen Terme (CEPMMT) by Jean-Noël Thépaut of CEPMMT September 9th 2008 La détection et l’analyse des interactions aérosol-nuages-précipitation dans les nuages optiquement minces sur les régions polaires durant l’hiver à partir des satellites, de PEARL et des simulations NARCM by Jean-Pierre Blanchet, Professor at Department of Atmospheric Sciences and Director of Environmental Sciences Institute, UQAM. September 22th 2008 The Segmentation of Reflectances from Moderate Resolution Remote Sensing Data for the Retrieval of Land Cover Specific Leaf Area Index by Marco Braun of Geography Department at University of Munich in Germany, GLOWA-Danube Project. September 22th 2008 Simulation and Analysis of Water Cycle in Global and Regional Climate Models by Dr. Yiwen Xu, of Air Quality Research Division, Environnement Canada. October 23th 2008 Variable-Resolution Modelling and Stretched-Grid Model Intercomparison Project (SGMIP-2) by Dr. Micheal Fox-Rabinovitz of University of Maryland.

October 29th 2008 SINERGIA : Involving Science and Society to Prepare for Global Warming in the Pantanal and in the Paraguay River Basin by Dr. Pierre Girard of Federal University of Mato Grosso, Brasil. December 8th 2008 Experiences from RCM Simulations Over High Latitude Regions Coupled to Lake, Snow and Forest Processes by Dr. Patrick Samuelsson from Suedish Meteorologic and Hydrologic Institute (SMHI). December 16th 2008 Évaluation de GEM dans la couche limite stable sur l’océan Arctique durant SHEBA by Pierre-Luc Carpentier. December 16th 2008 Paramétrisation sous-maille des précipitations chaudes à l’aide de la campagne RICO by Sandra Turner, PhD student at CNRM, Météo-France. Fabruary 10th 2009 Projected Arctic Warming, Rapid Sea Ice Loss, and Snow State changes: Influences on Near-Surface Permafrost Degradation by Dr. David Lawrence, of National Center for Atmospheric Rsearch (NCAR). July 15th 2009 Impact, Implication, Response and Adaptation : the Challenge of Global Warming for Work and Employment in Canada by Carla Lipsig-Mummé, professor and coordinator, Labour Studies, York University, Canada and Honorary Professor of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash University, Australia.

Dr. Loubna Benyahya graduated (PhD) from the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS-ETE) of Québec in 2007. Loubna Benyahya's thesis developed and tested new statistical approaches of water temperature modelling for effective water resources management. From 2007 to 2009, Dr Benyahya worked as postdoctoral researcher in Civil and Water Resources Engineering at Dalhousie University. Loubna Benyahya is working currently at UQAM under the supervision of Professors Philippe Gachon and René Laprise. Her work focuses on the development of new predictors for the study of extremes utilising downscaling techniques and extreme event analysis.

Changes in CRCMD Network Mr. Zav Kothavala left UQAM to take up a faculty position at Concordia University in July 2009. We wish him all the very best in his new job. Summer Interns at CRCMD Network Mélissa Cholette: She is collaborating with the publication of this joint newsletter of CRCMD Network and ESCER Centre and will also be cataloguing previously published scientific articles, under the direction of Adelina Alexandru. Simon Forcier : He is studying the effect of lakes on CRCM simulated climate over North America, under the direction of Jean Philippe Paquin . Sanela Music : Senela has a big interest in scientific research particularly in climate change ; she is joining the CRCMD Network this summer to gain more knowledge on climate modelling; she is working with Adelina Alexandru.

CRCMD Network Université du Québec à Montréal

Président-Kennedy Building (PK-2315)

201 Président-Kennedy Avenue Montreal, QC

H2X 3Y7

Coordinator : Adelina Alexandru

TELEPHONE : (514) 987.3000

TELECOPIE :

(514) 987.6853

COURRIER: adelina@sca.uqam.ca

Mailing Address: ESCER Centre

CP 8888, Centre-Ville Station Montreal, QC

H3C 3P8

Street Address: ESCER Centre

Université du Québec à Montréal Président-Kennedy Building

(PK-2315) 201 Président-Kennedy Avenue

Montreal, QC H2X 3Y7

Coordinator:

Delphine Person

TELEPHONE: (514) 987. 3000 x 4339

FAX :

(514) 987. 6853

E-MAIL: person.delphine@uqam.ca

News Roundup !

Funding Scholarships are available for students registered for graduate degrees in 2009 Fall Session. For Master’s program, the scholarship amount is $5 000/session for the first year and $5 767/session for the second year. For the Doctoral degree, the scholarship is $7 200 per session. The scholarships are renewable for 2010 winter session depending on the academic performance and the availability of funds. Academic excellence is the main selection criteria for these scholarships.

Gary Goodyear, Minister of State (Sciences and Technologies) and Jean-Pierre Blackburn, Minister of State (Agriculture), announced allocation of $500 000 to the new Canada Research Chair in Regional Climate Modeling Dr. Laxmi Sushama.

Subvention of $685 000 for Professor at UQÀM May 27th 2009, the Ministry of « Developpement Durable, Environnement et Parcs (MDDEP) » offered to Dr. Marie Larocque $685 000 funding for the realization of her project on subterranean waters of the Bécancour River.

Honours roll Michel-Jurdant Award of ACFAS October 17th 2008, Dr. René Laprise received this prize awarded by the Association francophone pour le savoir (ACFAS). This prize for research activities in environmental sciences is awarded to persons whose work and scientific excellence has an impact on the society. We would like to congratulate: At first, we would like to congratulate Étienne Tourigny, who started his Ph.D. at CCST (Centra de Ciência do Sistema Terrestre) in Brazil, under the direction of Carlos Nobre. He will be studying the carbon cycle feedback in the Amazonian forest.

and our 2008-2009 Scholarship Recipients: EXCELLENCE SCHOLARSHIP OF SCIENCE FACULTY –$2 000 Dragana Kornic (Msc-2009), Jean-Philippe Paquin (PhD-2009) and Alejandro Di Luca (PhD-2009). NSGRC SCHOLARSHIP – ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL – $35 000 Jean-Philippe Blanchet (PhD), Danahé Paquin-Ricard (PhD 2009-2010) and Serge-Alexandre Demers-Giroux (summer research scholarship for 2009- 4 500$) FQRNT SCHOLARSHIP – RÉAL-DÉCOSTE – $20 000 Martin Deshaies-Jacques (PhD 2008-2009 et 2009-2010), Stefan Broda (PhD 2008-2009) and Jean-Philippe Paquin (PhD 2009-2010). FARE SCHOLARSHIP – $6 000 Danahé Paquin-Ricard (PhD 2009-2010) and Jean-Philippe Paquin (PhD 2009-2010). GEC3 SCHOLARSHIP – $2 000 Alejandro Di Luca (PhD-2009) Did you know that? On May 29th 2009, an international panel of experts led by NOAA released a new prediction for the next solar cycle : Solar Cycle 24 will peak in May 2013 with a below-average number of sunspots. For more details, please go to : http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/29may_noaaprediction.htm

Writing and page setting: Adelina Alexandru and Mélissa Cholette

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