NAMEHYDROMETEOROLOGICALWORKINGGROUP

Motivation and Coordinated Activities

Connecting the Hydrologic Cycle…Exploration of Terrestrial Linkages

Leverage on the body of scientific and human dimensions research currently proposed under NAME to:

Improve hydrometerological and hydroclimatic process knowledge and contribute to dynamic management of water resources in the NAM region.

Hydroclimatic Linkages in NAME

Precipitation

Evaporation

Deep Percolation

Hydroclimatic Linkages in NAMEPrecipitation

Evaporation

Intensity : Frequency : Duration : Areal Coverage : Forcing

Soils : Vegetation Dynamics : Antecedent Moisture : Forcing

Previous Findings…(Dettinger and Diaz, JHM 1(4), 289-310; Gochis et al., 2003, JHM, in press. )

Latitudinal transition to a summer-dominated regime proceeding southward from Mogollon Rim.

Monthly Percent of Mean Annual Flow Volume

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0.05

0.10

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0.25

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0.35

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Month

% o

f Ann

ual F

low

Salt River near Chrysotile, AZ

Verde River, Camp Verde, AZ

Gila River near Clifton, AZ

San Pedro @ Charleston, AZ

Rio Sonoita, Sonora, MX

Rio Mayo, Sonora, MX

Rio Fuerte, Sinaloa, MX

Previous Findings… Climatological peak flows tend to lag peak

precipitation by 1-2 months (Dett.&Diaz, ibid.) Interannual streamflow values are linked to both

ENSO (Magana,1999) and PDO (Brito-Castillo et al., Atmosfera, 2002) but there exists both constructive and destructive tendencies in correlation structure.

Evidence via diagnostics and modeling results of possible feedbacks between soil moisture and snow cover and the strength of the North American Monsoon system (NAMS).

Previous Findings…

Existence of a midsummer drought in parts of Mexico, peripheral to the “core” monsoon region of the SMO.

Smaller scale basin responses dominated by precipitation structure: short-duration (0.5-1.0hr) high-intensity (10-100mm/hr) storms. (Michaud et al. 2001)

But…likely that many catchment-scale studies remain to be translated from Spanish-speaking literature and CNA reports !

Lingering Uncertainties… How are seasonal and shorter term, higher-order

precipitation characteristics related to streamflow? Given the uncertainty in precipitation observations,

what confidence is there in existing estimations of runoff fractions? What fraction is recycled to the atmosphere?

What influences do the meso-climates, terrain and vegetation of the SMO, the Mexican plateau and the coastal regions have on hydrological cycling/partitioning?

Meso-climate aspects of the NAMPrecipitation

Evaporation

Intensity : Frequency : Duration : Areal Coverage : Forcing

Soils : Vegetation Dynamics : Antecedent Moisture : Forcing

Meso-climate aspects of the NAM

Lingering Uncertainties… How are seasonal and longer term, higher-order precipitation

characteristics related to streamflow? Given the uncertainty in precipitation observations, what

confidence is there in existing estimations of runoff fractions? What fraction is recycled to the atmosphere?

What influences do the meso-climates, terrain and vegetation of the SMO, the Mexican plateau and the coastal regions have on hydrological cycling/partitioning?

To what extent do soil moisture and snow anomalies affect the evolution of the North American Monsoon, and can such relationships (if any) be demonstrated using long-term derived soil moisture and snow data sets?

Broad Goals of the NHWG: 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 availability and quality of hydrographic and physiographic data over the NAM region.

Identify critical processes and scales, which govern the generation of runoff, its movement over catchments, streamflow and moisture recycling to the atmosphere.

Improve existing frameworks for hydrologic simulation, ultimately resulting in measured increases in predictability.

Avenues for Opportunity….

Rainfall-Runoff ProcessStudies

Mexican Investigators+

International NAME Research Comm.

Improved Process Understanding and Improved Hydrologic Predictability

Land SurfaceForcing/Feedback

Studies

Building NHWG Linkages…

NHWG

International NAME Research Comm.

• intra-seasonal variability (MJO)• remote forcing (SST)

• extreme event likelihood (T.S.’s)

Mexican Investigators

• water user/manager informatics• local practices/policies

• data retrieval and sharing• technology transfer

Hydrographic Data Archive

NAME NETWORK MEXICAN NETWORK

Unified, Quality Controlled DatasetStandardized Data Formats

w/ Metadata

Data Synthesis for Hydrological Modeling

GIS FIELDSINITIALIZATION & FORCING DATA

Unified, Quality Controlled DatasetStandardized Data Formats

w/ Metadata

RadiationTemperature

WindPrecipitationSoil Moisture

Endgame: Improve Existing Frameworks in Simulation…

…Resulting in Increased Predictability

NHWG

Increased Process Knowledge

Standardized Data Archive for Simulation,

Calibration and Verification

Knowledge of Large-Scale Hydroclimatic

Controls

Increased Awarenessof Water User/ManagerNeeds and Constraints