Weather station

About: Weather station is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1789 publications have been published within this topic receiving 42864 citations. The topic is also known as: meteorological station & meteorological observation post.

Alternative climate data sources for distributed hydrological modelling on a daily time step.

Abstract: Two major criteria in choosing climate data for use in hydrological modelling are the period of record of the data set and the proximity of the collection platform(s) to the basin under study. Conventional data sets are derived from weather stations; however, in many cases there are no weather stations sufficiently close to a basin to be representative of climate conditions in that basin. In addition, it is often the case either that the period of record for the weather station(s) does not cover the period of the proposed simulation or that there are gaps in the data. Therefore, the objectives of this study are to investigate alternative climate data sources for use in hydrological modelling and to develop a protocol for creating hydrological data sets that are spatially and temporally harmonized. The methods we used for constructing daily, spatially distributed, climatic data sets of precipitation, maximum and minimum temperature, wind speed, solar radiation, potential evapotranspiration, and relative humidity are described. The model used in this study was the Soil and Water Assessment Tool implemented on the Mimbres River Basin located in southwestern New Mexico, USA, for the period 2003–2006. Our hydrological simulations showed that two events in January and February 2005 were missed, while an event in August 2006 was well simulated. We have also investigated the usefulness of several other precipitation data sets and compared the simulation results. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Partitioning Evapotranspiration Over the Continental United States Using Weather Station Data

Abstract: Accurately characterizing evapotranspiration is critical when predicting the response of the hydrologic cycle to climate change. Although Earth system models estimate similar magnitudes of global evapotranspiration, the magnitude of each contributing source varies considerably between models due to the lack of evapotranspiration partitioning data. Here we develop an observation-based method to partition evapotranspiration into soil evaporation and transpiration using meteorological data and satellite soil moisture retrievals. We apply the methodology at 1,614 weather stations across the continental United States during the summers of 2015 and 2016. We evaluate the method using vegetation indices inferred from satellites, finding strong spatial correlations between modeled transpiration and solar-induced fluorescence (r = 0.87), and modeled vegetation fraction and leaf area index (r = 0.70). Since the sensitivity of evapotranspiration to environmental factors depends on the contribution of each source component, understanding the partitioning of evapotranspiration is increasingly important with climate change. Plain Language Summary Water moves from the land surface to the overlying atmosphere by evaporation. The two main sources of evaporation include (1) evaporation from soils and (2) evaporation from pores on plants, called transpiration. Although methods exist to measure total evaporation over an ecosystem, it is challenging to observe soil evaporation and transpiration separately over an ecosystem. Consequently, the amount of estimated soil evaporation and transpiration varies considerably across models. In this study, we develop an observation-based method to estimate the fraction of water moved from the land to the atmosphere by plants, or the fraction of total evaporation that comes from transpiration. The method primarily relies on weather station data and soil moisture estimates from a recently launched satellite. We apply the method across the continental United States during the summers of 2015 and 2016 and evaluate it using observations of plants inferred from other satellites. Looking toward the future, it is important to estimate transpiration and soil evaporation correctly because they respond differently to changes in climate.

A 17-year Record of Meteorological Observations Across the Gran Campo Nevado Ice Cap in Southern Patagonia, Chile, Related to Synoptic Weather Types and Climate Modes

Abstract: The network of long-term meteorological observations in Southernmost Patagonia is still sparse but crucial to improve our understanding of climatic variability, in particular in the more elevated and partially glaciated Southernmost Andes. Here we present a unique 17-year meteorological record (2000-2016) of four automatic weather stations across the Gran Campo Nevado Ice Cap (53$^{\circ}$S) in the Southernmost Andes (Chile) and the conventional weather station Jorge Schythe of the Instituto de la Patagonia in Punta Arenas for comparison. We revisit the relationship between in-situ observations and large-scale climate models as well as mesoscale weather patterns. For this purpose, a 37-year record of ERA Interim Reanalysis data has been used to compute a weather type classification based on a hierarchical correlation-based leader algorithm. The orographic perturbation on the predominantly westerly airflow determines the hydroclimatic response across the mountain range, leading to significant west-east gradients of precipitation, air temperature and humidity. Annual precipitation sums heavily drop within only tens of kilometers from \textasciitilde 7500 mm\,a$^{-1}$ to less than 800 mm\,a$^{-1}$. The occurrence of high precipitation events of up to 620 mm in 5 days and wet spells of up to 61 consecutive days underscore the year-around wet conditions in the Southernmost Andes. Given the strong link between large-scale circulation and orographically controlled precipitation, the synoptic-scale weather conditions largely determine the precipitation and temperature variability on all time scales. Major synoptic weather types with distinct low-pressure cells in the Weddell Sea or Bellingshausen Sea, causing a prevailing southwesterly, northwesterly or westerly airflow, determine the weather conditions in Southernmost Patagonia during 68$\%$ of the year. At Gran Campo Nevado, more than 80$\%$ of extreme precipitation events occur during the persistence of these weather types. The evolution of the El Ni\~{n}o Southern Oscillation and Antarctic Oscillation impose intra- and inter-annual precipitation and temperature variations. Positive Antarctic Oscillation phases on average are linked to an intensified westerly airflow and warmer conditions in Southernmost Patagonia. Circulation patterns with high-pressure influence leading to colder and dryer conditions in Southernmost Patagonia are more frequent during negative Antarctic Oscillation phases.