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- West-wide Evapotranspiration Forecast Network
West-wide Evapotranspiration Forecast Network
Project ID: 1763
Principal Investigator: Michael Tansey
Research Topic: Managing Hydrologic Events
Funded Fiscal Years:
2017,
2018 and
2019
Keywords: None
Research Question
The Climate Change and Water Working Group (CCWWG 2013) identified needs for both short term monitoring and forecast products with lead times ranging from hours to years to improve water resource decision making. This proposal addresses both monitoring of daily ETo at agro-meteorology stations and forecasting of ETo based on downscaled meteorological variables from the NOAA Global Forecast System (GFS) model and seasonal forecasts of ETo using NOAA CPC and IRI seasonal forecasts. The combination of ETo monitoring with forecasted ETo will provide the data necessary to evaluate the reliability, skill and uncertainty of the ETo products and serve as guidance in their improvement. This proposal also addresses Open Water Data Initiative (OWDI) goals by leveraging a previously developed web based platform which provides both daily ETo computed from agro-meteorology stations with forecasted ETo from the GFS model and seasonal climate outlooks from CPC and IRI.
Need and Benefit
The Climate Change and Water Working Group (CCWWG, 2013) identified the need (M1) to sustain existing monitoring systems that provide observations of weather and hydrologic conditions. The CCWWG report also described needs for forecasting products (F1, F8) with information describing product skill, reliability, and development (U1), synthesizing available hydroclimate information with applicability to water management situations (U2), support for product evolution to accommodate new observations and research developments (E1), development of products that interface more readily with information systems commonly used in the water management community (E2).
Reclamation's AgriMet network which has over 70 agro-meteorology stations located in the Pacific Northwest, Great Plains, Upper Colorado and Mid Pacific regions are potential stations where the addition of forecasting products would address the needs identified by the CCWWG. In addition, there are many other similar networks located throughout the West (http://www.agwaterconservation.colostate.edu/ToolsWeather.aspx) where partnership opportunities exist.
Contributing Partners
Contact the Principal Investigator for information about partners.
Research Products
Bureau of Reclamation Review
The following documents were reviewed by experts in fields relating to this project's study and findings. The results were determined to be achieved using valid means.
The West-wide Evapotranspiration
Forecast (WwET4Cast) Network (final, PDF, 2.2MB)
By Dr. Michael Tansey, Dr. David Yates, and Dr. Caspar Ammann
Report completed on September 30, 2021
