WMOD00425

• Title: Demonstration of Improved Operational Water Resources Management Through Use of Better Snow Water Equivalent Information
• Date: 9/1/2002
• Weather Modification - Doc Type: Report

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6. Develop the means to provide gridded fields of radar-estimated SWE to NOHRSC in a timely
fashion. This task has been delayed because NOHRSC did not implement a system (SNODAS)
to ingest such SWEs until recently and is still testing the system. P AA output resolution for
NOHRSC was increased to a nominal 2- by 2-km subset of the HRAP grid. Operational data
flow is expected in late 2002, using Reclamation S&T Program funds.

7. Begin to use special snow gauge and airborne SWE observations to better "calibrate" the
SAAfor the GCIP LSA-NC and Large Scale Area-Northwest (LSA-NW) regions. This was done
for the GCIP LSA-NC and LSA-NW region, beginning in the 1998-99 winter season (Super and
Holroyd, 1998).

8. Provide an annual report describing accomplishments and findings. This was completed in
1998 and is addressed in section 3.1.

9. Access near-real-time NEXRAD radar Level ill reflectivity products at:

· KMPX, Chanhassen, Minnesota
· KBIS, Bismarck, North Dakota
· KABR, Aberdeen, South Dakota
· KMVX, Grand Forks, North Dakota
· KMPX, Minneapolis, Minnesota
· KDLH, Duluth, Minnesota
· KMBX, Minot, North Dakota
· KUDX, Rapid City, South Dakota
· KBLX, Billings, Montana
· KGGW, Glasgow, Montana
· KTFX, Great Falls, Montana

This was done before the 1999-2000 cool season. A year later, a radar was added at KFSD,
Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

10. Update hourly accumulations for alII 0 radars according to the approximate 4-km HRAP
grid specified by the NOHRSC. This was done before the 1999-2000 cool season.

11. Provide a real-time, 10 radar composite that extendedfrom Duluth, Minnesota, to Great
Falls, Montana. This was also done before the 1999-2000 cool season. An 11th radar (Sioux
Falls, South Dakota) was added before the following cool season.

12. Update the SAA to account for range correction and virga errors. A climatological range
correction based on data from nine KMPX-area snowstorms was implemented before the 1999-
2000 cool season. A virga rejection scheme was finished in early 2000.

13. Provide radar SWE estimates to NOHRSC in near-real-time for them to merge with other
data sets in development of gridded fields of SWE and snow cover. The first winter (1998-99) of
near-real-time use ofWSR-88D SWE estimates will use the Chanhassen radar. PAA output has

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