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2 <br />METHODS <br />Model Description <br />The instream water temperature model, developed by the Instream <br />Flow and Aquatic Systems Group, Western Energy and Land Use Team <br />(WELUT), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, was used to model water temper- <br />atures in the Yampa River in Dinosaur National Monument. The model <br />documentation (Theurer et al., 1984) provides a complete description of <br />the model. The model predicts instream water temperatures from either <br />historical or synthetic hydrology, meteorology, and stream geometry. <br />The instream water temperature model has two major components for <br />predicting water temperatures, a regression model and a physical process <br />model. The regression model uses the same input parameters as the <br />physical process model and is used to complete missing data and smooth <br />existing data for headwaters and interior validation locations. <br />The physical process model consists of six components: (1) a solar <br />model to predict solar radiation penetrating the water surface; (2) a <br />meteorology model that transfers meteorological data from a single <br />station to each point in the stream system; (3) a heat flux model to <br />predict energy balance between the water and surrounding environment; <br />(4) a heat transport model to predict mean daily water temperatures and <br />diurnal fluctuations in temperatures; (5) a shade model to predict solar <br />radiation weighted shading from riparian and topographic shade; and <br />(6) procedures to calibrate the model to known interior water temper- <br />atures using certain physical parameters (Theurer and Voos 1982, Theurer <br />1983). <br />Input Data <br />Required input data for the model is meteorology, hydrology, and <br />stream geometry. For the Yampa River modeling only historical meteorol- <br />ogy data was used. The years modeled were 1975, 1976, 1977, 1981, 1982, <br />and 1983. The first three years were chosen after reviewing meteorol- <br />ogical records and are historical data for a colder than normal year <br />(1975), a near normal historical year (1976), and a warmer than normal <br />year (1977). The years 1981, 1982, and 1983 were included because they <br />coincided with years that data were collected for the endangered <br />Colorado squawfish in the Yampa Canyon. Weekly time periods from <br />March 1 to August 15 were modeled each year. <br />Meteorological data. Meteorological data for air temperature, wind <br />speed, relative humidity, and percent possible sunshine was obtained <br />from U.S. Weather Bureau records for the study area. Daily meteorol- <br />ogical data were summarized to obtain a weekly mean for each parameter. <br />National Park Service fire weather data collected at Dinosaur <br />National Monument Quarry was used as input to the model as representing <br />the meteorological conditions for the Yampa Canyon. The period of data