Environment Canada (EC) – Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC)
Meteorologists’ Training
Monthly Newsletter
March 2002
Upcoming Training
College of DuPage Severe Weather Workshop
Operational Workshop at Greenwood
Doppler Radar and Severe Weather Conference
Mountain Weather Spring Seminar
RCNC Aviation Workshop
25th Conference on Hurricanes and Tropical Meteorology
6th Annual Northern Plains Workshop
Western Canada Weather Workshop
13th Conference on Applied Climatology
10th Conference on Aviation, Range and Aerospace Meteorology
12th Joint Conference on Air Pollution Meteorology and Waste
Management
The Northern Environment - 36th CMOS Congress
11th Conference on Cloud Physics
10th Conference on Mountain Meteorology
31st Conference on Broadcast Meteorology
21st Conference on Severe Local Storms
19th Conference on Weather Analysis & Forecasting
15th Conference on Numerical Weather Prediction
Mid-Atlantic States Winter Storms Regional Conference
7th International Workshop on Wave Hindcasting and Forecasting
NWA 2002 Annual Meeting
15th International Conference of Biometeorology and Aerobiology
March 14-16
March 15
March 21-23
April 18
April 23 & 25
April 29 - May 3
May 8–10
May 13
May 13-16
May 13-16
May 20-24
Chicago, IL
Greenwood, NS
Des Moines, IA
Kelowna, BC
Ottawa, ON
San Diego, CA
Bismarck, ND
Kelowna, BC
Portland, OR
Portland, OR
Norfolk, VA
May 22-25
June 3-7
June 17-21
June 24-28
August 12-16
Rimouski, QC
Ogden, UT
Park City, UT
Williamsburg, VA
San Antonio, TX
October 4-5
October 21-25
October 19-25
October 28 - November 1
Washington, DC
Banff, AB
Fort Worth, TX
Kansas City, MO
Inside This Issue
2 National
Training for Operational Meteorologists on URP 2.0
Second Winter Weather Forecasting Completed
5 Quebec Region
Radar Training in Quebec Region
5 Ontario Region
Aviation Workshop at the Ottawa Regional Centre
3 Ensemble Prediction Systems Online Training
Manual
6 Atlantic Region
Smog Workshop
4 CMOS International Congress on the Northern
Environment
4 Pacific Region
6 Services, Clients and Partners Directorate
Highlights from the AMS Conference on Satellite
Meteorology and Oceanography
Report on the 2nd National Conference of the Royal
8 Operational Workshop at Greenwood
Meteorological Society
1
Environment Canada - Meteorologists’ Training Monthly Newsletter - March 2002
http://wwwib.tor.ec.gc.ca/learning/continuous_learning/LCWebMettrain_e.cfm
2
Environment Canada - Meteorologists’ Training Monthly Newsletter - March 2002
http://wwwib.tor.ec.gc.ca/learning/continuous_learning/LCWebMettrain_e.cfm
National
Training for Operational Meteorologists on URP 2.0
Mike Leduc, who is noted for his training sessions on the use of RADAR, is planning a series of
workshops for the Regions on the new version of the Unified Radar Processor (URP) software from May
through June 2002.
Mike will use URP version 2.0, which is currently being finalized, in his workshops. While the concepts of
working from composites, drilling down to see individual products, and cell assessment views have been
introduced to most offices, a significant amount of training is still required in order for URP 2.0 to be
useful to MSC meteorologists in time for the summer severe weather season.
Mike is therefore planning a one-day “train the trainer” session for the week of May 6 in Toronto, with
the goal of bringing in one or more trainers from each region. Beginning the week of May 13, on-site
training will be provided in each region. With the main emphasis of Version 2.0 being on incorporating
the functionalities of the RDSS (Radar Decision Support System), Mike initially plans to concentrate on
offices that issue convective warning WUs and WFs.
The draft training schedule, subject to change, is as follows:






Toronto, week of May 13;
CMOS, week of May 20;
Montreal, week of May 27;
Winnipeg, June 3;
Atlantic Canada, June 10; and
BC, June 17.
For more information, please contact Mike Leduc at: Mike.Leduc@ec.gc.ca
Second Winter Weather Forecasting Workshop Completed
The Meteorological Service of Canada, in conjunction with the Cooperative Program for Operational
Meteorology (COMET), held the Second Winter Weather Forecasting Course at the state-of-the-art
COMET training facilities in Boulder, Colorado from February 17 to March 1.
The course was held under the auspices of the recently formed MSC/COMET partnership. The aims of
this partnership include moving towards establishing a more formalized approach to the professional
training and development of operational forecasters in the MSC and creating closer links between the
research and forecasting communities.
The course was organized by Garry Toth and Peter Lewis, the two MSC meteorologists who have been
assigned to work with COMET. They were ably assisted by John Gyakum of McGill University, who
served as the academic course director.
Representatives from all five MSC Regions, Aviation and Defence Services, and the Canadian
Meteorological Centre were joined by six U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) forecasters, including
three from Alaska. Course instructors included professors from leading U.S. and Canadian universities as
3
Environment Canada - Meteorologists’ Training Monthly Newsletter - March 2002
http://wwwib.tor.ec.gc.ca/learning/continuous_learning/LCWebMettrain_e.cfm
well as experts from the MSC and NWS.
The course built on the success of the inaugural course of 2001, with some refinements made following
the course evaluations. The main focus remained forecasting hazardous winter weather, from the
synoptic scale to mesoscale. Lecturers from the research community presented different ways of looking
at meteorological data, such as the concept of potential vorticity and isentropic thinking. The students are
eagerly awaiting the promised development of a national processing and display system that will have
the ability to display and manipulate such fields.
The students thoroughly enjoyed the learning experience, which was enhanced by the opportunity to
socialize and renew or make new acquaintances with forecasting colleagues. The students’ enthusiasm
was clearly demonstrated on the first Tuesday of the course when food and beverages for a reception was
brought into the classroom at 5.00 p.m. only to be left to go cold while discussion of the afternoon’s lab
exercise continued until after 5.20!
Of course, a true measure of the workshop’s success will not be known until we have a chance to assess
how much of this enthusiasm and knowledge has been transferred to colleagues back in the weather
centres.
For more information, please contact Peter Lewis, peter.lewis@ec.gc.ca, 902-426-4267, or
plewis@comet.ucar.edu, 303-497-8320 (COMET-Boulder)
Ensemble Prediction Systems Online Training Manual
An interesting web site containing an online training manual on Ensemble Prediction Systems (EPS)
targeted for NWS Weather Forecast Offices, NCEP and meteorologists wanting to know more about the
ensemble technique can be found at: http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/ensembletraining/.
This is an excellent manual with good graphics and clear explanations. Some of the many topics included
are:









Deterministic Numerical Weather Prediction
Butterfly Effect
Probability Density Function
Plan Views: Spaghetti Plots
Plan Views: Ensemble Mean
Plan Views: Ensemble Mean and Spread
Decile Plots
Probability Plots
Verification.
There is an appendix of other on-line literature on Ensemble Forecasts, including one from Canada, along
with a list of references.
For more information, go to the above URL, or contact Peter Manousos, NCEP HPC
(National Center for Environmental Prediction, Hydrometeorological Predictions Center) Science and
Operations Officer, at peter.manousos@noaa.gov.
4
Environment Canada - Meteorologists’ Training Monthly Newsletter - March 2002
http://wwwib.tor.ec.gc.ca/learning/continuous_learning/LCWebMettrain_e.cfm
International CMOS Congress on the Northern Environment in Rimouski
Rimouski will play host to the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society’s international
congress on the Northern Environment, to be held from May 22 to 25, 2002. Some 300 climate specialists
will be attending the meeting, which was organized by scientists from Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s
Maurice Lamontagne Institute, the Institut des sciences de la mer of the University of Quebec at Rimouski
and the Eastern Quebec Weather and Environmental Services Office (WESO).
Researchers from Canada, the United States and Asia will exchange information on such issues as climate
change and variability, snow, ice and permafrost, carbon cycle and biochemistry, and paleoclimatology
(study of the climate of the various geological periods), to name just a few. So far, over 200 oral
presentations or poster sessions are planned.
According to computer simulations of future climate, northern environments should be the first to show
signs of global warming – melting of Arctic ice floes, a significant reduction in permafrost area, milder
winters, etc. The study of nordicity and its impact on the world’s ecosystems is critical to the
understanding of climate change and its environmental repercussions. Nordicity studies are of particular
importance to Canada given its geographic location and northern climate. The May 2002 congress in
Rimouski will provide a forum for researchers to discuss their latest research results in this field.
Pacific Region
Second National Conference of the Royal Meteorological Society
Kent Johnson, of the Mountain Weather Centre, Kelowna, attended the Second National Conference of
the Royal Meteorological Society (RMS) in Manchester, England, on September 12-14, 2001. The
following is a brief summary of his report on the conference.
The conference was similar in size, exhibits and composition to a CMOS Congress. The abstract book can
be viewed at: http://www.royal-met-soc.org.uk/2nc. Selected oral presentations are listed below.





David Burridge, president of the RMS, hosted a plenary forum, and stressed that one of the goals of
the RMS is to significantly improve its contribution to national and international policy relating to
the environment.
Keith Browning gave an interesting and entertaining presentation on his history as a radar
meteorologist. He spoke on behalf of UWERN (Universities Weather Research Network) as he is its
present director.
Anna Agusti-Panareda, University of Reading, gave a presentation on the extratropical transition of
Hurricane Irene that passed just south of the Maritimes Weather Centre.
Stephen Mobbs, of the University of Leeds, gave an interesting talk on the development of a system
for forecasting lee waves over the Falkland Islands. The goal is to develop a 12-hour forecast system
(www.env.leeds.ac.uk) to support aviation activity.
The RMS Chartered Meteorologist Accreditation Scheme was described and discussed. Despite
being coordinated with the European Meteorological Society (EMS), and despite the fact that it has
been in existence for seven years, there are only 55 chartered meteorologists out of over 2000 in the
5
Environment Canada - Meteorologists’ Training Monthly Newsletter - March 2002
http://wwwib.tor.ec.gc.ca/learning/continuous_learning/LCWebMettrain_e.cfm







United Kingdom (public and private sector).
Keith Browning presented data and a conceptual model for the interaction of upright and slantwise
convection along Ana-type cold fronts.
Rachel Capon of the Met Office Joint Centre for Mesoscale Meteorology discussed the strong winds
in the Dover Straits. Although the model results were interesting, it really appears to be a case of
coastal convergence producing a low level jet downstream from the gap.
Tim Hewson of the Met Office presented results from his objective cyclone database. He has run the
scheme for one year over the Atlantic to about 80 W and would likely share the results if asked.
Orographic processes were discussed in several presentations from the University of Leeds staff and
students.
The national vocational standards for the certification of meteorologists in the UK were discussed.
To prove one’s competency, one must be assessed, and it was stated that the assessors must remain
operationally competent, which might be challenging in some cases.
Chris Collier, of the University of Salford, gave a short presentation on the current status of
quantitative precipitation forecasting (QPF). Verification scores seem to show that there has been no
improvement over the last 30 years.
Kent Johnson gave a talk on slantwise convection. Vicky Lucas, Met Office College, indicated that
this topic is not part of their curriculum, but probably should be.
In his report, Kent offered the opinion that MSC and the U.K. Met Office share as many scientific and
logistical challenges as does MSC and the U.S. National Weather Service, and suggests that, should a
similar event be sponsored by the RMS, MSC may wish to consider participating.
For more information, contact Kent Johnson at (250) 491-1532.
Quebec Region
Radar Training in Quebec Region
Radar is of great importance to the Quebec Region, and several workshops on radar are planned for this
spring:




Rimouski already had a radar workshop on February 5 and 7 of this year.
Dates are yet to be determined for future workshops in Quebec City and Montreal.
A forecaster from each weather centre in the Quebec Region will attend training on the new version
of the URP (Unified Radar Processor) in Toronto on May 7 and 8.
All severe weather specialists from the Montreal Weather Centre will attend a radar workshop
offered by Mike Leduc on May 27.
For more information, contact Guy Roy at (418) 648-7565.
Ontario Region
6
Environment Canada - Meteorologists’ Training Monthly Newsletter - March 2002
http://wwwib.tor.ec.gc.ca/learning/continuous_learning/LCWebMettrain_e.cfm
Aviation Workshop at the Ottawa Regional Centre
A one-day aviation weather workshop will be held April 23rd and 25th at the Ottawa Regional Centre
primarily for office staff.
The workshop will deal with the following topics:





FIC and FSS feedback on TAF’s and GFA’s by Mike Masek and Joanne Lancaster (NAV CANADA ).
TAF writing guidance and proposed format under different summer situations (various convective
scenarios, fog, etc, including exercises (Alister Ling, TAF Quality Improvement Meteorologist from
PNR).
New guidance software (TAFaid and TAFTOOLS) (Alister Ling)
Short term forecasting techniques/ Lake breeze/Challenges with AWOS sites (Geoff Coulson, RCTO)
Ontario Region contingency plan and TAF verification (Geoff Coulson)
The workshop will be held in the Ice Centre Training Room located at the ground floor of La Salle
Academy. Space is limited, so those wishing to attend, please contact Stan Siok (stan.siok@ec.gc.ca or
tel.: (613) 990-2005)
Atlantic Region
Smog Workshop
The New Brunswick Weather Centre (NBWC) will be holding a Smog Workshop on May 21, with a
repeat on May 23. The intent of this workshop is to provide an opportunity for the NBWC operational
staff to gain further insight and experience into smog behaviour. With a focus on ground-level ozone and
fine particulate matter, this daylong workshop will be evenly divided between classroom instruction and
“hands-on” activities. Topics to be covered include climatology, verification, current/new programs and
forecast methodology and procedures.
For further information contact: Michael Howe at (506) 451-6015.
Services, Clients, and Partners Directorate
Highlights from the AMS Conference on Satellite Meteorology and Oceanography
The American Meteorological Society (AMS) held its 11th Conference on Satellite and Meteorology and
Oceanography in Madison, Wisconsin, on October 15-18, 2001. Barry Konzelman of the Training Services
7
Environment Canada - Meteorologists’ Training Monthly Newsletter - March 2002
http://wwwib.tor.ec.gc.ca/learning/continuous_learning/LCWebMettrain_e.cfm
Unit (TSU) at the Canadian Forces School of Meteorology (CFSMet) attended the conference and wrote a
report on it, a brief summary of which is provided below.
The conference consisted of a small number of rather prestigious speakers with 30-45 minutes each to
speak, followed by longer poster sessions. There were very few Canadians present at the conference,
either as participants, presenters, or as corroborators in international efforts. However, many countries, in
addition to the U.S., did have a significant presence.
Because remote sensing with satellites will soon become of paramount importance in many aspects of
meteorology, a strong theme of the conference was ingesting satellite data into NWP (Numerical Weather
Prediction) models, a topic in which CMC is clearly interested.
Some points of interest were as follows.

It is envisaged that there will be an integration of some satellite systems between organizations and
countries. The NPOESS (National Polar Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System) is a
collaboration between the U.S. and other national weather services to share polar orbiting satellites.

It is expected there will be 50 new instruments flying on satellites launched in the next 10 years, with
much emphasis on sensing longer terrestrial wavelengths (13-18 microns). Currently about 84% of the
information input into NWP models is remotely sensed, and one speaker said that when radar
information gets into U.S. models, that figure will rise to 99%! Some researchers feel it is better to
input radiances straight into the models, rather than derived temperatures. An Australian weather
service representative, for instance, said that if the upper air data were missing, it would only make a
1% difference in their model accuracy. Satellite data is already much more important than the
ground-based reporting network.
Lynn K. Shay of the University of Miami spoke on the use of radar altimetry to identify warm rings in the
Gulf of Mexico which were warm to a great depth, resulting in a “high” of about 30 cm in the ocean
surface topography. It was found that when hurricanes travelled over deep warm rings, the hurricanes
strengthened significantly. Normally, a cooling of the surface water occurs when hurricane-force winds
mix up colder water from below, reducing the potential strength of the hurricane. With deep warm rings,
the surface remains warm, strengthening the hurricane. The study showed that the depth of the 26°C
isotherm was a better tool than surface temperature for forecasting the intensification of hurricanes. An
analysis of ocean heights could also be used to analyze warm and cold eddies associated with the Gulf
Stream off Canada’s East Coast.
The session on global climate monitoring raised many problems, including how orbital decay over time
affects the angle of incidence of the satellite sensor relative to the Earth, and how the local time of passage
changes over time, which affects studies of precipitation amount, which has a strong diurnal cycle. The
lower orbit also affects the temperature of the instruments on the satellite, which affects their response.
In addition to instrument changes on different platforms, instrument calibration also drifts over time. On
the whole, it is very difficult to gauge earth radiation changes, since the aforementioned calibration
factors outweigh the changes in terrestrial radiation which have occurred over the time period of the data
set.
8
Environment Canada - Meteorologists’ Training Monthly Newsletter - March 2002
http://wwwib.tor.ec.gc.ca/learning/continuous_learning/LCWebMettrain_e.cfm
Contrails and the corresponding increase in cirrus cloudiness are becoming a regional factor in radiation
transfer and heat budget, besides being an immense tactical problem for military aircraft.
It is still difficult to automatically detect the difference between ice in cloud and snow or ice on the
surface. However, Ms. Masutani of NOAA said that, by 2008, new instrumentation flying on the NPOESS
satellites will make it possible to accurately detect the difference between the two, a significant advantage
when trying to analyze mid to high latitude satellite data.
With the launches of new series of satellites with new sensors, the data flow will increase by a factor of
105. Some new products will include surface winds every 15 minutes over the entire water surface of the
earth, soundings of 4 km resolution at a rate of 100,000 soundings per minute at great vertical resolution,
turbulence detection in clear air, precipitation estimates, total column water vapour, fog depth, severe
weather indices and time resolutions of 10 seconds for thunderstorms.
Remote sensing from satellites will increase very substantially over the next 10 years and incorporating
the new data into environmental monitoring and forecasting will be a challenge.
Barry states that it is important that EC personnel attend meetings such as this in order to benefit from
and hopefully influence such leading edge discussions.
For more information, contact Barry Konzelman at (204) 833-2500, Ext. 5420.
Operational Workshop in Greenwood
An operational workshop is being planned for Friday, March 15 at WSC (Weather Services Centre)
Greenwood, prior to the “20th Annual Broken Broom Bonspiel” to be held the next day. The purpose of
the workshop is to provide an informal forum in which meteorology folks can discuss operational topics.
A three-hour Doppler Radar refresher will be given by Barry Konzelman of the Canadian Forces School
of Meteorology (CFSMet) and repeated at WSC Halifax on the following Monday and Tuesday.
Other topics may include:




Overview of GRIB/BUFR;
Update on lightning data;
Use of the new Met Manager/AMX; and
Package-building in the CF (Canadian Forces) Weather Office Web service.
Attendees from other locations--meteorologists, IT staff and meteorology technicians--are invited.
Contact: Bob Howell, (902) 765-1494, Ext. 3142.
Readers are encouraged to submit articles related to learning, training and recruitment. Submissions or any
questions related to items without a contact can be directed to Spencer.Silver@ec.gc.ca
Editorials: If you would like to express an opinion or submit a commentary, please send your comments to
Spencer.Silver@ec.gc.ca
9
Environment Canada - Meteorologists’ Training Monthly Newsletter - March 2002
http://wwwib.tor.ec.gc.ca/learning/continuous_learning/LCWebMettrain_e.cfm