TAWEPI - Thorpex Arctic Weather and Environment Prediction Initiative

• Main Authors: Ayrton Zadra, Greg Flato, Jocelyn Mailhot, Louis Garand, Mark Buehner, Pierre Pellerin, Saroja Palovarapu, Stephane Belair, Youyu Lu
• Language: unknown
• Published: Borealis
• Subjects: Satellite validation; Forecast; Climate change; Global; Weather; Snow; Sea ice; Models; Clouds; Atmosphere; Arctic; IPY; Tundra
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10864/10227

TAWEPI's research activities started in April 2007 and large progress has been made in the development of Polar-GEM since then. A new version of the CMC regional NWP model became operational in the spring of 2009, including a northward extension of its high-resolution domain, which now covers most of the Arctic and shares various features with Polar-GEM. A research version of the model is being used to study the representation of radiative and cloud processes in weather forecasts. A multi-layer snow model coupled to sea-ice and blowing-snow parameterizations, describing processes over the various types of surfaces of the Arctic environment, such as sea-ice, tundra, glaciers and ice caps, was tested and evaluated. A methodology to validate model forecasts of cloud and radiation using satellite hyperspectral radiances was developed. Using a stratospheric extension of the GEM model, analyses of the stratosphere were extended and now cover the entire IPY period of 2007/2009, including estimates of the ozone field.