WaCyEx - Water Cycle Extremes across Scales
What are the goals of the project?
WaCyEx will quantify observed changes in extreme precipitation events in Norway over the past 100 years, as well as investigate the weather systems that caused them and how such systems may be influenced by the sea-surface temperature in the Gulf Stream and sea ice in the Arctic. The project will also improve the understanding of the hydrological responses to various types of extreme events through further development and testing of a next-generation coupled modeling system – WFR-Hydro model.
What are the main results so far?
Our observations of the weather patterns show that there are a few specific synoptic patterns that are responsible for the occurrence of extreme weathers. For example the “recipe” for extreme precipitation in western Norway is the occurrence of a low-pressure west of Norway and a high-pressure over central Europe.
What are the future plans?
Now that we have managed to determine the main synoptic patterns producing extreme precipitation, the next step is investigating the source for the water that rains down over Norway during these events. Another ongoing task is the testing of the WRF-Hydro model, with the goal to conduct simulations that contributes with specified information in regards of understanding and managing the consequences of extreme hydrological events in the future.
Who is involved?
UiB: Asgeir Sorteberg, Laura Ciasto, Camille Li, Atle Nesje, Harald Sodemann, Ellen Viste, Mari Sandvik, Sebastian Schremm
NERSC: Yongqi Gao, Lingling Suo
Uni Research: Lu Li, Stefan Sobolowski
Duration: 2015 - 2017