RPN RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

RPN’s current research priority addresses the important WEP objective of reducing the impact of weather and related hazards on Canadians.  This is accomplished through the development of a non-hydrostatic and distributed memory version model called GEM (Global Environmental Multiscale). This model is used for operational predictions in the very short and medium range.  It includes improved hydrological, cloud & surface processes and statistical post-processing. This research and development activity will result in measurable improvements in forecast and warning predictions of extreme/severe weather using GEM and post-processing software.

On the left, 96H prediction of outgoing infrared flux with the experimental uniform grid GEM at 35km horizontal resolution. On the right, the observed outgoing infrared flux. [Click here for an enlarged view]

Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) modelling activities have been the traditional core activity of RPN for the last four decades. RPN’s reputation of excellence in this field of research is well established and recognized worldwide. In the last decade, RPN has developed two significant R&D projects in anticipation of the broader environmental prediction challenges of the new millennium:

• The first is the development of an environmental prediction coupled version of the GEM model for atmosphere-hydrology, and atmosphere-ocean and atmopshere-chemistry problems.
• The second is the development and support of a nested non-hydrostatic version of the GEM model for environmental applications, including a chemistry package for air quality issues (with scales ranging from less than a kilometer to hundreds of kilometers) for use by Canadian and international research communities.
  

The community model MC2 run over Vancouver Island at 2km horizontal resolution: 17H forecast valid 26 June 1997 2000 UTC. Near surface flow (arrows with scale in knots in lower left corner) superimposed over topography (gray shades every 500m). Only one arrow for every other grid point is displayed for each direction.

[Click here for an enlarged view]

Another new and important focus of RPN is the adaptation of day-to-day and longer-term changes in middle atmospheric conditions, through the development of a middle atmosphere GEM model. This work enhances AEPD’s global system capability for use as a tool for integrating Canadian and international space and ground-based measurements and chemical modeling activities, for air quality problems including ozone monitoring.

Comparison of total ozone analyses (Dobson Units) for April 2, 1997. Polar stereographic views of the Northern Hemisphere are shown . The left panel is a TOMS analysis obtained from observations only, collected over a period of 24-h, and the right panel is the 3D-variational analysis. [Click here for an enlarged view]

RPN also provides R&D support for the numerical algorithm and software tool package that is needed for the AEPD NWP system. RPN provides essential computer and software expertise to the research and development community using the supercomputing facility.

RPN is divided into seven research and support sub-groups to address these R&D objectives.