The Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning/McGill University

Published purpose

Joining the leadership in the space observations of climate change, Canada aims to contribute three instruments, TICFIRE, ALI and SHOW, jointly known as HAWC, to co-fly with the other instruments in the NASA-led AOS satellite mission. This project proposes to conduct research activities and organize dedicated community workshops to establish and grow the Canadian science development team (SDT) for AOS/HAWC before launch. The research activities will focus on four essential areas of the HAWC science: satellite data comparison techniques, weather forecasting, climate modeling, and other science applications. Specifically, the four proposed sub-projects will explore i) impact of geophysical variability and trajectory hunting techniques for satellite data comparisons, ii) satellite detection of snowfall and snow accumulation across Canada’s North, iii) thermodynamic anomalies and their radiative impacts in extreme weather events, and iv) cloud feedback and its far infra-red signature in global climate models. The outcomes are expected to further the development of higher-level data products, science applications and services, advancement of the technology to integrate AOS/HAWC data in weather and climate modeling, e.g., through data assimilation or process-level model validation, and establishment of methods to transfer the geophysical information to society such as for policy guidance and economic benefits. With the growing community awareness and interest, the contribution for this project will also be used to leverage additional funding, such as the NSERC/Alliance, to support HAWC science and applications development in other areas such as policy and economics.