Editing COPE: Common Observation Period Experiment

Section 1: Project Information

Project Name

Classification (e.g., "GWF Pillar 3", "CCRN", etc.)

Project Websites

Project Description

INARCH is conducting a Common Observing Period Experiment (COPE) across a network of research basins which started in 2022 to coincide with the start of the snow season in the southern hemisphere, and continuing on until 2024.

During this "COPE", there will be an international, coordinated effort to 
- obtain high-quality measurements  
- ensure that all sensors remain in working order, 
- enhance observations at all participating mountain research basins, 
- fly supplementary UAV acquisitions, and to
- run high resolution models and work together to compare processes, share data, and test the robustness of these models in challenging environments around the world.

Why have a COPE? This initiative provides an opportunity for inter-comparisons across the global network of INARCH research sites and basins. 
While different climates prevail across the network of sites and each are subject to temporally and spatially varying conditions and extreme events, we need to coordinate our own efforts and response to some of the observations and data and also coordinate the modelling. We need to engage the modelling community to ensure we have comparable observations for model testing and evaluation. In some instances there are teleconnections that may occur and can be of interest to examine. Further, by getting these instruments into place and the campaign underway, this would be a start for longer-term observations of higher quality that can be comparable. Tremendous value can accrue from activities such as this and the approach has been used in the past with various GEWEX initiatives (e.g., in western Canada some basins have stayed instrumented over time since the late-1990s). The other aspects are in providing testbeds for instrumentation that some of us may be developing and allowing us to share information about the density of instrumentation and other things that may be useful as people work on basins.

Project Participants

Current Status of this Project

Planned

In Progress

Abandoned

Complete