cmos bulletin scmo volume 43 no. 4 august 2015 - août 2015cmosarchives.ca/bulletin/b4304.pdfissn...

ISSN 1929-7726 (Online / En ligne) ISSN 1195-8898 (Print / Imprimé)

International Argo Program Floats Status

État des flotteurs-profileurs du programme international Argo

CMOS

BULLETIN

August / Août 2015 Vol.43 No.4La Société canadienne de météorologie et d'océanographie

Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society SCMO

Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society Société canadienne de météorologie et d’océanographie

.... Words from the President

Friends and Colleagues:As you receive thisBulletin in latesummer, I trust youhave all had achance to relax andenjoy our shortCanadian summermonths. Before weknow it, we will backt o S e p t e m b e rc l a s s e s a n dmeetings.

In June, many of usattended the 49th

CMOS Congress inWhistler B.C. Iwould like to againthank the Chair oft h e L o c a lA r r a n g e m e n t s

Committee, Ken Kwok, and the Chair of the ScientificProgram Committee, Bruce Ainslie, both of EnvironmentCanada. The congress was an excellent event for all whoattended. A report penned by Bob Jones is included in thispublication. With travel funds being limited in government inrecent years, some of our usual networking opportunitiesare missed at congress. We will be aiming to use on-linewebinars in the coming months to share our scientificcommunity's news. The planned webinar program willinclude some government presenters who did not get totravel to congress, and also some congress presentationsthat will be repeated for those who were not able to attend. I encourage everyone to join these sessions if possible, andalso feel free to send other webinar or tour speaker ideas tothe national executive.

In the past year we signed a Memorandum ofUnderstanding (MoU) with the American MeteorologicalSociety (AMS) that covered many topics that will bebeneficial to cross-border cooperation and informationsharing. I myself got an AMS membership at the reducedrate, and I am now enjoying the US publicationsWeatherwise and the AMS Bulletin, as well as the weeklyemail “News you can Use” with links to current events andtimely topics. I encourage other CMOS members to takeadvantage of this. In January at the AMS Annual Meetingin New Orleans, AMS and CMOS will co-host the 4th

Meeting of the International Federation of MeteorologicalSocieties (IFMS – www.ifms.org). I would like to thank ourPast-President Harinder Ahluwalia for taking a leadershiprole as the coordinator of this upcoming event.

[Continued on page 123]

CMOS Bulletin SCMOVolume 43 No.4

August 2015 — août 2015

Inside / En Bref

Words from President Martha Anderson page 121

Cover page / page couverture page 122

Allocution de la présidenteMartha Anderson page 123

Articles

Which is More Polluted, Delhi or Beijing?by Douw Steyn page 125

Preparing Canada to Face the Realitiesof Flooding – NSERC Canadian FloodNetby Kurt C. Kornelsen, Paulin Coulibalyand the FloodNet Team page 126

Argo Canada by Blair Greenan page 128

Reports / Rapports

2015 Parsons Medal Award Presentationby Carmel Lowe page 129

CMOS Prizes and Awards announced atthe 49th Annual BanquetRemise des prix et récompenses de laSCMO au 49e banquet annuel page 131

Report on CMOS Congress 2015by Bob Jones, Ann McMillan,and Martha Anderson page 134

49th CMOS Whistler Congress PhotoMemories / Souvenirs photographiques du49e congrès de la SCMO à Whistlerby Douw Steyn, Qing Liao, and LAC page 138

Report on a Workshop of the Working Groupon Atmosphere-Related Research inCanadian Universities by Paul Kushner,Pierre Gauthier, John Gyakum, Paul Myers,Kimberley Strong, Roland Stull,and Peter Taylor page 142

Our regular sections / Nos chroniques régulières

In Memoriam page 148

Brief News / Nouvelles brèves page 149

CMOS Accredited Consultants /Experts-conseils accrédités de la SCMO page 152

Printed in Ottawa, Ontario, by St. Joseph Print Group Inc.Imprimé par St. Joseph Print Group Inc., Ottawa, Ontario.

Martha AndersonCMOS President

Présidente de la SCMO

-121- CMOS Bulletin SCMO Vol.43, No.4, August 2015


CMOS Bulletin SCMO"at the service of its members / au service de ses membres"

Co-Editor / Corédacteur: Paul-André BolducCo-Editor / Corédactrice: Savithri Narayanan

Associate Editor / Rédactrice associée: Lise HarveyDirector of Publications / Directeur des publications:

Douw SteynCanadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society

Société canadienne de météorologie et d’océanographieE-mail: [email protected]; Courriel: [email protected]

Cover page: The international Argo program vastlyimproved open ocean sampling through the deployment ofover 3880 robotic profiling floats in world oceans. Thesefreely drifting floats take profiles of temperature and salinityevery ten days from 2000 m depth to the surface. Theyprovide oceanographers and meteorologists with real-timetemperature and salinity data year-round and typically lastfour to five years. The cover page illustrates the coverageof the profiling floats over world oceans as of 20 June 2015.To learn more about the Canadian program, please read theArgo team’s short article on page 128. Picture shown iscourtesy of University of California San Diego[http://www.argo.ucsd.edu/statusbig.gif]. Page couverture: Le programme international Argo agrandement amélioré l’échantillonnage de l’océan hauturierpar le déploiement de plus de 3880 flotteurs-profileursrobotiques dans l'océan mondial. Ces flotteurs qui dériventlibrement prennent des profils de température et de salinitétous les dix jours de 2000 m de profondeur jusqu’à lasurface. Ils fournissent aux océanographes etmétéorologues des données de température et salinité entemps réel pendant toute l'année et durent généralement dequatre à cinq ans. La page couverture illustre la position desprofileurs dans les océans du globe en date du 20 juin2015. Pour en connaître plus sur le programme canadien,prière de lire le court article de l’équipe Argo en page 128.L'illustration est offerte par l'University of California SanDiego [http://www.argo.ucsd.edu/statusbig.gif].

CMOS Office / Bureau de la SCMO

P.O. Box 3211, Station DOttawa, Ontario, Canada, K1P 6H7

Homepage: http://www.cmos.ca Page d’accueil: http://www.scmo.ca

Dr. Andrew BellExecutive Director - Directeur général

Tel/Tél.: 613-990-0300E-mail/Courriel: [email protected]

Ms. Qing Liao Office Manager - Chef de bureau

Tel/Tél.: 613-998-2644E-mail/Courriel: [email protected]

Canadian Meteorologicaland Oceanographic Society (CMOS)Société canadienne de météorologie

et d'océanographie (SCMO)

Council / Conseil d’administration

President / PrésidenteMartha AndersonDepartment of National Defence / D Met Oc, Ottawa, ONTel.: 613-996-3648; Fax.: 613-995-4197E-mail/Courriel: [email protected]

Vice-President / Vice-présidentMartin TailleferMaritime Way Scientific Ltd., Ottawa, ONTel.: 613-841-0505; Cell.: 613-252-811E-mail/Courriel: [email protected]

Past-President / Président sortantHarinder AhluwaliaInfo-Electronics Systems Inc., Montréal, QCTel.: 514-421-0767 #222; Fax.: 514-421-0769E-mail/Courriel: [email protected]

Treasurer / TrésorierBoumy SayavongDFO/Ecosystems and Oceans Science Sector, Ottawa, ONTel.: 613-990-2160E-mail/Courriel: [email protected]

Corresponding Secretary / Secrétaire-correspondantFiona RobertsonE-mail/Courriel: [email protected]

Recording Secretary / Secrétaire d'assembléeMarie-France GauthierTél.: 613-668-3927E-mail/Courriel: [email protected]

Councillors-at-large / Conseillers1) William MerryfieldCCCma, University of Victoria, Victoria, BCTel.: 250-363-8263E-mail/Courriel: [email protected]

2) Robert SicaUniversity of Western Ontario, London, ONTel.: 519-661-3521E-mail/Courriel: [email protected]

-122-CMOS Bulletin SCMO Vol.43, No.4, Aoüt 2015


.... Words from the President [Continued / Suite]

In July, I visited the Fredericton area and joined some of thelocal CMOS members for a social get-together at the DeltaHotel next to the scenic Saint John River. They are veryexcited to be hosting the 50th CMOS Congress in June2016, which will be a joint Congress with the CanadianGeophysical Union (CGU).

Martha Anderson, CMOS President

.... Allocution de la présidente

Chers amis et collègues,

Ce bulletin vous arrive alors que la saison chaude tire à safin. J’espère que vous avez trouvé le temps de relaxer et deprofiter du trop court été canadien. Sans nous en rendrecompte, septembre sera de retour avec son lot de cours etde réunions.

En juin, beaucoup d’entre nous avons assisté au 49e

Congrès de la SCMO, à Whistler (C.-B.). Je remercie ànouveau le président du comité local d’organisation, KenKwok, et le président du comité du programme scientifique,Bruce Ainslie, tous deux d’Environnement Canada. Lecongrès s’est avéré un événement de premier ordre pourtous les participants. Un rapport de Bob Jones figure danscette publication. Comme le gouvernement limite depuisquelques années les frais de déplacement, nous avonsperdu certaines occasions de réseautage. Nous tenteronsde diffuser des webinaires en ligne dans les prochains mois,afin de partager les nouvelles de notre communautéscientifique. Le programme prévu de webinairescomprendra des présentateurs issus du gouvernement quin’ont pas pu se rendre au congrès. En outre, desprésentateurs reprendront les exposés faits durant lecongrès, afin d’en faire profiter les gens qui les ontmanqués. Je vous encourage tous à vous joindre à cesséances. N’hésitez pas non plus à transmettre à l’exécutifnational des sujets pertinents pour les webinaires ou lesconférenciers itinérants.

L’an passé, nous avons signé avec l’AmericanMeteorological Society (AMS) une entente qui couvre diversaspects améliorant la coopération et le partaged’information au-delà de la frontière. Je me suis moi-mêmeprévalue de la réduction consentie pour adhérer à l’AMS. Jeprofite donc de la revue américaine Weatherwise et duBulletin de l’AMS, ainsi que des courriels hebdomadaires« News you can Use », qui contiennent des liens vers dessujets pertinents et d’actualité. J’encourage tous lesmembres de la SCMO à s’en prévaloir. En janvier prochain,le congrès annuel de l’AMS se tiendra à La Nouvelle-Orléans. L’AMS et la SCMO accueilleront conjointement le4e congrès de l’International Forum of MeteorologicalSocieties (IFMS – www.ifms.org). Je remercie notre

président sortant Harinder Ahluwalia de s’être portévolontaire pour coordonner cet événement.

En juillet, j’ai visité la région de Fredericton. J’ai socialiséavec des membres de la SCMO, au cours d’une rencontreà l’hôtel Delta, situé près de la magnifique rivière Saint-Jean. Ces membres sont très heureux d’accueillir le 50e

Congrès de la SCMO en juin 2016, un événement organiséconjointement avec l’Union géophysique canadienne(UGC).

Martha Anderson, Présidente de la SCMO

Next Issue CMOS Bulletin SCMO

Next issue of the CMOS Bulletin SCMO will be published inOctober 2015. Please send your articles, notes, workshopreports or news items before September 4th, 2015 to theelectronic address given at the top of page 122. We havean URGENT need for your written contributions.

Prochain numéro du CMOS Bulletin SCMO

Le prochain numéro du CMOS Bulletin SCMO paraîtra enoctobre 2015. Prière de nous faire parvenir avant le 4septembre 2015 vos articles, notes, rapports d’atelier ounouvelles à l’adresse électronique indiquée au haut de lapage 122. Nous avons un besoin URGENT de voscontributions écrites.

CMOS exists for the advancement of meteorologyand oceanography in Canada.

Le but de la SCMO est de promouvoir l’avancementde la météorologie et l'océanographie au Canada.

This publication is produced under the authority of theCanadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society.Except where explicitly stated, opinions expressed in thispublication are those of the authors and are notnecessarily endorsed by the Society.

Cette publication est produite sous la responsabilité dela Société canadienne de météorologie etd’océanographie. À moins d’avis contraire, les opinionsexprimées sont celles des auteurs et ne reflètent pasnécessairement celles de la Société.



El Niño / Niña Update as of 15 June 2015

Current Situation and Outlook

The tropical Pacific atmosphere and ocean are currently atmoderate El Niño levels. The majority of internationalEl-Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) climate modelssuggest that tropical Pacific temperatures are likely tocontinue warming, and possibly reach strong El Niño levels,in the coming months. However, model outlooks made atthis time are not as accurate as those made during thesecond half of the year, and hence more confidentestimates of event strength will be available after mid-year.

The CMOS Bulletin SCMO expects to publish a morecomprehensive analysis of this phenomenon in a futureissue.

Source: WMO Press Release.

El Niño / Niña Mise-à-jour au 15 juin 2015

Situation actuelle et perspectives

Les indicateurs atmosphériques et océaniques du Pacifiquetropical correspondent actuellement à un phénomène ElNiño d’intensité modérée. D’après la majorité des modèlesclimatiques ENSO (El Niño/Oscillation australe)internationaux, le réchauffement du Pacifique tropicaldevrait se poursuivre dans les mois à venir et pourraitatteindre des niveaux correspondant à un épisode El Niñomarqué. Cependant, à cette époque de l'année, lesmodèles ne donnent pas des résultats aussi fiables quependant le second semestre. Ainsi, l’intensité de cetépisode pourra être estimée plus correctement endeuxième partie de l’année.

Le CMOS Bulletin SCMO tentera de publier une analyseplus complète du phénomène dans un prochain numéro.

Source: Communiqué de presse de l’OMM.

-124-CMOS Bulletin SCMO Vol.43, No.4, Aoüt 2015


Articles

Which is More Polluted, Delhi or Beijing?

by Douw G. Steyn1

This question seems like an ill-advised race to the bottom,but does deserve an answer, as previous attempts to settlethe matter have ignored the real complexities of airpollution. Comparisons based on annual average pollutionconcentrations, such as presented by the World HealthOrganization ignore the fact that the intermittently occurringsevere days have strong human health effects.Comparisons based on individual days ignore the effects ofdifferent weather conditions in the two cities. Thesecomparisons are facilitated by websites such ashttp://aqicn.org.

The only statistically meaningful comparison is through acomparison that covers a wide range of conditions over atime span long enough to produce statistically meaningfulconclusions. The primary tool for this is a comparative plotof data percentiles of pollution at two representativelocations in the cities in question. These locations are notdirectly affected by pollution from individual large sourcessuch as industries or traffic intersections. They can thus beconsidered representative of city-wide atmosphericconditions.

The accompanying figure is based on two years of hourlyaverage PM2.5 concentration data in microgrammes percubic metre from the R.K. Puram pollution measurementstation in Delhi, and the U.S.A. Embassy station in Beijing.These data are collected and managed by relevant pollutionregulation agencies, and are subject to rigorous qualitychecks. Data as percentiles are plotted as black dots, andthe diagonal line indicates exact equality in pollutionconcentrations. Numbers below the dots show percentiles.For example, the 80th percentile is the pollutionconcentration at which 80% of conditions are worse, and20% better, and so on.

Because the plotted dots are all below the diagonal line,Delhi is more polluted for all percentiles, no matter whattime average is used. The upper 17% of conditions in Delhiare hazardous, while 7% of conditions in Beijing arehazardous. Unpolluted conditions are found in Delhi for lessthan 1% of the time, while such conditions exist in Beijingapproximately 8% of the time.

Colour shading on the graph indicates the severity of PM2.5pollution based on worldwide accepted standards as laidout in http://www.airnow.gov. Unpolluted conditions areindicated by the green square. It is thus evident that both

Delhi and Beijing are unacceptably polluted for a largefraction of time, and that their citizens are subjected topollution related health effects. This fact makes irrelevantany pollution comparisons between the two cities.

Citizens and government in both cities should be workingtogether aggressively to improve this unacceptable level ofpollution. The costs of such pollution are enormous drainson national and local budgets, but sadly these costs are notincluded in economic analyses. The costs of pollutionreduction are far smaller than the costs of pollution damage,and simple technological solutions are readily available.What is needed is political will, which can only come froman informed and actively engaged population.

Note from the author: I recently wrote a report for theHindustan Times (published out of New Delhi, one millioncopies printed a day). Based on my report, one of theirjournalists wrote a piece that appeared on the front page. The link is: http://www.hindustantimes.com/newdelhi/toxic-capitals-delhi-vs-beijing-air-in-one-chart/article1-1339725.aspx

1 Director, CMOS Publications, The University of British Columbia, Canada



Preparing Canada to Face the Realities of Flooding– NSERC Canadian FloodNet –

www.nsercfloodnet.ca; Twitter: @NSERCFloodNet

by Kurt C. Kornelsen1, Paulin Coulibaly1,2 and the FloodNet Team

IntroductionIn Canada, floods are recognized as the most common,largely distributed, natural hazard to life, property, theeconomy, community/industry water systems, and theenvironment. Flooding has resulted in two of the most costlynatural disasters in Canadian history, both in the last half-decade. In 2011, the province of Manitoba was subject tovery extensive flooding with costs estimated to be about$1.2 billion (Manitoba Flood Review Task Force [MFRTF],2013). In June 2013, flooding of the Bow and Elbow Riversin Alberta became the province’s worst ever natural disasterwith estimated costs of $6 billion (Wood, 2013). These costsare expected to rise in the coming decades as long termclimate change increases the frequency and intensity ofrainfall in many parts of the country (Greve et al. 2014;Dirmeyer et al. 2014) and human development continues toincrease.

To understand the nature of flood mitigation it is importantto start with an appreciation of the term “flood”. The term isassociated both with higher than normal water levels as wellas simultaneously being a natural “disaster”. The latterinterpretation has developed into the concept that floodsshould be prevented or are an issue which society shouldbe protected against (Samuels et al. 2006). A modern viewof flooding seeks to understand flooding in terms of “risk”being a combination of water levels and the potential fornegative consequences or resulting damage. A holisticapproach to flood management is based on the idea that asustainable balance must be struck between humandevelopment and making space for water (Samuels et al.2006). This approach is challenging in a nation asgeographically diverse as Canada, a reality which makesthe establishment of national flood strategies difficult. Thischallenge has resulted in the development of the NSERCCanadian FloodNet as a national vehicle for collaborationbetween researchers and flood-related practitioners toaddress issues connected to flooding and facilitate thetransfer of knowledge to end-users.

What is FloodNetFloodNet is a multi-disciplinary research network with activeend-user involvement. It is primarily funded by the NaturalSciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada(NSERC) with contributions from organizations andgovernment agencies that have partnered with FloodNet.The Network consists of over 20 leading universityresearchers from across Canada joined by scientists,engineers, and other practitioners from municipal,provincial, and federal government agencies, industrialpartners, and non-governmental organizations. Thepartnership between academic researchers and partnerorganizations is a key strength of FloodNet. Thispartnership is critical to ensuring the relevance of theresearch program and the transference of findings andintellectual property so that it can be of direct benefit toCanadians.

1 NSERC Canadian FloodNet, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

2 Department of Civil Engineering & School of Geography and Earth Science, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

-126-CMOS Bulletin SCMO Vol.43, No.4, Août 2015


Overview of the FloodNet Scientific ProgramThe research program of the NSERC Canadian FloodNet isgrouped into four inter-related themes, each designed tobuild knowledge that can be transferred to other themes.

Theme 1: Flood Regimes in Canada: Learning from thePast and Preparing for the FutureThe goal of Theme 1 is to develop an understanding ofextreme events in Canada and provide guidelines forinfrastructure design. This is a challenging task in a nationas large and physically diverse as Canada. FloodNetresearchers are studying the spatial and temporal variabilityof extreme precipitation and how well that variability isrepresented in general circulation model (GCM) andnumerical weather prediction (NWP) outputs. Thisinformation will be used to identify regions within Canadawhere extreme precipitation patterns are caused by similarmechanisms or have similar at-site characteristics. Thesegrouped hydro-climatic regions are important for updatingIntensity, Frequency, and Duration (IDF) curves used forinfrastructure design across the country. In a coordinatedeffort, FloodNet researchers will systematically comparemethods for updating IDF curves giving consideration to thespatial and temporal properties of extreme rainfall.Combined, this information will give rise to a manual forupdating IDF curves in which standard procedures can beidentified, while allowing for flexibility to respect the regionalhydro-meteorological conditions across the country.

Theme 2: Quantifying and Reducing PredictiveUncertainty of FloodsMany operational streamflow forecasts are produced usinga single model producing what is known as a deterministicoutput (single realization). It is now widely accepted thatreliable decision making requires an indication of theuncertainty in the forecast. This is most reliablyaccomplished using a model ensemble, either from aprecipitation ensemble, by perturbing the parameters of thehydrological model, by including multiple hydrologicalmodels or a combination of all three. Since any model is anabstraction of real systems, it is impossible to determinewhich model will have the greatest predictive capability fora given set of conditions, making multi-model approachesa top priority (Wetterhall et al. 2013). Findings from thisTheme will be used to create more reliable forecasts offlooding and streamflow.

Theme 3: Development of the Canadian Adaptive FloodForecasting and Early Warning System (CAFFEWS)Following the 2011 flood of the Assiniboine River inManitoba, a flood review task force was convened. The taskforce concluded that a major issue related to theAssiniboine River flood was that the “flood forecastingmodel was unable to provide accurate and reliableforecasts” (MFRTF, 2013). The lack of reliable informationfor decision makers is problematic when decisions aboutevacuations, breaching of levees or deployment ofemergency services is required. CAFFEWS will be a state

of the art ensemble flood forecasting and early warningsystem implementing the advances made in Theme 2.Information from ground-based monitoring networks, radarrainfall products and satellite derived soil moisture andsnow cover information will be used to force and update theinternal state of hydrological forecasting models, increasingthe realism of the model conditions and improving thequality of streamflow forecasts. Part of the CAFFEWSdevelopment will include novel peer-to-peer (P2P)communication technologies allowing field sensor data andflood warnings to hop from device to device in the event ofpower or communication infrastructure failure. An importantfeature of CAFFEWS will be an adaptive system to allowsubstitution of different models to fit the diversegeographical and hydro-climatic conditions across Canada.

Theme 4: Risk Analysis of Physical, Socio-Economicand Environmental Impacts of FloodsThe impact of floods is often considered from a purelystructural point of view, however, the socio-economic andenvironmental impacts of floods should also be considered.Flooding can damage agriculture (crops and livestock) andspill sewage and other toxic materials to waterways.However, it also provides ecosystem services includinggroundwater recharge, filling wetlands, rejuvenating soilsand increasing fish production. Therefore, there is anecessary balance to be struck between mitigating floodsand the preservation of water flow for ecosystem andhuman well-being (Poff et al. 2003). The study of ecosystemresponses will be used to provide information about thehuman impact on the natural environmental systems.Building upon these field based studies, a physical model-based integrated assessment approach will link the impactsof floods on the environment, urban and rural waterresources. This will allow watershed managers to betterpredict the physical impacts of a particular magnitude floodprior to its actual occurrence and make managementdecisions accordingly. Research in Theme 4 will alsoexplore the socio-economic impacts of floods. Theinvestigators are exploring the costs and benefits of locatinghomes and businesses in flood prone areas for differentstakeholder groups (i.e. home owners and farmers).Different stakeholders will perceive the cost/benefit ratio offlooding differently resulting in different responses andlevels of risk tolerance. This research will produce an indexof social and economic vulnerability to the impacts of floods.

Benefits to CanadaThe NSERC Canadian FloodNet exists to achieve whatsegregated scientists or engineers cannot individually, thatis to provide a holistic approach to enhance floodforecasting and management capacity in Canada. Thediverse geography, people, and economies of Canadamake the establ ishment of national f loodmanagement/forecasting standards a difficult task.Addressing the myriad of issues surrounding floodingrequires a national effort to develop local solutions. Thegoal of FloodNet is to provide a strong scientific foundation



upon which flood management and forecasting can be builtacross the country. By exploring the spatial and temporalchanges in rainfall distribution, streamflow and theenvironmental and societal impacts of floods, the FloodNetresearch program will provide flexible guidelines for floodplanning and management that can be adapted to meetjurisdictional needs. Similarly, the development ofCAFFEWS will provide a state of the art adaptive tool thatcan be tailored to fit local hydro-meteorological conditions.By partnering with end-users across country, FloodNet willensure advances made are achieved in collaboration withthe user community. It is our hope that this inter-connectednetwork will bridge the gap between research andoperational practitioners, bringing real benefits toCanadians in a timely manner.

ReferencesDirmeyer, P.A., Fang, G., Wang, Z., Yadav, P. and Milton,A., 2014: Climate change and sectors of the surfacewater cycle in CMIP5 projections. Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.,18, 5317-5329.

Greve, P., Orlowsky, B., Mueller, B., Sheffield, J.,Reichstein, M. and Seneviratne, S.I., 2014: Globalassessment of trends in wetting and drying over land.Nature Geosci., 7, 716-721.

Manitoba 2011 Flood Review Task Force (MFRTF, 2013):Report to the Minister of Infrastructure andTransportation. Available at:http://www.gov.mb.ca/asset.../en/2011flood/flood_review_task_force_report.pdf

Poff, N.L., Allan, J.D., Palmer, M.A., Hart, D.D., Richter,B.D., Arthington, A.H., Rogers, K.H., Meyer, J.L.,Stanford, J.A., 2003: River flows and water wars:emerging science for environmental decision making.Frontiers Ecol. Environ., 1, 298-306.

Samuels, P., Frans, K., and Dijkman, J., 2006: Ananalysis of the current practice of policies on river floodrisk management in different countries. Irrig. And Drain.55, S141-S150.

Wetterhall, F., Pappenberger, F., Cloke, H. L., Pozo, J.,Balabanova, S., Daňhelka, J., et al., 2013: Forecasterpriorities for improving probabilistic flood forecasts.Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 17, 4389-4399.

Wood, J. (2013) Province boosts cost of Alberta floods to$6 billion. Calgary Herald. September, 24.

Argo Canada

On April 1st 2015, Argo Canadaunderwent a transition inleadership with Denis Gilbert(Institut Maurice-Lamontagne)being replaced by Blair Greenan( B e d f o r d I n s t i t u t e o fOceanography) as ScientificDirector. Argo Canada is anational program supported byDFO (Department of Fisheriesand Oceans) headquarters staff

as well as regional team members on both the Atlantic andPacific coasts.

www.meds-sdmm.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/isdm-gdsi/argo/index-eng.html

The program has been a success because of thecontributions of numerous individuals since its inceptionmore than a decade ago. We are working hard to ensureprogram stability with the support of senior DFOmanagement. [See Argo array status graph as of 20 June2015 on cover page]. Argo Canada contributes to the International Argo Program(www.argo.ucsd.edu), which is guided by the Argo SteeringTeam (AST). The AST meets annually to provide scientificleadership and oversee the development andimplementation of the global array; meeting reports areavailable at www.argo.ucsd.edu/Meeting_reports.html. Dr.Greenan is a member of the AST, as is DFO EmeritusScientist Howard Freeland who is currently the ArgoDirector for the international program. In addition to ensuring a stable core Argo program, theinternational community is undertaking new initiatives whichinclude the development of deep Argo floats having thecapability to profile to depths as great as 6000 m. There isalso significant effort underway to implement a globalstrategy for the inclusion of biogeochemical sensors on theArgo platform (Bio-Argo). In September 2015, a scienceconference will take place in Galway, Ireland to addresssustained ocean observing for the next decade(www.gaic2015.org); this meeting will bring togetherscientists from the GO-SHIP (Global Ocean Ship-basedHydrographic Investigations Program), Argo, and IOCCP(International Ocean Carbon Coordination Project)programs to discuss synergies, and to promote andcoordinate sustained observations of the water column toreveal the changing physics, chemistry, and biology of theocean.

Blair GreenanScientific Director, Canadian ArgoBedford Institute of Oceanography



Reports / Rapports

49th CMOS Annual Congress Whistler, BC 49e Congrès annuel de la SCMO

2015 Parsons Medal Award Presentation

Note from the Co-Editor: At the annual congress of theCanadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society inWhistler, on Tuesday June 2, Carmel Lowe, RegionalDirector, Science, Pacific Region. Department ofFisheries and Oceans Canada, presented the 2015Parsons Medal in Multidisciplinary Ocean Science fromFisheries and Oceans Canada to Dr. Chris Harley,marine biologist at University of British Columbia. Weare pleased to reproduce here her presentation note atthe Patterson-Parsons luncheon.

Good afternoon honoured guests, ladies and gentlemen.Bonjour, chers invités, mesdames et messieurs.

I would like to begin by extending my sincere thanks to theChair of the Local CMOS Committee, William Hsieh, andhis team for organizing today’s event, as well as to theCMOS President Harinder Ahluwalia. The first day and ahalf of the 2015 Congress has showcased exciting andimportant new research being done in oceanography andI extend my best wishes for an equally interesting andsuccessful remainder of the congress.

Further, I wish to thank all of you for making the time to behere today to join me in acknowledging theaccomplishments of an outstanding scientist who hascontributed much to the field of ocean science.

I am aware that many of you in the audience know ofDr. Parsons, for whom the award is named. For those whodo not know his work, perhaps some of you that are justbeginning your career, let me take a moment to introduceyou to Timothy Parsons who today is enjoying a well-deserved, but very busy, retirement. Dr. Parsons had adistinguished career as a researcher with the FisheriesResearch Board of Canada, as a university professor, amentor, and a broadly-read author. Throughout his career,he adopted a holistic approach to ocean ecology, and inparticular, to understanding how pelagic organisms areinterconnected in the oceanic food-web. He is regardedaround the world as a major contributor to the developmentof biological oceanography and is personally responsiblefor many of the standard analysis methods used in the field. The Parsons Award is presented annually and allapplicants are evaluated, by a committee of their peers, onthe basis of these five criteria:

! Significant contributions to multidisciplinary ocean sciences;

! Contribution of significant ideas;

! Impact of significant publications;

! Leadership through teaching / mentoring; and

! Program, disciplinary and interdisciplinary leadership activities.

In addition the candidates are evaluated for:

! Distinguished accomplishments in multidisciplinary facets of ocean sciences while working for Canadian institutions or for the benefit of Canadian science; and

! Excellence during the lifetime of the recipient or for a recent outstanding achievement, both being equally eligible.

I would now like to introduce to you, the recipient of thisyear’s award. This year’s winner was nominated both forhis research and for his exceptional mentoring ofinterdisciplinary scientists which together have madesignificant contribution to the field of ocean science.Distinguished guest, Ladies and Gentlemen, it gives megreat pleasure to introduce to you the 2015 recipient of theTimothy R. Parsons Medal, Dr. Christopher Harley.

Dr. Harley received his B.Sc. degree in Aquatic Biologyfrom Brown University and his Ph.D. in Zoology from theUniversity of Washington. After post-doctoral positions atStanford and at University of California, Davis, he came toUBC as a Professor, where he runs the Harley Lab, whichfocuses on coastal marine ecology and the impacts ofclimate change. This picture and caption are from hisUniversity of British Columbia website – obviously this labhas wonderful views but he works in a more traditionallaboratory too.

Welcome to the Harley Lab



The Adjudication Committee noted that Dr. Harley‘s workcombines eco-physiological work in the laboratory withlong-term monitoring and ecological experiments in the fieldto understand how various aspects of global change, aloneand in combination, affect the ways in which speciesinteract with one another and ultimately influence thedistribution and abundance of marine plants and animals.The aspects of change he investigates include globalwarming, ocean acidification, and invasive species, whichall threaten natural ecosystems and the benefits that theyprovide. The Adjudication Committee also cited Dr. Harleyfor his work in establishing the importance of speciesinteractions and multiple stressors in climate change effectson species and communities, and his mentorship ofstudents.

Letters of support for Dr. Harley’s nomination cited manyexamples of his important contributions, but I would like tohighlight a few:

- His research is ground-breaking in that it scales up fromthe direct physiological and behavioural impacts of climatechange on individual organisms to the indirect effectsmediated by altered trophic and disease interactionsbetween species.

- Climate change affects not only ocean temperature, butalso acidity, dissolved CO2, wave strength and salinity (viaaltered freshwater discharge). Dr. Harley has studied notonly the effects of each of these stressors individually, butalso in combination. In a landmark study (Harley and Paine2009), he has shown that the chance alignment of multiplestressors can cause abrupt change to marine populations,even though each stressor individually predicts only gradualchange. Detection of such multiple-stressors thresholds ischallenging, but Dr. Harley and colleagues have developedrobust models for their prediction and detection.

- Dr. Harley complements his experimental work with long-term and regional datasets, providing unique insights thatelude either method in isolation.

- The biological effects of ocean acidification (OA) are muchless understood than warming effects. Dr. Harley’s lab isconducting ground-breaking research here, such as the firststudy of OA impacts on fertilization under realisticconditions and one of the first studies to document potentialadaptive responses to OA.

On behalf of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, it gives megreat pleasure to present him with the Timothy R. Parsonsaward for excellence in multidisciplinary ocean sciences.

Congratulations from all the CMOS community toDr. Christopher Harley.

2014 Patterson Medal Presentation

Please note that the winner of the 2014 Patterson Medal,for excellence in meteorology, was not announced becauseAssistant Deputy Minister David Grimes was out of thecountry attending World Meteorological Organizationmeetings.

Notes from the Co-Editor:

Photos are courtesy of LAC.

The year number for the Parsons medal is the year ofpresentation of the medal to its recipient.

The year number for the Patterson medal is the yearbefore the year of presentation of the medal to therecipient.

Dr. Christopher Harley

Carmel Lowe (presenter), Chris Harley with Zoe, Sam, and Christina



CMOS Prizes and Awards announced at the 49th Annual BanquetRemise des prix et récompenses de la SCMO au 49e banquet annuel

Sea to Sky Ballroom A, Whistler Conference Centre, Whistler, British ColumbiaWednesday, June 3, 2015 / Mercredi, le 3 juin 2015

President’s Prize may be awarded each year to a memberor members of the Society for a recent paper or book ofspecial merit in the fields of meteorology or oceanography.The paper musth a v e b e e naccepted forpublication inA t m o s p h e r e -O c e a n , t h eCMOS BulletinS C M O o ranother refereedjournal.

Awarded in 2014to Dr. DamonM a t t h e w s ,C o n c o r d i aUniversity, forhis meritoriousp a p e r( c o - a u t h o r e dwith Caldeira)e n t i t l e d“ S t a b i l i z i n gclimate requires near-zero emissions” published inGeophysical Research Letters in 2008.

Tully Medal inOceanographymay be awardedeach year to aperson whoses c i e n t i f i cc o n t r i b u t i onshave had as i g n i f i c a n ti m p a c t o nC a n a d i a noceanography.

Awarded in 2014to Dr. AnnGargett, Instituteo f O c e a nSciences, for herp i o n e e r i n gresearch on the

turbulence and microstructure in the oceans.

A n d r e wT h o m s o nP r i z e i nA p p l i e dMeteorologym a y b eawarded to amember ormembers ofthe Societyf o r a noutstandingcontribution tot h eapplication ofmeteorology in Canada.

Awarded in 2014 to Dr. Diana Verseghy, EnvironmentCanada, for her outstanding career-long contributions todevelop a land-surface scheme for climate and weathermodels.

Le prix François J. Saucier en océanographie appliquéedécerné pour un travail exceptionnel dans le domaine del’océanographie appliquée au Canada.

Malheureusement, ce prix n’a pas été décerné pour 2014.

Rube Hornstein Medal in Operational Meteorologym a y b ea w a r d e deach year toa nind i v idua lfor providingoutstandingoperationalmeteorological servicei n i t sb r o a d e s tsense, bute xc l ud i n gt h e

publication of research papers as a factor, unless thatresearch has already been incorporated into the day-to-dayperformance of operational duties. The work for which themedal is granted may be cumulative over a period of yearsor may be a single notable achievement.

Martin Leduc receiving the prize in the nameof Damon Matthews from President Harinder

Ahluwalia

Harinder Ahluwalia presenting the medal toDr. Ann Gargett

Dr. Diana Verseghy and President HarinderAhluwalia

Harinder Ahluwalia and Malcom (Mac) MacLeod

-131- CMOS Bulletin SCMO Vol.43, No. 4, August 2015


Awarded in 2014 to Mr.Malcolm (Mac) MacLeod for hisleadership that enabled the growth of the private sector inmeteorology in the maritime provinces.

Roger Daley Postdoctoral Publication Awardto be made annually to a candidate who, at the time ofnomination, is working in Canada in a non-permanentposition as a postdoctoral fellow or research associate, andis within five years of having received a doctoral degree.The award is to be based on the excellence of a publicationin the fields of meteorology or oceanography that hasappeared, or is in press, at the time of nomination.

1) Awarded in2014 to Dr.L i n d s a yRenbaum-Wolff,for her excellentc o - a u t h o r e dpaper entitled“Viscos i t y o fα - p i n e n es e c o n d a r yorganic materialand implicationsfor particle growthand reactivity” byRenbaum-Wolff,G r a y s o n ,B a t e m a n ,Kuwata, Selliers,Murray, Shilling,

Martin, and Bertram in Proceedings of the NationalAcademy of Sciences of the USA, 2013, 110(20);8014-8019.

2 ) A l s oawarded in2014 to Dr.F r é d é r i cLaliberté forhis excellentco-authoredpaper entitled“Constrainedwork output oft h e m o i s tatmosphericheat engine ina warmingclimate” by Laliberté, Zika, Mudryk, Kushner, Kjellsson andDöös in Science, 347, 540-543.

Tertia M.C. Hughes Memorial Prize may be awarded forcontributions ofspecial merit byg r a d u a t es t u d e n t sregistered at aC a n a d i a nuniversity or byC a n a d i a ng r a d u a t es t u d e n t sregistered at af o r e i g nuniversity. Twop r i zes we rea w a r d e d i n2013.

1) Awarded to Dr. Konstantinos Menelaou, Post-DoctoralFellow, Mc Gill University, for his excellent thesis entitled“On the origin of asymmetric dynamic processes and theirrelation to the structure and intensity change of hurricanes– a diagnostic study.”

2) Also awarded in 2014 to Dr. Andrew MacDougall, Post-Doctoral Researcher, Institute for Atmospheric and ClimateScience, Switzerland, for his excellent thesis entitled“Simulating the permafrost carbon feedback to climatechange: feedback strength and carbon cycleconsequences.” [not present]

Neil J. Campbell Medal for Exceptional VolunteerService may be awarded each year to a member who hasprovided exceptional service to CMOS as a volunteer. Theaward may be made for an exceptional contribution in asingle year or for contributions over an extended period.The contribution should have resulted in an importantadvancement for CMOS and/or its aims, nationally orlocally.

President Harinder Ahluwalia presentingthe prize to Douw Steyn accepting for

Lindsay Renbaum-Wolff

Harinder Ahluwalia et Frédéric Laliberté

Harinder Ahluwalia and KonstantinosMenelaou

Robert (Bob) Jones and Harinder Ahluwalia



Awarded in 2014 to Mr. Robert (Bob) Jones for hisdedicated service as web master of the CMOS website,which has become an important resource for CMOS affairsand information about meteorology and oceanography. BobJones also contributed greatly to recording the history ofCMOS.

CitationsOne or more citations may be awarded each year to anindividual, group or organization which has, in the previousyear, made some outstanding contribution towardspromoting public awareness of meteorology oroceanography in Canada.

Unfortunately, no citations were awarded in 2014.

CMOS Undergraduate Scholarshipfor students planning a career in atmospheric, hydrological,oceanographic or limnological sciences.

1) A $500 scholarship is awarded to Ingrid Pond,Dalhousie University, for academic excellence in her 4th

year in atmospheric sciences. [not present]

2) Another $500scholarship is awardedto Anthony Di Stefano,Mc Gill University, foracademic excellence.

C M O S - W e a t h e rNetwork / MétéoMédiaScholarship is open tof e m a l e s t u d e n t sstudying atmosphericsc ience in the i rpenultimate year at aCanadian universityand w i th ca reer

aspirations as a forecast meteorologist, on-airmeteorologist or meteorological briefer. It consists of acheque for $1500. The scholarship is funded by an annualdonation from Pelmorex Inc., the parent company of TheWeather Network / Météomédia.

The $1500 scholarship is awarded to Adrienne Ducharme,University of Winnipeg, who is completing with academicexcellence her 4th year in geography. [not present]

CMOS Daniel G. Wright Undergraduate Scholarshipawarded to a Canadian undergraduate student enteringhis/her final year of a B.Sc. Honours program inMathematics and/or Physics, or a related discipline, at aCanadian university who intends to pursue graduatestudies in physical oceanography or a related field.

Unfortunately, the Daniel G. Wright UndergraduateScholarship was not awarded for 2015.

CMOS Weather Research House / NSERC ScholarshipSupplement in Atmospheric or Ocean Sciencesprovides a supplement of $5000 to a holder of an NSERCPostgraduate Scholarship or Canada GraduateScholarship. It is renewable for a second year provided theScholarship continues to be held. Note that this scholarship supplement is awarded by this private firm forthe 18th year.

The scholarship supplement is awarded to Scott Kehler,University of Manitoba, for his Masters studies“Investigating the Causes of Elevated Convection Initiation”examining the reasons why thunderstorms develop at night.[not present]

Poster Prizes

1) CampbellScientific BestStudent PosterP r i z e i nMeteorology isa w a r d e d t oBryn Ronalds,M c G i l lUniversity, forh e r p o s t e rentitled: "On the relationship between North Atlanticbaroclinic growth rate regimes and surface cyclogenesis".

2 ) A S LEnvironmentalSciences BestS t u d e n tPoster Prizei nOceanography is awarded toTara Howatt,M c G i l lUniversity, forh e r p o s t e r

entitled: "Examining transport of freshwater across theLabrador shelf-break using gliders".

3) CMOS BestPoster Prize isawarded to AmélieBouchat , McGil lUniversity, for herpos te r en t i t l ed :"Reproducing sea-iced e f o r m a t i o ndistributions withv i s c o u s - p l a s t i csea-ice models".

Anthony Di Stefano and PresidentHarinder Ahluwalia

Claude Labine, Bryn Ronalds, and HarinderAhluwalia

Harinder Ahluwalia, Tara Howat, and DavidFissel

Amélie Bouchat and HarinderAhluwalia



CMOS Fellow

Awarded to a member who have provided exceptional longterm service and support to the Society and/or who havemade outstanding contributions to the scientific,professional, educational, forecasting or broadcasting fieldsin atmospheric or ocean sciences in Canada.

Awarded in 2015 to Dr. John Gyakum, McGill University, forhis outstanding career dedicated to research in synopticmeteorology aimed at improving weather forecasting, for hisexceptional mentoring of graduate students and for hisexemplary service to the meteorological community.

Scientific Program CommitteeComité du programme scientifique

Bruce Ainslie, Chair

Susan Allen

Phil Austin

Ryan Fogt

Mark Halverson

William Hsieh

Doug McCollor

Ron McTaggart-Cowan

Richard Pawlowicz

Andrew Roberts

Martin Taillefer

Local Arrangements CommitteeComité local organisateur

Tim Ashman

Alyssa Charbonneau

Chris Gibbons

William Hsieh

Oscar Koren

Ken Kwok, Chair

Matt MacDonald

Ross MacDonald

Chantal McCartin

Robert Nissen

Peter Scholefield

Andrew Snauffer

Brad Snyder

Andres Soux

Lisa Vitols

Cindy Yu

Report on CMOS Congress 2015

31 May to 4 June – Whistler, BC

The 49th CMOS Congress, held jointly with the AmericanMeteorological Society Conference on Polar Meteorologyand Oceanography, wrapped up a successful week onJune 4th. About 450 delegates attended the congress, whichwas held in an excellent venue in Whistler BC, easilyaccessible by bus from downtown Vancouver.

The congress tone was set with the opening remarks byJudith Guichon, Lieutenant Governor of BC, who was arancher in the BC Interior before her appointment. Shedescribed her personal experiences with climate changeimpacts of reduced moisture from snowmelt and soilvariability over her time on the ranch.

A Workshop on Communicating Uncertainty to Users ofWeather Forecasts was held on Sunday 31 May. Over 40attendees registered for the workshop. The highlight formany participants was the presentation by Susan Joslynfrom the University of Washington. Dr. Joslyn is a Cognitive

John Gyakum and President Harinder Ahluwalia



Psychologist who has spent many years doing lab workstudying how people make weather related decisions basedon uncertainty. She found that people make better decisionswhen presented with numbers instead of words, i.e. 10%probability instead of a phrase such as "Highly unlikely".

Plenary sessions includedmore results from impactsof ongoing climate warminga n d c h a n g e , a n dpredictions of futureclimates. As usual in recentc o n g r e s s e s , t h e s epresenters focussed onmany models to explaint h e i r c o n c l u s i o n s .Uncertainty remains butArctic warming and icedepletion were explained bychanges in Pacific sea

temperature regimes. Large glacial calving and melting inthe Antarctic is predicted to accelerate global sea level rise. Arctic warming is increasing at up to three times the warmingin more southern regions, but the latest estimate ofsummertime ice-free shipping is between 2032 and 2050. Other notable plenary sessions described the pace of glaciermelt and the future of Arctic research and new ways tomonitor air pollution using present and future satellites.

The Canadian National Committee for SCOR had theirmeeting on the Sunday before CMOS with Chair Paul Myersand Michel Mitchell presiding.

There was a special lunch time session on theIntergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC). KeithLennon provided a brief overview of the history and currentstatus of Canada's involvement with the IOC. Heencouraged input from the audience and received someconcerns about how the ongoing consultation withstakeholders was carried out, as well as positive commentsabout holding the event.

Helen Joseph convened a session on the integration ofocean sciences in Canada. Carmel Lowe gave apresentation focussing on Galway as a mechanism. Otherspeakers took different approaches and it was suggestedthat a "foundation" or "forum" having the objective ofcoordination of ocean science would be an idea worthexploring.

Helen also convened a session entitled "Two ways ofKnowing" in which two Inuit leaders and two governmentresearchers discussed their science and understanding. BillWilliams and Baba Pederson stole the show with their well-integrated discussion of the Canadian Rangers’ OceanWatch (CROW) program. This program, initiated by EddyCarmack and now led by Bill, uses a special instrumentpackage which can be placed in the ice by rangers when

they are on patrol on snowmobiles. Baba Pedersen, InuitRanger and Resource Management Officer, Kugluktuk,Nunavut, provided the perspective of rangers. The otherscientist, Hal Ritchie, gave an excellent update on theprogress of the Canadian Operational Network of CoupledEnvironmental Prediction Systems (CONCEPTS) ArcticInitiative and exemplified the typical southern scientist doingwork in the Arctic. Frank Pokiak, Inuvialuit Game Council,Tuktoyaktuk, provided northern insight into the state ofwildlife conservation based on his observations.

A public lecture by retired Navy Captain Kurt Salchertdescribed the challenges to connect global maritimeinterests with established Arctic communities.

Many prizes and awards were announced at the banquetand Patterson-Parsons luncheon. At this year’s congress,attendance from CMOS delegates was reduced bybudgetary restraints and this was reflected as manywinners were unable to attend. For only the second timesince 1961, the winner of the Patterson Medal (forexcellence in meteorology) was not announced becauseAssistant Deputy Minister David Grimes was out of thecountry attending World Meteorological Organizationmeetings.

The 2015 Parsons Medal (for excellence in oceanography)was presented to Dr. Chris Harley by Carmel Lowe,Regional Director Science, Pacific Region. Dr. Harley is amarine biologist at the University of British Columbia. Hiswork combining eco-physiological work in the laboratorywith long-term monitoring and ecological experiments in thefield to understand how various aspects of global change,alone and in combination, affect the ways in which speciesinteract with one another and ultimately influence thedistribution and abundance of marine plants and animals. The aspects of change he investigates include globalwarming, ocean acidification, and invasive species, whichall threaten natural ecosystems and the benefits that theyprovide. Dr. Harley's work on establishing the importance ofspecies interactions and multiple stressors in climatechange effects on species and communities, and hismentorship of students was also recognized with thisaward. [You may read the 2015 Parsons Medalpresentation on page 129].

Dr. Ann Gargett, a former Department of Fisheries andOceans scientist from Institute of Ocean Sciences, won theJ. P. Tully Medal in Oceanography for her seminal work onocean turbulence done over decades, using a wide varietyof techniques. Her work is key to making the linkagebetween the physical behaviour of the ocean and thebiological activity since turbulence is key in suspendingnutrients in the water, circulating algae, etc.

Notable at this congress was the increasing studentpresence and activity. Over 60 students participated in apub night and the new chair of the Student Committee,



Laura Gillard, attended many meetings and promised stillmore student participation in CMOS. Eighteen exhibitors hadbooths positioned for best exposure in the break and posterareas.

A photo collage, with links to presentation photos to awardwinners who were at the banquet, is available on the websiteat:

cmosarchives.ca/CongressPhotos/congressphotos.html

More photos from private photographers are welcome. Please contact Bob Jones at [email protected]

The Local Arrangements Committee (LAC) providedexcellent offerings of food during congress as well as sometours and events in the spectacular Whistler environment.The LAC should be commended for negotiating lowaccommodation prices among the various “CMOS-approved” hotels and suites, all located a few minutes walkfrom the Conference Centre. Indeed, this congress featuredthe lowest hotel costs of many recent congresses held inurban hotels. The Whistler Conference Centre is a spaciousmodern complex which provided every convenience.

More detailed information on this congress, such asabstracts and plenary speaker biographies, may be found onthe CMOS website.

With valuable contributions from Bob Jones, Ann McMillan,and Martha Anderson.

2015 Student Bursary Recipientsat Whistler Congress

Récipiendaires 2015 des bourses de voyagepour étudiants au congrès de Whistler

Banafsheh Afshar - University of British Columbia

Harry Joseph Bailey - Simon Fraser University

Maggie Campbell - University of British Columbia

Alison Cassidy - University of British Columbia

David Collins - University of Victoria

Dana Ehlert - Simon Fraser University

Yiwen Mao - University of Victoria

Katarzyna Tokarska - University of Victoria

Di Wan - University of Victoria

Mitchell Wolf - University of Victoria

Sina Abadzadesahraei - University of Northern BritishColumbia

Aseem Raj - University of Northern British Columbia

Bunu Sharma - University of Northern BritishColumbia

Stephen Berg - University of Manitoba

Laura Gillard - University of Alberta

Nathan Grivault - University of Alberta

Simon Horton - University of Calgary

Nan Hu - University of Alberta

Yarisbel Garcia Quintana - University of Alberta

Wendy Wood - University of Calgary

Amélie Bouchat - McGill University

Joannie Charette - Université du Québec à Rimouski

Patricia DeRepentigny - McGill University

David Deepwell - University of Waterloo

Jenny Hayon Jung - University of Toronto

Young enthusiastic scientists attending the Whistler Congress



2015 Student Bursary Recipientsat Whistler Congress (Continued)

Récipiendaires 2015 des bourses de voyagepour étudiants au congrès de Whistler (Suite)

Mathilde Jutras - McGill University

Kinson Leung - University of Toronto

Félix Ouellet - Université de Sherbrooke

Sébastien Roche - University of Toronto

Nicholas Soulard - McGill University

Kanachi Angadi - Memorial University

Matthew Hatcher - Dalhousie University

Zhi Min Ma - Memorial University

Benjamin Scheifele - University of British Columbia

Shiliang Shan - Dalhousie University

Pengcheng Wang - Dalhousie University

From Whistler to Fredericton

Next CMOS Congress in 2016

The 50th CMOS Congress will be held in Fredericton, NewBrunswick, from May 29 to June 2, 2016. This congress willbe held jointly with Canadian Geophysical Union (CGU).The theme of this joint conference is: Monitoring andAdapting to Extreme Events and Long-Term Variations.The organizing committee is putting together an excitingprogram both inside and outside of the conference. Wehope to see you all at the Fredericton congress next year!

Prochain Congrès de la SCMO en 2016

Le 50e congrès de la SCMO se tiendra du 29 mai au 2 juin2016 dans la ville de Frédéricton, Nouveau-Brunswick. Cecongrès se tiendra en même temps que le congrès del’Union géophysique canadienne (UGC). Le thème choisi decette conférence conjointe est La surveillance etl’adaptation aux événements extrêmes et aux variationsà long terme. Le comité organisateur local metprésentement en place un programme tant scientifique quesocial. Nous espérons tous vous voir au congrès deFrédéricton l’an prochain.

Frédéricton ou Fredericton?

Réponse: en français les deux orthographes sont utilisées!

Ken Kwok, Chair LAC Whistler and Dr. Marcelo Santos,University of New Brunswick; Dr. Santos and William Ward

are Co-chairs LAC Fredericton



49th CMOS Whistler Congress Photo Memories

Souvenirs photographiques du 49e congrès de la SCMO à Whistler

Sheila Bourque, Douw Steyn, and Lydia Webb Mekdes Ayalew Tessema and Tim Oke

Bruce Ainslie and Christian Reuten Harinder Ahluwalia, Adam Monahan, and Paul Myers

Photos offertes gracieusement par Douw Steyn, Directeur des publications de la SCMOPhotos are courtesy of Douw Steyn, Director, CMOS Publications



49th CMOS Whistler Congress Photo Memories (continued)

Souvenirs photographiques du 49e congrès de la SCMO à Whistler (suite)

Martha Anderson, Adam Monahan, and Jim Abraham Paul LeBlond and Bill Crawford

André Giguère, Brad Snyder, Ross Macdonald, andDavid Jones

Susan Allen and Hal Ritchie






Chris Gibbons, Bruce Ainslie, and Ken Kwok Ben West and Lisa West

Stephen Howell, Christian Haas, and Shawn Marshall Douw Steyn and Harinder Ahluwalia






Ken Kwok (right, Chair LAC Committee), and his wifeCarmen

Qing Liao and Denis Bourque

A plenary session at Whistler Congress Poster session at Whistler Congress

Première photo offerte par Qing Liao, Chef de bureau de la SCMOFirst photo is courtesy of Qing Liao, CMOS Office Manager

Trois autres photos offertes par le comité local organisateur du congrès de WhistlerThree other photos are courtesy of Whistler Congress Local Arrangements Committee



Report on a Workshop of the Working Groupon Atmosphere-Related Research in

Canadian Universities

by Paul J. Kushner (University of Toronto),Pierre Gauthier (Université du Québec à Montréal),

John Gyakum (McGill University),Paul Myers (University of Alberta),

Kimberly Strong (University of Toronto),Roland Stull (University of British Columbia), and

Peter Taylor (York University)

Over the past year a working group of researchers based inCanadian universities have engaged in a strategic planningactivity intended to identify and articulate academic researchand education priorities in atmospheric, ocean, climate, andrelated research in the coming five to seven years. Theareas of research thus identified have been tentativelygrouped under the name "Atmosphere-Related Research"(ARR). The activity stemmed from discussions aboutchanges in funding and partnerships between university andgovernment researchers. The activity was stimulated andfocused by a workshop at McGill University in August 2014,that was hosted by the US University Corporation forAtmospheric Research (UCAR), where new ideas on how tomove forward with organizing this Canadian community wereconsidered.

The initial aim of the "Atmospheric Related Research inCanadian Universities" (ARRCU) working group is toproduce a short White Paper that will serve as the basis forfuture strategic planning and organizational activities. (Theorganizing committee of the ARRCU Working Group are theauthors of this report.) On April 23, 2015, a draft version ofthis White Paper was circulated and on May 8, 2015, aworkshop was held to discuss the draft White Paper andother aspects of this initiative. The purpose of this report isto summarize the proceedings of the workshop. Workshopmaterials, including background documents, slide decks,audio recordings and session summaries are available athttp://tinyurl.com/arrcu-may2015-workshop.

Workshop SummaryThe May 8 2015 workshop took place at the Hotel DeltaMontréal with generous support provided by NSERC(Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council ofCanada), l’Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), McGillUniversity, University of Toronto, and CanadianMeteorological and Oceanographic Society (CMOS). Over60 professionals from Canadian universities, government,and industry participated in the meeting either in person oronline. The meeting centered on three panels that reviewedthe draft White Paper and discussed issues of communityscope, priorities, and partnerships.

In an Introductory Overview Session, P. Kushnerdiscussed the background and scope of this initiative and

White Paper, as well as comments and feedback receivedto that point. R. Stull then gave a presentation on the needto shift ARR towards identifying future societal stresses andeconomic opportunities, to ensure prosperity for Canadiansin a changing climate. Finally, J. Drummond provided aview of multiple "dimensions" of ARR research includingdiscovery research for intrinsic scientific interest,commercial applications for prosperity, and societal interestfor public and environmental protection.

For Panel 1: ARRCU Community Scope, Definition,Purpose, the chair K. Strong reviewed the proposedcommunity scope in the White Paper, discussedconnections to Canadian professional societies, andsuggested UCAR (University Corporation for AtmosphericResearch) as a possible model for ARRCU. The purpose ofARRCU's strategic planning, she proposed, is to identifyopportunities and collaborative mechanisms, improve dialogand advocacy for ARR faculty and universities, improvedata and infrastructure access, and improve planning ineducation and vocational training.

In the Panel 1 presentations and discussion, it wasproposed that ARRCU's role should not be to organize thecommunity's research in a top-down manner. Instead, ourcommunity should have a means to help spur newcollaborations between groups that have not previouslyinteracted. The White Paper should define multi-disciplinaryresearch objectives or critical concerns related to partnerindustry and government strategic goals, such as in thearea of water resources, to attract people who may want tofund or participate. Over the short-term, ARRCU couldremain focused on follow-on programs to the ClimateChange and Atmospheric Research (CCAR) program, withthe research capacity of the ARRCU community presentedas a compelling “value proposition”. In the discussion, itwas stated that prioritization is necessary, even ifchallenging. Over the long-term, something like ARRCUcould become an organization to define ARR-relatedproblems, to develop Canada's predictive capability[following the lines of international assessments like theIPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change)assessment reports], to identify responses and solutions inthe domains of social scientists, economists, and integratedassessment modeling, with a view to policy making andadaptation planning, implementation, and evaluation. Acommunity of researchers like this could be in a goodposition to respond quickly to changes in climate or to newfunding opportunities.

Participants emphasized that a strong linkage offundamental research to practical societal applicationsshould be a core element of the ARRCU plan. ARRfundamental research ranges from work in an individualinvestigator's laboratory focused on a specific process, tonovel field work, long-term measurements, and satelliteretrieval methods exploring new concepts, to theoreticalwork and mechanistic modeling studies focused on process



understanding and new physical parameterizations. ARRapplied research includes forecasting and environmentalprediction, and research relevant to human health,agriculture, land and water resource management, climatechange adaptation and impact evaluation. The fundamentalto applied science linkage is especially critical for broadsupport of projects requiring large-scale infrastructure suchas satellites, field programs, and high performancecomputing. The potential payoffs of ARR need to bearticulated: for example, funding from NSERC, EnvironmentCanada (EC), Health Canada and the use of NASA (NationalAeronautics and Space Administration) satellites enabled astudy on a Canada-wide assessment of exposure to fineairborne particulates (PM2.5), providing potentially tens ofbillions of dollars in health benefits. As another example,research on atmospheric chemistry in the Arctic contributedto the understanding of the emergence of the ozone holewhich in turn led to an international agreement, the Montréalprotocol, to address this very critical societal problem.

Participants suggested that the time scale of research andbenefits needs to be carefully balanced. There was arecognition that an excessive focus on short-term needs ofspecific industries risks losing research of enormous benefitto society, different levels of government, and a wide rangeof industries.

Participants emphasized the synergistic multidisciplinarynature of ARR. For example, in the area of atmosphericchemistry research, understanding the physics of transportinforms the understanding of chemical processes, whileknowledge of atmospheric chemistry provides usefuldynamical constraints on transport. The scope and definitionfor the name "atmosphere-related" research needs to beexplained carefully, because it can include importantresearch areas such as oceanography, soil science,vegetation, glaciology, forest meteorology, and agriculturemeteorology. There were several suggestions forbroadening the community, including public health andepidemiology, industrial chemistry, paleoclimate,physical/biological/ecosystems impacts research, and solar-terrestrial physics. Generally, flexibility and avoidingexcluding people by setting rigid boundaries was supported. Despite suggestions to broaden the community, there wasan overarching sense that the ARRCU White Paper needsto be carefully focused on important science problems thata large portion of the community agrees to be of high priority.

Regarding the Canadian context, it was suggested that thisgroup needs to recognize the Canadian context. It needs tobe organized nationally but to recognize provincialleadership in research funding. ARRCU should takeadvantage of existing professional societies – CMOS, CGU(Canadian Geophysical Union), and the recently formedCanadian Societies for the Geophysical Sciences (CSGS) –for its organizational effort. There was considerablediscussion of communications and advocacy for thiscommunity during this panel and throughout the workshop.

It was recommended that the White Paper have a succinctvision statement and should include a list of grandchallenges or key science questions. Communicationsshould be a key purpose of the document and emphasizedin the title. Participants pointed out that there is a large andgrowing media and public interest in our fields of researchlike weather and climate. There is a need to make peopleaware of what the ARR community is doing and why itmatters, but also to be wary of straying into the politicalarena and taking on broader organizational issues that arenot unique to ARR.

Ideally, the White Paper should adopt a tightcommunications message: clear, constructive, authoritative,on-message, and focused. Science described in the planshould be based on clear objectives and underscore thevalue of collaboration between scientists and users, andemphasize partnerships across disciplines. While potentialthreats arising from naturally occurring severe weather andanthropogenic climate change are important, a questionwas whether it should be a point of emphasis in ourcommunications. It was also suggested that ARRCU couldbe recognized as an expertise network, e.g., having a list ofexperts available to talk to the media.

The case for using ARRCU to advocate within the universitycommunity was pointed out: it would be useful to havematerials and a group that could advocate to universityadministrators the case for new faculty hires in ARR,present the relevance of ARR for research and education,and break down internal barriers to interdisciplinary work.The Canadian Consortium of Ocean Research Universities(C-CORU) was raised as a successful example of high-level advocacy within Canadian academia. A related pointis that a strategic plan could be used to communicate ourneeds to Compute Canada and other agencies like CFI(Canada Foundation for Innovation) providing infrastructurefor ARR.

For Panel 2: Priorities in research, education, andtraining, Panel Chair P. Gauthier prepared a briefingdocument (which can be found under the "BackgroundDocuments" directory at tinyurl.com/arrcu-may2015-workshop) describing the need for internationalcollaboration required to engage in coordinated model andobservational efforts, and the need to identify uniqueCanadian contributions to global ARR. He also pointed outthat there was a need to provide students and other HQP(Highly-Qualified Personnel) a sense of the purpose andsocio-economic value of their research. Panel 2 wascharged with identifying priorities for our research andeducation, and what this would imply for our infrastructureneeds and classroom approaches.

It was proposed that a natural focus of ARRCU should beon Canada's land mass, its coastal zone, and its Arcticterritory. Canada, with limited resources, needs to leverage"niche" areas, e.g. satellite limb sounders like SciSat ACE



(Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment) and OSIRIS (OpticalSpectrograph and InfraRed Imaging System), and itssignificant strength in Arctic and polar science includingmeteorology, cryosphere science, and cold regionhydrology. Because of logistical challenges and a harshenvironment, Arctic research is very expensive butnecessary to support to continue our leadership in Arcticscience. At the same time, the teleconnected nature ofweather means that local weather depends on globalconditions and we cannot focus exclusively on the Arctic orany other particular region. Research in weather, climate,and air quality in a changing climate thus requires a globalperspective, although Canada should emphasize itsstrengths in certain regions.

Research into climate extremes, process understanding,regional climate, and air quality should be of high priority. Toachieve the highest model resolution possible (1-10kmscale) relevant to resource management and impactassessment requires fine-scale regional climate models thatCanadian universities (through UQAM and the Ouranosconsortium) have heavily invested in and worked tocharacterize and improve. Leveraging such investments areinternational collaborations – for example, in regionalmodeling – in which Canada has a well establishedleadership role. Modeling efforts using internationallyavailable open source tools, such as the National Center forAtmospheric Research's Community Earth System Modeland Weather Research and Forecasting Model (CESM andWRF), are also greatly valued within the universitycommunity for fundamental research and applications.Despite the growing emphasis on comprehensive modelsruns on high performance computers, several participantspointed out that simple less expensive models can be usedto test ideas and confront model formulations with data, andthat fundamental research based on physics, mathematics,and chemistry should be at the forefront of what we do.Insight from models requires a deep understanding of theirphysical basis and limitations; this has clear implications forour educational mandate.

Participants suggested that field measurements andobservational networks (e.g. of wind profilers and carbondioxide and water vapor flux measurements) should be givenhigh priority. Monitoring over the long term is an ongoingchallenge. Traditionally, EC has been responsible formaintaining such networks and universities struggle tomaintain such networks for monitoring. Universities haveobservation stations that collect data, but it is challenging tofind funding to pay for the indirect costs and the long-termoperational costs. Furthermore, the cost and long timescalesof space-based observational systems need to berecognized. Systems currently in place grew out of ideasproposed in the 1980s or 1990s. The path from instrumentalresearch to broader applications is not linear; the bestresults often face real risk of failure or unanticipatedapplications [e.g. GPS (Global Positioning Systems)applications in consumer electronics and meteorology].

Integration between universities and governments at anational and international level was seen as being requiredto be able to deploy observations and do the monitoring ofoceans, land and atmosphere on which is based theprogress made in modeling. In that respect, the CCARprogram has been very helpful in promoting this type ofintegrated collaboration between different universities andgovernment laboratories. Canada needs to show that it isfully contributing to the global effort in terms of observationsand investment in research, and the ARRCU communityshould make sure to link its strategic planning priorities toseveral international programs that have developed theirown plans over the last several years, rather than startingfrom scratch.

On education, it was suggested that we should prioritizeonline courses (following the UCAR COMET model) to takeadvantage of expertise that is dispersed across differentCanadian universities. Academic and industry participantsemphasized the need for more practical training inmeteorology and oceanography that is directly orientedtowards the needs of the commercial sector, for example inareas of air-quality, insurance, etc. Also related toeducation is the need to develop student intuition usingsimple models and to make sure that students understandthe mathematics, physics, and chemistry upon whichcomprehensive models are based.

Panel 3: Partnerships, chaired by J. Gyakum, discussedideas to facilitate research, education, training, andemployment initiatives with ARRCU's non-academicpartners. The Panel discussed partners' impression of theARRCU initiative, how to attract suitable partners, and whatmight be useful in scope and prioritization, in both researchand education. J. Gyakum described an "operations toresearch" model for partnership proposed by UCARPresident T. Bogdan. In “operations to research”,academics interact with partners in industry andgovernment, and listen to partners’ stated needs forresearch. This concept is the reverse of “research tooperations”, an example being an operational weathercentre benefitting from an academic initiative to incorporatea new numerical, or physical parameterization, into anoperational weather forecast model.

E. Boston provided NSERC's perspective that a long-rangeplan should select activities that have interest to asignificant portion of the Atmospheric-Related Research(ARR) community. The planning should recognize thatNSERC supports ARR through Discovery Grants,supplements, scholarships, etc., to students andpostdoctoral fellows. We should bear in mind and do betterin the areas of industrial partnerships, involving hydro-electric companies, water resource management, NSERCNetworks of Centres of Excellence, etc., following theexample of ArcticNet, MEOPAR (Marine EnvironmentalObservation Prediction and Response Network), and othernetworks. These partnerships can help create job



opportunities, guide new research directions, and assistcompanies in building their businesses. There are grants fortravel for universities and industries to meet in order toestablish collaborations. E. Boston also remindedparticipants that the CCAR program is midway through itsterm and would be reviewed in the coming year.

Representing the EC perspective, G. Brunet (Director,Meteorological Research Division) proposed a university-government partnership model like the United KingdomMeteorological Office's Academic Partnerships, which dealswith funding for HQP and selected university faculty. Sucha partnership includes meeting regularly to discuss fundingdistributions to develop strategic funding to take into accountweather, climate, and fundamental research. The CCARmodel was partially successful but the balance of fundingneeds to be corrected to ensure funding for weatherresearch reflecting language in the call dealing with weatherresearch themes. A successful funded partnership wouldprovide proper academic partnerships and train HQPaccording to the needs of the job market. Also speaking tothe EC perspective, C. Lin (Director General of theAtmospheric Science and Technology Directorate) statedthat government-based laboratories provide the mostappropriate basis for the tasks of performing routinenetworked long-term monitoring, as for air quality. Butintensive monitoring (e.g., in the Alberta oil sands) involvesmultiple partnerships on university and government levels.Satellite data monitoring and research represent excellentopportunities for partnerships at the university andinternational levels. He suggested ARRCU consider theconcept of MOST (Models, Observations, SatellitesTogether), which involves the integration of observations andsatellites via an assimilation network. He also concluded thatCCAR to date has delivered what it set out in its mandate. Inparticular, the desired knowledge transfer to governmentfrom universities has been occurring.

M. Fekri (Pelmorex) represented the industry perspective.He stated that a Canadian ARR community would hopefullyenable easier engagement between university, government,and industry and allow for an optimal allocation of funding forinitiatives that are beneficial to all partners as well as aconsistent point of contact between the private sector andacademia. Key challenges are: a) Communication: how toenable effective longlasting working relationships, whichcould be facilitated by having a means through this kind ofgroup of establishing first contact; b) Research Focus:Pelmorex's, and more broadly industry's, primary goal is theapplication of scientific knowledge to business problems thathave discernable public benefit and interest. It needs to berecognized that strong applications stem from strongfoundational scientific understanding. A common groundneeds to be found to the mutual benefit of both partners.

In written remarks about education and training, C. Scott(Pelmorex Chief Meteorologist) stated that, given the skill ofnumerical weather forecasting and the need for hyper-local

weather information, there will be a need for meteorologistswho understand the physics of the atmosphere but can alsoassess and communicate risk. This requires a well-rounded scientist with a mix of strong analytical,computational, and communication skills. Additionally, amodernization of programming courses should beundertaken from Fortran to languages like Python andJava. Communication and teamwork should also be afocus so that students can learn to articulate the theory andhone skills that may not come naturally.

According to T. Piekutowski of the Canadian SpaceAgency, the space agency has always been in the businessof partnering industry, academic, and government sectors.Costly space-related initiatives must respond to governmentneeds in order to be useful, and often concepts flow fromthe academic side that industry turns into products used bygovernment partners. Government efforts involve deliberateand safe development, while the academic communitytends to propose more risky, yet scientifically ground-breaking, research concepts. In the ARR planning process,it is important to identify shared priorities and foruniversities to do a better job of quantifying the value of theresources they bring to projects. The CCAR model ofinsisting on firm commitments from a university-governmentpartnership has been very effective in ensuring thatuniversity research is useful to government. Thus far,NSERC grants facilitating industrial/academic collaborationseem to be underused.

A. Bourque of Ouranos described his organization'spartnership model: Ouranos is a private, non-profitorganization, which consists of a network of approximately450 scientists and professionals from academia,government, and private industry. The approach involvesactive participation in partnerships, in which users areinvolved during each step of the process. The process ofasking the right questions and developing the projects,although time consuming, is worthwhile – reflecting anoperations to research process. This engagement facilitatesthe development of a research program that benefitseveryone.

W. Perrie (Fisheries and Oceans Canada/DFO) pointed outthat DFO's research focus serves departmental mandatessuch as ‘safe and accessible waterways’. Atmosphere-ocean dynamics research supports this mandate throughstudies of marine storms, air-sea interactions, marinewinds, and waves, etc. This research is directly relevant tonational societal priorities, like offshore hydrocarbondevelopment, fisheries activities, marine transport, andsearch and rescue. Presently, projects based on NSERCfunding, such as MEOPAR allow funding federal scientistswho are also adjuncts at universities, working in partnershipwith university faculty and HQP in their groups. There arealso limited international partnerships such as with the USOffice of Naval Research. DFO can in addition supportpostdoctoral fellows via the NSERC Visiting Fellows



program.

During other discussions related to this Panel, it was pointedout that while some researchers, such as atmosphericchemists, have successful funded collaborations with ECpartners, generally NSERC funded partnership programsinvolving EC and the Canadian Space Agency are difficult toarrange. In particular, climate-related research has beenexcluded from the NSERC Strategic program. Concern wasexpressed of barriers to collaboration with EC andgovernment, including the difficulty in gaining access togovernment domain data. It was also suggested that theCanadian Space Agency and EC work together to help buildopportunistic collaborations with universities; in response, itwas stated that steps are being taken to increase thecollaboration between these two government agencies.Regarding long-term monitoring, it was pointed out thatuniversities may need to fill in gaps left by monitoringprograms cut at the federal level, and that long-termmonitoring on individual sites or for small regions canjustifiably be carried out by university-based researchers.Finally, a missing element in the partnership discussions isthat of partnership with northern and aboriginal communitiesincorporating traditional and local knowledge. Particularlywith Canada's ARR focus on Arctic research, suchpartnerships are essential if our science is to provide benefitto peoples who are some of those most strongly affected byclimate change.

Throughout the meeting, panelists and other participants hadseveral comments on research support and researchfunding. The following summarizes comments made onthese issues:

! The serious issues of the timescale and predictability ofresearch support needs to be articulated by the ARRCUcommunity. Interruptions in funding, such as the end of theCFCAS programs, means that expertise built up over a longtime period is lost to the detriment of all involved includingthe broader Canadian society. The CCAR Network cycle isnearing its midpoint, and the issue of research support forthe networks that have been assembled will soon ariseagain. The timescales for internationally coordinated ARRresearch typically exceed funding cycles of three to fiveyears and so need long-term support to be viable.Furthermore, the ARR community lacks the flexible accessto funding for research opportunities that arise relativelyquickly, such as opportunities to participate in internationalfield campaigns. This lack of opportunity places Canadianresearchers at a competitive disadvantage for futureparticipation and collaborations on an international level.

! Another overarching issue is the scale of researchfunding. The strong focus on large-scale initiatives andnetworks means that opportunities for small-to-mediumscale projects with shorter term objectives in innovativeresearch areas can be lost.

! A possible path for improved funding to the ARRcommunity would be to expand the scope of NSERCStrategic Grants to allow more areas of ARR research andto facilitate partnership with government departments likeEC in such proposals.

! New models of funding should be considered. Flexiblefunding that is responsive to new ideas emerging fromcollaborations at the frontiers of different disciplines wouldhelp to bring this community together. The ARRCUcommunity would benefit from additional funding tocollaborate actively within international teams, for exampleto use data coming from a new satellite instrument from anon-Canadian space agency for applications of importanceto Canada.

! Concern was expressed that the need to provideextensive reporting can have adverse effects onpartnerships, because the time devoted to reportingremoves time from the actual research. Large-scalenetwork projects like the CCAR projects also increaseadministrative responsibility on university faculty.

! On computing, ARRCU's strategic plan should articulateits justification of the compute cycles and storage resourcesneeded.

ConclusionIn the time since the May 8 workshop, further consultationand solicitation of interest through a survey andpresentations at an EC Carbon Assimilation System (EC-CAS) workshop and CMOS congresses have taken place.A webinar hosted by NSERC on June 22, 2015 discussednext steps and the White Paper draft in progress. The finalversion of the ARRCU White Paper is expected to becompleted in August 2015.

The workshop on May 8 and the thoughtful commentary onthe draft ARRCU White Paper show that our communityhas an abundance of good ideas and commitment toengage in a long-range planning activity. We hope that thisactivity will achieve the purpose of articulating the academiccommunity's contribution to a long-range strategic plancomprising a sustainable research program in ARR forCanada. We invite further engagement by the broadcommunity of researchers interested in this initiative.Interested university faculty and professional researchersin government laboratories and industry are welcome to joinour email list and online meetings. Endorsement of thisactivity will be more formally indicated by being a signatoryto the White Paper that we aim to finalize in the summer of2015.



ARRCU-Working Group Committee and Panel Members

ARRCU-WG Committee Panel 1: Scope Panel 2: Priorities Panel 3: Partnerships

Chair: Paul KushnerUniversity of Toronto,Department of Physics

Chair: Kimberly StrongUniversity of Toronto,Department of Physics

Chair: Pierre GauthierUniversité du Québec àMontréal, Département desSciences de la Terre et del'Atmosphère

Chair: John GyakumMcGill University,Department of Atmosphericand Ocean Sciences

Pierre GauthierUniversité du Québec àMontréal, Département desSciences de la Terre et del’Atmosphère

Adam BourassaUniversity ofSaskatchewan, Institute ofSpace and AtmosphericStudies

Peter TaylorYork University,Department of Earth andSpace Science andEngineering

Elizabeth BostonNSERC

John GyakumMcGill University,Department of Atmosphericand Ocean Sciences

Jennifer MurphyUniversity of Toronto,Department of Chemistry

James DrummondDalhousie University,Department of Physics andAtmospheric Science

Gilbert BrunetEC, MeteorologicalResearch Division

Paul MyersUniversity of Alberta,Department of Earth andAtmospheric Sciences

John PomeroyUniversity ofSaskatchewan, Centre forHydrology

Paul MyersUniversity of Alberta,Department of Earth andAtmospheric Sciences

Madjid FekriPelmorex Media

Kimberley StrongUniversity of Toronto,Department of Physics

Nigel RouletMcGill University,Department of Geography

Randall MartinDalhousie University,Department of Physics andAtmospheric Science

Charles LinEC, Atmospheric Scienceand Technology Directorate

Roland StullUniversity of BritishColumbia, Department ofEarth Ocean &Atmospheric Sciences

Gordon SwatersUniversity of Alberta,Pacific Institute for theMathematical Sciences

Peter BartelloMcGill University,Department of Atmosphericand Ocean Sciences

Thomas PiekutowskiCanadian Space Agency,Sun-Earth SystemSciences

Peter TaylorYork University, Department of Earth andSpace Science andEngineering

Francis ZwiersUniversity of Victoria,Pacific Climate ImpactsConsortium

Laxmi SushamaUniversité du Québec àMontréal, Département desSciences de la Terre et del'Atmosphère

Iain RussellPelmorex Media



IN MEMORIAM

Roy Lee

1924 - 2015

Entered into eternal life,love and peace. Lovinghusband of Jenny ElvaLee, née Pon (Pooksy),his best friend; son ofthe late Lee Guk Soongand Wong Siu Ping ofthe village of HengGuang Shan in thedistrict of Too Fook,Guangdong Province,China. Pre-deceased byhis sister Ru Zhen, andbrothers George C., andThomas. He is survivedand missed by his sister

Nellie Fong (Lee) of Montreal, sons Gordon (Linda) ofNorth Vancouver, David, and Peter (Susan) of Toronto;grandchildren David and Jamie, Peter, Katharine,Madeleine, Emma, and their mother Janet, Graham(Caroline), Patrick, and Tristan; great-grandchildren Liamand Vivian.

Roy was always proud of his Chinese heritage and tracedhis family history back to the 12th century. He was excitedto discover that he is the thirtieth generation of a line ofancestors originating in Kaifeng. His ancestor You WenGong was a leading scholar in the country in the ImperialExaminations held in 1127. He was selected to administerthe Imperial Estates of the Sung Dynasty Emperor GaoTsung. Unwilling to agree with the rest of the ImperialCourt to accept peace with the northern invaders, he wasdemoted and sent to Guangdong with his only son. Hisgrave is still intact. His descendants lived in Hok Shan fora number of generations, and then migrated to the villageof Xin Tsun. Two of three brothers moved to found thevillage of Heng Guang Shan.

Roy earned Masters Degrees in both AppliedMathematics and Meteorology, from the University ofToronto. His education began in Court Street School andCentral in St. Catharines, Alexandra School in Montreal(1934-1937), then at St. Catharines Collegiate Instituteand Vocational School. He joined the MeteorologicalService of Canada in 1948 and retired in 1985. First, heworked as a forecaster in Gander, next as a researchscientist, then as a teacher at U. of T. and at theMeteorological Service, and finally as Director ofAdministration. Many of his scientific research paperswere published, including early work on both jet streamsand satellite weather interpretation; one of his articles on

jet streams was republished in the Smithsonian Treasuryof 20th-Century Science (1966). Roy also led theimplementation of a new Canadian weather forecastingsystem, as well as Canada's metric conversion of weatherreporting.

He married Jenny on June 13, 1949. They moved fromToronto to Montreal, then to Gander where Gordon wasborn. Returning to Toronto in 1952, David was born soonafter, and Peter in 1956. The family moved to their secondhappy home on Cardiff Road, selected by Jenny, andfinally to Lloydminster Crescent in North York.

Jenny, love of Roy's life, was born in Killam, Alberta andgrew up in Chauvin, AB. Educated in a one-room schoolin Chauvin, she completed high school in Edmonton.Then, she attended Garneau Normal School in Edmontonand taught at Airdrie Elementary School. Jenny nextmoved to Toronto with her mother and family, where shemet Roy. She graduated with a B.A. from UniversityCollege. She attended the Ontario College of Education1946 -1948, then taught at Forest Hill Collegiate. Stayinghome to raise her children, she returned to teaching at theSt. John's Convalescent Hospital in 1963. She startedteaching at the Eastern High School of Commerce in1969. Jenny received her M.Ed. from the Ontario Institutefor Education in 1975. Retiring in 1988, she and Roytraveled extensively in North America, Europe, and wentto China three times, once to visit Roy's mother's grave.Jenny had a series of illnesses starting in 1989. She diedin the arms of Roy on the night of May 3, 1999. Buried ona gentle slope in Section 23 in Mount Pleasant Cemetery,facing Mount Pleasant Avenue.

Roy wished to acknowledge the individuals whocontributed to Jenny's and his happiness and well-beingduring their 50 years of marriage including: Uncle Gilbert;Miss Margaret Robertson; Reverend Gordon R. TaylorMA; Douglas and Grace Chappell; Leon and VernaD'Albertanson (Chauvin, AB); Dr. Donald Copeland DDS;George and Barbara Gilbert; James Stephens QC andMrs. Margaret Stephens; Donald Harvey; Henry and MaySam; Les and Mildred Tibbles; Dr. Andrew Thomson;Reverend Welburn and Mrs. Jessie Jones; LouiseMcKillop; Irene Hsia (GuoYing); and his many uncles in Montreal.

Roy Lee



BRIEF NEWS / NOUVELLES BRÈVES

David Grimes acclaimed asPresident of the WMO

We are proud to announce that David Grimes, AssistantDeputy Minister of the Meteorological Service of Canada,will serve a second four-year term as President of the WorldMeteorological Organization (WMO), aUnited Nations Specialized Agency.

David was acclaimed earlier today inGeneva, Switzerland, by his peers from the191 Member states and Territories of theWMO. David is the first and only Canadianto hold this post.

In his role as President, David will continueto represent the Members of the WMO andhelp shape the world's agenda for researchand services related to weather, climate,and water. He will also continue to serve asthe Assistant Deputy Minister for theMeteorological Service of Canada.

During his first term, David led the WMO tosuccessfully develop and adopt theImplementation Plan for the GlobalFramework for Climate Services, with the objective ofenhancing the availability and scope of climate services,particularly in developing countries. He advanced themodernization of the WMO's observation andtelecommunications systems globally, with increasingattention to Polar and High Mountain Regions, to improvethe world's understanding of weather and climate and toimprove predictive capabilities.

We are confident that David and his team will serve theWMO and its Members well over the next four years andinvite you to join us in extending our congratulations toDavid.

Michael Martin, Deputy Minister

Siddika Mithani, Associate Deputy Minister

David Grimes est choisi à titre deprésident de l'OMM

Nous sommes fiers de vous annoncer que David Grimes,sous-ministre adjoint au Service météorologique duCanada, remplira un deuxième mandat de quatre ans à titrede président de l'Organisation météorologique mondiale

(OMM), une institution spécialisée desNations Unies.

David a été reconduit dans ses fonctions paracclamation plus tôt aujourd'hui à Genève,en Suisse, par ses pairs des 191 États etterritoires membres de l'OMM. Il est lepremier et le seul Canadien à occuper ceposte.

À titre de président, David continuera dereprésenter les membres de l'OMM et d'aiderà structurer le programme mondial pour larecherche et les services météorologiques,climatiques et hydriques. Il continueraégalement d'assumer ses fonctions desous-ministre adjoint pour le Servicemétéorologique du Canada.

Au cours de son premier mandat, David aamené l'OMM à élaborer et à adopter avecsuccès le plan de mise en oeuvre du Cadre

mondial pour les services climatologiques, dans le but defaciliter l'accès aux services climatiques et d'élargir leurportée, particulièrement dans les pays en développement.Il a fait progresser la modernisation des systèmesd'observation et de télécommunications de l'OMM àl'échelle mondiale, en portant une attention accrue auxrégions polaires et en hautes montagnes, afin d'accroître lacompréhension mondiale des conditions météorologiqueset climatiques et les capacités de prévision.

Nous sommes certains que David et son équipe servirontbien l'OMM et ses membres au cours des quatreprochaines années et nous vous invitons à vous joindre ànous pour le féliciter.

Michael Martin, Sous-ministre

Siddika Mithani, Sous-ministre déléguée

David Grimes



New WMO Director-General

GENEVA 4 June 2015 (WMO) - Petteri Taalas,Director-General of the Finnish Meteorological Institute, hasbeen appointed as the next Secretary-General of the WorldMeteorological Organization for a four-year mandatestarting 1 January 2016. He succeeds Michel Jarraud(France).

Mr. Taalas received therequ is i te two- th i rdsmajority vote at the WorldMeteorological Congress,W M O ’ s t o pdecision-making body.

“The importance of WMOa n d t h e N a t i o n a lMe teo ro log i ca l andHydrological Services isgrowing due to highernumber of disasters hittingall parts of the world,” saidMr. Taalas. “Proper earlywarning services areessential in protectinghuman life and property.Scientific know-how forclimate adaptation and

water resource management are also crucially needed inseveral WMO Member countries. I am highly motivated towork for an effective and service oriented WMO.”

Mr. David Grimes (Canada) was reelected WMO President(see notice on previous page). Antonio Divino Moura(Brazil), Mieczyslaw S. Ostojski (Poland) and AbdalahMokssit (Morocco) were reelected as First Vice, SecondVice and Third Vice Presidents respectively.

Mr. Taalas has been the Director-General of the FinnishMeteorological institute since 2002, excluding 2005 – 2007when he worked as a Director of Development andRegional Activities department of WMO.

He has extensive experience in management of nationaland international expert organizations with proven skills onenhanced efficiency, new innovations, high customer, andstaff satisfaction. He has a strong scientific background withemphasis on atmospheric sciences. He has made about 50publications on global climate change, satellitemethodologies, and atmospheric chemistry.

Mr. Taalas has had several positions and boardmemberships in both national and internationalorganizations (e.g. membership in WMO Executive Counciland European Centre for Medium Range WeatherForecasts Council. He is past Chairman of the EUMETSATCouncil and EUMETNET Council.

The World Meteorological Congress brings together everyfour years the representatives of the Organization’s 191Members to determine the general policies and approve thelong-term plan of WMO, to appoint the Secretary-General,elect officers, and decide on budgetary matters.

Mr. Jarraud has served three four-year terms in office.Congress bestowed on him the title of Secretary-GeneralEmeritus.

Retirement of William K.W. Li from theDepartment of Fisheries and Oceans

Submitted by Erica HeadBedford Institute of Oceanography

Dr. Bill Li retired on March 30, 2015 after 35 years as aResearch Scientist with the Department of Fisheries andOceans (DFO) at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography(BIO). The list of his career achievements is long, but thosewho have worked with him have also learned to value hispersonal qualities: his breadth of knowledge, his integrity,his attention to detail and his willingness to take on, orassist others with, any of the tasks that come with workingfor a government department.

Bil l ’s field ofexpertise is inMicrobial andP h y to p l a n k t o nE c o l o g y a n dbefore joiningD F O h edeveloped hisideas and skillswith the help ofsome well-knownCanadian and USmarine scientists:Tim Parsons washis undergraduateThesis supervisorat the University ofBritish Columbia,Bob Fournier was his PhD supervisor at DalhousieUniversity, and Ian Morris and Joel Goldman were his Post-graduate supervisors at the Bigelow Laboratory for OceanSciences and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Early in his career at DFO in 1985 Bill was the recipient ofa Certificate of Honourable Mention in Ecology andEnvironmental Science (Royal Society of Arts, London) andin 1986, of an APICS-Fraser Gold Medal for OutstandingResearch (Atlantic Provinces Council on the Sciences).More recently, in 2012 he was a member of two researchteams that received BIO Crystal Awards, and in 2014 he

Petteri Taalas

Dr. Bill Li



was given the prestigious John Martin Award1. The latter isawarded by ASLO (Association for the Sciences ofLimnology and Oceanography) for a paper in aquaticsciences that is judged to have had a high impact onsubsequent research in the field. The paper for which hereceived the award was published early during Bill’s careerin 1983 and since then has received more than 400citations2.

In his award-winning paper Bill demonstrated that very tinyorganisms, picoplankton of less than one micrometer indiameter, could contribute up to 80% of the photosyntheticcarbon fixation in tropical ocean waters. During the followingyears, assisted by the acquisition of a then state-of-the-artflow cytometer, Bill showed that photosynthetic picoplanktonwere not restricted to tropical regions, but could be found athigher latitudes. In fact, he has recently demonstrated thatsome of these small phytoplankton forms can be found asfar north as the Arctic Ocean3.

The flow cytometer is an instrument that counts andcharacterizes small particles as they pass through a laserbeam in a fluid stream absorbing, scattering, and re-emittinglight. The acquisition of his first flow cytometer, and moremodern incarnations since, and of water samples fromaround the world, led Bill into the field of macroecology. Billhas been one of the pioneers in marine macroecology,which is the study of ecological communities with a focus onpatterns and processes.

Over the course of his career Bill has authored or co-authored more than 100 articles that have appeared in peer-reviewed scientific journals, twelve of which have receivedmore than 100 citations. His contributions to other writtenpublications (e.g. DFO reports, reviews, and researchdocuments, ICES [International Council for the Explorationof the Sea] reports, etc.) are numerous, as are hisevaluations and commentaries on the published work ofothers, through his membership of the F1000 EcologyFaculty. As well as his written output, Bill has also servedon the Editorial Boards, or as an Editor, for several well-

respected scientific journals. He has also been theCanadian delegate on international working groups for aseries of topics [e.g. United Nations Environment Program(Convention on Biological Diversity, Northwest AtlanticEcologically or Biologically Significant Areas), “Arctic Five”Scientific Meeting on Arctic Fish Stocks, ICES(Phytoplankton and Microbial Ecology), Census of MarineLife (Gulf of Maine Microbial Communities)], has organizedor co-organized international scientific conferences and hashad numerous invitations to speak at conferences and othervenues.

Between 2010 and 2014 Bill served as the Section Head forthe Marine Ecosystems Section, within the Ocean andEcosystem Sciences Division (OESD) at the BedfordInstitute of Oceanography. Bill applied himself to the taskwith his usual efficiency and the personal qualities which hebrought to the position made him a valuable member of themanagement team. His contributions to strategic planningand advice were highly valued by the OESD ManagementCommittee during a period of significant change withinDFO. In his science management role, Bill effectivelymastered Stephen Covey’s Habits 4-6 (principles ofinterdependence)4, which are particularly important in agovernment science work environment where effectiveteamwork is paramount.

Bill will be missed by his colleagues but not completely,since he has joined the ranks of the “Emeritus scientists”and will be at BIO for years to come, if not as early in themorning, or as late in the afternoon as before. Theexpectation is now that Bill has laid down the burdens ofDFO administration duties and bureaucracy, his scientificproductivity will only increase.

Gesche Winkler est la nouvelle Présidentede Québec-Océan

Québec-Océan est un regroupement de scientifiques et deleurs partenaires oeuvrant en recherche océanographique.Plus de 200 membres issus de 6 universités québécoises,de plusieurs ministères et d’organismes non-gouvernementaux collaborent pour développerl’océanographie, incluant la formation des étudiants et letransfert des connaissances.

Le 3 mars 2015, le Conseil d'Administration de Québec-Océan a élu Gesche Winkler comme nouvelle Présidentedu regroupement stratégique. Gesche Winkler estProfesseure-chercheuse en écologie du zooplancton àl'UQAR-ISMER (Université du Québec à Rimouski - Institut

1 See the CMOS Bulletin SCMO, Vol.42, No.3, pages 83-86.

2 Li, WKW, D.V. Subba Rao, W.G. Harrison, J.C. Smith, J.J. Cullen, B. Irwin and T. Platt, 1983. Autotrophic picoplankton in the tropical ocean. Science, 219:292-295.

3 Li WKW, Carmack EC, McLaughlin FA, Nelson RJ, Williams WJ, 2013. Space-for-time substitution in predicting the state of picoplankton and nanoplankton in a changing Arctic Ocean. Journal of Geophysical Research – Oceans, 118: 5750-5759.

4 Covey, S.R., 1989. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. New York, New York. Free Press.



des sciences de la mer de Rimouski). Elle succède à MichelGosselin qui siégeait à titre de Président depuis 2006.Monsieur Gosselin a grandement contribué à l'avancementdu regroupement et l'a fièrement représenté sur les scènesnationales et internationales.

Gesche Winkler is the new President ofQuébec-Océan

Québec-Océan is agroup of scientists andtheir partners involved ino c e a n o g r a p h i cresearch. More than 200members from sixQuebec universities,several ministries, andn o n - g o v e r n m e n t a lo r g a n i z a t i o n scollaborate to developoceanography, includingstudent training andknowledge transfer.

On March 3rd 2015, theBoard of directors ofQuébec-Océan electedGesche Winkler as newPres ident o f thes t r a teg i c c l us te r .Gesche Winkler is aProfessor-Researcher inzooplankton ecology at UQAR-ISMER. She succeedsMichel Gosselin who had been President since 2006. Mr.Gosselin has contributed greatly to the progress of Québec-Océan and proudly represented it nationally andinternationally.

STOP PRESS

Former Assistant Deputy Minister for AtmosphericEnvironment Service, Environment Canada, ProfessorGordon McBean, has been awarded the University ofBritish Columbia Alumni Award of Distinction for 2015.Professor McBean is an internationally recognizedCanadian climate scientist and climate change expert. Hehas been elected President of the International Council forScience (ICSU). See CMOS Bulletin SCMO, Vol.42, No.5,page 171, October 2014.

The award will be presented to Professor McBean at thealumni UBC Achievement Awards celebration on October27, 2015.

CMOS Accredited ConsultantsExperts-Conseils accrédités de la SCMO

Gamal E. O. Elhag-Idris, C.Chem., MCIC

Chemical Oceanography,Pollution Control and Water Technology

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Email: [email protected]

Douw G. Steyn

Air Pollution MeteorologyBoundary Layer & Meso-Scale Meteorology

4064 West 19th AvenueVancouver, British ColumbiaV6S 1E3 CanadaTel: 604-827-5517; Home: 604-222-1266Email: [email protected]

Gesche WinklerNouvelle présidente

New PresidentQuébec-Océan


Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society Canadian Geophysical Union La Société canadienne de météorologie et d’océanographie Union Géophysique Canadienne

Fredericton, NB

29 mai – 2 juin / May 29 – June 2, 2016 http://congress.cmos.ca

2016 Joint Scientific Congress of CMOS and CGU Congrès scientifique 2016, SCMO, UGC

Monitoring and Adapting to Extreme Events and Long-Term Variations

La Surveillance et l’adaptation aux événements extrêmes et aux variations à long terme

Photos: City of Fredericton Art: MCS

What do you need to measure? Why do you need to measure? When do you need to measure? How do you need to measure? When you call Campbell Scienti�c, these are the questions you can expect our Measurement Consultant to ask, as they learn about your project. We are eager and curious to understand your work and we care for the science behind the data you are collecting. Ensuring you have the right instruments to make the best possible measurements is our passion.

We’re passionate about what we doWe just work with di�erent instruments

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