Three Ways Forward to Improve Regional Information for Extreme Events: An Early Career Perspective

Abstract

This paper provides an early career researchers (ECRs) perspective on major challenges and opportunities that arise in the study and understanding of, and the provision of regional information for Climate, Weather and Hydrological (CWH) extreme events. This perspective emerged from the discussions of the early career 3-day Young Earth System Scientists-Young Hydrologic Society (YESS-YHS) workshop, which was conjointly held with the Global Energy and Water Exchanges (GEWEX) Open Science Conference. In this paper we discuss three possible ways forward in the field: a stronger interaction between Earth system scientists and users, a collaborative modeling approach between the different modeling communities, and an increased use of unconventional data sources in scientific studies. This paper also demonstrates the important role of ECRs in embracing the above outlined pathways and addressing the long-standing challenges in the field. YESS and YHS networks encourage the global community to support and strengthen their involvement with ECR communities to advance the field of interdisciplinary Earth system science in the upcoming years to decades.

Linking hydrological variations at local scales to regional climate teleconnection patterns

“…The linking hydrological fluxes at local scales to regional climate teleconnection patterns beyond seasonal variations can help us to understand local hydrological variations over multiple years (Prein et al, 2015) and predict climate and hydrological extremes (Langendijk et al, 2019) in snow dominated regions. Regional climate patterns can explain nonlinear hydrological behaviours.…”

“…Dry and cold conditions, for instance, in 1985 and 2000, may not belong to the same teleconnection phase and may have different atmospheric driving mechanisms. Detailed diagnoses of the interactions between local hydrological dynamics and regional climate teleconnection patterns, along with a physically based simulation of these interactions in climate models, can improve the understanding of climate and hydrological processes at local scales (Prein et al, 2015) and the understanding of weather and climate extremes at regional scales (Langendijk et al, 2019). The large biases that weather and climate model outputs show against observations (Fowler et al, 2007) can be reduced by linking land surface processes and local atmospheric convection to climate teleconnection patterns across a range of temporal and spatial scales.…”

Linking hydrological variations at local scales to regional climatic teleconnection patterns

“…Through linking hydrological fluxes at local scales to regional climatic teleconnection patterns beyond seasonal variations, we can better understand local hydrological processes across multiple years (Prein et al, 2015) and the nature of regional climate and hydrological extremes (Langendijk et al, 2019). Regional climatic patterns can explain nonlinear hydrological behaviors.…”

“…Dry and cool conditions, for instance, in 1985 and 2000, may not belong to the same teleconnection phase and may have different atmospheric driving mechanisms. Interactions between local hydrological dynamics and regional climatic teleconnection patterns, along with a physically based representation of these interactions in climate models, can improve the understanding of climate and hydrological processes at local scales (Prein et al, 2015) and the understanding of weather and climate extremes at regional scales (Langendijk et al, 2019). The large biases that weather and climate model outputs show against observations (Fowler, Blenkinsop, & Tebaldi, 2007) can be reduced by linking land surface processes and local atmospheric convection to climatic teleconnection patterns across a range of temporal and spatial scales.…”

A new flow for Canadian young hydrologists: Key scientific challenges addressed by research cultural shifts

“…Considering that ECRs typically do not have an established research network outside of their lab group, there is also a need for increased opportunities for engagement between ECRs. This can be addressed by organizing more discussion‐based and practical workshops through ECR networks, which can play an important role in developing a collaboration network and a research community to foster scientific exchange (Langendijk et al, ). A culture of collaboration must begin with individual research groups, and increased exchange and communication within a research group has the added benefit of improving continuity to achieve the data management goals outlined in the previous section.…”