Special Observation & Analysis Period (SOAP)

CCRN has conducted a Special Observation and Analysis Period (SOAP) across all of the WECC observatories during the period 1 October, 2014 to 30 September, 2015.  This involved coordinated and enhanced field activities, site instrumentation, and observational programmes at all of the sites.  The main purpose of this activity was to collect and archive a high-quality and consistent dataset of fine-scale hydrological, ecological, meteorological, and cryospheric process observations for a common period across our study region.  The detailed observations will be complemented by regional climate model outputs and full resolution products over the WECC observatories to be archived as part of the SOAP initiative.  This will allow for quantification and comparison of energy and water balances for the 2014-2015 hydrological year at WECC observatories and small watersheds across the domain, and will provide a high-quality dataset that can be used for model process algorithm development and testing.

In October 2016, a workshop was held in Saskatoon to review observations and insights from the SOAP and to plan common network scientific activities and data management/archiving.  This led to plans to publish SOAP datasets as a collection of papers in a special issue of the journal Earth System Science Data, and plans to write a synthesis paper describing the hydrometeorological conditions over the year and the regional impacts on different sectors.