Sustainable Water Development for the Village of Miramar, Honduras

The UNM Water Resources Program (WRP) offers the Master of Water Resources (MWR) degree, an interdisciplinary professional degree designed to prepare students for careers in water resources. The program seeks to expand and deepen students knowledge of their primary disciplines and, at the same time, improve their capacity to think carefully and comprehensively, and develop their technical and communication skills. In order to help achieve this goal, the WRP has developed three interdisciplinary (core) courses, the last of these courses (WR 573) being designed as a capstone, representing a culmination of the student\u27s experience in the program. This final class is an intensive field-based course in which the students work together using their previous coursework and acquired skills. A specific field project is undertaken, and students work through problem identification and definition, collect/analyze data, propose solutions, and present conclusions and recommendations in an appropriate forum. This year, the WR 573 class spent 12 days in Honduras examining rural water issues and assisting in the construction of a gravity-flow system to provide potable water to a local village (Miramar). Our involvement was to aid in the physical construction of the system, as well as examine and critique the construct of the system itself. This paper represents a summary of our experience in Honduras, our examination and assessment of the water problems in Miramar, including both a watershed sustainability assessment and an assessment of their proposed water delivery system.https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/wr_fmr/1005/thumbnail.jp

The East Mountain Area septic system user\u27s guide to the Bernalillo County Wastewater Ordinance : ensuring groundwater sustainability

On June 29, 2000, Bernalillo County released a draft wastewater ordinance, Bernalillo County Wastewater Ordinance, for public comment; in the fall of 2000, this ordinance was adopted. The ordinance is intended to protect public health and safety by establishing minimum criteria for the design, installation, inspection, treatment, and management of commercial and domestic wastewater systems. The ordinance is detailed and perhaps difficult to understand for the average homeowner in the East Mountain Area (EMA). It encompasses engineering, permitting, and maintenance requirements for new or modified septic systems in place after the effective date of this ordinance. Without thorough review and understanding of the ordinance, the homeowner could easily jeopardize his/her ability to operate their individual septic systems and/or face serious monetary consequences if their septic systems are not in compliance with the ordinance. The WR 573 summer 2000 class has prepared a simple, straightforward guidebook for EMA residents of Bernalillo County to use as a tool for understanding and complying with the new ordinance. Topics were researched and discussed within the context of the guidebook to help EMA homeowners fulfill their responsibilities under the ordinance, including inspection, compliance, permitting, and maintenance requirements of their individual septic tank systems. The guidebook is written in question-and-answer format, and each answer builds upon information provided within the guidebook. The guidebook was written for the average homeowner and is presented in non-technical language. We assumed that most homeowners would be neither qualified for nor desirous of doing most of the work required to bring their systems into compliance and would therefore hire a contractor. The guidebook was written to help the homeowner understand the process; most of the details are left to the contractor. Most of our information was drawn from the ordinance, studies of the East Mountain Area hydrologic system, or discussions with knowledgeable people. As a public-oriented user guide, specific references to documents were eliminated from the body of text. References are included at the end of the guidebook. The summer 2000 Water Resources 573 class, under the guidance of instructors Dr. Michael Campana and Dr. Michele Minnis, has synthesized our combined research into this guidebook entitled, East Mountain Area Septic System User\u27s Guide to the 2000 Bernalillo County Wastewater Ordinance. The guidebook will be edited and published as a Water Resources Program publication and copies provided to NOAA and Bernalillo County.https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/wr_fmr/1003/thumbnail.jp

Validation of Improved Broadband Shortwave and Longwave Fluxes Derived From GOES

Broadband (BB) shortwave (SW) and longwave (LW) fluxes at TOA (Top of Atmosphere) are crucial parameters in the study of climate and can be monitored over large portions of the Earth's surface using satellites. The VISST (Visible Infrared Solar Split-Window Technique) satellite retrieval algorithm facilitates derivation of these parameters from the Geostationery Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES). However, only narrowband (NB) fluxes are available from GOES, so this derivation requires use of narrowband-to-broadband (NB-BB) conversion coefficients. The accuracy of these coefficients affects the validity of the derived broadband (BB) fluxes. Most recently, NB-BB fits were re-derived using the NB fluxes from VISST/GOES data with BB fluxes observed by the CERES (Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy Budget) instrument aboard Terra, a sun-synchronous polar-orbiting satellite that crosses the equator at 10:30 LT. Subsequent comparison with ARM's (Atmospheric Radiation Measurement) BBHRP (Broadband Heating Rate Profile) BB fluxes revealed that while the derived broadband fluxes agreed well with CERES near the Terra overpass times, the accuracy of both LW and SW fluxes decreased farther away from the overpass times. Terra's orbit hampers the ability of the NB-BB fits to capture diurnal variability. To account for this in the LW, seasonal NB-BB fits are derived separately for day and night. Information from hourly SW BB fluxes from the Meteosat-8 Geostationary Earth Radiation Budget (GERB) is employed to include samples over the complete solar zenith angle (SZA) range sampled by Terra. The BB fluxes derived from these improved NB-BB fits are compared to BB fluxes computed with a radiative transfer model

A Comparison of Satellite-Based Multilayered Cloud Detection Methods

Both techniques show skill in detecting multilayered clouds, but they disagree more than 50% of the time. BTD method tends to detect more ML clouds than CO2 method and has slightly higher detection accuracy. CO2 method might be better for minimizing false positives, but further study is needed. Neither method as been optimized for GOES data. BTD technique developed on AVHRR, better BTD signals & resolution. CO2 developed on MODIS, better resolution & 4 CO2 channels. Many additional comparisons with ARSCL data will be used to optimize both techniques. A combined technique will be examined using MODIS & Meteosat-8 data. After optimization, the techniques will be implemented in the ARM operational satellite cloud processing

Derivation of Improved Surface and TOA Broadband Fluxes Using CERES-derived Narrowband-to-Broadband Coefficients

Satellites can provide global coverage of a number of climatically important radiative parameters, including broadband (BB) shortwave (SW) and longwave (LW) fluxes at the top of the atmosphere (TOA) and surface. These parameters can be estimated from narrowband (NB) Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) data, but their accuracy is highly dependent on the validity of the narrowband-to-broadband (NB-BB) conversion formulas that are used to convert the NB fluxes to broadband values. The formula coefficients have historically been derived by regressing matched polarorbiting satellite BB fluxes or radiances with their NB counterparts from GOES (e.g., Minnis et al., 1984). More recently, the coefficients have been based on matched Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) and GOES-6 data (Minnis and Smith, 1998). The Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy Budget (CERES see Wielicki et al. 1998)) project has recently developed much improved Angular Distribution Models (ADM; Loeb et al., 2003) and has higher resolution data compared to ERBE. A limited set of coefficients was also derived from matched GOES-8 and CERES data taken on Topical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite (Chakrapani et al., 2003; Doelling et al., 2003). The NB-BB coefficients derived from CERES and the GOES suite should yield more accurate BB fluxes than from ERBE, but are limited spatially and seasonally. With CERES data taken from Terra and Aqua, it is now possible to derive more reliable NB-BB coefficients for any given area. Better TOA fluxes should translate to improved surface radiation fluxes derived using various algorithms. As part of an ongoing effort to provide accurate BB flux estimates for the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program, this paper documents the derivation of new NB-BB coefficients for the ARM Southern Great Plains (SGP) domain and for the Darwin region of the Tropical Western Pacific (DTWP) domain

Comparison of TWP-ICE Satellite and Field Campaign Aircraft Derived Cloud Properties

Cloud and radiation products derived from the MTSAT-1R satellite have been developed for TWP-ICE. These include pixel-level, gridded, and ground site and aircraft matched. These products are available from the Langley website and the ARM data center. As shown in Figs 2, and 4-6, these products compare favorably with in-situ ground and aircraft based measurements. With additional quantitative validation these products can provide valuable information about tropical convection and its impact on the radiation budget and climate. As new algorithm improvements, such as multi-layer cloud detection, are implemented these products will be reprocessed and updated

Tropospheric Airborne Meteorological Data and Reporting (TAMDAR) Icing Sensor Performance during the 2003/2004 Alliance Icing Research Study (AIRS II)

NASA Langley Research Center and its research partners from the University of North Dakota (UND) and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) participated in the AIRS II campaign from November 17 to December 17, 2003. AIRS II provided the opportunity to compare TAMDAR in situ in-flight icing condition assessments with in situ data from the UND Citation II aircraft's Rosemont system. TAMDAR is designed to provide a general warning of ice accretion and to report it directly into the Meteorological Data Communications and Reporting System (MDCRS). In addition to evaluating TAMDAR with microphysical data obtained by the Citation II, this study also compares these data to the NWS operational in-flight icing Current Icing Potential (CIP) graphic product and with the NASA Advanced Satellite Aviation-weather Products (ASAP) Icing Severity product. The CIP and ASAP graphics are also examined in this study to provide a context for the Citation II's sorties in AIRS II

Applications for Near-Real Time Satellite Cloud and Radiation Products

At NASA Langley Research Center, a variety of cloud, clear-sky, and radiation products are being derived at different scales from regional to global using geostationary satellite (GEOSat) and lower Earth-orbiting (LEOSat) imager data. With growing availability, these products are becoming increasingly valuable for weather forecasting and nowcasting. These products include, but are not limited to, cloud-top and base heights, cloud water path and particle size, cloud temperature and phase, surface skin temperature and albedo, and top-of-atmosphere radiation budget. Some of these data products are currently assimilated operationally in a numerical weather prediction model. Others are used unofficially for nowcasting, while testing is underway for other applications. These applications include the use of cloud water path in an NWP model, cloud optical depth for detecting convective initiation in cirrus-filled skies, and aircraft icing condition diagnoses among others. This paper briefly describes a currently operating system that analyzes data from GEOSats around the globe (GOES, Meteosat, MTSAT, FY-2) and LEOSats (AVHRR and MODIS) and makes the products available in near-real time through a variety of media. Current potential future use of these products is discussed

NASA-Langley Web-Based Operational Real-time Cloud Retrieval Products from Geostationary Satellites

At NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC), radiances from multiple satellites are analyzed in near real-time to produce cloud products over many regions on the globe. These data are valuable for many applications such as diagnosing aircraft icing conditions and model validation and assimilation. This paper presents an overview of the multiple products available, summarizes the content of the online database, and details web-based satellite browsers and tools to access satellite imagery and products