Protocol implementation plan for monitoring climate in the Southeast Alaska Network

Bower, Michael; Sousanes, Pamela; Johnson, William; Hill, Ken; Miller, Scott

Weather and climate were selected as high priorities during development of the Southeast Alaska Network’s (SEAN’s) Vital Sign Monitoring Plan given their fundamental role in driving the physical and biological processes that define ecosystem form and function. Given the generally sparse density of existing weather stations in Alaska, and in particular in the backcountry of Alaska’s national parks, the focus of the SEAN weather and climate monitoring program is collection, storage, and dissemination of climate data representing the diverse geographies of the SEAN parks. This is accomplished through operation of a series of 12 Remote Automated Weather Stations (RAWS) in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve (n = 9) and Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park (n = 3). No stations are being operated in Sitka National Historical Park given proximity to several stations run by cooperating agencies. Weather stations record air temperature, soil temperature at three depths (10-, 20-, and 50-cm), relative humidity, wind speed and direction, solar radiation, precipitation (as rainfall), and snow depth. Stations are visited at least annually to institute sensor calibration schedules based on manufacturer recommendations and to download station data. Downloaded data are subjected to rigorous quality control procedures to ensure reliability. Program deliverables including: • raw and corrected tabular data products • weather station maps • station maintenance visit worksheets • datalogger programs • site photographs • sensor calibration records Program deliverables are published along with complete metadata to the SEAN Weather and Climate Vital Sign Project in the National Park Service’s online Data Store. Stations also transmit provisional hourly observations via satellite telemetry to the Wildland Fire Management Information portal (WFMI). Provisional data are subsequently ingested by a number of repositories and other outlets where they can be viewed in near real-time for a variety of purposes (e.g. weather forecasting, backcountry travel planning). This protocol implementation plan adopts the climate monitoring protocol used by the Central Alaska Network (CAKN) with minor adaptations to meet site-specific conditions. Specific standard operating procedures for implementation of the CAKN protocol were revised in 2017 to standardize methods for adoption at the regional scale. The CAKN, SEAN, and Arctic Networks are now implementing consistent methods for greater regional consistency and to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and monitoring assets for improved program sustainability.

Protocol implementation plan for monitoring climate in the Southeast Alaska Network

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