Description

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Solid Precipitation Inter-Comparison Experiment (SPICE) officially began in the (Northern Hemisphere) Fall of 2012 with the objective of characterizing and providing guidance on the performance of automated systems for the in situ measurement of solid precipitation (Nitu et al., 2012). Environment and Climate Change Canada hosted three intercomparison sites as contributions to SPICE, two of which (Bratt’s Lake and Caribou Creek) are located in Saskatchewan. The Caribou Creek site is located in the southern Boreal forest, approximately 100 km North East of Prince Albert. The Bratt’s Lake site is located in the central prairies, approximately 30 km south of Regina. Each of the sites provides a different perspective for measuring precipitation. The Caribou Creek site exhibits a relatively longer and colder winter season but with lower wind speeds due to less exposure. The Bratt’s Lake site is drier and has a shorter accumulation season but experiences relatively high wind speeds due to exposure which makes accurate measurement of solid precipitation more challenging. Each of the Saskatchewan intercomparison sites measured accumulating precipitation with several gauge and wind shield configurations. Ancillary meteorological measurements of air temperature and wind speed at various heights were also made. This data set (October through April) begins in the fall of 2013 and continues through to the spring of 2017 and includes the two SPICE and two post-SPICE winters. The data consists of the core reference precipitation (WMO Double Fence Automated Reference and single Alter shielded gauges) and meteorological measurements (wind speed and air temperature). The precipitation and meteorology data were collected at a frequency of 1 minute, quality controlled and processed, and aggregated to 30 minute periods. Manual snow surveys were completed monthly (or bi-monthly) during the winter at the Caribou Creek site (with the exception of the 2015/2016 winter season). More information about this data set is included in the metadata. Supplemental Information See attached metadata document

Resources

Name	Format	Description	Link
View ECCC Data Mart (English)	HTML		https://data-donnees.ec.gc.ca/data/climate/scientificknowledge/saskatchewan-solid-precipitation-inter-comparison-experiment-spice-data/
EN Caribou Creek 2013-2017 Snow Survey Summary	Docx		https://data-donnees.ec.gc.ca/data/climate/scientificknowledge/saskatchewan-solid-precipitation-inter-comparison-experiment-spice-data/EN_CaribouCreek_2013_2017_SnowSurveySummary.docx
Data Collection Methodology (EN)	Docx		https://data-donnees.ec.gc.ca/data/climate/scientificknowledge/saskatchewan-solid-precipitation-inter-comparison-experiment-spice-data/EN_Data_Summary.docx?lang=fr
FR Caribou Creek 2013-2017 Snow Survey Summary	Docx		https://data-donnees.ec.gc.ca/data/climate/scientificknowledge/saskatchewan-solid-precipitation-inter-comparison-experiment-spice-data/FR_CaribouCreek_2013_2017_releve_de_neige_resume.docx
Data Collection Methodology (FR)	Docx		https://data-donnees.ec.gc.ca/data/climate/scientificknowledge/saskatchewan-solid-precipitation-inter-comparison-experiment-spice-data/FR_resume_des_donnees.docx?lang=fr
View ECCC Data Mart (French)	HTML		https://data-donnees.ec.gc.ca/data/climate/scientificknowledge/saskatchewan-solid-precipitation-inter-comparison-experiment-spice-data//?lang=fr

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