Steven Quiring's Research Interests

Research: Arctic Climate and Hydrology

The hydroclimatology of the Arctic plays an important role in the global climate system because the amount of freshwater in the Arctic Ocean (which primarily comes from river discharge) influences the thermohaline circulation. During the last two years I have been working with Dr. David Legates to develop a bias-adjusted Arctic precipitation database. This research addresses the known systematic biases in gauge-measured precipitation in the high latitudes. Gauge-based measurements of Arctic precipitation substantially underestimate true precipitation. The main sources of systematic bias include wind-induced undercatch, wetting loss, and evaporative loss. In addition, trace amounts of precipitation are not counted in daily precipitation totals even though they can contribute significantly to precipitation in arid locations in the Arctic. The goal of this research is to provide accurate precipitation data so that runoff from Arctic watersheds and the global water balance can be more realistically simulated. We are currently preparing a number of papers that summarize the results of this research.

The following links provide more information on this research:

Legates, D.R., Yang, D., Bogart, T. A., Freeman, K. F., and S. M. Quiring (2006) Obtaining more reliable estimates of Arctic precipitation by adjusting for gage measurement biases. Contributed paper presented at the Eastern Snow Conference, Newark, DE, June 2006.

Bogart, T. A., Legates, D.R., Yang, D., Quiring, S. M., and K. F. Freeman (2006) Sensitivity and spatial variability of Arctic precipitation bias adjustments. Contributed paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Chicago, IL, March 2006.

Bogart, T. A., Legates, D. R., Yang, D., Quiring, S., and K. Freeman (2005) Spatial variability of Arctic precipitation bias adjustments. Contributed poster presented at the at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, CA, December 2005.

Legates, D. R., Yang, D., Quiring, S. M., Felter, K., and T. Ianancone (2005) Bias adjustments to Arctic precipitation: A comparison of daily versus monthly adjustments. Contributed paper to be presented at the 8th Conference on Polar Meteorology and Oceanography, San Diego, CA, January 2005.

Arctic Precipitation Bias Adjustment Research Group

UAF Bias-corrected Precipitation Project Home

I have also been working with Dr. Tim Papakyriakou on a study that examines how atmospheric circulation affects the surface energy budget of the Canadian Arctic. I developed an upper level synoptic classification to classify atmospheric circulation over the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The data will be used to explain the causes of temporal variation in the surface energy balance at Resolute Bay, NU (74º 49’N, 94º 59’W) during the late winter/spring of 1991–1995. This study will help to explain how large scale atmospheric processes, such as the Arctic Oscillation, affect the surface energy balance and sea-ice concentrations.