Regional InfoMet Subsystem
for Modeling Environmental Processes
Vladimir Konovalov 1
The territory of Central Asia within 3544N and 6681E has been taken to develop a regional
subsystem of meteorological information, InfoMet, which describes spatial and temporal variabili
ty of air temperature T, humidity H, precipitation P, and total cloudiness C. The fields of T, P, and H
are presented in the subsystem as the long-term monthly norms that were computed in the nodes of a
regular grid. These grids were obtained for every month of the year and for several given altitudes. It
is supposed that the spatial variability of T, P, and H within each elevation zone depends only on
latitude ϕ and longitude λ. Such presentation of T, P, and H fields allows solving of the following
problems: (a) Extrapolation of values X (i.e., T, P, or H) from m basic meteorological points Xm(Z0m,
ϕm, λm) to the n arbitrary points Xn(Z0n, ϕn, λn) at certain altitude Z0 = const; (b) Analytical approx-
imation of vertical profile of X in the point with coordinates Z0, ϕ, λ. A set of XL(t, ZL, ϕL, λL) values
for L altitudes in the t months is used here. Quality of computed long-term series of precipitation and
air temperature in control points turned out to be completely acceptable.
The proposed method has the following advantages: it makes it possible to extrapolate precipitation
and air temperature data of one or several basic stations to the whole mountainous territory of Cen-
tral Asia; improves extrapolation quality due to averaging of computational results for several basic
meteorological stations; makes it possible to get numerical estimates of annual course of T and P in
high alpine basins where there are no meteorological stations or their number is not sufficient to set
up local relationship of T(z) and P(z).
Long-term series of T, P, and H at several basic meteorological stations were included in InfoMet.
InfoMet also comprises long-term series of monthly C values at 36 meteorological stations located
within elevation range 14 km a.s.l. and matrices of cross-correlation coefficients of C at all 36
stations during the year. These matrices are necessary to determine area size for which cloudiness
data extrapolated from an individual meteorological station are representative. The InfoMet sub-
system is used widely in the REGMOD model to compute hydrological regime and annual mass
balance of Pamir-Alai glaciers. Area of contemporary glaciers of this mountain region estimates as
14,800 km2 and its volume as 700 km3. Here are located the upper watersheds of the largest Central
Asian rivers: Amudarya, Vakhsh, Pyandge, Zeravshan, and the left-side tributaries of the Syrdarya
river, where is formed about 70% of total runoff volume in the Aral Sea basin. The norm of glaciers
melted contribution in the runoff of listed rivers is varied between 1837% and in low water years it
grows to 2955% from annual runoff. Thus, estimates and forecast of water resources state of Pamir-
Alai glaciers play a key role in the compilation and realization of water management and hydro-
power projects.
1
Central Asian Research Hydrometeorological Institute (SANIGMI), Republic of Uzbekistan,
700052, Tashkent, K. Makhsumov st., 72
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