February 13, 2013 Douglas L. Kane and Emily K. Youcha, The Hydrology of Rivers Draining the Central Brooks Range, Alaska Water and Environmental Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks

The Hydrology of Rivers Draining the Central Brooks Range, Alaska

Douglas L. Kane and Emily K. Youcha, Water and Environmental Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks

Both sides of the Central Brooks Range are sparsely populated regions of the state with limited environmental data. A team of researchers from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Water and Environmental Research Center, has recently started collecting hydrological and meteorological data in both south and north draining watersheds of the Central Brooks Range. Measured meteorological variables include air temperature, wind speed and direction, relative humidity, net radiation, rainfall, snow depth and active layer soil moisture and temperature (if not too rocky). The intent is to develop a basic understanding of the hydrology of this region which includes: end-of-winter snow surveys and warm season rainfall to quantify the regional precipitation patterns, the rate of snowmelt and the hydrologic runoff response, observations of river ice conditions prior and during breakup, summer runoff response, post breakup sediment dynamics, and a modeling program. A detailed description of the program and some preliminary results will be shown.