Caribbean

Downscaled Climate Data Projections for Puerto Rico Now Available

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The Caribbean Landscape Conservation Cooperative (CLCC) has just announced the release of downscaled climate data projections (through 2099) for Puerto Rico.  This is a valuable resource, which will allow scientists from many fields to evaluate climate change impacts in their respective fields.

The data have the following characteristics:

Projections of daily maximum and minimum temperature and twenty-four hour cumulative precipitation for over 200 long-term weather stations throughout the region for the period 1960-2099 based on Global Climate Models (GCMs) from the Third Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP3) used for the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (AR4 IPCC).

Projection datasets are available for three greenhouse gas emission scenarios: high (A2), medium (A1B), and low (B1). The global model output for precipitation and temperature were downscaled to local station locations by Hayhoe (2013): 71 stations for precipitation, 29 stations for maximum temperatures (Tmax) and 27 stations for minimum temperatures (Tmin).

Download the downscaled precipitation and temperature data here.  (After loading website, click on Geospatial Data.)

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The Port to Nowhere: PR’s lost opportunity

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Excerpted from The Puerto Rican English Blog:  http://prenglishblog.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-port-to-nowhere.html

Monday, September 9, 2013

The Port to Nowhere

(AKA “The Island of Disenchantment”)

Even though this is a relatively old article, it’s just so depressing to hear, and I had to share it and vent a little.

Ponce’s Port of the Américas’ transshipment potential rapidly fading away – at CaribbeanBusinessPR.com.

The Port of the Americas (aka the Port of Ponce) is PR’s opportunity to become a vital link in world trade, the only deep-water port in the Caribbean that could handle the super-huge PANAMAX container ships that traverse the Panama Canal. We were billed to become the “Singapore of the Caribbean”. We were set to reclaim our position as the 1st Port of the New World, the geographic axis connecting North America, South America, and Europe, and with the traffic from the Panama Canal, Asia as well. This is PR’s chance to grow rich and powerful off of basically just being there, sitting in the ocean exactly where it’s always been, which is the best way to get rich.  READ MORE…

Daily Reference Evapotranspiration (ETo) for Jamaica

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Daily reference evapotranspiration (ETo) is now available for Jamaica.  CLICK HERE to visit the new pragwater page, which provides a link to the daily image data and the method background information.  The page also provides information related to the practical application of the results for scheduling irrigation in Jamaica.

YESTERDAY’S ETo FOR JAMAICA:

DISCLAIMER: The information is provided “as is”. The authors and publishers of this information disclaim any loss or liability, either directly or indirectly as a consequence of applying the information provided herein, or in regard to the use and application of said information. No guarantee is given, either expressed or implied, in regard to the accuracy, or acceptability of the information.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: This research received partial funding from the following sources: NOAA-CREST (grant NA06OAR4810162) and USDA Hatch Project (Hatch-402). Special thanks to Dr. John Mecikalski for providing the solar radiation data.  I would like to thank my student, Victor Reventos, who made the algorithm automation possible through his Python programming skills.

 

Daily Reference Evapotranspiration (ETo) for Haiti and the Dominican Republic

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Map_attribution

Daily reference evapotranspiration (ETo) is now available for Haiti and the Dominican Republic.  CLICK HERE to visit the new pragwater page, which provides a link to the daily image data and the method background information.  The page also provides information related to the practical application of the results for scheduling irrigation in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

reference_ET_PenmanMonteith20130729

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: This research received partial funding from the following sources: NOAA-CREST (grant NA06OAR4810162) and USDA Hatch Project (Hatch-402). Special thanks to Dr. John Mecikalski for providing the solar radiation data, and Alejandra Rojas for providing various GIS maps used in this research. I would like to thank my student, Victor Reventos, who made this possible through his Python programming skills.

DISCLAIMER: The information is provided “as is”. The authors and publishers of this information disclaim any loss or liability, either directly or indirectly as a consequence of applying the information provided herein, or in regard to the use and application of said information. No guarantee is given, either expressed or implied, in regard to the accuracy, or acceptability of the information.

Course offerings this semester at UPRM: Farm Irrigation and Agroclimatology (TMAG)

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I will be offering the following two courses this semester at UPR-Mayaguez. Please click the following links for the course fliers.

TMAG 5017 Agroclimatology

TMAG 4019 Farm Drainage and Irrigation Systems

Please feel free to contact me if you would like additional information about either course.

Eric Harmsen, Professor
University of Puerto Rico
Dept. of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering
Mayaguez, Puerto Rico 00681
email: harmsen1000@hotmail.com, eric.harmsen@upr.edu
phone: 787-955-5102
websites: http://pragwater.com , http://bahai.org

irrigation

NOAA CREST SUMMER CAMP at UPRM

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Students from across Puerto Rico attended the NOAA CREST Summer Camp this week on the UPRM Campus.  This afternoon, they attended a workshop by Dr. Eric Harmsen, which focused on the use of GOES-PRWEB for scheduling irrigation in Puerto Rico.  Irrigation scheduling is important for water conservation and for achieving optimal crop yields.  The presentation is provided below:

DOWNLOAD PDF PRESENTATION HERE

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