Stéphane Bélair

Research Scientist - Group Leader, Land surface modeling and assimilation, clouds and precipitation

Environment and Climate Change Canada

Current research and/or projects

Contributing to Environment Canada’s mandate to improve environmental modeling

Land surface modeling and assimilation
Coupling of land surface systems with atmospheric and hydrological models
Urban meteorology
High-resolution mesoscale atmospheric modeling
Representation of physical processes (condensation, precipitation, surface, turbulence) in atmospheric models

Professional activities / interests

Member of the Working Group on Mesoscale Weather Forecasting of the World Meteorological Organization

Member of the Science Definition Team of NASA's Soil Moisture Active and Passive (SMAP) mission.

Lead of the Canadian SMAP team.

Member of the scientific steering committee for the Sochi-2014 mesoscale and nowcasting research and demonstration projects.

Member of the International Soil Moisture Working Group

Education and awards

Ph.D. Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, McGill University, 1994

B.Eng. Physics Engineering, Ecole Polytechnique de Montréal, 1989

Award for Graduate Student of the year given by the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society, 1995

Key publications

Leroyer, S., S. Bélair, J. Mailhot, and I.B. Strachan, 2011: Microscale numerical prediction over Montreal with the Canadian external urban modeling system. J. Appl. Meteor. Climatol., 50, 2410-2428.

Bernier, N.B., S. Bélair, B. Bilodeau, and L. Tong, 2011: Near surface and land surface forecasts for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games. J. Hydromet., 12, 508-530.

Bélair, S., M. Roch, A.-M. Leduc, P.A. Vaillancourt, S. Laroche, and J. Mailhot, 2009: Medium-range quantitative precipitation forecasts from Canada’s new 33-km deterministic global operational system. Wea. Forecasting, 24, 690-708.

Lemonsu, A., S. Bélair, J. Mailhot, M. Benjamin, F. Chagnon, G. Morneau, B. Harvey, J. Voogt and M. Jean. 2007. Overview and first results of the Montreal Urban Snow Experiment (MUSE) 2005. J. Appl. Meteor. Clim. 47:59-75.

Mailhot, J., S. Bélair, L. Lefaivre, B. Bilodeau, M. Desgagné, C. Girard, A. Glazer, A. Méthot, A. Patoine, A. Plante, D. Talbot, A. Tremblay, P. Vaillancourt and A. Zadra. 2006. The 15-km version of the Canadian regional forecast system. Atmos.-Ocean. 44:133-149.

Balsamo, G., J.-F. Mahfouf, S. Bélair and G. Deblonde. 2006. A global root-zone soil moisture analysis using simulated L-band brightness temperature in preparation for the Hydros mission. J. Hydromet. 7:1126-1146.

Bélair, S., J. Mailhot, C. Girard and P. Vaillancourt. 2005. Boundary-layer and shallow cumulus clouds in a medium-range forecast of a large-scale weather system. Mon. Wea. Rev. 133:1938–1960.

Bélair, S., L.-P. Crevier, J. Mailhot, B. Bilodeau and Y. Delage. 2003. Operational implementation of the ISBA land surface scheme in the Canadian regional weather forecast model. Part I: Warm season results. J. Hydromet. 4:352-370.

Bélair, S., R. Brown, J. Mailhot and B. Bilodeau. 2003. Operational implementation of the ISBA land surface scheme in the Canadian regional weather forecast model. Part II: Cold season results. J. Hydromet. 4:371-386.