Stéphane Bélair

Research Scientist

Scientific experise on representation of physical processes (land surface, boundary layer, clouds and precipitation) in numerical environmental prediction system

Current research and/or projects

Contribute to ECCC's mandate to improve numerical prediction systems

  • Land surface modeling and data assimilation
  • Coupling of land suface with atmospheric and hydrologic models
  • Urban meteorology
  • Km-scale and subkm-scale atmospheric modeling
  • Numerical representation of physical processes in atmospheric models

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

Belair, S., and A. Boone, 2020: La représentation des surfaces continentales pour la prévision numérique du temps. La Meteorologie (February 2020).

Bani Shahabadi, M., S. Belair, B. Bilodeau, M.L. Carrera, and L. Garand, 2019: Impact of weak coupling between land and atmosphere data assimilation systems on Environment and Climate Change Canada’s global deterministic weather prediction system. Wea. Forecasting, 34, 1741-1758.

Misumi, R., Y. Shoji, K. Saito, H. Seko, N. Seino, S. Suzuki, Y. Shusse, K. Hirano, S. Belair, V. Chandrasekar, D.-I. Lee, A.J. Pereira Filho, T. Nakatani, and M. Maki, 2019: Results of the Tokyo Metropolitan Area Convection Study for extreme weather resilient cities (TOMACS). Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., October 2019.

Carrera, M.L., B. Bilodeau, S. Belair, M. Abrahamowicz, A. Russell, and X. Wang, 2019: Assimilation of passive L-band microwave brightness temperatures in the Canadian Land Data Assimilation System: Impacts on short-range Numerical Weather Prediction. J. Hydromet., 20, 1053-1079.

Qu, Z., and co-authors (including S. Belair), 2018: Evaluation of a high-resolution NWP model’s simulated clouds using observations from CloudSat and in situ aircraft. Quart. J. Roy. Meteorol. Soc., 144, 1681-1694.

Leroyer, S., S. Belair, L. Spacek, and I. Gultepe, 2018: Modelling of radiation-based thermal stress indicators for urban numerical weather prediction. Accepted in Int. J. Biometeorol.

Belair, S., S. Leroyer, N. Seino, L. Spacek, V. Souvanlassy, and D. Paquin-Ricard, 2017: Role and impact of the urban environment in a numerical forecast of an intense summertime precipitation event over Tokyo. J. Meteorol. Soc. Japan. , 96A, 77-94.

Joe, P., S. Belair, and co-authors, 2018: The Environment Canada Pan and Parapan American science showcase project. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., May 2018.

Garnaud, C., S. Belair, M.L. Carrera, H. McNairn, and A. Pacheco, 2017: Field scale spatial variability of soil moisture and L-band brightness temperature from land surface modeling. J. Hydrometeor., 18, 573-589.

Kiktev, D., and coauthors (including S. Belair), 2017: FROST-2014: The Sochi Winter Olympics international project. Bull. Amer. Meteorol. Soc., September 2017, 1908-1930, DOI:10.1175/BAMS-D-15-00307.1.

Milbrandt, J.A., S. Belair, M. Faucher, M. Vallee, M.L. Carrera, and A. Glazer, 2016: The Pan-Canadian high-resolution (2.5-km) deterministic prediction system. Wea. Forecasting., 31, 1791-1816.

Husain, S.Z., N. Alavi, S. Belair, M.L. Carrera, S. Zhang, V. Fortin, M. Abrahamowicz, and N. Gauthier, 2016: The multi-budget Soil, Vegetation, and Snow (SVS) scheme for improved land surface parameterization. Accepted for publication in J. Hydrometeor.

Garnaud, C., S. Belair, A. Berg, and T. Rowlandson, 2016: Hyper-resolution land surface modelling in the context of SMAP Cal-Val. J. Hydromet., 17, 345-352.

Rochoux, M.C., S. Belair, M. Abrahamowicz, and P. Pellerin, 2016: Subgrid-scale variability for thermodynamic variables in an offline land surface prediction system. J. Hydrometeor., 17, 171-193.

Carrera, M.L., S. Belair, and B. Bilodeau, 2015: The Canadian Land Data Assimilation System (CaLDAS): Description and synthetic evaluation study. J. Hydrometeor., 16, 1293-1314.

Vionnet, V., S. Belair, C. Girard, and A. Plante, 2014: Wintertime sub-kilometer numerical forecasts of near-surface variables in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Mon. Wea. Rev., 143, 666-686.

Leroyer, S., S. Belair, S.Z. Husain, and J. Mailhot, 2014: Sub-kilometer numerical weather prediction in an urban coastal area: A case study over the Vancouver metropolitan area. J. Appl. Meteorol. Climatol., 53, 1433-1453.

Husain, S.Z., S. Bélair, and S.Leroyer, 2013: Influence of soil moisture on urban microclimate and surface-layer meteorology in Oklahoma City. Accepted for publication in J. Appl. Meteorol. Climatol.

Husain, S.Z., S. Bélair, J. Mailhot, and S. Leroyer, 2013: Improving the representation of the nocturnal near-neutral surface layer in the urban environment with a mesoscale atmospheric model. Bound. Layer Meteorol. , 147, 525-551.

Bernier, N.B., S. Bélair, B. Bilodeau, and L. Tong, 2012: Assimilation and high resolution forecasts of surface and near surface conditions for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games. Pure and Appl. Geophys., DOI 10.1007/s00024-012-0542-0.

Bernier, N.B., and S. Bélair, 2012: High horizontal and vertical resolution limited area model: Near surface and wind energy forecast applications. J. Appl. Meteor. Climatol, 51, 1061-1078.

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.

Carrera, M.L., S. Bélair, V. Fortin, B. Bilodeau, D. Charpentier, and I. Doré, 2010: Evaluation of snowpack simulations over the Canadian Rockies with an experimental hydrometeorological modeling system. J. Hydromet., 11, 1123-1140.

Mailhot, J., S. Bélair, and co-authors, 2010: Environment Canada`s experimental numerical weather prediction systems for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games. Bull. Amer. Meteorol. Soc., 91, 1073-1085.

Lemonsu, A., S. Bélair, J. Mailhot, and S. Leroyer, 2010: Evaluation of the Town Energy Balance model under cold and snowy conditions during the Montreal Urban Snow Experiment 2005. J. Appl. Meteor. Climatol., 49, 346-362.

Lemonsu, A., S. Bélair, and J. Mailhot, 2009: The new Canadian urban modeling system: Evaluation for two cases from the Joint Urban 2003 Oklahoma City experiment. Boundary-Layer Meteor., 133, 47-70.

Leroyer, S., J. Mailhot, S. Bélair, A. Lemonsu, and I. Strachan, 2009: Modeling the surface energy budget during the thawing period of the 2006 Montreal Urban Snow Experiment. J. Appl. Met. Climatol., 49, 68-84.

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.

Balsamo, G., J.-F. Mahfouf, S. Bélair, and G. Deblonde, 2007: A land data assimilation system for soil moisture and temperature: An information content study. J. Hydromet., 8, 1225-1242.

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.

Gu, Y., S. Bélair, J.-F. Mahfouf, and G. Deblonde, 2006: A simple data assimilation of leaf area index using MODIS data. Remote Sensing of Environment, 104, 283-296.

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.

Fillion, L., S. Bélair, 2004: Tangent-linear aspects of the Kain-Fritsch moist convective parameterization scheme. Mon. Wea. Rev., 132, 2477-2494

Entekhabi, D., E. Njoku, P. Houser, M. Spencer, T. Doiron, J. Smith, R. Girard, S. Bélair, and co-authors: The hydrosphere state (HYDROS) mission concept: An earth system pathfinder for global mapping of soil moisture and land freeze/thaw. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 42(10), 2184-2195.

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.

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., and J. Mailhot, 2001: Impact of horizontal resolution on the numerical simulation of a midlatitude squall line: Implicit versus explicit condensation. Mon. Wea. Rev., 129, 2362-2376.

Bélair, S., A. Méthot, J. Mailhot, B. Bilodeau, A. Patoine, J. Côté, and G. Pellerin, 2000: Operational implementation of the Fritsch-Chappell convective scheme in the 24-km Canadian regional model. Wea. Forecasting, 15, 257-274.

Bélair, S., J. Mailhot, J.W. Strapp, and J.I. MacPherson, 1999: An examination of local versus nonlocal aspects of a TKE-based boundary-layer scheme in clear convective conditions. J. Appl. Meteor., 38, 1499-1518.

Bélair, S., P. Lacarrère, J. Noilhan, J. Stein, and V. Masson, 1998: High resolution simulations of surface and turbulent fluxes during HAPEX-MOBILHY. Mon. Wea. Rev., 126, 2234-2253.

Bélair, S., and D.-L. Zhang, 1997: A numerical study of the along-line variability of a frontal squall line during PRE-STORM. Mon. Wea. Rev., 125, 2544-2561.

Bélair, S., D.-L. Zhang, and J. Mailhot, 1995: Numerical prediction of an intense convective system associated with the July 1987 Montreal flood. Part II: A trailing stratiform rainband. Atmos.-Ocean, 33, 475-500.

Bélair, S., D.-L. Zhang, and J. Mailhot, 1995: Numerical prediction of an intense convective system associated with the July 1987 Montreal flood. Part I: Gravity waves and the squall line. Atmos.-Ocean, 33, 447-473.

Bélair, S., D.-L. Zhang, and J. Mailhot, 1994: Numerical prediction of the 10-11 June 1985 squall line with the Canadian regional finite-element model. Wea. Forecasting, 9, 157-172.