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The American Meteorological Society's Atmospheric Policy Program, in collaboration with Columbia University, developed a forum on the nation's ability to deal with climate variability that drew nearly 100 participants and generated several useful findings and recommendations.
The goal of the April two-day policy forum "Improving Responses to Climate Predictions" was to develop recommendations and policy options to derive greater national benefit from climate information and seasonal climate predictions.
The forum consisted of three in-depth panel discussions among weather and climate scientists, specialists in developing decision strategies, policy makers, and legislators. The panel discussions reviewed present and needed improvements in seasonal climate observational and predictive capabilities, response strategies, and the information needs of decision makers. The focus was on responses to El Niño related events.
The discussions yielded numerous findings and recommendation that will be outlined in a report to be completed this summer. Some of the early overarching findings and recommendations focus on the need to include uncertainty measures in conjunction with climate information to make it more useful to those responsible for making climate response decisions. In addition, the participants found that regional and societal climate impacts are clearly significant but not yet fully understood. One recommendation to improve the utility of climate information is the need for the development of "science integrators" to facilitate effective communication between providers and users of climate information. Development of quantitative measures of the utility of climate forecasts to developers of response strategies was also among the recommendations.
The final forum report will be distributed to members of Congress, leaders of the pertinent federal agencies, the media, trade associations, private sector organizations involved in developing climate information products and services, and users of these products and services.
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The American Meteorological Society is partnering with the Sun Safety Alliance, a new, nonprofit coalition dedicated to reducing the incidence of skin cancer in America. AMS Executive Director Ron McPherson represented the Society at a press conference on 22 April to launch the alliance and promised the support of the meteorological community in this endeavor.
The Sun Safety Alliance asked the AMS to join their efforts in educating the public about the dangers of prolonged exposure to the sun. The AMS will work with the Alliance through the broadcast meteorological community to spread the word.
The Sun Safety Alliance was founded by the National Association of Chain Drug Stores and Coppertone® Suncare Products. For more information on the Sun Safety Alliance see www.sunsafetyalliance.org.
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The National Science Foundation has awarded the AMS a grant of more than $435,000 over five years in support of the Atmospheric Policy Program's Summer Policy Colloquium. The grant will fund graduate student participation in the annual summer event for the next five years.
"This grant supports the excellent work of the AMS Public Policy Program," said AMS Executive Director Ron McPherson. "The Summer Policy Colloquium is only three years old and already earning accolades from the entire science community. This grant also confirms our commitment to leadership education for scientists, practitioners, and students in the atmospheric and related sciences and services."
The Summer Policy Colloquium will take place 1–10 June 2003 in Washington, D.C. For more information contact William Hooke at hooke@dc.ametsoc.org or (202) 737-9006, ext. 420.
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The American Meteorological Society is seeking input from its membership on the Society's response to the National Research Council Report on Public–Private Partnerships in the Provision of Weather and Climate Services. Following is a message from AMS President Elbert W. (Joe) Friday.
"The NRC report 'Fair Weather: Effective Partnerships in Weather and Climate Services' reaches a very significant conclusion:
Prudent public policy must be based on the assumption that rapid advances in scientific understanding and technology will continue. The changes make it inadvisable to define sharp boundaries for what each sector can and cannot do. Indeed, such prescriptions would be obsolete and ineffectual before they could be promulgated. Instead, the public, private, and academic sectors must work diligently to improve the processes and mechanisms by which they will deal with the problems and differences that are certain to come.
"The NRC committee which authored the report offered several important recommendations relative to this conclusion, of which recommendation no. 3 is of most importance to the AMS:
The NWS and relevant academic, state, and private organizations should seek a neutral host, such as the American Meteorological Society, to provide a periodic, dedicated venue for the weather enterprise as a whole to discuss issues related to the public–private partnership.
"The AMS is pleased that this NRC committee considered the Society to be the logical body for this role. The AMS Executive Committee discussed the potential response to this challenge at its meeting on 14–15 April in the AMS offices in Washington, D.C.
"Although the AMS has long promoted cooperative activities within our community, the Executive Committee believes that we should seek to be even more effective in this regard. We note that our present activities include providing several venues each year for 'town hall' meetings where issues involving the weather and climate enterprise can be discussed. In addition, the Society has organized an annual Corporate Forum for the last four years, which brings together corporate members of the AMS together with representatives of government agencies, to discuss issues of mutual concern. These events are generally regarded as useful, and satisfy many of the goals of NRC recommendation no. 3.
"A fairly passive response would be to continue providing such venues as we are doing now, or to modestly expand them. However, the Executive Committee noted that the Society could be more proactive; a possibility would be to establish a new board or commission on the weather and climate enterprise. Such an entity could, among other activities, develop a Weather and Climate Enterprise Forum to add to the annual schedule, which might serve to integrate and focus our current series of town hall meetings, corporate fora, and other activities aimed at enhancing the value to society of weather and climate information. The potential new board or commission and its enterprise fora would encourage active collaboration on major issues of common interest to all sectors, such as the following:
"To more fully explore the possible roles that the AMS might play to promote the public–private–academic partnership, the Executive Committee decided to establish an ad hoc committee to study the possible responses, seeking input from all of the various constituencies that make up the Society. AMS staff has been directed to communicate this information to those constituencies. Staff will collect that input for the Executive Committee, which will establish the committee as soon as possible, with membership that reflects the various balances necessary in a diverse organization."
The Executive Committee is soliciting suggestions from membership on the ad hoc committee being established, and also comments on how the Society should respond. Comments should be sent to the Executive Director, Ronald D. McPherson by e-mail at rmcpherson@ametsoc.org, or by postal service at 45 Beacon St., Boston, MA 02108.
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Personal beliefs and attitudes are the primary influences on television weathercasters' reporting on the scientific facts about politically charged environmental issues such as global warming, according to a study by the School of Journalism at The University of Texas at Austin.
The research showed that personal perspectives, not years of experience, market size, newscast position, science degrees, and seals of approval from accrediting organizations, shape weathercasters' views about climate change.
Journalism professor Kris Wilson, Ph.D., who spent 10 years in television news, including time as a TV weathercaster, and holds a doctorate in geography specializing in climatology and climate change, conducted the research.
"In order to influence public policy about global climate change, citizens need to be accurately informed," said Wilson. "The public's primary source of information about climate change is television. Identifying strengths and weaknesses in reporting may lead to a better informed public and eventually, better policy decisions."
The most unexpected finding of the study was that the strongest predictor of variation in television weathercaster knowledge was the individual's values and attitude toward the topic of climate change, not level of seniority, market size, or even a seal of approval from the AMS or the National Weather Association (NWA).
"Results from this study challenge the assumption that those trained in science are apolitical and offer another new twist on the concept of journalistic objectivity," continued Wilson. "As important sources of information, many weathercasters let their own personal views about global climate change distort their accurate understanding of the science."
While all the weathercasters participating in the study were familiar with the term "global warming," follow-up questions revealed serious gaps in levels of scientific knowledge and misconceptions about the scientific consensus regarding the science of climate modeling.
Most weathercasters (73%) were aware of the scientific consensus of a global temperature increase, yet only one third accurately identified the predicted temperature increase, as well as all models' agreement about increases in global cloud cover and precipitation that also result from increased greenhouse gases. According to Wilson, these statistics are startling given that all atmospheric models agree on these predictions and they represent basic atmospheric science that weathercasters work with daily.
Other key findings from the study suggest many weathercasters are ignorant or misinformed about ongoing climate change research.
The research was conducted among 217 television weathercasters representing primetime anchors/chief meteorologists and nonprimetime meteorologists. Half of those surveyed held the AMS seal of approval, one fourth held the NWA seal of approval and the remainder held neither of the voluntary credentials that on-air weathercasters can earn. The sample also represented a broad distribution of market sizes across the United States, more than half of whom held degrees in meteorology/atmospheric science, while a quarter held degrees in journalism or communication with the remainder possessing a mix of training and education.
To download a full report of the study, "Forecasting the Future" in Science Communication, see http://journalism.utexas.edu/faculty/wilson.html.
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The Weather Risk Management Association (WRMA) will hold its Fifth Annual Conference at the Biltmore Hotel, in Coral Gables, Florida, 4–6 June 2003. The conference will be a blend of keynote speeches, presentations and panel sessions designed to provide beneficial information to industry participants.
For complete details see www.wrma.org.
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At the February 2003 annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society, National Weather Service (NWS) representatives announced their plan to electronically collect, archive, and distribute Weather Surveillance Radar-1988 Doppler (WSR-88D) Level II data. The NWS will use this approach to archive these data at National Climatic Data Center and provide the data for use at NWS national centers.
Project plans are not complete, but the NWS data collection network will likely be implemented in a two-phased approach:
The NWS expects this approach will enable private sector and university users access to the data in near real time. The agency has opened a Web site (http://www.roc.noaa.gov/NWS_Level_2) to facilitate project updates.
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The University Center for Atmospheric Research/Unidata Program Center is hosting a summer workshop entitled "Expanding Horizons: Using Environmental Data and Model Output for Education, Prediction, and Decision Making."
The workshop will take place in Boulder, Colorado, 22–27 June 2003. Sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the UCAR COMET Program (funded by the National Weather Service), the workshop will provide hands-on sessions and lectures demonstrating the uses of Unidata-supported software and data and emerging GIS technologies from leading educators and practitioners in the geophysical sciences, public safety, and public policy communities. This workshop, which coincides with the 20th anniversary of Unidata's conception, will highlight Unidata's historical contribution to the atmospheric sciences, as well as lay out a vision of Unidata's future in the broader geosciences.
For more information see http://my.unidata.ucar.edu/content/events/2003ExpandingHorizons/index.html.
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The National Academy of Sciences is accepting nominations for the Alexander Agassiz Medal, a prize of $15,000 presented every three years for original contribution to the science of oceanography. There are no restrictions as to age or nationality.
Nominations will be accepted through 12 September 2003. For more information contact: National Academy of Sciences Awards Program, Room NAS 285, phone: (202) 334-1602, fax: (202) 334-1682, e-mail: awards@nas.edu. More information can be found at the Web site www.nas.edu/nas/awards.
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Representative Mark Udall (D-Colorado) has introduced a bill (H.R. 1578) that would reauthorize the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP). Entitled the "Global Change Research and Data Management Act of 2003," this legislation, now pending before the House Science Committee (as well as the Budget and International Relations Committees), would somewhat reconfigure the USGCRP as the overarching program of climate change research.
The bill directs the president to establish an interagency committee to ensure cooperation and coordination of federal research activities related to human-induced and natural processes of global change and provides for the continuation of the interagency United States Global Change Research Program. The goal is to improve understanding of global change, to respond to the information needs of communities and decision-makers, and to provide periodic assessments of the vulnerability of the United States and other regions to climate variability and change.
The legislation also mandates the development of a National Global Change Research Plan (submitted by the president to Congress every four years) to implement the program, including recommendations for global change research. Within the continuing oversight of Congress, the plan would require a formal assessment process to determine the needs of appropriate federal, state, regional, and local authorities and other interested parties regarding the types of information needed by them in developing policies to reduce society's vulnerability to global change and shall use these assessments in developing the plan. Indeed, the legislation would establish an interagency climate and other global change data management working group. Each plan would set research goals and priorities, including global measurements of physical processes contributing to changes in the earth system, as well as economic and demographic trends and how these processes and trends interact.
Research elements include the following:
Finally, the bill would require the president to direct the secretary of state to initiate discussions with other nations leading toward international protocols and other agreements to coordinate global climate change research activities; it also directs the president to establish an Office of Global Change Research Information.
It is unlikely that the bill or equivalent legislation will be passed this year. At the request of Senate Republican leadership, any and all climate change provisions in the Senate energy bill, the vehicle most likely to contain a USGCRP reauthorization (or the equivalent), have been eliminated. Unless something emerges by amendment on the Senate floor or from the Republicans in the House of Representatives to be considered by a joint Senate–House conference committee, there will be no new climate change research legislation this year.
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Researchers found surprising evidence of sea salt and frozen plankton in high, cold, cirrus clouds—the remnants of Hurricane Nora—over the U.S. plains states. Although the 1997 hurricane was a strong eastern Pacific storm, her high ice-crystal clouds extended many miles inland, carrying ocean phenomena deep into the U.S. heartland.
Kenneth Sassen of the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, and University of Alaska Fairbanks; W. Patrick Arnott of the Desert Research Institute (DRI) in Reno, Nevada; and David O. Starr of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, coauthored a paper about Hurricane Nora's far-reaching effects. The paper was published in the 1 April 2003, issue of the American Meteorological Society's Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences.
Scientists were surprised to find what appeared to be frozen plankton in some cirrus crystals collected by research aircraft over Oklahoma, far from the Pacific Ocean. This was the first time examples of microscopic marine life, like plankton, were seen as "nuclei" of ice crystals in the cirrus clouds of a hurricane.
Nora formed off the Panama coast, strengthened as it traveled up the Baja Peninsula, and the hurricane crossed into California in September 1997. Over the western U.S., Nora deposited a stream of high cirrus, ice crystal, clouds that created spectacular optical effects, such as arcs and halos, above a broad region including Utah and Oklahoma. That stream of cirrus clouds enabled researchers to analyze growth of ice crystals from different nuclei.
Different nuclei, like sulfate particles, sea salt, and desert dust, affect ice-crystal growth and shape. Torn from the sea surface by strong hurricane winds, sea salt and other particles from evaporated sea spray are carried to the cold upper troposphere in storm updrafts, where the drops freeze and become ice crystals. Plankton, a microscopic organism, is also likely present in the sea spray and is similarly lofted to high levels.
"Understanding how ice crystals grow and what determines their shapes is important in understanding how they interact with sunlight and infrared energy," Starr noted. "These interactions are important processes in the global climate system. They are also critical to sensing cloud properties from space, where NASA uses measurements of the reflected solar radiation to infer cloud physical properties, such as ice-crystal size," he said.
Data were gathered using ground-based remote sensors at the Facility for Atmospheric Remote Sensing in Salt Lake City and at the Clouds and Radiation Testbed in northern Oklahoma. A research aircraft collected particle samples over Oklahoma. Observations from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite 9 (West), launched by NASA and operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, were also used. DRI analyzed the ice crystals collected from Nora.
Scientists were using data generated through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program. The ARM Program's purpose is obtaining field measurements and developing computer models of the atmosphere. Researchers hope to better understand the processes that control the transfer of solar and thermal infrared energy in the atmosphere, especially in clouds, and at the earth's surface.
For more information and images on the Internet, visit http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/2003/0408plankton.html.
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An analysis by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Geodetic Survey (NGS) indicates portions of coastal Louisiana and Mississippi could lose up to one foot of elevation over the next decade. Population zones will face increased dangers from storm surge and flooding due to the ongoing subsidence of coastal areas along the northern Gulf of Mexico.
To increase personal and economic safety of population zones in coastal areas along the northern Gulf of Mexico shoreline, NGS and NOAA National Weather Service have joined forces to help mitigate the impact of storm surge and flooding from future hurricanes and coastal storms.
In cooperation with state and local agencies, NOAA is taking a two-stage approach to address the problem of increased vulnerability to flooding and tidal surges made increasingly worse by coastal subsidence. In the near-term, NOAA National Weather Service has installed monitoring systems that will give more accurate forecasts of coastal water levels, and is using the new information on ground elevations in the forecasting of coastal storms. The long-term strategy involves drastic coastal reclamation that is intended to halt the coastal subsidence.
At the current rate of subsidence, scientists at NGS and LSU estimate 15,000 square miles of land along south Louisiana will be at or below sea level within the next 70 years. Subsidence has already caused parts of cities to sink several feet below sea level including New Orleans as a prime example.
Using techniques developed by NGS and the Louisiana Spatial Reference Center at Louisiana State University (LSU), an analysis was made of changing elevations spanning the entire length of the Louisiana coastline.
"We found that subsidence or loss of elevation ranges from one-third to 1.5 inches per year across south Louisiana as well as coastal Mississippi," said Dr. Roy Dokka, executive director of the LSU Center for Geoinformatics. "A sinking coastline puts coastal communities increasingly at risk to future storm events."
The Analysis and Impact of Subsidence to Coastal Louisiana and Mississippi is available online at http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/News/Louisiana/LAHurricane.html.
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A researcher at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has developed a new online tool to help explain how small-scale climate dynamics impact global climate change. Mark McCaffrey, with NOAA's Paleoclimatology Program based in Boulder, Colorado, unveiled the Climate TimeLine Web site at the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) conference in Philadelphia on 27 March 27.
The Climate TimeLine site captures the history of climate exploration and its impact on human development. The site also examines meteorological and climatic processes and specific climate events of the past at other timescales.
McCaffrey and his colleagues use the earth's daily cycle to examine weather events of one year to study the key climatic forces behind the variability of weather and climate, and the roles human impact can play.
The Web site, designed as a one-stop source for climatic characterizations and resources, offers a range of features, including:
Science researchers and educators at NOAA's National Climate Data Center in Asheville, North Carolina, NOAA's National Geophysical Data Center, and the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado developed the Climate TimeLine. The Climate TimeLine can be found at http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/paleo/ctl/.
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The U.S. Department of Energy's Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC), located in the Environmental Sciences Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has released a new report called "Cloud Climatology for Land Stations Worldwide, 1971–1996."
Carole Hahn (University of Arizona) and Stephen Warren (University of Washington) processed 26 years of surface synoptic weather reports to provide climatology of clouds for each of over 5,000 land-based weather stations. For each station, this digital archive includes: multiyear annual, seasonal, and monthly averages for day and night separately; seasonal and monthly averages by year; averages for eight times per day; and analyses of the first harmonic for the annual and diurnal cycles. Averages are given for total cloud cover, clear-sky frequency, and nine cloud types. Cloud amounts and frequencies of occurrence are given for all types.
The report is available online at http://cdiac.ornl.gov/epubs/ndp/ndp026d/ndp026d.html.
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Scientists using NASA satellite data have found the most intense global pollution from fires occurred during droughts caused by El Niño. The most intense fires took place in 1997–98 in association with the strongest El Niño event of the twentieth century.
Bryan Duncan, Randall Martin, Amanda Staudt, Rosemarie Yevich, and Jennifer Logan, from Harvard University, used data observed by NASA's Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) satellite to quantify the amount of smoke pollution from biomass burning over 20 years.
"It's important to study biomass burning, because those fires produce as much pollution as use of fossil fuels. Most of the pollution from fires is produced in the Tropics, while pollution from fossil fuel use occurs in North America, Europe, and Asia," Logan said. One of the missions of NASA's Earth Science Enterprise, which partially funded the research, is to learn how the Earth system responds to natural and human-induced changes, such as droughts and worldwide fires caused by El Niño. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, developed the smoke data, the unique Aerosol Index product from the TOMS satellite.
The Harvard scientists recently published a study in the Journal of Geophysical Research—Atmospheres that describes how they combined the Aerosol Index data from TOMS with Scanning Radiometer and Sounder (ASTR) fire count data from the European Space Agency's European Remote Sensing-2 satellite.
The study assessed the effects of the 1997–98 El Niño events on global biomass burning. They concluded biomass burning around the world was unusually high during the 1997–98 El Niño, greater than in any other period between 1979 and 2000. The amount of carbon monoxide emitted in 1997 and 1998 was about 30% higher than the amount emitted from worldwide motor vehicle and fossil fuel combustion.
The smoke from the fires in Mexico and Central America was blown northward in May 1998, worsening air quality and reducing visibility over much of the eastern United States. The fires in Indonesia burned tropical forests over an area equivalent to the size of southern New England and released enormous amounts of pollutants. The team estimated the Indonesian fires produced about 170 million metric tons of carbon monoxide, which equals about one-third of the carbon monoxide annually released from fossil fuels.
Biomass burning is the combustion of both living and dead vegetation. It includes fires generated both by lightning and human activity. Humans are responsible for about 90% of biomass burning, with only a small percentage of natural fires contributing to the total amount of vegetation burned.
For more information about the study and images on the Internet, visit http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/2003/0328drought.html.
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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Severe Storm Laboratory (NSSL) in Norman, Oklahoma, unveiled a new radar technology designed to help future forecasters provide earlier warnings for tornadoes and other types of severe and hazardous weather.
The new National Weather Radar Testbed provides the meteorological research community with a full-time phased array radar facility. It will also allow NSSL and other meteorologists to determine if phased array radar will become the next significant technology advancement to improve our nation's weather services. Researchers have begun the work of adapting the technology currently used to protect U.S. Navy battle groups from missile threats for the new purpose of weather detection.
The radar antenna in Norman, provided by a long-term loan from the U.S. Navy, is the same technology developed by Lockheed Martin used on Aegis class Navy ships. The heart of the Aegis system is an advanced radar called the AN/SPY-1. This high-powered navy radar is able to perform search, track, and missile guidance functions simultaneously with a track capacity of over 100 targets. The radar has been used by the U.S. Navy since the mid-1970s. The National Weather Service donated additional equipment needed to operate the radar at the test site.
The project—from research and development to technology transfer and deployment throughout the U.S.—is expected to take 10 to 15 years. The initial cost of the phased array radar in Norman is approximately $26 million.
Using electronically controlled beams to rapidly scan a volume of the atmosphere, phased array radar reduces the scan time of severe weather from five or six minutes for current WSR-88D technology to less than one minute, producing quicker updates of data and thereby potentially increasing the average lead time for tornado warnings. It will also be able to rescan areas of severe weather very quickly, potentially increasing forecasters' warning lead times as storms rapidly transition to severe modes.
The new technology will gather storm information not currently available, such as rapid changes in wind fields, to provide more thorough understanding of storm evolution. Researchers and forecasters can then improve conceptual storm models and use that knowledge to evaluate and improve storm-scale computer models.
Construction and installation of the radar is scheduled to be completed spring 2003, with testing expected to begin in June.
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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) broke ground on the site of a new $61 million Satellite Operations Center in Suitland, Maryland, last month. The new building, which is expected to open in 2005, will house current and future environmental satellite operations of national and global significance.
Once construction is complete, the new building will contain high-technology equipment valued at $50 million, including 16 antennae that will control more than $3 billion in environmental satellites.
The new facility will replace NOAA's satellite operations currently located in the World War II–era Federal Office Building 4. NOAA's Satellite Operations Control Center provides command, control, and communications for three sets of satellites: NOAA's geostationary operational environmental satellites; NOAA's polar-orbiting operational environmental satellites, and the Department of Defense's Defense Meteorological Satellite Program.
The new building also will be home to a computer facility that processes satellite data to support meteorology, oceanography, and solid earth and solar-terrestrial sciences. Personnel from NOAA's systems development for future observing platforms also will be located in the new building.
The U.S. Mission Control Center for the Search and Rescue Satellite-aided Tracking program, called Cospas-Sarsat, will be located in the new building. The Cospas-Sarsat system uses NOAA and Russian satellites to detect and locate emergency beacons that emit distress signals from pilots, mariners, and hikers. The National Ice Center, operated by NOAA, the U.S. Navy, and U.S. Coast Guard, also will be based there. The center provides worldwide operational ice analyses for armed forces of the United States, allied nations, U.S. government agencies, and the private sector.
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Ozone depletion over the earth's Arctic region varies widely from year to year in its amount, timing, and pattern of loss. That's the conclusion of a research team using data from the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) on NASA's Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite.
The findings, published in the current issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research, provide the first consistent, three-dimensional picture of ozone loss during multiple Arctic winters. The findings confirm previous Arctic ozone loss estimate variations.
"This work provides a consistent picture of how Arctic ozone loss varies between winters," said lead researcher Dr. Gloria Manney, a senior research scientist with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "Scientists will have a better understanding of current Arctic ozone conditions and be better able to predict variations in the future."
Manney said NASA's unique vantage point in space provides data needed by policy makers. "They need accurate data to show whether current regulations on ozone-depleting substances are having the desired effect," she said. "In this way, NASA is providing a vital piece of the puzzle needed to understand this global phenomenon."
Ozone is a form of oxygen that shields life on earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation. Earth's stratospheric ozone layer is thinning around the world outside of the Tropics. This thinning is a result of chlorofluorocarbons produced by industrial processes, which form reactive compounds like chlorine monoxide in the stratosphere during winter. To date, ozone loss has been most pronounced over Antarctica, where colder conditions encourage greater ozone loss and result in ozone "hole."
Higher temperatures and other differences in atmospheric conditions in the Arctic have thus far prevented similarly large depletions. Nevertheless, as Manney and her colleagues validated in 1994, widespread Arctic ozone loss also occurs, and scientists are eager to understand it better, since formation of Arctic ozone "hole" could negatively affect populations in the earth's far northern latitudes.
Many uncertainties remain regarding ozone depletion. Scientists want to know what is causing ozone decreases in the earth's midlatitudes. They also wish to assess effects of climate change on future ozone loss, especially in the Northern Hemisphere high latitudes.
In the new study, Manney's team reanalyzed MLS observations during seven Arctic winters (1991–2000) to estimate chemical ozone loss. To yield accurate estimates, the team developed a model to account for naturally occurring ozone variations resulting from atmospheric transport processes such as wind variability. Their results show large year-to-year variability in the amount, timing, and patterns of Arctic ozone loss. Ozone depletion was observed in the Arctic vortex each year except 1998, when temperatures were too high for chemical ozone destruction. This vortex is a band of strong winds encircling the North Pole in winter like a giant whirlpool. Inside the vortex, temperatures are low and ozone-destroying chemicals are confined. Ozone loss was most rapid near the vortex edge, with the biggest losses in 1993 and 1996. The greatest loses occurred in the months of February and March.
The variability in the size, location, and duration of the Arctic vortex is driven by meteorological conditions. High mountains and land–sea boundaries in the Northern Hemisphere interact with wind variations to generate vast atmospheric undulations that travel around the earth. These waves form in the troposphere (the lowest atmospheric layer), where they produce our winter storms, and propagate upward, depositing their energy in the stratosphere. The energy from these waves warms the stratosphere, suppressing formation of polar stratospheric clouds necessary for ozone destruction. Arctic ozone losses tend to be greatest in years when these wave motions are unusually weak.
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The nation's latest and most advanced environmental satellite, GOES-12 was activated on 1 April from an on-orbit storage mode, replacing the older GOES-8, which has hovered above the East Coast and Atlantic Ocean for nearly 10 years.
Among the instruments onboard GOES-12 is the world's most advanced solar storm detector, the Solar X-ray Imager (SXI). The SXI provides space weather forecasters with real-time images of the sun's broiling atmosphere. This information helps pinpoint when solar activity might harm billions of dollars worth of commercial and government assets in space and on land.
NOAA operates two GOES: one over the East Coast, and the other, GOES-10, above the West Coast, the Pacific Ocean, and Hawaii—22,300 miles over the equator. Launched in July 2001, GOES-12 has been in on-orbit storage mode, while NOAA engineers kept it ready for action.
An operational GOES spacecraft has a design life of five years in orbit, and has a 10-year fuel supply. "If a satellite exceeds its life span, the extra fuel can keep it operational, maximizing the taxpayer investment," said Kathleen Kelly, head of satellite operations at NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service.
She added that GOES-10, which was launched in 1997, already has exceeded the typical life span, but is showing "no signs of imminent failure" on any of its systems. GOES-10 will exhaust its fuel supply in January 2006, and is scheduled to be replaced by GOES-11.
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Jim Cantore, a familiar face on the Weather Channel and AMS Seal Holder, received the prestigious NOAA–David S. Johnson Award for his innovative use of environmental satellite data, including water vapor imagery, and educating viewers about the causes behind weather events.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Space Club presented the award to Cantore at the 46th Annual Goddard Memorial Dinner on 28 March.
The NOAA–David S. Johnson Award, named after the first NOAA assistant administrator for satellite and information services, recognizes professional scientists who create new uses for observational satellite data that can predict atmospheric, oceanic, and terrestrial conditions. The award was first presented in 1999.
Cantore, long acknowledged for his live coverage of major weather events, from Hurricanes Andrew in 1992 to Mitch in 1998, was singled out for this year's award based on the way he incorporates satellite data and water vapor imagery into his Weather Channel broadcasts.
A native of White River Junction, Vermont, Cantore is cohost of the Weather Channel's prime-time magazine "Atmospheres" and is a frequent host for other Weather Channel programs. He first appeared on the Weather Channel in 1986—it was his first job after graduating with a bachelor's of science degree in meteorology from Lyndon State College in Lyndonville, Vermont.
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The Mount Washington Observatory is asking members of the American Meteorological Society, and other science groups and individuals, to consider making a gift to the observatory to help rebuild and recover after a fire destroyed the power generation facilities at the summit of Mount Washington. The fire occurred on 9 February 2003.
The nonprofit Mount Washington Observatory estimates fire-related expenses may amount to more than $60,000. Anyone interested in making a contribution should contact John Hammer, Executive Director of the Mount Washington Observatory, at (603) 356-2137 or P.O. Box 2310, 2936 White Mountain Highway, North Conway, New Hampshire 03860.
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John Morales has joined WSCV-Telemundo 51 in Miami. Widely recognized as the premier meteorologist in Spanish language television in the United States, Morales has been a familiar face in the South Florida market for over 10 years. He began at Telemundo on 24 April.
Prior to joining WSCV, Morales served as chief meteorologist for the Univision Network and its Miami station, WLTV, from 1991 through 2002. He received an Emmy Award in 1993 for his televised special "48 Hours before the Storm," detailing life-saving measures and precautions to take in preparation for a hurricane.
Morales is a member of the National Weather Association, the AMS, the National Council for Industrial Meteorologists, and the International Association of Broadcast Meteorologists. In addition, he is certified as a consultant by the AMS and is a member of the Climatological Consulting Corporation. In 1991, Morales founded ClimaData Corporation, providing weather information and forecasts in the U.S. and the Caribbean.
A graduate in Atmospheric Sciences from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, Morales has worked for the National Meteorological Service in San Juan, Puerto Rico; Lake Charles, Louisiana; and Washington, D.C. During his tenure with the federal government, he reached the position of meteorological supervisor and later became chief of the National Weather Service's National Centers for Environmental Prediction's South American desk. Morales also completed some postgraduate work at the University of Miami, specializing in tropical meteorology.
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The National Weather Service has named Brian L. Hirsch to head the North Platte, Nebraska, National Weather Service forecast office, and Brian Klimowski as the new meteorologist-in-charge of the National Weather Service forecast office in Flagstaff, Arizona.
A 14-year weather service veteran, Hirsch has held a variety of forecast and management positions in Oklahoma, Iowa, and Michigan. From part-time beginnings as a cooperative student trainee at the Tulsa weather service office in 1989, Hirsch worked his way through forecasting positions with increasing responsibility to warning coordination program leader and meteorologist-in-charge. Hirsch began his new duties as meteorologist-in-charge on 21 April.
In his former duties, Klimowski was responsible for managing the science and training activities of the Rapid City NOAA Weather Service office. He held positions in operational forecasting and gained significant research experience as a scientist with the University of Arizona and the University of Wyoming. Klimowski completed his doctorate degree in atmospheric science at the University of Wyoming in 1992. His assignment in Arizona began April 6.
Most recently, Klimowski has been researching the evolution of severe thunderstorms, and has been involved with the regional and national training of NOAA Weather Service employees on forecasting severe wind-producing storms. He has also been collaborating with universities and fire weather agencies in developing strategies for better fire weather forecast products.
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Officials from NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the University of Oklahoma have finalized a lease agreement for the National Weather Center, a $67 million, 244,000-square-foot building to be built on O.U.'s Norman campus that will combine the five NOAA organizations in Norman with several key weather organizations at the university.
The agreement represents a major milestone toward completion of the building, which will be one of the largest research centers in the world and the premier facility for severe storm research, prediction, forecasting, and warning. The lease agreement allows the university to obtain bonding authority needed to complete the financing for the NOAA portion of the building. Construction is expected to begin in July 2003.
The NOAA Weather Partners to be located in the building are the National Severe Storms Laboratory, Storm Prediction Center, National Weather Service Norman Forecast Office, Warning Decision Training Branch, and Radar Operations Center's Application Branch.
The O.U. units to be housed in the building are the School of Meteorology, Center for Analysis and Prediction of Storms, Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies, Environmental Verification and Analysis Center, Oklahoma Climatological Survey, International Center for Natural Hazards and Disaster Research, and Center for Spatial Analysis.
Since the creation of the O.U. School of Meteorology in 1960, it has become a fusion of more than 12 different university, state, and federal organizations collectively known as the Oklahoma Weather Center. With the construction of the National Weather Center, those organizations will be housed under the same roof, enabling them to interact and collaborate more effectively on critical operations, research, and education. Students will be exposed to real world problems encountered by people who forecast the weather on a day-to-day basis. Collaboration among the organizations has been credited with saving many lives all across the nation through early warning of tornadoes and severe storms, including the deadly tornadoes that ripped through Oklahoma and Kansas in May 1999.
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Sim Aberson, a meteorologist with NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory in Miami, Florida, was named an Employee of the Year by NOAA's Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research.
Aberson was cited for his "personal and professional excellence and leadership and many years of research in making great strides in tropical cyclone track forecast improvement."
Aberson began his career with NOAA in 1981 as a high school student with what is now the Hurricane Research Division. He continued his education and earned a Ph.D. in meteorology from the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland in 2002.
In addition to his scientific work in improving hurricane computer models, Aberson is involved with programs that bring science to young students, as well as participating in NOAA's diversity efforts.
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