Editor: Jim Elliott
Contributors: Alan Weinstein and Stephanie Kenitzer
Copy Editor: Anne Siefken
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On 7 October, House and Senate conferees met to resolve their differences on the funding for agencies and programs in the FY2000 VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act. This legislation includes funding for the VA, HUD, EPA, NASA, national service, as well as the National Science Foundation (see related story on NASA). After some intense negotiations with OMB, the conferees reached the following agreement with respect to NSF.
The conferees agreed to provide NSF with a total budget of $3.91 billion—this amount represents an increase of $240 million or 7% over the FY99 appropriation. For the Research and Related Activities account, the conferees have agreed to provide a total of $2.966 billion—nearly $200 million or 7% over the FY99 level. Within this account, the conferees provided $105 million for information technology research; $50 million for biocomplexity; $60 million for the plant genome program; and $25 million to support arctic logistics. The conferees did not adopt the Senate proposal, which would have directed NSF to transfer the $25 million for arctic logistics to the Arctic Research Commission.
The conferees included bill language that limits NSF support for Internet domain registration—a provision similar to the one included in last year's appropriations bill and consistent with National Science Board policy. In addition, the conferees agreed to the Senate's proposal to include buy/build America language concerning the future acquisition of a research vessel with icebreaking capability.
For the Major Research Equipment account, the conferees agreed to provide $95 million—this is $10 million above the request. The additional funds are for initial steps toward the acquisition of a high-altitude research aircraft. Within the conference agreement, $36 million is provided for the terascale computing system; this is identical to the request and is in addition to the $105 million provided for information technology research in the Research and Related Activities account. Also included in the conference agreement are the funds requested for the Large Hadron Collider, the Millimeter Array, the Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation, polar aircraft upgrades, and South Pole Station modernization.
For Education and Human Resources, the conferees agreed to provide $696.6 million—this is a $34.6 million increase over the FY99 level. Within this account the conferees agreed to provide: a total of $65 million for EPSCOR and the new innovation partnership effort; $46 million for informal science education; and $10 million to support undergraduate activities at historically black colleges and universities of which $8 million is from the Education account and $2 million is to be provided from the Research account. The Salaries and Expenses account is funded at the level of $149 million while the Office of Inspector General is funded at the level of $5.45 million—both levels are equal to the budget request.
It is important to note that the huge outrcry from the science community on the proposed House budget cuts to both NASA and NSF, contributed to the restoration of the funds to both agencies. The AMS participated in this effort by sending letters of concern to the appropriate members.
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The VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Conference Committee approved the bill that funds NASA, NSF, and other agencies on 7 October (see related story on NSF). In the bill NASA received an increase of $75 million above the president’s request of $13.652 billion. While much of the detail is not yet available, since the Conference Report is not yet completed, the following reflects the current understanding of how the funding will be allocated within NASA.
Overall, the Office of Earth Science received $1.458 billion, $4.2 million below the president’s request. Space Science received $2.175 billion, approximately $20 million below the request. However, to arrive at this funding level, the Conference committee provided additional funding for several specific earmarks while making some program cuts.
It is important to note that the huge outrcry from the science community on the proposed House budget cuts to both NASA and NSF, contributed to the restoration of the funds to both agencies. The AMS participated in this effort by sending letters of concern to the appropriate members.
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National Science Foundation (NSF) Director Rita Colwell, as well as representatives from academia and industry, expressed concern about U.S. investments in basic research during a hearing before the House Science Subcommittee on Basic Research on 28 September.
"It is very clear to me that we are severely and critically underinvesting in basic research," Colwell testified. Chairman Nick Smith (R-MI) said that although he believes research funding should be increased, tight budgets today are a reality that must be faced and the question is whether the government is spending its limited dollars wisely.
Colwell cited recent reports showing that "private industry is increasingly dependent on federally supported research" for technological innovation. She outlined NSF's role in the development of the Internet and genetics as an example and pointed out how NSF-sponsored centers help transfer discoveries from university research to commercial application. She said another crucial federal role is the training of graduate students in science and engineering. The government's support of graduate students was as one of the most effective means of transferring ideas from academia to the private sector.
Scott Stern, of MIT's Sloan School, discussed a study in which he and other researchers developed an Innovation Index to measure a nation's innovative capacity. He warned that the United States "may be living off historical assets that are not being renewed" and its continued status as the world's preeminent innovator nation is not assured "if current policies continue unchanged." Stern recommended policy changes, including reversing "the downward slide of federal support for R&D beyond the health sciences," rebuilding the pool of scientists and engineers and renewing the broad national consensus on the importance of those assets, according to AIP's Bulletin of Science Policy News.
In response to questions, the witnesses cautioned against increasing life sciences funding at the expense of other fields of science, one of Colwell's major concerns and one about which she has often complained. At the hearing, she said, "the shift in federal emphasis away from physics and chemistry" is going to have a significant impact because many advances in the health sciences have initially come from physics and chemistry. She said she had asked her division chiefs for their assessments of "unmet opportunities" in all fields and expressed her wish for an NSF budget of about $8 billion to meet them. (Current proposed FY2000 budget is $3.9 billion.) Colwell noted that, in constant dollars, the current average NSF grant is less that it was in 1970, and NSF's average grant length is less than that of NIH.
Representative Vern Ehlers (R-MI) concurred that NIH has "done too well" at the expense of the physical sciences and asked how Congress could ensure that federally sponsored programs remain creative without discouraging risk-taking. Stern responded by saying that keeping government monitoring at a minimum and letting scientists decide what research to support via the peer-review process.
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The administration proposed today a new government-wide federal policy that addresses research misconduct. The policy, developed by the National Science and Technology Council, consists of a definition of research misconduct and establishes basic guidelines for the conduct of fair and timely investigations of alleged or suspected infractions. The policy will apply to all federally funded research regardless of where the research is conducted or by whom. The National Science and Technology Council is Cabinet-level council is the principle means for the president to coordinate science and technology policies across the diverse parts of the federal research and development enterprise.
Neal Lane, assistant to the president for Science and Technology, called the new policy a hallmark of the administration's commitment to integrate public values with our strong scientific and technological enterprise. Lane added that "this policy provides needed consistency and clear guidance to the research community about the government's interest in the integrity of the research record. We must sustain the public's trust in the methods and results of our public research."
The policy is the result of an extensive consultative process with the major research agencies of the federal government. Conducted under the auspices of the NSTC, it began in April 1996 with the establishment of an NSTC panel (the Research Integrity Panel) of agency representatives from the major research agencies (NIH, NSF, DOE, NASA, USDA, DOD) and OSTP. The panel was charged with developing a definition of research misconduct, as well as establishing procedural guidelines for handling allegations of research misconduct. The panel’s recommendations have been under review and revision since they were circulated in January 1997 to all the NSTC agencies.
Once implemented, this policy will establish uniformity among the federal agencies' definition of research misconduct and consistency in their processes for responding to allegations of research misconduct. This provides clear guidance to the research community about the government requirements needed to sustain public trust in our publicly funded scientific and engineering enterprise.
Following a 60-day comment period, the NSTC will issue a final policy, which the agencies will implement. Comments are being solicited from the science community. The proposed policy is published in the 14 October 1999 edition of the Federal Register, and will also be posted on the NSTC Web site at www.whitehouse.gov/OSTP.
To be assured consideration, comments must be postmarked no later than 13 December 1999. Comments should be addressed to Sybil Francis, Office of Science and Technology Policy, Executive Office of the President, Washington, D.C. 20502. For further information contact Sybil Francis, Office of Science and Technology Policy, Executive Office of the President, Washington, D.C. 20502. Tel: 202-456-6040; Fax: 202-456-6027; E-mail: sfrancis@ostp.eop.gov.
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The secretary of state should take decisive action to ensure that science, technology, and health considerations are continuously integrated into the nation's foreign policy agenda, concludes a new report by the National Research Council of the National Academies released on 7 October.
"From specific incidences of emerging infectious diseases to the broad concerns about global industrial competitiveness, we know that science, technology, and health considerations permeate a vast array of issues that the Department of State grapples with every day," said Robert Frosch, chair of the Research Council committee that prepared the report, and senior research fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. "Yet ironically, as the world becomes more technologically interdependent, the trend at the State Department has been to downplay science and technical expertise. It's time to reverse that trend."
At a minimum, the committee said, all foreign service officers and other diplomatic officials should achieve basic competence in scientific, technological, and health matters. Recruitment, training, and promotion should recognize the importance of these skills. In addition, assignments in science, technology, and health should be considered an important asset for all officials on career tracks to ambassadorships.
The report also urges the secretary of state to appoint a highly qualified senior adviser on science, technology, and health. And it calls on the department to assign at least 25 technically trained science counselors with foreign policy expertise to serve at a comparable number of embassies in countries where issues of science, technology, and health are most critical to the United States. The department also should establish promotion and career incentives for service in positions related to these areas. At present, with occasional exceptions, the report says the most highly talented foreign service officers are ill equipped for and have little incentive to seek those jobs. In fact, science, technology, and health-related assignments may be a career handicap, rather than an asset, for foreign service officers who are encouraged to develop other essential skills, and serve in political and economic positions. The committee urged the department to reward, not penalize, foreign service officers for their technical experience and competence.
The report builds on interim recommendations the committee made to the department in the fall of 1998. In this final report, the committee notes that as of yet there has been relatively little action on its earlier set of recommendations.
The committee was assembled at the behest of Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and comes in response to widespread concern among U.S. scientists and foreign policy experts that, although science, technology, and health developments increasingly impact foreign policy, the department has reduced its capabilities in critical technical areas. As environmental concerns have grown in importance, for example, the department has redirected resources to environmental diplomacy from other important areas that now receive little attention. Moreover, the number of science counselors at U.S. embassies has dropped precipitously, with most positions being filled by Foreign Service officers having little relevant background. Thus, the embassy reporting mechanism by which the U.S. government keeps abreast of important emerging issues around the globe has seriously eroded.
The report points to a number of thorny diplomatic situations where science, technology, and health expertise has been essential—from nuclear nonproliferation to population growth, the safety of the world's food supply, and the future of the world's energy resources (see list that follows).
Given that reality, the committee recommended 13 ways the State Department could go about integrating science, technology, and health awareness into the U.S. foreign policy agenda. Along with urging the secretary to appoint a senior adviser and to assign science counselors to embassies worldwide, recommendations include:
The Golden Family Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation of New York sponsored the study. The National Research Council is the principal operating arm of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. It is a private, nonprofit institution that provides independent advice on science and technology issues under a congressional charter. A committee roster follows.
Copies of The Pervasive Role of Science, Technology, and Health in Foreign Policy: Imperatives for the Department of State will be available in late October from the National Academy Press at the mailing address in the letterhead; tel. (202) 334-3313 or 1-800-624-6242. The cost of the report is $29.00 (prepaid) plus shipping charges of $4.50 for the first copy and $.95 for each additional copy.
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World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) recently signed documents to strengthen the capacity of Latin American and Caribbean nations to reduce the harmful social and economic effects of the periodic El Niño climate phenomenon.
Professor Godwin Olu Patrick Obasi, WMO Secretary–General, and Mr. Enrique V. Iglesias, IADB president, signed the document on 22 September. The $1 538 000 program is designed to reduce the impacts of the climate event through better scientific monitoring and meteorological forecasting.
"This is a global partnership that really focuses fully on appraising what needs to be done to more readily react and minimize the socioeconomic impact of the El Niño phenomenon," said Obasi. "This program represents a whole new dimension by identifying indicators to improve knowledge and prediction of climate changes and develop a timely warning plan in countries and the region."
The studies will identify the impact of the phenomenon on the more vulnerable population groups, added Obasi. Institutional preparedness will be analyzed, and the outcome of this program will determine the more feasible pilot projects to be developed in areas like fisheries, agriculture, water resources management, according to the countries’ priorities.
The Japan Special Fund, which is administered by the IADB, will provide a grant of $998 000 for the project. The grant includes designing and conducting a feasibility study of an early warning system that will help vulnerable countries prepare for the periodic climate disruption, which causes severe floods in some countries and droughts in others. The project will be carried out by the WMO with the participation of the International Food Policy Research Institute, the International Research Institute for Climate Prediction, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and consultants. The World Meteorological Organization and NOAA are each contributing $170 000 to the project. Individual countries that participate are to contribute up to a total of $200 000. The program includes the evaluation of existing technical capabilities of national weather and climate forecasting organizations, diagnostic analyses of socioeconomic vulnerabilities, and the design of implementation plans and policy proposals.
During the signing ceremony, Obasi also presented the final report of the Ibero-American Climate feasibility study. This study was completed by the WMO with a bank contribution of $700 000 from its Fund of Special Operations and $500 000 from the U.S. Evergreen Fund administered by the Bank. WMO, Spain, Canada, and the 13 countries funds for a total of $2,9 million. This study will allow the participating countries to prepare proposals to strengthen their weather forecasting capabilities that are necessary for disaster preparedness.
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The world's largest scientific fora on biometeorology and urban climatology will be held jointly for the first time in Sydney from 8 to 12 November 1999 with the participation of leading scientists and academics from all around the world.
Scientists will be discussing the challenge of explaining why recent natural disasters occurred and what can be done to develop more effective means for mitigating the negative environmental, health, social, and economic impacts of future extreme natural events.
The conferences will examine the impacts of urban climates on human health, ecosystems, energy utilization in buildings, energy resource efficiency, and urban design. They will also explore issues such as the impacts of global warming, El Niño, and the Antarctic ozone hole on the levels of morbidity and mortality, as well as indoor climate and air quality, and climate change and decision making. Linkages with other branches of social and natural sciences will also be discussed.
The participants will include those attending the International Congress of Biometeorology (ICB) and the International Conference on Urban Climatology (ICUC). Strategies and program for human adaptation to significant changes in climate over the next 100 years and the development of appropriate international, national, and community responses to worsening natural disasters are high on the agenda.
Coordinated by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the International Society of Biometeorology, the two conferences will hold joint working sessions to foster a greater interaction between various disciplines. The conferences are also sponsored by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the World Health Organization, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (ABM), Macquarie University, the German Meteorological Society, and the University of New South Wales.
In a statement underlining the importance of the event, Professor Godwin Olu Patrick Obasi, Secretary–General of the WMO, invited the participating scientists to explore new ways of mitigating the biological impacts of climate change, including urbanization policies, within the framework of the Climate Agenda. Professor Obasi also called for the initiation and consolidation of services such as ultra violet (UV) and sunburn forecasts, thermal advisories, and bioclimatic maps to alleviate the impacts of excessive heat stress, air pollution, and high pollen and dust counts throughout the world.
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The National Weather Service’s Cray C90 computer system was damaged by a fire on Monday 27 September and is no longer able to run complex numerical models used for daily weather prediction. The agency is now using two Cray J90 systems and numerical models run by other organizations to ensure forecast products are available. The Cray C90 is the central NOAA National Weather Service (NWS) computer that generates numerical weather forecast models for the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), headquartered in Camp Springs, Maryland.
When the fire occurred, Prince George's County, Maryland, fire department responded quickly and extinguished the fire using dry chemicals. Due to the fire, two of the power supply units inside of the Cray C90 were damaged. In addition, the dry chemicals used by the fire department contaminated other components in the computer as well.
Silicon Graphics Incorporated, the computer contractor, determined that the computer was significantly damaged and that the computer cannot be repaired. NCEP continues to investigate options for restoring Cray C90 service. In collaboration with NOAA's High Performance Computing Center (HPCC), NCEP is getting a second opinion through an expert at National Institute for Standards and Technology on the extent of damage caused by the fire.
NCEP is assuring its customers that all critical operations are being supported and that NWS forecasters can continue to issue forecasts using numerical models run on other NWS computers and accessed from other national centers. NCEP also has implemented prearranged backup support procedures using Air Force, Navy, and NOAA Forecast Systems Laboratory, in Boulder, Colorado, forecast products. The computer fire is impacting the frequency of some products. For example, some models, which usually run four times a day are now running twice. Some models are running at a reduced resolution.
The computer was located in the 54-yr-old Federal Office Building 4 in Suitland, Maryland. The National Weather Service is in the process of installing a new, state-of-the-art supercomputer. The new Class VIII will be located at the Census Department Bowie Computer Center, in Bowie, Maryland. The new computer is expected to be installed in mid-November and operational in early January.
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Ongoing La Niña conditions in the central tropical Pacific will impact temperature and precipitation patterns across the Pacific Northwest region of the United States during the next six months, according to scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center. La Niña conditions developed in May–June 1998, and have persisted since that time.
Speaking at the La Niña Forum during the annual Media and Emergency Management Workshop sponsored by the National Weather Service, Seattle–Tacoma, Ants Leetmaa, director of the Climate Prediction Center, noted that La Niña conditions will likely persist into March 2000. He noted that the La Niña will be a weak-to-moderate episode, and strong enough to impact weather patterns across the Pacific Northwest later this winter.
"The Pacific Northwest can expect an increased likelihood of above-normal precipitation during the upcoming winter season. Some areas, including the mountains and intermountain region, may see above-normal snowfalls as a result of an expected La Niña-related increase in storminess across the region," Leetmaa said. "We also expect an increased likelihood of normal to below-normal temperatures in the Pacific Northwest this winter."
La Niña refers to cooler-than-normal ocean waters across the central and eastern equatorial Pacific, whereas El Niño refers to warmer-than-normal ocean waters in these regions. Both La Niña and El Niño affect the weather patterns across the North Pacific and North America.
Leetmaa explained the genesis of El Niño and the opposite climate phenomenon, La Niña. When warmer ocean waters dominate at the equator, you have an El Niño. When these waters are driven back to the western Pacific by colder waters, you have a La Niña." These events, which are monitored by a network of buoys and satellites operated by NOAA, impact the weather throughout the world.
"This shift in the ocean's sea surface temperatures from the eastern Pacific to the western Pacific Ocean areas and back again approximately every four to seven years is like a pool of warm water sloshing back and forth in a huge bathtub. These temperature changes impact the location of marine life, prevailing winds, and our world's climate. It has been going on for years but our observing capabilities now are getting better and we're learning how to forecast it," said Leetmaa.
According to the latest advisory issued by the Climate Prediction Center on 10 September 1999, La Niña conditions continue to evolve. The Center forecasts weak to moderate La Niña conditions for the remainder of 1999 and continuing through the winter months. This is consistent with other forecast models being run by research institutions.
For more information on NOAA's Climate Prediction Center and its forecasts, log onto http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov.
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Atlantic hurricanes making landfall create much more damage in La Niña years costing millions of dollars to U.S. coastal communities, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
These findings were published in an article in the October Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society entitled "La Niña, El Niño, and Atlantic Hurricane Damages in the United States. In the article, authors Roger Pielke Jr., of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and Chris Landsea, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, compare damage caused by landfall hurricanes during the 1900s (normalized to 1997 dollars) to the number of storms each year and the presence of an El Niño or La Niña.
"We found that in terms of median U.S. cost of damage from hurricanes, 20 times more damage costs occur in La Niña years versus El Niño years," says Landsea, a research meterologist at NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory in Miami, Florida. "The current La Niña, which began in mid-1998 and is ongoing, typifies the damages that can happen in La Niña events, with Hurricanes Bonnie, Earl, and Georges last year and Hurricanes Bret, Dennis, and Floyd (so far) this year. The 1998 and 1999 total will likely be more than $7 billion in damages from those hurricanes. These busy years contrast with the last El Niño event in 1997, which produced only $100 million in U.S. damages from Hurricane Danny."
One major conclusion is that not only are there more storms in La Niña years, these storms are stronger, resulting in more damage from wind, storm surge, and rain-related flooding. In terms of U.S. dollars, there is a 77% chance that more than $1 billion of hurricane damage will occur in a La Niña year, and a 36% chance that more than $5 billion in damage will occur. These probabilities are much greater than the 32% and 14% chances, respectively, in El Niño years.
"The state of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation has historically proven to be a statistically significant indicator of U.S. hurricane damage, with annual damages in La Niña years totaling many times those during an El Niño event," says Pielke. "In addition, damages from individual storms in La Niña years are, on average, twice the cost of damages in El Niño years. For decision makers who can manage their risk, in disciplines like insurance and finance, this information is of large potential value. For the typical coastal resident, however, improved preparation makes sense in any year, as a powerful storm can strike in any season."
La Niña refers to cooler-than-average sea surface temperatures across the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. El Niño is an abnormal warming of the ocean temperatures across the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. Both phenomena bring important consequences for weather around the globe.
These seasonal forecasts help resource and emergency managers prepare for the likelihood of more frequent and stronger hurricanes in La Niña years. However, El Niño and neutral years do not mean no hurricanes will make landfall, and one hurricane can have large impacts. Hurricane Andrew is the most recent example of this phenomenon, a neutral-year storm that became one of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history, with estimates of $30 billion in damage. "What this means for decision makers is that the absence of La Niña should not lead to complacency about hurricane impacts," Landsea says.
Scientists stress that El Niño and La Niña are not the only climate factors related to relative levels of hurricane damage. Considerable variation in hurricane damage is evident in neutral years as well. Landsea and Pielke noted that this study revealed only one of the recurring cycles associated with hurricanes. To understand and predict other elements, there is an ongoing body of research calculating the interannual variability of hurricane seasons, track and intensity forecasts of individual storms, and economic impacts, within NOAA and other organizations.
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While hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods capture most of the public's attention and concern, the most dangerous weather hazard that most people encounter each year is a more frequent occurring and less recognized hazard—lightning. Based on improved scientific understanding of this deadly hazard, a group of experts is updating safety recommendations to reduce the dangers.
The recommendations are outlined in a paper in the October issue of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) written by Ronald L. Holle and Raul Lopez of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Oklahoma, and Christoph Zimmermann of Global Atmospherics, Inc., Tucson, Arizona.
"Lightning occurs in the United States every day in the summer and nearly every day during the rest of the year. Since lightning strikes the ground with such great frequency and is so widespread, it is not possible to warn each person for every flash," the authors wrote. "For this reason, lightning can be considered the most dangerous weather hazard that many people encounter each year."
According to the authors, studies show that from 1992 to 1995 there were an average of 21 746 000 cloud-to-ground flashes a year. "On average, lightning causes more casualties annually in the United States than any other storm-related phenomena, except floods. After taking into account the underreporting of lightning deaths and injuries...about 100 people are estimated to be killed and more than 500 injured by lightning in the United States each year."
"We found that many people incur injuries or are killed due to misinformation and inappropriate behavior during thunderstorms," said the authors. "Although the scientific understanding of lightning has advanced significantly in the last few decades, a consistent match between basic science and applications to safety had not been made."
Holle, Lopez, and Zimmerman pointed out that over the years, the public often has received several contradicting safety suggestions. The inconsistency of safety recommendations led to a meeting of a Lightning Safety Group in 1998. The group, made up of qualified experts in lightning safety and education issues, set out to standardize recommended actions during thunderstorms and lightning. The recommendations published in the October Bulletin were developed by group and are now in the process of review. The group recommended the safest locations during a storm are large enclosed structures (substantially constructed buildings) and fully enclosed metal vehicles such as cars, trucks, buses, vans, and fully enclosed farm vehicles with windows rolled up.
Places to avoid or even being near, the article reported, include high places and open fields, isolated trees, unprotected gazebos, rain or plastic shelters, baseball dugouts, communications towers, flagpoles, light poles, wooden or metal bleachers, metal fences, convertibles, golf carts,and water. When inside a building, one should avoid using a telephone, taking a shower, washing hands, doing dishes, or making contact with any conductive surfaces with exposure to the outside such as metal door or window frames, electrical wiring, telephone wiring, cable TV wiring, and plumbing.
The article also suggested guidelines for individuals, small groups, and large groups. For individuals, the article noted, "Generally speaking, if an individual can see lightning and/or hear thunder, he/she is already at risk. Louder or more frequent thunder indicates that lightning activity is approaching, increasing the risk for lightning injury or death. If the time delay between seeing the flash (lightning) and hearing the bang (thunder) is less than 30 seconds, the individual should be in or seek a safer location."
Groups, such as school teachers, camp counselors, lifeguards, and others, should have an action plan that allows them to take care of the safety of the children under their care, the group recommended. They should monitor NOAA Weather Radio or The Weather Channel and designate a person not only to monitor those informational sources but also to observe weather developments when potential threats develop. In addition, with large groups, all persons should be aware of the action plan, a designated monitor should be identified and personal observations should be made in the event of a threat developing.
Proper medical attention can also reduce casualties from lighting. The article pointed out that many lighting victims survive their encounter with timely medical treatment noting that "individuals struck by lightning do not carry a charge, and it is safe to touch them to render medical treatment."
High winds, rainfall, and cloud cover often act as precursors to actual cloud-to-ground strikes notifying individuals to take action. Many lightning casualties occur in the beginning, as the storm approaches, because people ignore these precursors. Also, many lightning casualties occur after the perceived threat has passed. Generally, the lightning threat diminishes after the last sound of thunder, but may persist for more than 30 minutes. When thunderstorms are in the area but not overhead, the lightning threat can exist even when it is sunny, not raining or when clear sky is visible.
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The National Weather Service has awarded a $20.9 million contract for the implementation of the NOAA Weather Wire Service to GTE Information Systems, LLC, of Chantilly, Virginia. The new network contains improved technology that will protect it from breakdowns in severe weather situations, and multiple layers of backup to ensure reliable operation in case of network failures.
The 1-yr contract has options for nine additional years and an estimated value of up to $20.9 million, with a contract ceiling of $29.4 million, based on the current planned implementation. This system will replace the current network, which has been in operation since 1989.
The NOAA Weather Wire Service is a reliable and timely means of disseminating information about severe weather and other hazards to emergency managers and other key decision makers, and to the public through media and the Internet.
In addition to providing improved technology and backup protection in the new network, GTE will maintain the Weather Service's current high standards, which require the network to deliver 99.8% of all warnings to the end user in less than 30 seconds, and 98% within 10 seconds. The system will also permit data to be accessed by a wide range of users to encourage private industry to provide weather information, especially weather warnings, by different means such as telephone circuit networks, satellite systems, broadcast media, and the Internet, at a reasonable cost.
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The American Geophysical Union's position statement on Climate Change and Greenhouse Gases was published in EOS on 2 February 1999. Like all such statements, it was intended primarily for nontechnical audiences; therefore, it was brief and did not include references to the published scientific literature upon, which it was based.
In response to requests for background information and data and as a resource for continuing study of this issue, the authors of the AGU position statement have prepared a thorough, documented analysis of the peer reviewed literature, which was published in EOS on 28 September. Their article, "Climate Change and Greenhouse Gases," was itself rigorously peer reviewed.
Dr. Tamara S. Ledley of TERC in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and her five coauthors have divided the topic into four major areas:
*Greenhouse Gases and the Earth–Atmosphere Energy Balance
*Climate Change and Carbon Dioxide
*Predicted Climate Change from Increased Greenhouse Gases
*Predictive Capabilities and Uncertainties
They conclude that atmospheric concentrations of the principal manmade greenhouse gases (especially carbon dioxide, but also methane, nitrous oxide, and chlorofluorocarbons) have significantly increased during the industrial period. Elevated concentrations are predicted to persist for up to thousands of years. By increasing the amount of infrared radiation absorbed into the atmosphere, these gases produce a warming influence at the earth's surface.
The authors note that carbon dioxide is not the only influence on global climate change, but that during Earth's long-term geologic history, large-scale variations in carbon dioxide have always been accompanied by simultaneous changes in other components of the carbon cycle and the climate system. In the past 150 years, corresponding to widespread burning of fossil fuels for industrial and transportation purposes that add carbon to the atmosphere beyond that stemming from natural processes, global temperatures have increased on average by 0.5° to 1.0°F (0.3°–0.6°C).
The authors predict that further increases in greenhouse gases will cause changes in the climate system. These include increases in average surface temperature, increases in rates of precipitation and evaporation, rising sea level, and changes in the biosphere. The magnitude, geographic distribution, and rate of these changes remain uncertain. These conclusions underlay the AGU position statement on Climate Change and Greenhouse Gases.
The EOS article is accompanied by a list of 189 detailed references to the peer reviewed literature for researchers and others who seek further information. For more information see the AGU Internet site at http://www.agu.org/eos_elec/99148e.html
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The area of ozone depletion over the Antarctic is smaller in 1999 than it was last year, according to data acquired from the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) instrument aboard the NASA Earth Probe (TOMS-EP) satellite. Data from instrumented National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) balloons at the South Pole also indicate that the ozone hole, while severe, is similar to that observed in 1998.
"The Antarctic year's ozone depletion area, or ozone 'hole,' is very large, but slightly smaller than that of 1998," according to Dr. Richard McPeters, principal investigator for the instrument that made the measurements.
Although small variations in the severity of the ozone hole from year to year are expected, the fact that the 1999 hole was no larger or deeper than that in 1998 is good news, according to David Hofmann, director of the Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado. "This observation means that chlorine is no longer increasing in the stratosphere, which is the first step to recovery. Our job now is to keep watch on both the ozone hole and ozone-destroying molecules in the atmosphere to make sure that the road to recovery does not meet any unexpected detours," Hofmann said.
This year's TOMS study found that an ozone "low" had formed between New Zealand and Antarctica on 17 September. This sort of ozone low, commonly referred to as a "mini-hole," is a result of the redistribution of ozone by a large weather system. The "mini-hole" moved eastward along the rim of the Antarctic "ozone hole" for a number of days after 17 September, scientists said.
Preliminary data from the satellite show that this year's Antarctic ozone depletion covered 9.8 million square miles on 15 September. The record area of Antarctic ozone depletion of 10.5 million square miles was set on 19 September 1998.
The NOAA balloon soundings at the South Pole showed that as in the past several years, ozone was totally destroyed between about nine and 13 miles altitude. Total column ozone averaged about 100 Dobson units between 25 September and 5 October, the period of lowest ozone values, which is similar to the lowest values in 1998. A Dobson unit is a unit of measurement that describes the thickness of the ozone layer in a column directly above the location being measured. Prior to the springtime ozone depletion period in Antarctica, total ozone readings are about 275–300 Dobson Units.
Scientists said the ozone levels were expected to decrease over the next few weeks. The lowest amount of total-column ozone recorded to date this year was 92 Dobson Units on 1 October. Minimums were about the same as last year's, which were higher, project officials said. Dobson Units measure how thick the ozone layer would be if all the overhead ozone molecules in a column of atmosphere could be brought down to the earth's surface.
Globally, the ozone layer averages approximately 300 Dobson Units, which would correspond to a layer about 1/8th of an inch (3 mm) thick at the earth's surface or about the thickness of two stacked pennies. In contrast, during the annual Antarctic ozone "hole," the amount of ozone in the ozone "hole" is about 100 Dobson Units, about 1/25th of an inch, or approximately the thickness of a single dime.
These measurements were obtained between mid-August and early October. Balloon-borne ozone profiles and an animation of the profiles from the South Pole is available at http://www.cmdl.noaa.gov/. For color images of the ozone hole as observed by NOAA satellites: http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/.
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Data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) spacecraft have provided evidence for the first time that smoke from forest fires inhibits rainfall.
The findings, to be published in the 15 October issue of "Geophysical Research Letters," show that the "warm rain" processes that often create rain in tropical clouds are practically shut off when the clouds are polluted with heavy smoke from forest fires. In these clouds, scientists found, the cloud tops must grow considerably above the freezing level (16 000 feet) for them to start producing rain by an alternative mechanism.
"We've seen evidence of decreased precipitation in clouds contaminated by smoke, but it wasn't until now that we had direct evidence showing that smoke actually suppresses precipitation completely from certain clouds," said Dr. Daniel Rosenfeld, the paper's author and a TRMM scientist at the Institute of Earth Sciences, Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
Scientists have shown keen interest in how changes in global precipitation affect human activities, such as crop production, and the global rainfall weather pattern. More precise information about rainfall and its variability is crucial to understanding the global climate and predicting climate change, according to scientists.
In his paper, Rosenfeld highlights one specific area: Kalimantan, Indonesia. During the satellite's overpass on 1 March 1998, the southeastern portion of the island was engulfed in smoke, while the northwestern portion was relatively smoke free. The spacecraft's radar detected precipitation in smoke-free clouds, but almost none in the smoke-plagued clouds, showing the impact of smoke from fires on precipitation over the rainforest.
"It's important to note that this is not a unique case," Rosenfeld said. "We observed and documented several other areas that showed similar behavior. In some instances even less severe smoke concentration was found to have comparable impacts on clouds."
The research further validates earlier studies on urban air pollution showing that pollution in Manila, the Philippines, has an effect similar to forest fires, Rosenfeld explained. "Findings such as these are making the first inroads into the difficult problem of understanding humanity's impacts on global precipitation," noted Dr. Christian Kummerow, TRMM project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland.
Scientists have known for some time that smoke from burning vegetation suppresses rainfall, but did not know to what extent until now. With TRMM, however, scientists are able to see both precipitation and cloud droplets over large areas, including clouds in and out of smoke plumes.
TRMM is a United States–Japanese mission and part of NASA's Earth Science Enterprise, a long-term research program designed to study the earth's land, oceans, ice, and life as a total system. The spacecraft was launched in December 1997.
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NASA and the National Research Council of Canada have signed a protocol designed to focus their efforts on aircraft icing technology. The protocol aims to encompass many more key players in icing research, including the FAA, Environment Canada, and Transport Canada, as well as other government agencies, universities, industrial firms, and organizations with an interest in aviation icing research.
"With the Aircraft Icing Research Alliance, we will have a new way to conduct research," said Dr. Arthur Carty, NRC president. "We will have a better idea of how ice develops on aircraft surfaces and runways; we'll be better able to measure aircraft performance under icing conditions; we'll work on new de-icing methods, both fluid and mechanical, and much more.
"I foresee the alliance becoming an international center for cutting-edge research in aircraft ice accretion, a cross-border collaboration that brings together the top scientists in the world for our common good and for the benefit of a crucial industry."
Lieutennant General Spence Armstrong, NASA's associate administrator for aerospace, said, "This alliance will share the common purpose of improving aircraft transportation safety for the traveling public."
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The Office of the Federal Coordinator for Meteorological Services and Supporting Research (OFCM) and the U.S. Department of Transportation-Federal Highway Administration (USDOT-FHWA) are cosponsoring a symposium entitled Weather Information for Surface Transportation: Delivering Improved Safety and Efficiency for Tomorrow. The symposium will be held 30 November–2 December 1999, at the Holiday Inn, Silver Spring, Maryland.
The goal of the symposium is to establish the national needs and requirements for weather information associated with decision-making actions involving surface transportation. This goal is consistent with a major theme of the historic Transportation Equity Act for the Twenty-First Century. Secretary of Transportation Rodney E. Slater, in his summary message describing this important legislation, states that "...transportation is about more than concrete, asphalt, and steel: it is about people, and about providing them with the opportunity to lead safer, healthier, and more fulfilling lives." Implicit in Secretary Slater's statement are the effects that weather can have on the safety, health, and productivity of our nation's citizens whether they are in the public or private/commercial sector.
Keynote addresses will be given by the Honorable Rodney E. Slater, secretary of Transportation (Invited), the Honorable D. James Baker, undersecretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere, and Dr. Ron McPherson, executive director of the AMS. There will also be presentations of transportation weather-related issues, plenary session panels, and concurrent breakout sessions. Panels will include the following topics of discussion:
(1) DOC and DOD services and capabilities for surface transportation decision support
(2) Commercial weather information production capabilities and services
(3) Federal agency weather information needs
(4) State and local weather information needs
(5) Professional and trade organizations weather information needs
(6) Research/technology innovation for decision support
Breakout sessions will be informal and focus on the needs and requirements of state, local, and professional and trade organizations. For registration information visit the symposium Web site http://www.dc.net/stc/WIST_Symposium/main.htm or contact Ms. Dawn Erlich at 301-565-8345.
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An in-depth study of widely used science textbooks by Project 2061 determined that not one of them rated satisfactory.
Project 2061 is a long-term science, mathematics, and technology education reform initiative of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The project has been working since 1985 to improve science, mathematics, and technology education for all students.
"Our students are lugging home heavy texts full of disconnected facts that neither educate nor motivate them," said Dr. George D. (Pinky) Nelson, director of Project 2061 and former astronaut. "It's a credit to science teachers that their students are learning anything at all.
"No matter how 'scientifically accurate' a text may be, if it doesn't provide teachers and students with the right kinds of help in understanding and applying important concepts, then it's not doing its job."
Nelson released results of the study, headed by Dr. Jo Ellen Roseman, Project 2061 curriculum director, at a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington on 28 September. The study examined how well textbooks for the middle grades can help students learn key ideas in Earth science, life science, and physical science, drawn from AAAS's "Benchmarks for Science Literacy" and the National Research Council's "National Science Education Standards."
Also appearing at the press conference, Roseman said the study "examined the text's quality of instruction aimed specifically at the key ideas, using criteria drawn from the best available research about how students learn." Each text was evaluated by two independent teams of middle school teachers, curriculum specialists, and professors of science education. The evaluation procedure was developed and tested over a 3-yr period with more than 100 scientists, mathematicians, educators, and curriculum developers with funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
"This study confirms our worst fears about the materials used to educate our children in the critical middle grades," Nelson said. "Because textbooks are the backbone of classroom instruction, we must demand improvement so that our students can acquire the knowledge and skills they will need for more advanced learning in high school, college, and the workplace.
"Although Project 2061 does not write textbooks, our goal is to provide guidance for those who do. For example, we plan to send detailed reports to the publishers of science textbooks and invite them to discuss the findings with us. Project 2061 hopes the reviews not only will guide textbook development in the future but will also be valuable for middle school teachers today. "We understand that these negative evaluations will be disturbing for schools using these texts, but teachers should be able to use the explanations in the full reports to start looking for ways to compensate for the text's shortcomings."
The books evaluated included Glencoe Science (1997, Glencoe/McGraw-Hill), Macmillan/McGraw-Hill Science (1995, Macmillan McGraw-Hill), Middle School Science and Technology (1999, Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company), Prentice Hall Science (1997, Prentice-Hall), PRIME Science (1998, Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company), Science 2000 (1995, Decision Development Corporation), Science Insights (1997, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company), Science Interactions (1998, Glencoe/McGraw-Hill), SciencePLus:Technology and Society (1997, Holt, Rinehart & Winston) and Matter and Molecules (1988, Michigan State University).
Of those books, Matter and Molecules scored higher than the others in providing sufficient number and variety of practice tasks for most of the physical science ideas examined and in guidance to help students interpret and reason about phenomena. This evaluation, funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, is the second one conducted by the project. The first study of middle grades mathematics texts, released last January, rated several texts high, but none as yet is widely used. Project 2061 also plans to release its findings for high school algebra and biology textbooks next year and is seeking funds to examine elementary school materials and to update the middle and high school materials evaluations.
Project 2061 began its work in 1985—the year Halley's Comet passed by the earth—and children starting school today will see the return of the Comet in the next century. A summary of the middle grades science textbook evaluation will be posted on the Project 2061 Web site at http://www.project2061.org, and full reports on each textbook will be available early next year, according to project officials.
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The doors opened on a new era of weather safety on 23 September when two new high-tech centers, the Aviation Weather Center and the National Training Center, were officially dedicated in Kansas City, Missouri.
Kansas City is a crucial location for NOAA's National Weather Service operations. The city is headquarters for the National Weather Service's Central Region, which manages the operations of weather forecast offices in 14 states. With the dedication of the Aviation Weather Center, a component of the NWS's National Centers for Environmental Prediction, and the National Training Center, Kansas City is now weather hub for the entire nation.
"NOAA aims for a 'no surprise' National Weather Service, where warnings and forecasts will become even more precise and timely and even more people and property will be kept out of harm's way. The dedication of the Aviation Weather Center and National Training Center represents an impressive leap in that direction," said Paul F. Roberts, NOAA's chief financial officer/chief administrative officer.
"All of America can be proud of what is being accomplished in Kansas City. The outstanding work keeps Americans safe and the economy strong, and is helping to maximize the National Weather Service's recent investment in top-to-bottom modernization for the new century," said John Jones, deputy director of the National Weather Service.
In addition to Roberts and Jones, speakers at the dedication included George L. Frederick Jr., president of the American Meteorological Society, and James H. Washington, director of Federal Aviation Administration Air Traffic System Requirements. Also highlighting the dedication ceremonies will be the work of artist Sharon Rajnus. Depicting hazardous aviation weather, her oil painting captured first place in a competition held among members of the American Society of Aviation Artists to commemorate the dedication. Rajnus's work will be displayed at the Aviation Weather Center for one year.
The Aviation Weather Center works around-the-clock to save lives, protect property and bolster the economic productivity of America's airspace. As the nation's primary source of national and international enroute aviation warnings and forecasts, the Aviation Weather Center uses a national network of radar, satellites, interactive computers, and communications systems. Data from each is integrated to form a coherent, consistent picture of the atmosphere. Better watches, warnings, and forecasts result.
The Air Transport Association recognized the Aviation Weather Center's work with the Edgar S. Gorrell Award for outstanding contributions toward the management of safety and economy in aviation weather.
At the National Training Center, employees are expertly prepared to put critical information to work for the safety of all Americans and the economy of the nation. Twelve classrooms and new laboratories provide hands-on training in all National Weather Service systems–modernized systems that provide continuous weather observations at airports, rainfall for radar flash flood warnings, and global surveillance of the atmosphere by satellites. Courses at the center cover meteorology, hydrology, management, and maintenance of all weather service equipment. Next year the center will host seminars in such areas as modernized flood forecasting.
The National Training Center has just completed training personnel of all 121 weather stations and 13 river forecast centers in a specialized hydrologic forecasting system. This new system has the capability to monitor current hydro–meteorological conditions and provide hydrological forecasts for local areas. As a result, forecast capabilities and dissemination are being localized and response time for hydrologic events is improving.
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The Department of Energy’s Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC) has added a new section on clouds to the climate portion of Trends Online.
The first dataset in this new section is Trends in Total Cloud Amount Over China (http://cdiac.esd.ornl.gov/trends/clouds/kaiser/kaiser98.html )contributed by CDIAC's Dale Kaiser.
The cloud data were extracted from a database of six-hourly weather observations, covering 196 stations from 1951 through 1994, provided by the National Climate Center of the China Meteorological Administration through a bilaterial research agreement. Station and regional trends in annual and seasonal cloud amount clearly indicate decreasing total cloud amount over much of China.
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If you think traffic is getting worse on your commute, you are not alone. Hundreds of commercial airline flights carry thousands of passengers between the United States and Europe each day, traveling along what has become the busiest jet super highway in the world: the Atlantic corridor. Could all of that air traffic exhaust be a detriment to the atmosphere at 35 000 feet, the way that auto exhaust pollutes the air we breathe?
In a study to be published in the 15 October issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters, NASA scientists found that the atmosphere over the Atlantic acts nothing like the Los Angeles Basin when it comes to collecting ozone—the chemical responsible for smog.
The key chemical in creating ozone is nitric oxide, a byproduct of aircraft and rocket exhaust, said Dr. Anne M. Thompson, a Goddard Space Flight Center (Greenbelt, Maryland) atmospheric scientist who led the study as part of NASA's Atmospheric Effects of Aviation Experiment. Increasing the amount of nitrogen oxides increases the amount of ozone. "When we cross the jet tracks an hour after they pass by, it's easy to find their chemical trail," said Thompson. But when the scientists looked for increased levels of smog chemistry covering the entire flight corridor, they could not find them, she said.
In the fall of 1997, the scientists in the Subsonic Assessment Ozone and Nitrogen Oxides Experiment (SONEX) set out to see if the high volume of airline travel was helping heat up the globe. The team flew for more than 100 hours from Bangor, Maine, the Azores islands, and Shannon, Ireland, in a specially equipped NASA DC-8, collecting samples of the air's chemistry.
What complicated the gas analyses is that ozone and nitrogen oxides have several ways of working their way 6 miles up into the atmosphere. The gases can come from below, when man-made smog is funneled up during a thunderstorm. Ozone can meander down from the stratosphere, where it acts as Earth's ultraviolet shield. And nitrogen oxides in large amounts can be produced on the spot by lightning strikes. So it becomes very difficult to pin down unequivocally where the nitrogen oxides and ozone are coming from.
Another critical ingredient complicating the November 1997 study was the year's powerful El Niño. Thompson found that on the eastern side of the Atlantic, clean air made aircraft exhaust easy to find. But, over Maine and Canada, nitrogen oxides from summer-like thunderstorms and lightning swamped the aircraft signal, leaving scientists to wonder how typical their sampling period was.
Since ozone at 35 000 feet cannot hurt your lungs or make your eyes water, why do scientists care about air quality there? According to Thompson, when ozone gets that high up, it starts to act like a greenhouse gas and can contribute to global warming.
"So knowing how airliners and rockets add to the picture is important for climate research," she said. In the end, Thompson said, the findings showed that jet aircraft, which burn very "clean" fuel, probably added a few tens of parts per trillion of nitrogen oxides to the atmosphere. But the air that far up is so clean that even such a small number of molecules could be an increase in nitrogen oxides of more than 20%, Thompson said.
For now, Thompson contends that ozone impacts along the Atlantic corridor are too small to detect, but according to industry specialists, who indicate that the future holds a steady increase in air traffic, it makes understanding the effects of air travel on the global climate increasingly important.
For more information on SONEX, visit the Web site at http://telsci.arc.nasa.gov/~sonex/. See images at FTP://pao.gsfc.nasa.gov/newsmedia/SONEX
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NASA is developing a miniaturized microwave sounder that is intended to benefit meteorologists and researchers studying climate change. The Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder is designed to improve the accuracy of weather forecasts by the planned next generation polar orbiting weather satellites (NPOESS) and support NASA's study of human-induced changes in the earth's climate, according to a report in the 4 October issue of Space News.
The microwave sounder would work in tandem with an infrared sounder to take global measurements of temperature and humidity levels at various altitudes of the earth's atmosphere. The new microwave sounder will be one-third the size and weight of existing microwave sounding instruments and possess the capabilities of three separate instruments flying on current polar-orbiting weather satellites, officials said.
The development, to be managed by Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, follows the space agency's role as developer of new technology under the tri-agency (NOAA, NASA, and Department of Defense) integrated program of polar-orbiting environmental satellites slated to begin launches around 2008. NPOESS will replace separate weather satellites currently operated by those agencies.
NASA is expected to pay for the design and construction of the first advanced microwave sounder, which would fly in 2005 aboard a NPOESS precursor satellite, according to Space News. Goddard officials plan to award two contracts in January worth up to $4 million each for the preliminary design. In February 2001, Goddard officials will make the selection of one contractor to build the first instrument. The winner likely will be asked to build up to five additional copies for use on NPOESS, the story noted.
The precursor satellite is part of the NPOESS Preparatory Program, a joint effort by NASA and the Integrated (Tri-Agency) Program Office and is designed to test and evaluate a suite of new instruments prior to their installation in the NPOESS system. For NASA, the 2005 precursor mission will bridge a gap in the collection of atmospheric data between the space agency's first round of Earth Observing System research missions that begin later this year and the NPOESS operational missions that are planned to begin in 2008.
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The National Science Foundation (NSF) has named oceanographer Margaret Leinen of the University of Rhode Island to head its geosciences directorate. She is scheduled to assume her new position as NSF's assistant director for geosciences in January 2000. Leinen also will be responsible for coordinating environmental science and engineering programs within NSF, and for environmental cooperation and collaborations between NSF and other federal agencies.
Leinen is a well-known researcher in paleoceanography and paleoclimatology. Her work focuses on the history of biogenic sedimentation in the oceans and its relationship to global biogeochemical cycles, and the history of eolian edimentation in the oceans and its relationship to climate.
At the University of Rhode Island, Leinen is dean of the Graduate School of Oceanography, and vice provost for Marine and Environmental Programs. She also is interim dean, College of the Environment and Life Sciences. Leinen has spent her entire academic career at the University of Rhode Island, considered one of the country's top institutions for marine studies. During her tenure, she spearheaded the University's efforts to build a cohesive interdisciplinary marine and environmental focus.
Leinen received her bachelor’s degree (1969) in geology from the University of Illinois; her master’s degree (1975) in geological oceanography from Oregon State University; and her Ph.D. (1980) in oceanography from the University of Rhode Island.
She is a past president of The Oceanography Society. She is on the Board of Governors of the Joint Oceanographic Institutions, and the Ocean Research Advisory Council. Leinen also has served as Vice Chair of the International Geosphere Biosphere Program and on the Board on Global Change of the National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences.
As head of NSF's geosciences directorate, Leinen will manage a budget of approximately $470 million annually. Her selection followed a national search chaired by Susan Solomon, senior scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Boulder, Colorado.
Leinen will replace Robert W. Corell, who has held the position since 1987.
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We have just been informed that Dr. George S. Benton of The Johns Hopkins University passed away on Saturday 16 October 1999. Dr. Benton held many important positions in academia and government over a long career, including associate administrator of NOAA. He served the AMS in serveral capacities, most notably as president of the Society in 1969. He will be greatly missed.
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