Editor: Jim Elliott
Contributor:Stephanie Kenitzer
Copy Editor: Marcie Bernstein
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AMS statements that are being considered by the AMS Council for approval are posted on the AMS Web site at least at least 30 days before the Council vote. The Council may consider a statement either at one of the two regularly scheduled meetings each year, or at any time in between using e-mail discussion and electronic balloting. In addition, statement preparation does not follow a fixed schedule so statements may come up for consideration at any time of the year. Members who are interested in providing input to statements are encouraged to check the AMS Web site regularly to see if any are under review at that time.
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The Weather Channel (TWC) and the AMS are combining forces to distribute a new educational video to as many teachers as possible. TWC recently completed production on several new episodes of the Cable in the Classroom series aimed at getting students interested and involved in science.
One of the programs called “Careers in Meteorology" shows students the many directions a career in meteorology can take them. The AMS worked closely with TWC in developing this first episode of The Weather Classroom. Several thousand copies of the video are being produced through the generous donations of AMS members so that the video can be distributed at no cost to teachers across the country.
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Timothy Benner, the 2000 AMS–University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) Congressional Science Fellow, recently accepted an offer to spend his fellowship working in the office of Senator Leahy (D-Vermont). The fellowship is sponsored by the AMS and UCAR.
Benner’s one-year program officially began in September with a comprehensive two-week orientation, run by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The orientation included visits to the Senate, the House, the Library of Congress, executive departments, and other points of interest such as the National Press Club. Fellows heard presentations by, and interacted with, congressional staffers, executive branch officials, policy experts, journalists, pundits, lobbyists, and numerous fellows from previous years. They covered the full range of issues and perspectives and there were hands-on activities involving the federal budget and foreign policy.
After orientation, the new congressional fellows spent the next few weeks finding positions in Congress. Using materials provided by AAAS, they researched offices to find those that matched their interests, for both individual members of Congress and committees. After about three weeks in the placement process, Benner accepted an offer to work for Senator Leahy. He is currently working with the legislative director and a legislative assistant who was also one of last year's AAAS fellows. Benner will be working on energy and environmental issues, and has already become involved in such issues as power plant emissions and mercury pollution.
Benner, a research assistant at the Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences program at the University of Colorado, is one of 35 AAAS fellows in this year’s class. The participants’ backgrounds include diplomacy, environment, defense, risk policy, and more.
The AMS and UCAR are sponsoring a congressional fellow for two reasons: to ensure that an atmospheric scientist is available to provide Congress with information to establish sound public policy on scientific issues, and to allow young atmospheric scientists to learn how public policy is made. Together, UCAR and the AMS represent an atmospheric science community of over 20 000 researchers and meteorologists in universities, government, and business.
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The AMS is now accepting applications for the AMS–UCAR 2001–02 Congressional Science Fellow. The application deadline is 1 March 2001. This is an outstanding opportunity for young atmospheric scientists to broaden the scope of their backgrounds to include public policy experience, as well as meeting high-level executive and legislative branch policy makers.
The fellowship program places highly qualified and accomplished scientists, engineers, and other professionals in the offices of individual members of Congress and committees for one-year assignments. Fellows perform in much the same way as regular staff members, while adding new insights, fresh ideas, extensive knowledge, and education in a variety of disciplines. Not only are the fellows provided with the opportunity to make a significant public policy contribution, but they also obtain firsthand experience in the legislative and political process.
Fellows gain a perspective that will help them understand how the research community effectively communicates with the larger society on important national policy issues. The fellow may have the opportunity to participate in, and make significant contributions to, public policy making within Congress on issues involving such issues as water resources, global warming, energy, defense technologies, AIDS, pollution, and communications technologies.
Fellowships are for one year, usually running from September through August. The stipend is $47,000, plus allowances toward relocation, in-service travel, and health insurance premiums. There will be a two-week orientation period organized by the AAAS societies in Washington in late August or early September 2001. This orientation includes seminars on the Congress and the executive branch; meeting with former fellows, members of Congress, and staff; and preparing for placement in Congress.
There will be roughly 35 fellows in the 2001–02 class, sponsored by 27 different societies. Following orientation and interviews on Capitol Hill, the AMS–UCAR fellow will select a position in the House or Senate. Throughout the year, the AMS–UCAR fellow will join with other AAAS fellows in participating in seminars and social and other class activities sponsored by the AAAS. The AMS–UCAR fellow will also be invited to attend and report on his/her activities at AMS and UCAR meetings.
The AMS–UCAR fellow is supported with funds provided jointly by the AMS and the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR). The year 2001 will be the inaugural year for this program. Together, UCAR and the AMS represent an atmospheric science community consisting of over 20 000 researchers and meteorologists in universities, government, and business. Complete application details are available on the AMS homepage at http://www.ametsoc.org/AMS.
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With the planned restructuring of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (BAMS) and the addition of a new publication called AMS News, the AMS is looking for an editor in chief.
The position covers both publications. BAMS accepts and solicits concise original scientific and review articles of broad interest to scientists, practitioners, educators, and policy makers on the subjects of atmospheric, oceanic, and hydrological sciences. AMS News contains information about the AMS (meetings, members, corporate sponsors, science advocacy), recent weather events, research opportunities, and other news.
The editor in chief (EC) should be a community-oriented journalist and publishing professional, with some experience in science journalism. The EC will be responsible for material, ideas, leads, and for structuring overall content. Some production knowledge (e.g., understanding the limitations and opportunities in both print and electronic publication) is essential. The EC must be oriented toward both news and features and be able to attract authors and advertisers; marketing savvy is important. Experience in handling business and financial matters would be helpful. The position involves working with and overseeing a large editorial board of volunteer scientific professionals that guide the peer-review process, as well as an in-house production staff of five.
Applicants should submit resumes to Dr. Ronald D. McPherson, Executive Director of AMS, 45 Beacon St., Boston, MA 02108, e-mail: rmcpherson@ametsoc.org. Applications will be considered beginning 15 January 2001. For further information about BAMS and AMS News and this position, consult the December 2000 issue of the Bulletin or the “BAMS Online” page of the AMS Web site (http://www.ametsoc.org/AMS).
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Congressional leaders and President Clinton have agreed in mid-November to postpone for three weeks deliberations on 6 of the 13 FY01 spending bills, extending the date to 5 December. A White House spokesman said that because of the preoccupation with the presidential election, negotiations were not likely to happen sooner.
Republicans agreed to the extension because “the president is not here, members have schedules to keep and we do not know who is going to be president,” said House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, Texas Republican.
Although FY00 ended 30 September, efforts to enact a number of the spending bills for 2001 dragged on through October. Just days before the 7 November election, with 6 of 13 annual spending bills not signed into law, Congress took a one-week break.
At the time, leaders thought the bills might be finished quickly. However, the turmoil over the presidential election changed all that.
Spending bills still being signed into law include the District of Columbia budget, funding for Congress itself, as well as budgets for the Departments of Labor, Commerce, and Justice.
Sources indicated that some of the bills were held up partly by the White House push for an increase in spending for education and an easing of immigration laws for illegal aliens from certain Latin American countries.
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When the 107th Congress convenes early next year, the House panel that oversees America’s science and space policy likely will have a new leader.
Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., the Wisconsin Republican who is chairman of the House Science Committee, likely will be named to head the powerful House Judiciary Committee. He is required to relinquish his position as head of the Science Committee as a result of six-year term limits that Republicans placed on committee chairmen in 1994. Sensenbrenner has led the committee since the Republicans took control of Congress in 1994.
Next in line for the chairmanship is Rep. Sherwood L. Boehlert, a Republican from Utica, New York. Boehlert’s district includes the U.S. Air Force’s Research Laboratory in Rome, New York, which specializes in information technologies, according to congressional sources. One source reported that Boehlert expects to receive the chairmanship but that nothing is definite.
Observers report that Boehlert has a strong record on space issues and has backed commercialization of the International Space Station. While his appointment as chairman would bode well for commercialization of the space station, observers explained, it is not clear how many space bills will make it into law given how divided the new Congress will be.
Boehlert also has had a moderate record in the increasingly conservative Republican Party during his 18 years in the House. Much of his signature legislation focuses on environmental issues. He also is chair of the House Transportation Committee Subcommittee on Water Resources and the Environment.
Other GOP chairmen ceding their jobs will be Judiciary’s Henry Hyde of Illinois, who led the prosecution in the impeachment trial of President Clinton; Transportation’s Bud Shuster of Pennsylvania; International Relations’ Benjamin A. Gilman of New York, and Armed Services’ Floyd Spence of South Carolina.
Several other chairmen who served their full six-year terms are leaving Congress. They include Ways and Means’ Bill Archer of Texas; Education’s Bill Goodling of Pennsylvania; Budget’s John Kasich of Ohio, and Commerce’s Thomas Bliley Jr. of Virginia.
Candidates for committee chairmen formally present their cases to the party in December.
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An effort is under way in the U.S. Senate to boost funding for the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science in the FY02 budget request.
Although some of the major appropriations bills for the current year still are not complete on Capitol Hill, work is under way at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on a request that will be sent to Congress early next year, according to the American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Science Policy News.
Last fall, 36 senators sent a letter to their leadership advocating a substantial funding increase in the DOE Office of Science budget for FY01. Senator Frank Murkowski (R-Arkansas), chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and the committee’s ranking minority member, Jeff Bingaman (D-New Mexico), authors of the fall letter, recently asked the same senators to sign a new letter that is to be sent to President Clinton for the FY02 budget. They also are seeking additional support from other senators.
The letter commends the president for his support for DOE’s science programs in the FY01 appropriation process and indicates that “great progress in advancing recognition of these critical scientific programs” has been made. “Continued growth of these programs on par with that proposed for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF) is vital to continued advances in the fields DOE supports and to the training of future scientists and engineers to continue the tremendous advances that America brings to basic science and to the marketplace,” the letter reads.
The letter reviews many DOE science accomplishments in human genome research, biological sciences, computer science, mathematics, physics, and chemistry and materials science, and how the agency funds more than 15 000 scientists and students from academe, industry, and government.
“DOE’s investments in major facilities, smaller-scale user facilities and in university-based laboratories not only sets it apart from other federal science agencies,” according to the letter, “but helps ensure that the nation maintains its world leadership across a broad range of scientific disciplines.
“The appropriation of $3.19 billion for FY 2001 is only a start at addressing the challenges. Annual increases similar to NIH and NSF (FY 2001 increases) are needed and merited...They would also build on the spirit of the Senate’s passage of the Federal Research Investment Act (S.296) which calls for doubling investment in civilian research and development efforts.”
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U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Director Charles Groat has praised the agency’s FY01 appropriation, saying the funding will allow USGS to expand its core programs.
Those programs include geologic mapping, coastal and marine geology studies, the National Atlas, amphibian research and monitoring, biological information systems, the mission operations of Landsat 7, and funding for high-priority research, and support of land conservation and preservation.
The Interior bill appropriates $885 million for the agency in FY01, a $72 million increase over the FY00 enacted funding.
"The increase also will allow USGS to expand and modernize its earthquake-monitoring network, enhance its capability to monitor the quality of ground-water systems, expand its network of real-time stream gages, and add an additional high-risk Alaskan volcano to its hazardous monitoring network, "Groat said.
The bill, he explained, provides USGS with emergency supplemental funding associated with damages incurred by hydrologic monitoring networks as a result of Hurricane Floyd last year.
“This investment reflects an appreciation of the important scientific contribution that the USGS can make in addressing a broad range of problems and issues facing the nation,” he explained. “Understanding the delicate balance between the Earth’s natural resources and America’s need for continued growth will enable us to make better decisions so future generations may continue to enjoy this precious land.”
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Rep. Vern Ehler’s (R-Michigan) National Science Education Act (H.R. 4271), the first of the congressman’s trio of bills to improve science and math education in the United States, failed to gain House passage on 24 October.
The bill, which would have authorized $235.3 million over three years to enhance science and math education programs supported by the National Science Foundation, had 118 cosponsors and had enjoyed broad bipartisan support, according to the American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Science Policy News. Earlier in October, it had received 215 yea and 156 no votes but did not pass because of a parliamentary procedure being used.
The Science Committee had approved the bill this summer, with praise from both sides of the aisle. However, just 48 hours before floor consideration, some Democratic members became concerned about a provision that authorized $50 million in each of the three years for NSF to make grants to “a state or local education agency, a private elementary or middle school, or a consortium of any combination of those entities, for the purpose of hiring a master teacher” to provide support and expertise to other teachers. A question was raised about the constitutionality of making available federal grant money to private schools for the hiring of these master teachers.
The bill was to be voted on under a procedure called "suspension of the rules," intended to speed passage by limiting floor debate, not allowing amendments to be offered and requiring two-thirds majority for passage. Members had one vote with which to approve both a suspension of the rules and to pass the bill at the same time.
Democrats asked to have the provision in question removed from the bill but were unable to get agreement. Under House rules, the bill has not been rejected, but just failed to pass because rules were not suspended. Because of the lateness of the congressional session, the bill undoubtedly will have to be reintroduced next year.
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United States and European representatives at a United Nations conference on curbing global warming could not reach agreement on emission reductions and credits, causing talks to end. Throughout the two-week meeting, the European representatives voiced opposition to a U.S. proposal that would grant emission credits for programs that expand or protect pollution-absorbing forests and crops.
The United States proposed that countries be allowed to accrue emissions credits for soil, plants and trees (or “sinks”), counting them against the amount of greenhouse gases they are committed to reduce under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. For the United States, sinks would cover half its target of cutting emissions by 7% by year 2012.
U.S. officials are not only trying to include not only new forestation projects but also are asking that credit be given for preserving existing vegetation, according to the Associated Press. That would involve fencing off forests and calculating how much carbon they absorb, officials said. The amount then would be subtracted from the emission output, even though there is no actual reduction in emissions.
Delegates from the European Union stood firm against the proposal, according to the news agency.
The wire service quoted Anders Turessou of Sweden as saying that many industrialized countries have such extensive vegetation that they could “hide completely their commitments by using sinks.” He said Sweden, with its pine forests, could meet one-third of its reduction commitment without doing anything.
U.S. officials asked for a five-year phase-in of sinks between 2008 and 2012, during which time they want credit for their carbon-absorbing projects.
Under the Kyoto Protocol, industrialized countries are expected to reduce the total output of heat-trapping gases by an average 5.2% between 2008 and 2012, compared with 1990 levels.
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The U.K. Meteorological Office will be moving from its Bracknell headquarters to a new location in Exeter, England. The British weather and climate experts are likely to move to the new building by March 2003 after more than 40 years in their current headquarters.
Peter Ewins, Chief Executive of the Met Office, said, “We are very impressed by the facilities which Exeter has to offer, and by the enthusiasm shown by local officials in encouraging us to move there. Moving to Exeter will allow us to offer our customers improved services at a price they can afford. It will also be a wonderful opportunity for our staff and open up new opportunities for local employment.”
The Met Office will bring over 1000 people to the area and its employees will work in fields such as weather forecasting, scientific research, information technology, sales, and marketing.
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In answer to a challenge raised at a roundtable discussion by the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) last July, a Colorado firm has developed a product that will provide a hazard warning signal on computers.
The company, Front Range Internet Inc., of Ft. Collins, is the first to respond to the challenge issued at the roundtable dealing with all-hazards warnings, according to Gregory L. Rhode, NTIA administrator. The roundtable discussion, involving an All-Hazard Warning Interagency Working Group, he explained, was attended by representatives from broadcast, cable, wireless, and Internet industries and was intended to spark a dialogue between industry and government on how “to bring the best of technology to the highest purpose—protecting the public in dangerous situations by providing emergency warnings.”
A demonstration of the product was given at a Department of Commerce press conference in Washington, D.C., on 1 November. Under the version of the product shown, if a local hazard warning is issued by the National Weather Service, people using Front Range’s connection to the Web will hear an alarm over their computer and see a pop-up window displaying the warning.”
The warning will appear “as long as the browser is active,” explained William Ward, president of Front Range.
While Front Range has provided the first system among Internet Service Providers (ISPs), others among the 10 000 providers are expected to follow, according to Cronan O’Connell, executive director of the ISP Business Forum.
“At no time is the expression ‘moving at Internet speed’ more important than in an emergency situation,” she told the reporters at the press conference. “People need fast, accurate information, and it needs to reach them wherever they are, whatever they’re doing.”
The system is linked to NOAA Weather Radio and provides repetitive emergency announcement coverage. In the event of hazardous weather or other environmental crises, participating ISPs will immediately post messages, alerting users and providing them with critical information.
For more information on the All-Hazard Warning Interagency Working Group, visit the NTIA Web site at http://www.ntia.doc.gov or phone Art Brodsky at (202) 482-0019. The Front Range Web site is at http://www.frii.net.
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Raytheon Company was awarded a $34 million contract to upgrade the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) supercomputer laboratory in Princeton, New Jersey. GFDL, a part of the NOAA’s Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, performs long lead-time research to expand the scientific understanding of the physical processes governing the behavior of the atmosphere and the oceans as complex fluid systems. These systems can be modeled mathematically and their phenomenology can be studied by complex computer simulations. Using this information can improve climate prediction and weather forecasting and has been used extensively in research directed at understanding the causes of global climate change.
GFDL computer laboratories concentrate primarily on the modeling of hurricanes and other large-scale weather phenomena.
The contract calls for initial delivery of nine SGI Origin 3800 supercomputers each with 128 processors. The new computers will have the ability to perform more than 900 billion floating point arithmetic operations per second (900 gigaflops) and will have more than 4 times the performance of the three Cray Research computers that they replace. SGI is a subcontractor on the Raytheon team.
The system also includes more than 20 terabytes of high-speed disk storage that can transfer data in or out of the system at more than 10 gigabytes per second. Raytheon will also, as part of the contract, upgrade an existing automated tape archive storage system. Initial capacity of the tape archive will be approximately 500 terabytes.
Headquartered in Mountain View, California, with offices worldwide, SGI provides high-performance computing and advanced graphics solutions. More information is available at http://www.sgi.com.
Raytheon Company, based in Lexington, Massachusetts, provides products and services in the areas of commercial and defense electronics and business and special mission aircraft. For more information see http://www.raytheon.com (see related story on Raytheon satellite imager contract award).
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Just in time for the 2000/01 winter season, Firnspiegel LLC, an atmospheric, environmental, and snow consulting company based at Lake Tahoe, California, has launched a state-of-the-art Sierra Weather and Avalanche Center. The center will disseminate regional Sierra avalanche and weather forecasts on a daily basis via its Internet site. The center is currently a work in progress.
The Sierra Nevada Range average snowfall varies from 50 to over 500 inches of snow a year, with sharp regional and local-scale gradients in weather and climate behavior. According to Firnspiegel, the Sierra are unique in the snowfall they receive, as they are affected by both maritime and continental air masses. The only other avalanche bulletin produced for the Sierra offers a blanket forecast for this 3800 square mile area, ignoring the vast differences in snow pack within the region.
The numbers of backcountry users (e.g., skiers, snowboarders, snowmobilers) have increased dramatically in the past 10 years, spurring the formation of the Sierra Weather and Avalanche Center. The avalanche center is based on the need for avalanche forecasts with increased spatial and temporal resolution. The forecast center plans to increase and improve access to current snowfall and snow pack observations, current weather data, and avalanche and winter recreation information for specific areas of interest. Users will be able to point and click on area maps to zero in on their areas of interest.
Details are available at http://www.firnspiegel.com.
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A preliminary study by the United Nations warns that vulnerable nations around the globe should begin preparing for the next El Niño now.
The report presents the results of a 19-month study of 16 countries that examined what worked and what didn’t in national responses to the forecasts and impacts of the 1997/98 El Nino. Dubbed the “El Niño of the Century,” that event’s worldwide impacts took hundreds of lives and left behind at least $32 billion in damages.
“The 1997/98 event was a wake-up call,” said Michael Glantz, a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the study’s principal investigator. “Awareness of what El Niño can do to societies and economies is now high.”
Between El Niño events is the best time to improve understanding of the phenomenon and devise ways to better cope with its potential direct and indirect effects, he explained.
The 1997/98 El Niño spawned droughts, floods, fires, and frost around the world, resulting in loss of life, destruction of infrastructure, depletion of food and water reserves, displacement of communities, and outbreaks of disease.
Last year, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) received a $650,000 UN Foundation grant to organize the El Niño study, requested by the UN General Assembly. UNEP and NCAR took the lead, working closely with UN partners—the WMO, International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, and UN University.
A study team was established for each of the 16 countries including Bangladesh, China, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Fiji, Indonesia, Kenya, Mozambique, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, and Vietnam. A full summary report and the complete 16-country study will be published in December. It will address the challenges faced by these nations and recommend specific actions to help reduce devastation from the next El Niño.
The preliminary report calls for the following actions:
Glantz is the author of Currents of Change: Impacts of El Niño and La Niña on Climate and Society (Cambridge University Press), which explains what El Niño and La Niña are, how they can be forecast, and how they affect climate around the world. The second edition, available next month, examines the major El Niño of 1997/98 and suggests how societies can manage climate-related activities and disaster preparation.
For additional information, check the UN report summary at http://www.esig.ucar.edu/un/enFinal.pdf.
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For the first time, year-by-year patterns of global temperatures over the past few centuries have been revealed. Evidence from ice cores, tree rings, corals, historical records, and sediments in lakes was used by a team of university and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists to obtain the yearly maps, extending the history of global climate to a time before people began taking measurements with weather instruments.
Writing in the journal Earth Interactions, the scientists note that their work highlights periods of unusual climatic conditions, such as the “dry fogs” reported by Benjamin Franklin in the 1780s. The study shows that the hazy conditions Franklin described from his home in Paris were related to a cold episode that affected all of Europe for several years following the eruption of a volcano (Laki) in Iceland in 1784. Other major eruptions have had similar climatic effects, according to the study. After the eruption of Tambora in Indonesia in 1815, temperatures in North America and Europe fell sharply, and cool conditions prevailed for several years.
The study provides an interactive database that can be used to examine maps of global temperature patterns for any year since 1730. These are based on natural archives, which record seasonal or annual climate conditions. Data from the natural archives were calibrated by the instrument surface temperature data available during the twentieth century.
The study also provides a long-term view of temperatures across the Northern Hemisphere. “The best evidence, based on the extension of hemispheric climate reconstruction back a full millennium, is that late 20th Century conditions are probably warmer than those which prevailed any time this millennium,” the scientists wrote. They noted that conditions during the eleventh through fourteenth centuries appear warmer than those that prevailed during the fifteenth through nineteenth centuries in general.
The scientists also studied the statistical relationship between variations in the Northern Hemisphere mean temperatures and estimates of the histories of solar, greenhouse gas, and volcanic factors. “While the natural—solar and volcanic—forcings appear to be important factors governing the natural variations of temperatures in past centuries, only human greenhouse gas forcing alone can statistically explain the unusual warmth of the past few decades," they wrote.
The scientists are lead author Michael E. Mann, University of Virginia; Ed Gille and Wendy Gross, NOAA’s National Geophysical Data Center; Raymond S. Bradley and Frank Keimig, University of Massachusetts; and Jonathan Overpeck and Malcolm K. Hughes, The University of Arizona.
The publication, titled Global Temperature Patterns in Past Centuries: An Interactive Presentation, contains the latest look at temperatures over the last 600 years and includes data and animations of global temperatures from paleoclimatic records starting in 1730 up through instrumental data through 1993.
The publication is available on the NGDC Web site in pdf form at http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/paleo/ei/ei_pdf.html or at http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/paleo/ei/ei_cover.html, and at Earth Interactions at http://earthinteractions.org.
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A new wind sensor aboard the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) research vessel Ronald H. Brown has proved to be highly successful in withstanding high seas and ocean storms while continuing to dispatch continuous wind data, according to preliminary results.
Developed at NOAA’s Environmental Technology Laboratory (ETL) in Boulder, Colorado, the instrument is the first wind profiler to be permanently installed aboard a research ship.
“NOAA now has an important new wind sensor that will greatly aid the study of air–sea interactions at sea and provide critically needed wind measurements offshore to improve NOAA forecasts of coastal severe weather," said M.J. Post, chief of ETL’s technology transfer group.
The instrument, a 915-MHz radar wind profiler, underwent a major redesign to accommodate the unique conditions found on a ship. Usually installed on land, wind profilers are Doppler radars that are pointed upward and are used to measure winds and temperature up to heights of several kilometers. The data are used for weather forecasts, climate models, and aviation weather and other meteorological needs.
“Previous designs were bulky, required moving parts to stabilize the antenna from ship motion and displayed degraded performance due to extraneous signals from the sea surface,” Post explained. “Sea clutter was a significant problem, since it affected the scientific value of wind measurements in the lower atmosphere where important air–sea interactions, such as the recent El Niño and La Niña events, occur.”
Engineers in Post’s group designed a bold new antenna design that dealt with many of the problems, and over the next two years an ETL team of experts developed a “next generation” profiler, including electronic rather than mechanical motion compensation and a new signal processing system.
The instrument was installed aboard the Brown in five days last August before it left for Alaska.
Engineers turned the system on during a stormy voyage in the Gulf of Alaska later that month and let it collect data unattended for three weeks. It was then tested during the Brown’s voyage from Dutch Harbor, Alaska, to San Diego during September and October when officials said it “worked perfectly.”
“This significant leap in wind profiler technology has reached well beyond its deployment on the Ronald H. Brown,” said Post. “It has the ability to support all subsequent scientific missions on board. It opens doors for scientists to more accurately probe the atmosphere and detect its structure, both on land and at sea.
“Perhaps more importantly, it offers a compact, lightweight, resilient wind profiler for deployment on ships, buoys, and other moving platforms like trailers and aircraft.”
Post suggested that a network of buoy-mounted offshore profilers along the West Coast would greatly improve forecasts for the entire western United States.
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The Department of Commerce has awarded a $297.6 million contract to Raytheon Company's Santa Barbara Remote Sensing Group of Santa Barbara, California, to develop an advanced operational environmental satellite sensor that will significantly improve weather forecasting and climate prediction. The new instrument is part of the administration's National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) program, which will become operational later this year (see related story on Raytheon supercomputer contract award).
The contract is for a Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), an advanced, high–spatial resolution imaging instrument to be flown aboard the nation's environmental satellites of the future. VIIRS will provide high-accuracy radiometric measurements of reflected sunlight in multiple spectral bands within the visible-to-thermal infrared range to determine sea surface temperature, cloud cover, atmospheric aerosols, soil wetness, surface albedo, vegetation index, snow cover, sea ice, and ocean color. VIIRS will continue the high-resolution cloud imaging and visual nighttime low-light imaging capabilities of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program spacecraft to support the operational needs of the Department of Defense, as well as the civil applications of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The contract was awarded 20 November by the triagency Integrated Program Office, which consists of components of the Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Department of Defense (DOD), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The contract, which encompasses design and fabrication of the new visible/infrared imager, totals approximately $297.6 million, including options, and will run through 2015, if all options are exercised. The contract effort will ultimately produce up to eight VIIRS units that will use advanced radiometric technologies at high spatial resolution to accurately image and measure atmospheric, oceanic, and terrestrial parameters. The more accurate VIIRS measurements are expected to yield significant improvements in the skill of short- to long-range weather forecasts and long-term climate predictions.
The first VIIRS unit will be flown on the NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) mission, a joint effort between the NPOESS Integrated Program Office and NASA. The NPP mission will provide an early opportunity, beginning in late 2005, to test and evaluate VIIRS prior to the launch of the first operational NPOESS spacecraft, as well as test the ground-based data processing systems and demonstrate the utility of the improved imaging and radiometric data in short-term weather nowcasting and forecasting and in other oceanic and terrestrial applications, such as harmful algal blooms, volcanic ash, and wildfire detection. Of equal importance, NPP will ensure continuity of advanced imaging and radiometric data by bridging the NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) research missions (EOS Terra and Aqua) early in this decade and the NPOESS operational missions that will begin late in the decade. The remaining VIIRS units will be flown on the operational NPOESS spacecraft.
An additional contract will be awarded in 2001 for development and fabrication of an advanced microwave imaging and sounding sensor for NPOESS. The NPOESS sensor suites will deliver higher-resolution and more accurate atmospheric, oceanographic, terrestrial, and solar–geophysical data to support improved accuracy in short-term weather forecasts and warnings and severe storm warnings, as well as serve the data continuity requirements of the climate community for improved climate prediction and assessment and environmental monitoring.
The 1994 Presidential Decision Directive that established the NPOESS Integrated Program Office charged NOAA with overall responsibility for the converged system, as well as satellite operations and interactions with the civil and international user communities. The Department of Defense has the lead agency responsibility for major systems acquisitions, including launch support. NASA has primary responsibility for facilitating the development and incorporation of new cost-effective technologies into the converged system. Representatives from NOAA, DOD, and NASA participated in the NPOESS VIIRS source selection, which was held in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Information about the NPOESS program is available online at http://www.ipo.noaa.gov/.
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The first of NASA’s New Millennium Earth Probes was launched successfully from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on 21 November.
Following a three-day delay caused by a problem with the inertial flight control assembly, the Boeing-built Delta II rocket lifted off into clear skies exactly on time at 1:24 P.M. EST.
The rocket carried NASA’s $177 million Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) spacecraft and the $45 million SAC-C spacecraft for the Argentine Commission on Space Activities (CONAE) in collaboration with NASA, Brazil, Denmark, Italy, and France. It also carried a tiny Munin spacecraft, designed and built by the Swedish Institute of Space Physics. Munin is named after one of the ravens of the Nordic god Odin.
EO-1 is designed to validate technologies contributing to the reduction in cost of follow-on Landsat missions with its primary focus being on developing and testing a set of advanced land imaging instruments. SAC-C will study the structure and dynamics of the earth’s atmosphere, ionosphere, and geomagnetic field. Munin, built in cooperation with students at Umea University and Lulea University, will collect data on space weather and auroral activity in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
Built by Swales Aerospace, Beltsville, Maryland, EO-1's main instrument is the Advanced Land Imager (ALI), built by MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington, Massachusetts. ALI is an experimental spectrometer designed to produce precise, cost-effective terrestrial images. It also has a hyper spectral sensor known as Hyperion. With its Wideband Advanced Recorder Processor, it will allow data to be distributed to scientists throughout the world in minutes as opposed to the current l6 days, Ghassem Asrar, NASA’s associate administrator for Earth Science, told reporters at a news conference in Washington on 3 November.
"The imaging spectrometer on EO-1 will provide better views of land features, and 87 scientists are scheduled to do 31 separate studies with the instrument," Dr. Stephen Ungar, EO-1 project scientist, told reporters at the same 3 November news conference.
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Most Americans read news reports last month about the space shuttle Discovery being ferried piggyback on a Boeing 747 across the country from Edwards Air Force Base, California, to Kennedy Space Center, Florida
What Americans didn’t know, however, was that two Air Force officers, Capt. Clif Stargardt and Lt. Barry Hunte, 45th Weather Squadron, made up the traveling weather support team for the ferry flight and played a key role in the mission.
Potentially, billion dollar decisions were based “on us being right,” explained Stargardt. “If we’re wrong, there’s going to be some serious damage to a beautiful aircraft.”
The job of bringing the orbiter home, in terms of weather, is more intricate than most folks realize. There are seven extremely strict weather constraints for a ferry flight. They include no flight through clouds, no flight in air cooler than 15°F (-9°C), no flight with an ambient pressure less than 8 pounds per square inch, no flight at night, no flight within 25 miles of thunderstorms, no flight through moderate or greater turbulence, and no flight through precipitation greater than “light” at overnight stops.
“The weather in the West and Midwest was very tricky,” said Hunte. “A cold front formed and extended completely across the Midwest. It was extremely difficult to find a way across the frontal system.”
And there were other problems. First, there was a tremendous storm system in the central part of the country threatening to cut off the route between Texas and Florida. Second, there were delays in getting the orbiter prepared for the flight, which started to limit the options of landing facilities with good weather. Third, a second system was projected to form, bringing heavy rain and thunderstorms to a couple of potential stopover points. Last, unexpected thunderstorms developed over Georgia during the last leg of the trip, exactly where the route would take them.
Overcoming these challenges was dependent on a satellite communication system known as Track II, which enabled the duo to transmit real-time messages and image files.
The “home” team Range Weather Operations at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station kept the team aware of the situation via Track II and were able to change flight routes early and avoid Georgia altogether.
Stargardt and Hunte flew ahead of the 747 ferrying the shuttle. They were in an Air Force C-141, known as Pathfinder, which flies approximately 100 miles ahead of the orbiter and advises the transporter aircrew on the best route to avoid bad weather.
Altus AFB, Oklahoma, and Whiteman AFB, Missouri, served as stopover points along the route home and provided significant support to the mission.
Both Stargardt and Hunte said the unique ferry flight missions is one of the most important roles any Air Force weather officer could ever play.
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Kathleen Kelly has been named director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s satellite operations.
Kelly has worked for NOAA’s NESDIS since 1973. In her new position, she will be responsible for the operation of NOAA’s environmental satellites and satellites in the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP). Managers of three facilities will report to her: the Satellite Operations Control Center in Suitland, Maryland, and the Command and Data Acquisition Stations in Fairbanks, Alaska, and at Wallops, Virginia.
Kelly began her NESDIS career as part of the first class of the Graduate Scientist Program, undertaking postgraduate studies in mathematics and computer science at the University of Maryland. She spent her early years in the Office of Satellite Data Processing and Distribution and the Office of Satellite Operations.
She later worked on the early image navigation systems for the GOES program. She has played a key role in the development of the GOES I-M series Image Navigation and Registration system, leading the NESDIS effort to bring the system to successful operation with GOES-8 in 1994. She was promoted to manager of the Satellite Operations Control Center in 1996.
She was part of a team that was awarded the Department of Commerce Silver Medal for GOES I-M ground system development, and she received the DOC Gold Medal for her work in the procurement effort for the GOES N-Q spacecraft.
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Gary Carter, a 30-year veteran of the National Weather Service (NWS), has been named director of the NWS Office of Hydrologic Development, an office designed to improve and enhance NWS production of hydrology products to help minimize the impacts of flooding.
Carter comes to this job from the NWS Eastern Region, where he served as chief of the Scientific Services Division for more than 10 years.
Flooding is the number one forecasting problem in the Eastern Region because of the terrain, population concentration, and potential for hurricane influences, according to NWS officials.
A graduate of San José State University, California, Carter began his career with NWS as a student trainee. During his career, he frequently has received recognition for his contributions to weather forecasting.
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Rear Adm. Thomas Q. Donaldson V, took over leadership of the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command in mid-November. Donaldson replaces Rear Adm. Kenneth E. Barbor.
Barbor, a native of Paducah, Kentucky, assumed command in October 1997. He retired after nearly 30 years of naval service. Among his accomplishments, Barbor helped increase access to data needed to provide nautical charts for U.S. forces. He also helped establish a new master's degree program in hydrographic science at The University of Southern Mississippi and expanded several other local, regional, and national math and science education support programs. The Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center in Monterey, California, provides global weather prediction for all the nation's armed forces. He also encouraged strong science-related partnerships, including the Northern Gulf of Mexico Littoral Initiative, with industry, academia, and other state and federal agencies.
Donaldson most recently served as Deputy Oceanographer of the navy on the Chief of Naval Operations' staff in Washington, D.C. He is a 1975 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and also holds master's degrees from the Naval Postgraduate School and the National War College. Donaldson previously served as oceans division officer at the Naval Oceanography Command Center, Guam; instructor at the Fleet Norfolk Antisubmarine Warfare Center; oceanographer aboard USS John F. Kennedy; second force oceanographer on the staff of Commander, Submarine Force U.S. Atlantic Fleet; executive officer and later commanding officer of the Naval Atlantic Meteorology and Oceanography Center; and senior oceanography officer detailer and community manager at the Bureau of Naval Personnel.
The Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command is an organization composed of approximately 3000 men and women in about 60 locations worldwide. It provides forecasts of weather and ocean conditions, necessary for safe and successful operations, to all navy ships, submarines, and aircraft. It is Mississippi's only operational navy command headed by an admiral. The command's largest activity, the Naval Oceanographic Office, also located at Stennis Space Center, is the home of one of the five largest supercomputer centers in the world.
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Oak Ridge Boy and weather buff Richard Sterban was presented the Mark Trail/NOAA Weather Radio public service award 15 November. Sterban was presented with the award by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. Sterban was recognized by National Weather Service Deputy Director John Jones for the singer's efforts to educate the public about the value of owning a NOAA Weather Radio receiver. NOAA Weather Radios provide instant warnings of local severe weather and other hazards directly from the National Weather Service. Sterban recently recorded a series of public service announcements available to radio stations nationwide.
The NOAA Weather Radio is a government-operated radio system that provides direct warnings to the public for severe weather and natural and technological hazards, from floods to forest fires to oil spills. Known as the “voice of the National Weather Service,” NOAA Weather Radio is provided as a public service by NOAA, an agency within the Department of Commerce. The NOAA Weather Radio network broadcasts forecasts, watches, warnings, and other hazard information over more than 560 stations covering the 50 states, adjacent coastal waters, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the U.S. Pacific territories.
The Mark Trail/NOAA Weather Radio awards are named for the nationally syndicated cartoon character, which serves as the campaign symbol for the NOAA Weather Radio program. Since 1995, Jack Elrod, writer and illustrator of Mark Trail, and King Features Syndicate have been strong advocates for publicizing severe weather safety and the value of NOAA Weather Radio.
To hear Sterban's public service announcements on the Web, visit http://www.nws.noaa.gov/pa/psas.htm. For more information about NOAA Weather Radio online, visit the Web site at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/.
Radio stations interested in obtaining a compact disc copy of Sterban's public service announcements should contact NOAA at (301) 713-1208 or send an e-mail message with the station's mailing address to michelle.a.crockett@noaa.gov. Include the words “Oak Ridge Boys PSA” in the subject line of the request.
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