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Comments to the latest version of the proposal for restructuring the Broadcast Seal Program as well as the latest version of the proposal for Certified Consulting Meteorologist recertification are due to AMS Executive Director Ronald McPherson (rmcpherson@ametsoc.org) by 15 December 2002.
The proposals are posted on the AMS Web site under the “certification programs” link and reflect comments received on the previous versions and comments from the AMS Council meeting that was held on 3 October 2002.
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A remote sensing workshop, entitled “Remote Sensing Technology in Support of Worldwide Public Resource Management,” is among the many highlights of the AMS Annual Meeting next February.
The workshop will address the “lessons learned” by both the private and public sector in utilizing remote sensing to address resource management issues and public policy decisions through support to decision support systems. These resource management issues range from disaster management through the mitigation of loss of life and property, to the management of water, agriculture, and the environmental resources, to the public response, to infectious disease. The workshop will be held on Monday, 10 February 2003, from 10:45 A.M. to 2:30 P.M. The schedule for the workshop follows and consists of two presentation sessions and a lunchtime panel discussion with Q&A.
While remote sensing has proven its value in areas such as weather analysis and prediction, the use of remote sensing to support public officials in the area of overall resource management on a worldwide basis is inconsistent. In the United States we are accustomed to using remote sensing to provide our citizens with early warning of pending disaster from approaching storms. We also use remote sensing to better manage our own natural resources, such as to predict drought conditions, monitor crop and forestry health, environmental monitoring, and management of water distribution and usage. This list has recently expanded to include areas like in monitoring hazardous algae blooms (HABs) and the spread of infectious disease. Yet, as we look across the United States, we find some States with extremely active remote sensing programs and others with minimal programs.
Further, the world’s industrialized nations have made the heavy investment in building and deploying space assets to monitor earth resources. However, in many ways not enough has been done to promote the leveraging of this investment in technology to developing countries. There are far reaching benefits to underdeveloped countries through the exploitation of this technology. Not only could they be forewarned about natural disasters to minimize loss of life and property, but also, they could use it to enhance their country’s critical food supply and water resources and even develop an effective natural resource exploitation (e.g., oil and gas) capability. These capabilities may even allow the countries to become more self-reliant and less dependent on other countries and international aid agencies. See the AMS Web site for details (www.ametsoc.org/ams).
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The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is convening a “Conference on Women in Meteorology and Hydrology” in Geneva, Switzerland from 24–27 March 2003. The purpose of the conference is to increase the participation of women in WMO activities, and in meteorology and hydrology overall.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is coordinating the U.S. delegation to the conference, which will be led by Brigadier General John J. Kelly, Jr. (USAF, ret.), the permanent representative of the United States to the WMO and NOAA assistant administrator for weather services. Invited delegates include Vickie Nadolski (NOAA National Weather Service), Eugenia Kalnay (University of Maryland), Maria Pirone (WSI Corporation), Dian Seidel (NOAA Air Resources Laboratory), and Fiona Horsfall (NOAA National Weather Service). Mary Glackin (NOAA Satellite and Information Service) will also participate in the conference.
The U.S. delegation and the AMS Board on Women and Minorities invite AMS members to share their views on issues relating to the conference at a luncheon with delegation members at the AMS Annual Meeting in Long Beach, California. The meeting will be held on Wednesday, 12 February at 12 P.M. in Convention Center Seaside Room 301. To attend, please send your name and contact information to wmo.women@noaa.gov by 15 January 2003, to reserve a space and a box lunch. To provide comments on the issues or the delegation position paper, write to wmo.women@noaa.gov.
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The North Texas Joint Chapter of the American Meteorological Society is celebrating its sixty-fifth anniversary this year. Founded in 1937, the Fort Worth-based North Texas AMS Chapter has grown in size, and now boasts more than 100 members.
As part of the chapter’s continuing celebration of its sixty-fifth anniversary, the members held their October chapter meeting in conjunction with the National Weather Association annual conference in Fort Worth, Texas. The main feature of the meeting was a presentation by Les Lemon, summarizing a significant tornado event in Romania. The Executive Director of the National Weather Association, Kevin Lavin, was among the many conference guests who attended the meeting.
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The Reinsurance Association of America and the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research at the University of Colorado have announced a summer internship program for graduate students in science, engineering, or policy. The application deadline is 15 March 2003.
The goal of the program is to place students in policy or scientific graduate programs with reinsurance companies. The internship would last approximately three months during the summer. Reinsurers provide insurance for insurance companies, for losses due to catastrophes, and therefore they provide the largest share of the financing for recovery from major natural disasters. Much of their financial analysis is based on current scientific understanding about catastrophe risk. By placing graduate students into positions in the reinsurance industry the program seeks to increase the awareness of students to the reinsurance industry and expose the industry to highly skilled students in policy and the sciences. A longer-term vision is greater interactions of the two communities.
The minimum qualifications for an applicant are completion of one year of graduate school in a scientific or policy field of study. The application procedure includes submitting college transcripts, a resume, two letters of recommendation, and a 500-word statement explaining your interest in this program. For further information please see the Program Web site site at http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/reinsurance/.
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The National Council for Science and the Environment’s (NCSE) 3rd National Conference on Science, Policy, and the Environment is scheduled for 30–31 January 2003 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, Washington, DC.
Scientists, educators and policymakers from around the world will discuss how education can contribute to a sustainable and secure future for all. The meeting represents an opportunity to develop a set of recommendations for the United States and for the upcoming UN Decade of Education for Sustainability (2005–2015) that will be transmitted in an action-oriented report produced by NCSE following the conference.
Educators and decision-makers, including the full range of the educational enterprise from kindergarten to adult, incorporating formal and informal approaches to science, environmental sustainability, security, and community education are scheduled to attend. Dr. Rita Colwell, director of the National Science Foundation, will present the 3rd Annual John H. Chafee Memorial Lecture on Science and the Environment; former Senator Gaylord Nelson, founder of Earth Day and a global leader in environmental and sustainability education will receive the NCSE Lifetime Achievement Award; and Congressman Vernon Ehlers, chair of the Environment Subcommittee of the House of Representatives Science Committee will receive the NCSE Congressional Leadership Award.
The meeting is sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development; and the U.S. Geological Survey Partners: USDA Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service Patrons; 3M, the DOW Chemical Company, the Environmental Literacy Council, the Florida Power Corporation, the USDA Forest Service, and Walt Disney World; and National Park Service Friends: National Environmental Education & Training Foundation. For additional information and to register, go to www.NCSEonline.org.
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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is seeking nominations for the 2002 Walter B. Jones Memorial and NOAA Excellence Awards for Coastal and Ocean Resource Management. Recipients will be recognized for their innovation, resourcefulness, and commitment to balancing the human use of America’s coastal and ocean resources with the needs of the resources themselves.
Created as part of the 1990 Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) reauthorization, the Walter B. Jones Memorial Awards are given to those individuals and local governments who embody the dedication and leadership of the late Congressman Jones in ensuring the health of our nation’s coastal and ocean resources. The NOAA Excellence Awards recognize the broad spectrum of contributions from individuals and organizations to reward the creative endeavors developed to face the challenges of coastal and ocean management. The award categories are:
The program is open to individuals, organizations, state and local government agencies, and their employees. Entries must adhere to strict submission and judging criteria and must be received no later than 3 January 2003. Winners will be notified in February 2003 and honored at a ceremony in Washington, DC in March 2003.
Nomination forms, details on nomination forms, details on judging criteria, and entry preparation can be found at http://www.nos.noaa.gov/jones_award_announcement.html.
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Applications for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Educational Partnership Program (EPP) with Minority Serving Institutions (MSI) graduate and undergraduate scholarship programs are being accepted through 27 January 2003. All graduate and undergraduate students in NOAA-related fields are encouraged to apply.
The program’s goal is to encourage students and faculty at minority serving institutions to pursue applied research and education in atmospheric, oceanic, and environmental sciences and remote sensing programs.
The Graduate Sciences Program applicants must hold a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree, a 3.0 average, and be a U.S. citizen. Successful applicants are hired into entry-level positions at NOAA and then trained in a predetermined course of study.
Ten students are selected for the Undergraduate Scholarship Program, a 10-week paid summer internship. Applicants must attend an MSI and declare a major in a NOAA-related field.
To apply for the NOAA EPP, visit http://epp.noaa.gov.
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The Argonne National Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy entity, has initiated a program of named postdoctoral fellowships. Candidates for these fellowships must display superb ability in scientific or engineering research, and must show definite promise of becoming outstanding leaders in the research they pursue.
Fellowships are awarded for a two-year term, with a possible renewal for a third year, and carry a stipend of $70,000 per annum with an additional allocation of up to $20,000 per annum for research support and travel. The Fellows, who will be competitively selected by a special fellowship committee, are given the freedom of associating with Argonne scientists in a research area of common interest. The laboratory intends to award four such fellowships this coming year.
The fellowships are named after scientific and technical luminaries who have been associated with Argonne, its predecessors and the University of Chicago since the 1940s.
More specific information regarding research activities at Argonne can be obtained by viewing the online overview at www.anl.gov/OPA/vtour/, as well as the more detailed Web sites of the various research groups, centers, and facilities, which can be accessed via the Argonne home page at www.anl.gov.
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Minneapolis-based Meteorlogix, a commercial weather services provider and AMS corporate member, recently announced it will provide the city of Colorado Springs, Colorado, with an advanced weather system to help the city prepare for emergencies such as bioterrorism attacks, airborne chemical plumes, and industrial toxin releases.
Meteorlogix also signed a contract with the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command (METOC) to provide them with its exclusive GIS weather technology for use in classified tactical decision making. Meteorlogix was awarded the contract because of its expertise in merging live weather data into GIS applications.
In late October the company also introduced MxInsight RouteWatch, a GIS-based real-time weather information solution that enables transportation professionals to make informed, road-level decisions about safety, logistics, and snow removal.
The many military installations located within Colorado Springs make it a potential target for terrorist activity. The city needed a way to actively manage threats to public safety and chose Meteorlogix’s MxInsight for Homeland Defense because the system assists city officials in pinpointing critical areas of concern and enables them to plan timely emergency responses so that lives are not endangered. If a disaster occurs, emergency management personnel will use Meteorlogix to begin a plume analysis that assesses weather information so they can estimate the aerial dispersion of the plume with accuracy.
Colorado Springs is one of the most active severe weather regions in the United States. Lightning, high winds, snow, and rain are constants and make predicting and reporting the weather a challenge. In addition to implementing its product, Meteorlogix will integrate its StormSentry system into the city’s existing weather tools to more actively monitor wild fire conditions and lightning, track storms, and warn residents of adverse weather in advance.
MxInsight for Homeland Defense and MxVision StormSentry will serve as an integral part of the Emergency Management Office of the city of Colorado Springs.
METOC includes approximately three thousand officers and enlisted and civilian personnel at two primary production centers, three regional centers, as well as a number of facilities and detachments aboard the ships and aircraft used in conducting oceanographic surveys. The headquarters is located near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, at the Stennis Space Center.
MxInsight RouteWatch constantly monitors roadways for potentially dangerous weather conditions such as flash floods, tornados, high winds, and snow. When the system detects inclement weather conditions, it triggers an automated alert indicating which road segments will be affected. Transportation officials can then make timely and accurate decisions that help ensure the safety of drivers, trucks, and cargo.
The product also delivers road level forecasts and real-time weather monitoring to facilitate efficient scheduling and routing for local service fleets and long-haul transport. Transportation officials benefit from precise weather information integrated with detailed street maps, so they know exactly which routes are endangered and how. With advance warning of dangerous weather conditions, schedules and routes can be adjusted to reduce the risk of costly delays.
Meteorlogix (www.meteorlogix.com) is a portfolio company of VS&A Communications Partners III, LP, the equity affiliate of Veronis Suhler Stevenson. Based in Minneapolis, the company delivers industry-specific weather management capabilities for its customers to manage weather-related business risks, maximize personal safety, and minimize financial loss. See http://www.meteorlogix.com/welcome.cfm.
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Germany-based Gematronik was recently awarded a follow-up contract by the Korean Meteorological Administration for one Doppler weather radar.
As a follow-up to a similar contract that was awarded in 2001 Gematronik will provide one radar in 2003. This will help modernize and consolidate the Korean countrywide radar network and is part of a strategic plan to update this network by one radar system every one to two years.
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CLR Photonics, Inc., a division of Lafayette, Colorado–based Coherent Technologies, Inc., recently commissioned one of its infrared Doppler radars at the Hong Kong International Airport. The infrared Doppler radar is also referred to as the Doppler LIDAR.
The WindTracer Doppler radar is providing airport forecasters with high-resolution images of the wind shear and turbulence environment at the airport. This represents the first installation of its kind in the world and the first opportunity for the aviation community to reap safety benefits from infrared Doppler technology.
The Hong Kong International Airport is located next to a large mountainous island (Lantau Island), which sometimes causes wind shear and turbulence, especially when the wind blows over the mountain and toward the airport. Other wind hazards arise due to gust fronts and sea breezes.
The WindTracer® generates a clear-air view of the winds over wide areas along and near the approach and departure corridors and so naturally covers the areas that the radar and anemometers miss. An important distinguishing characteristic of the WindTracer® is its narrow beam, which produces no sidelobe clutter. Clutter is a problem for microwave radar because it can cause false or misleading signals. In contrast, the WindTracer® works especially well when scanning very near the ground or in the vicinity of a hillside.
The WindTracer® technology is currently being used by the Federal Aviation Administration in support of its Wake Turbulence Research Program, which is focused on improving capacity at airports. The technology can also be configured for mobile operations on the ground or in the air.
More information on CTI, its commercial products division CLR Photonics, Inc., and the WindTracer® is available online at http://www.ctilidar.com.
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Coastal Environmental System, of Seattle, Washington, recently supplied the Long Now Foundation with a remote-site weather station. The Long Now Foundation, which seeks to “foster creativity in the framework of the next 10,000 years,” has envisioned a project designed to work into the future—“about as long as the history of human technology is to date.” The core project of the foundation is the development of a clock built to run for 10,000 years. It is to be located in the desert mountain land of Ely, Nevada.
In order to gain a better understanding of the potential clock site (crucial to it’s operation and longevity), the Long Now Foundation has installed a weather station on the Snake Mountain Range in Nevada. The weather station uses a Coastal Environmental Systems ZENO®-3200 data acquisition system with Meteorburst radio communication.
Meteorburst is a way to send data by bouncing the radio signal off of ionized trails in the atmosphere (these trails are not “hard” by our standards—but hard enough to bounce radio signals off of). The trails are created by “micrometeorites”—about the size of a grain of sand—that are constantly entering the atmosphere.
For more information on the Long Now Foundations clock project and weather station, see http://epoch.longnow.org/weather/.
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The 107th Congress has adjourned, with some notable successes but also some serious disappointments, most especially its failure to meet its constitutional mandate by putting off consideration of most of its appropriations bills until the new Congress meets. There were a number of other disappointments as well, even as those interested in the strength of American sciences can rejoice in an authorization bill that reflects a desire on Capitol Hill to double funding for the National Science Foundation over the next five years.
Eleven out of thirteen FY03 spending bills remain unfinished. Staff—mostly on the Republican side—will be working on them over the next two months, and plans are to finish them up when the new Congress returns beginning the second week of January. How the bills will be handled—and overall funding levels—remain uncertain. Over the next two months most federal agencies will be required to live with FY02 funding levels. There are still disagreements between the administration and Congress, especially in the House, on overall spending levels. At this time it is uncertain if the bills will be handled individually or as one or a few “omnibus” bills in January.
The bill containing spending provisions for NOAA is especially problematic, and NOAA funding may be disappointing with the final appropriation. In a tight budget year, the administration asked for an increase in NOAA funding of approximately 3%. The bill produced by the Commerce, Justice, State Subcommittee by the Senate either eliminated or decreased proposed spending for a number of programs, including climate change research in NOAA’s Oceanic and Atmospheric Research line office, as well as a number of items in the National Weather Service, including provision of a backup supercomputer for NCEP, the Advanced Hydrologic Prediction System (AHPS) program, and funding for Forecast Office Maintenance and Repair, among others. It also failed to provide for inflationary cost increases across NOAA, with the result that a number of programs will be cut back or eliminated.
Final funding levels for all agencies of interest to AMS will only be known in late January 2003.
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The NSF “doubling” bill (H.R. 4664), providing for approximately 15% funding increases a year for NSF over the next five years, passed Congress just before it adjourned. The president has signed the bill, which is great news for the field as it looks as if the physical sciences (including the geosciences, as well as the nonhealth biosciences) will now receive some of the same substantial increases that Congress has provided to NIH in recent years.
Of course, in each of the next five years, congressional committees that actually appropriate the funds will have to include these increases in their yearly appropriation bills, but the significance of the authorizing legislation is that it demonstrates the will of the entire Congress to get this done.
Under this bill, the authorization level for the National Science Foundation will be on track to double by 2007. As finally written and in response to the administration’s concerns, the word “doubling” has been removed from the title and the final two years of doubling are contingent on a demonstration of effective NSF management.
In describing H.R. 4664, Representative Sherwood Boehlert (R-New York), the chairman of the House Science Committee, said, “We turn to NSF to solve some of our most pressing problems; we can’t turn from NSF when we decide where to invest federal funds. It’s time to give the NSF the money it needs.”
Given the president’s support, as well as the support for doubling NSF’s funding shown by both the House and Senate, the agency will be in a strong position as the FY03 appropriation is finalized and as the FY04 budget cycle begins on Capitol Hill.
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Legislation restructuring NSF support for K–12 math and science education was rolled into the NSF doubling bill (above), and its requirement that participants engage in “partnerships with local educational agencies” (and the fact that the Teacher Enhancement account at NSF has few funds available) will make it difficult—if not impossible—for scientific societies to participate in these programs. This approach to federal support for education is supported by the administration and has extensive bipartisan support on Capitol Hill. Indeed, the massive authorization bill providing for federal support for education had similar requirements, with the belief being that the best way to improve student test scores is to ensure that expertise and involvement provided by the private sector partnership is diffused deeply and widely within state and local school agencies.
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The Environmental Protection Agency released two rules that would ease pollution controls on industry and on coal burning power plants. The rules came out the day that the House of Representatives followed the Senate into adjournment and were greeted with a storm of protest from federal and state officials, as well as environmental groups.
The rule affecting power plants represents a significant change in the New Source Review Program instituted under the Clinton administration requiring utilities expanding or modernizing to install devices to capture the added pollution. The new rule is expected to make expansion or modernization without installing such pollution control devices easier. Not surprisingly, they have been largely supported by industry. According to EPA Administrator, Christine Todd Whitman, these new rules will not only make modernization of coal-fired power plants easier but will actually result in improved air quality.
Not unexpectedly, challenges in court will no doubt proceed as specific implications of the new rules are made clear over the next year.
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Congress did not pass a comprehensive energy bill this session. The bill was too complex and contentious to reach substantial agreement in a conference committee charged with reconciling two distinct bills produced by the two chambers of Congress. With the Senate now in Republican hands, leadership in that body felt that they could put together a comprehensive bill, one that contained at least a few more of the items that had stalled in a Democratic-controlled Senate.
The bill included provisions relating to power deregulation, climate change, pipeline safety, and drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, among other items. Climate change provisions included a proposed “climate service” in NOAA, as well as changes in elements of the structure of proposed research on climate change
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Efforts on Capitol Hill to provide billions of dollars in drought aid to hard-hit farmers and ranchers, especially in the Plains states, died with the adjournment of the 107th Congress. Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-South Dakota), with the support of a number of other farm and ranching state senators, had supported legislation that would have provided something close to $6 billion in drought relief aid. A last minute effort to pass the bill was ended, however, by incoming Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Mississippi), who was concerned about its eventual cost. He promised to revisit the issue in the new Congress.
Similar legislation had been attached to the Interior Appropriations Bill, which did not pass the Senate due to a fight over an unrelated issue. It is uncertain whether the bill would have been able to pass in the House of Representatives.
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The 2002 Atlantic hurricane season that officially ends 30 November, produced only four hurricanes due to a strengthening El Niño, said National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) hurricane specialists. However, twice the normal number of storm systems (eight) affected the nation, bringing storm surge and severe weather and rain to the nation, including Hurricane Lili, the first land-falling hurricane to strike the United States since the 1999 hurricane season.
Overall in 2002, there were 12 named storms, of which four became hurricanes. Hurricanes Lili and Isidore were classified as major (category 3 or higher on the Saffir–Simpson hurricane scale). Eight storms (Tropical Storms Bertha, Edouard, Fay, and Hanna; and Hurricanes Gustav, Isidore, Kyle, and Lili) affected the coastal United States. Hurricane Lili was the only storm to make landfall while still a hurricane. The other 2002 storms were Tropical Storms Arthur, Cristobal, Dolly, and Josephine.
Hurricane forecasters at the NOAA Climate Prediction Center (CPC), Hurricane Research Division (HRD), and National Hurricane Center (NHC) forecast climate conditions, including the El Niño, would reduce the overall hurricane activity this season. The forecast called for seven to 10 tropical storms, of which four to six could develop into hurricanes, with one to three classified as major.
Louisiana, the hardest hit area, was battered by four storms including the powerful Hurricane Lili and Tropical Storm Isidore. The 2002 season’s storms caused nine deaths in the United States and about $900 million in damages. Max Mayfield, director of the NHC, said, “Four storm strikes on Louisiana remind us of the need for preparedness during every hurricane season. It’s not the number of storms that counts—it’s where they go.”
Mayfield added, “Tropical storm track forecast accuracy continued to improve this year, due in part to accurate computer forecast models from NOAA Environmental Modeling Center. The landfall of Hurricane Lili in Louisiana was well forecast nearly three days in advance,” he said. “However, intensity forecasts did not capture Lili’s rapid weakening (from a category 4 to a category 1–2) in the 12 hours before landfall. We are working through the U.S. Weather Research Program to improve intensity forecasting,” Mayfield said.
Details of the 2002 hurricane season are available on the Internet at http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/2002atlan_summary.shtml.
The seasonal outlook is available at http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/outlooks/hurricane.html.
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Adverse weather conditions have a major impact on the operation of the nation’s roads, from rural routes to the Interstate system. In a major metropolitan area, a one-day shutdown due to heavy snowfall can cost tens of millions of dollars. More importantly, approximately 6,600 people lose their lives and 470,000 people incur injuries in adverse weather each year.
Under the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) program, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has taken the lead in responding by building upon the proactive maintenance approaches already used in the winter maintenance community today. The result is the next generation of road weather information systems called the Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS). A prototype is now available on the FHWA’s Road Weather Management Web page (http://www.ops.fhwa.dot.gov/weather/index.htm).
The MDSS is part of a progressive FHWA program designed to identify threats to the highway system and respond proactively by warning winter maintenance managers of changing weather conditions and their impacts on the highway system.
The MDSS prototype will allow for state DOTs to:
The primary goal of the MDSS is to get proper weather, road condition, and resource information into the appropriate people’s hands so that they can make proactive decisions to manage highways before and during adverse weather conditions. The benefits include reduced operating expenses and a higher level of service, which result in safer and smoother highway operations and traffic flow.
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National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Administrator Vice Admiral Conrad C. Lautenbacher Jr., recently met with senior leaders from New Zealand and Australia to discuss enhanced cooperation on ocean- and climate-related issues in the Southern Hemisphere during a week-long trip to that region. The admiral’s main focus for the trip was promoting international cooperation and support for expanding the present global climate observation system.
“The Southern Pacific and Indian Oceans offer critical environmental and climate data that are important to addressing climate change and climate events in that region and beyond,” Lautenbacher said prior to his departure. “As regional leaders, New Zealand and Australia play a key role in building the science base necessary to make informed decisions on climate in this region. We look forward to working with leaders from these countries toward enhancing cooperation on climate change science and expanding the global climate observing system in the Southern Hemisphere.”
The global climate observing system is currently a loose configuration of ocean-based data buoys and space-based environmental satellites that monitor the atmosphere and collect climate predication data. The existing system is used to predict climate events such as El Niño and will allow for greater understanding of the Pacific Decadal oscillation, the North Atlantic Oscillation, and the Indian Ocean Dipole.
A more comprehensive observation network will improve basic understanding of climate change and generate operational forecasts that will allow the nations of the world to set science-based policies that ensure their future health, safety, and economic stability.
Admiral Lautenbacher has stressed that climate is an economic as well as an environmental issue.
Lautenbacher held meetings with New Zealand and Australian officials designed to build on agreements with both countries to address the challenges of climate change and expand cooperation on climate change science, technology, and monitoring.
The U.S.–Australia Climate Action Partnership was announced in February 2002, stating Australia and the U.S. share the view that there needs to be global action to address climate change and will continue to work together closely to address this long-term challenge. The partnership calls for a work program that includes 19 projects in climate change science and monitoring; renewable and reduced emission stationary energy technologies; engagement with business on technology development and policy design and implementation; capacity building in developing countries; and greenhouse accounting in the forestry and agriculture sectors.
The U.S. and New Zealand recently announced a bilateral agreement to pursue enhanced climate change cooperation under which they agreed that climate change is a pressing issue that requires a global solution. Both nations declared their intention to continue to work together in the spirit of cooperation and partnership under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Scientific cooperation is seen as particularly valuable in meeting these joint goals, including cooperation on climate change science and monitoring in the Pacific; assistance to developing countries, particularly Pacific Island states; climate change research in Antarctica; cooperation in the development of emission unit registries; greenhouse gas accounting in forestry and agriculture; and technology development aimed at carbon reduction technologies.
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October 2002 was the coldest October in the contiguous United States since 1976, according to scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) in Asheville, North Carolina. The unusually cool and wet weather across a large part of the United States in October brought periods of winter-like temperatures and precipitation that led to significant improvements in some drought-affected areas and a reduction in the percent of the nation in moderate to extreme drought.
October 2002 was the 14th coldest and seventh wettest October in the contiguous U.S. since national records began in 1895. The average October temperature in the contiguous U.S. was 52.6ºF (11.4ºC), more than 2ºF below the 1895–2001 average. A total of 31 states were significantly cooler than average, and the monthly temperature was much below average in 12 states across the Plains and northern Rockies. The widespread nature of the below-average temperatures contrasts sharply with the past two years. Significantly cooler-than-average temperatures have not occurred in as many states since December 2000. The Southeast and Alaska were the only regions that were warmer than average, as above average statewide temperatures stretched from North Carolina to Louisiana in the Southeast, and the average temperature in Alaska was more than 7ºF above the 1971–2000 mean.
The month was also unusually wet for much of the nation. Precipitation was significantly above average in 29 states, and only seven states (California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming) were significantly drier than average. It was the first month since November 2000 in which the contiguous United States was significantly cooler than average and also significantly wetter than average.
Some rainfall was associated with tropical systems. Hurricane Lili made landfall along the Louisiana coast on 3 October, with maximum sustained winds near 160 km/hr (~85 knots or 100 mph, category 2 intensity). Rainfall totals were not exceptionally heavy, but precipitation fell in many of the same areas affected by the heavier rains of Tropical Storm Isidore in September. It was the first hurricane to strike the United States since Hurricane Irene in October 1999. Tropical Storm Kyle, which made landfall in South Carolina, and the remnants from Hurricane Kenna, the third-strongest known hurricane to make landfall on the Pacific coast of Mexico, also contributed to the month’s rainfall totals in parts of the South.
The colder than normal temperatures and precipitation in the northern Plains and upper Midwest states led to significant snowfall in some areas. The first heavy snow of the year fell in the upper Midwest on 20–21 October, with as much as 8 to 10 inches of snow in parts of Minnesota and North Dakota. Measurable snowfall during the latter half of the month occurred as far south as Kansas and New Mexico.
The higher-than-average monthly precipitation totals helped alleviate drought conditions in areas that have been exceptionally dry for much of the past four to five years. More than five inches of rain fell throughout much of western North Carolina and Virginia, bringing relief to areas that were in extreme to exceptional drought in early October. Rainfall, along with cooler than normal temperatures in other areas, also helped reduce the expanse and severity of drought in much of the central and eastern United States.
Abnormally dry conditions became more widespread in parts of the Pacific Northwest, but the percent of the country in moderate to extreme drought fell from 47% to 37% by the end of the month based on a widely used measure of drought, the Palmer Drought Index. Approximately 50% of the nation was in moderate to extreme drought during the summer months. The greatest expanse of drought during the past century occurred in July 1934, when moderate to extreme drought affected 80 percent of the country.
In contrast, the global average temperature was the fourth warmest on record for October. The average global temperature for combined land and ocean surfaces during October 2002 (based on preliminary data) was 0.8ºF (0.45ºC) above the 1880–2001 long-term mean, the fourth-warmest October since 1880 (the beginning of reliable instrumental records). The warmest October on record occurred in both 1997 and 2001, followed closely by 1998. Although the global ocean surface temperature tied October 2001 as the second warmest on record, the land surface temperature average was only the 12th warmest on record (0.7ºF less than the record warm month in 1998), as cooler than average temperatures covered large parts of North America, northern Europe, and central Asia.
As has been the case throughout much of 2002, the year-to-date global temperature was again the second warmest on record (1.0ºF above average) slightly less than in 1998, the year in which the last El Niño episode ended. El Niño conditions have developed again this year and moderate El Niño conditions are now present in the equatorial Pacific. Although an increase in the strength of this El Niño is possible, it is not expected to compare with the strength of the 1997/98 El Niño episode, according to NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center.
National and global data are online at http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/2002/oct/oct02.html.
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The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) has jumped into the top 10 elite of the world’s fastest supercomputing centers, according to an annual ranking released on 15 November.
NCAR advanced from 11th place in 2001 to 10th place in this year’s list by acquiring Blue Sky, an IBM SP system with a peak speed up to seven trillion calculations per second. The IBM package also includes 21 terabytes of new disk storage. NCAR is currently testing the system, which arrived from IBM in September.
Blue Sky is expected to accelerate research in global and regional climate change, droughts, short- and long-range weather prediction and warnings, wildland fires, turbulence, atmospheric chemistry, space weather, and other critical areas. The National Science Foundation, NCAR’s primary sponsor, purchased the machine for use at NCAR to advance a wide range of research topics in the agency’s 10-year plan for the geosciences.
Experts at the University of Mannheim (Germany), the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and the University of Tennessee announced the world’s 500 most powerful computers. They have compiled and maintained the list twice a year since 1993, with the help of high-performance computer experts, computational scientists, manufacturers, and the Internet community in general.
In the fall of 2003, NCAR will receive IBM’s next round of switch technology, whose lower latency and higher bandwidth will significantly increase signal speed.
Earth’s weather and climate result from a complex interplay of physical, chemical, and biological processes of the atmosphere, oceans, land surface, and sea ice. Understanding and predicting the earth’s climate system, particularly climate variation and possible human-induced climate change, presents one of the most difficult challenges in science. As computer models of the global climate system become increasingly sophisticated, says NCAR director Tim Killeen, supercomputers must continually stretch their limits to meet the needs of the scientific community.
Japan’s Earth Simulator, in Yokohama, was named the world’s fastest supercomputer.
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More than 350 scientists from the United States, the European Union, Canada, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Poland, Russia, and Switzerland will work this winter to measure ozone and other atmospheric gases using aircraft, large and small balloons, ground-based instruments and satellites.
This second SAGE III Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment (SOLVE II) campaign will be conducted in close collaboration with the European Commission, sponsored by the VINTERSOL (Validation of International Satellites and Study of Ozone Loss) campaign. (SAGE III stands for the third Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment.) SOLVE will take place in Kiruna, Sweden, the site of the first international effort during the winter of 1999–2000.
Ozone studies are important because the ozone layer prevents the sun’s harmful ultraviolet radiation from reaching the earth’s surface. Ultraviolet radiation is a primary cause of skin cancer. Without protective upper-level ozone, there would be no life on the earth.
The Arctic campaign will run from 8 January through 6 February 2003. Flights of large balloons will augment the aircraft campaign, extending the measurement period from late November 2002 to late March 2003.
During the campaign of 1999–2000, record ozone losses of 70% were observed at altitudes around 11 miles (18 kilometers) and a great deal was learned about the processes leading to the rapid ozone loss in the Arctic. The SOLVE II campaign will add to that body of knowledge.
During the coming winter, scientists in SOLVE II–VINTERSOL also will work toward ensuring the accuracy of measurements from current earth observing satellites. Scientists will take measurements of the stratosphere using a large suite of instruments aboard NASA’s DC-8 aircraft and the European high-flying aircraft M55 Geophysica, the German DLR Falcon. An instrument from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, will also fly on the M55 Geophysica. These planes will be based in Kiruna.
Research balloons, carrying payloads weighing up to several hundred pounds will be launched from Kiruna by teams from the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (France’s National Center for Space Studies) and NASA. A network of over 30 stations of ground-based instruments will take atmospheric readings over a wide area, which will show how the chemical composition of Arctic stratosphere evolves through the whole winter.
For information about the SOLVE 2 Mission see http://cloud1.arc.nasa.gov/solveII/index.html.
For information about SAGE III see http://www-sage3.larc.nasa.gov/.
For information about the VINTERSOL program see http://www.ozone-sec.ch.cam.ac.uk.
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If someone you love loves nasty weather or worries about our changing climate, your shopping list should include one of these books. Three of these provide background and ideas for grappling with some of the major environmental challenges of our time: climate change, hurricane disasters, and La Niña. The fourth is for travelers and anyone else interested in where to find the best and worst weather for sunbathing, skiing, or just taking a walk almost anywhere in the world.
The Crowded Greenhouse, by John Firor and Judith E. Jacobsen.
Yale University Press, 2002, 256 pages, ISBN 0-300-09320-9, hardcover, $24.95.
Gloom-and-doom books about environmental and societal ills abound. The Crowded Greenhouse tackles two problems not usually considered together and offers hope for solving them. The authors, an atmospheric scientist and a population policy expert, examine the intersection of population growth and human-influenced climate change and find reason for optimism.
The book opens with a scenario for the next 50 years in which social, economic, and technological changes have brought people and the planet to a far healthier position. The rest of the book explains how to get there.
The solutions are already known, the authors contend. What is needed is the will to implement them.
John Firor is a senior scientist and director emeritus of NCAR. Judith E. Jacobsen is a writer, lecturer, and consultant on world population issues.
Ordering the book: Yale University Press, P.O. Box 209040, New Haven, CT 06520-9040. Telephone: 1-800-987-7323; Fax: 1-800-406-9145; E-mail: customer.care@triliteral.org; Web: http://www.yale.edu/yup/books/093209.htm.
Hurricane! Coping With Disaster, edited by Robert Simpson, Richard Anthes, Michael Garstang, and Joanne Malkus Simpson.
American Geophysical Union, Special Publication Vol. 55, 2002, 360 pages, ISBN 0-87590-298-7 (hardcover), $55.00, ISBN 0-87590-297-9 (paper), $39.00.
This book chronicles the century-long struggle to understand the enormous power and devastating impact of hurricanes. Some authors provide a look at recent advances and promising new technologies for tracking and predicting the path of hurricanes. Others examine what has been done and what still could be done to reduce the vulnerability of people and property to this extreme force of nature.
Stories from the men and women who pioneered the effort to understand, track, and cope with hurricanes bring this volume to life. The book has something to offer a wide range of readers who may be interested in the history of scientific discovery, the science and technology of hurricane research, or the societal and economic challenges posed by major disasters.
Robert Simpson, former director of the National Hurricane Center, is co-inventor of the Saffir–Simpson hurricane damage scale. He conducted the first mission involving research flights into a major hurricane. Richard Anthes is president of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research and a pioneer in using computers to study and forecast hurricanes and other weather features. Michael Garstang is distinguished investigator and research professor at the University of Virginia and chief editor of the AMS Journal of Applied Meteorology. Joanne Simpson is chief scientist for meteorology in the Earth Sciences Directorate at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. She has been studying the mysteries of clouds and hurricanes for half a century.
Ordering the book: American Geophysical Union, 2000 Florida Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20009-1277. Telephone: 1-800-966-2481; Fax: 1-202-328-0566; E-mail: orders@agu.org; Web: http://www.agu.org.
La Niña and Its Impacts: Facts And Speculation, edited by Michael H. Glantz. United Nations University Press, 2002, 271 pages, ISBN: 9280810715, paper, $21.95.
La Niña is less well known or understood than its counterpart, El Niño, yet its impacts can be devastating to vulnerable regions around the globe. Researchers gathered for a La Niña Summit at NCAR to focus attention on the phenomenon in 1998. They examined what they do and don’t know about it and what governments and communities need to learn in order to prepare for the next La Niña.
Now, a book inspired by the summit presents knowledge gained since that gathering. How good are scientists at forecasting La Niña events? What are the impacts, and where are they most serious? Case studies from around the world provide views of La Niña’s effects on different economic sectors in developing and industrialized societies. The book serves as an introduction for researchers and general audiences to what is known and the work that still needs to be done to reduce vulnerability to this global climate phenomenon.
Michael Glantz is a senior scientist at NCAR and the former director of the center’s Environmental and Societal Impacts Group. He has authored or edited 20 books on climate and society.
Ordering the book: UN University Press, 53-70 Jingumae 5-chome, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-8925, Japan. Telephone: +81-3-3499-2811; Fax: +81-3-3406-7345; E-mail: sales@hq.unu.edu; Web: http://www.unu.edu/unupress/hq_howto.htm.
The Rough Guide to Weather, by Robert Henson. Rough Guides/Penguin, 2002, 432 pages, ISBN 1858288274, paper, $17.95.
Going to Ankara or Anchorage? This first science offering in the Rough Guide travel and reference series is both a basic guide to the atmosphere and a reference for travelers of the active or armchair variety.
The book’s opening chapters explain the ingredients of weather and climate and examine wild weather—from tornadoes and hurricanes, to floods and drought, to the basics of El Niño and La Niña events. There is a chapter deconstructing weather forecasts with advice on how to read them. The chapter on climate change discusses how scientists know the average global temperature is rising and examines the uncertainty introduced by “wild cards” that could be influencing how warm the earth gets.
“Weather around the World,” the core of the book, provides succinct summaries of the conditions travelers are most likely to encounter in popular and lesser-known locales. Charts for 200 destinations provide essential statistics such as temperature range, rainfall, and relative humidity throughout the year.
Robert Henson is a writer and editor in the public information office of UCAR and NCAR. He is a contributing editor of Weatherwise magazine and frequent correspondent for The Weather Notebook, a nationally syndicated radio program from the Mount Washington Observatory.
Ordering the book: For review copies contact David Wechsler, Rough Guides Publicity, 345 Hudson, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10014. Telephone: 212-414-3712, Fax: 212-414-3352, E-mail: dwechsler@roughguides.com; Web: http://www.roughguides.com/store/details.html?ProductID=350.
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A first-of-its kind NASA mission designed to measure the earth’s polar ice masses is scheduled to launch on 19 December. The Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) will detect the height of the earth’s polar ice masses, and determine the amount of water stored in the polar deep freeze. These changes are major factors in global sea level change and understanding them is key to predicting future changes in the earth’s climate.
ICESat arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base from Ball Aerospace & Technologies, Corp. on 23 October.
According to a 1990 report by the National Research Council, possible changes in the mass balance of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets are fundamental gaps in our understanding and are crucial to the quantification and refinement of sea level forecast. A more recent report in 2002 said, “In light of…abrupt ice-sheet changes affecting global climate and sea level, enhanced emphasis on ice-sheet characterization over time is essential.”
The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are an average of 7,900 feet (2.4 km) thick, cover 10% of the earth’s land area, and contain 77% of the earth’s fresh water. The Antarctic ice sheet has 10 times more ice than Greenland because of its greater area and average thickness. Their vast size and inhospitable environment make the ice sheets impossible to monitor completely except via satellite.
The mission will provide multiyear elevation data needed to determine ice sheet mass balance, as well as cloud property information, especially for stratospheric clouds common over global areas.
ICESat’s payload consists of the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS), and a precision on-board global positioning system. GLAS, a next-generation space lidar, was designed and built at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). GLAS is the first laser-ranging instrument for continuous global observations of the earth. The instrument will precisely measure the time it takes for a short pulse of laser light to travel to the reflecting object and return to the satellite. It will make unique atmospheric observations as an important component of the Earth Science Enterprise climate change program. In addition, operation of GLAS over land and water will provide along-track topography and vegetation characteristics.
Ball Aerospace, in Boulder, Colorado, developed the 2,108-pound spacecraft. NASA’s Kennedy Space Center is providing the expendable Boeing Corporation Delta II launch vehicle. Mission operations will be conducted by the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics.
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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) awarded a contract with an estimated value of approximately $56 million to SMI International of Colorado Springs, Colorado, for the operation and maintenance of the Fairbanks Command and Data Acquisition Station in Fairbanks, Alaska. The award was announced in early November.
The Fairbanks station is part of the NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NOAA Satellite and Information Services). The Fairbanks station provides support to both the operational NOAA Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite (POES) program and the Department of Defense’s operational Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP). The contract is a fixed price, award-term contract, with the award amount for the base year $6,299,712, and a total of $55,843,135 for the potential 10-year contract term. The contract is written for a base year, four option years, and up to five award term years.
SMI is a subsidiary of the Aleut Corporation, an Alaskan Native firm. SMI offers experience in operation and maintenance of satellite tracking facilities, including extensive experience working in an Arctic environment.
The Fairbanks CDA is critical to the continued operations of the POES and DMSP programs through their expected operational lifetimes over the next 10 to 12 years. The station will also support the GOES-9 satellite when it is activated for use over the Western Pacific next year.
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SeaWinds, NASA’s latest earth monitoring instrument for measuring the speed and direction of winds over the earth’s oceans, is set to launch aboard Japan’s Advanced Earth Observing Satellite II (Adeos II) at 8:31 p.m. EST on 13 December from the Tanegashima Space Center, the mission is expected to yield improved global weather forecasts and new insights into various Earth research investigations.
“Winds play a major role in every aspect of earth’s weather,” Asrar said. “They directly affect the turbulent exchanges of heat, moisture and greenhouse gases between earth’s atmosphere and the ocean that drive ocean circulation and climate. The SeaWinds instrument will provide a critical tool for improving weather forecasting, detecting and monitoring severe marine storms, identifying subtle changes in the global climate and better understanding global weather abnormalities, such as El Niño and La Niña.”
The mission will help scientists determine the location, structure and strength of severe marine storms—hurricanes in the Atlantic, typhoons near Asia and midlatitude cyclones worldwide—which are among the most destructive of all natural phenomena. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a chief mission partner, will use the data to improve weather forecasting and storm warnings, helping forecasters more accurately determine the paths and intensities of tropical storms and hurricanes.
SeaWinds will map wind speed and direction across 90% of the earth’s ice-free oceans every two days. Up to 15 times a day, Adeos II will beam down SeaWinds science data to ground stations operated by NASA and the National Space Development Agency of Japan, which will relay them to scientists and weather forecasters.
SeaWinds is a scatterometer, which transmits high-frequency microwave pulses to the ocean surface and measures the “backscattered,” or echoed, pulses as they are bounced back to the satellite. The instruments sense ripples caused by winds near the ocean’s surface, from which scientists can compute the wind speed and direction.
The 200-kilogram (441 pound) SeaWinds instrument will be launched aboard the Adeos II satellite by a Japanese H-IIA rocket. The satellite will circle the arth every 101 minutes at an altitude of 803 kilometers (499 miles). The SeaWinds instrument will make approximately 400,000 measurements every day.
More information on the SeaWinds on Adeos II is available at http://winds.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/SeaWinds/seaindex.html.
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NASA’s Aqua mission has captured one of the Popular Science’s “Best of What’s New Awards” for 2002. The Aqua mission won in the Aviation/Space category. Popular Science will feature the 100 winners, chosen in 10 categories, in its December 2002 issue. Popular Science annually reviews thousands of new products and innovations. To win, a product or technology must represent a significant step forward in its category.
Aqua is the latest in a series of spacecraft dedicated to advancing our understanding of global climate and global change. A central role of Aqua, as the name implies, is to gather information about water in the earth’s system. Aqua is gathering information about other earth variables as well. This information will help scientists all over the world to better understand the global water cycle and better understand the interactions within the climate system.
The Aqua mission is a joint project among the United States, Japan, and Brazil. Overall management of the Aqua mission is located at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
NASA’s Mars Odyssey mission and the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) were also winners.
For more information on Aqua, see http://aqua.nasa.gov.
For more information on the awards see http://www.popsci.com.
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Dr. Thomas R. Karl, director of NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, North Carolina, has been selected to receive the 2002 Presidential rank of Distinguished Executive Award. This award is presented to senior federal executives committed to excellence in public service. Karl is an AMS Fellow.
Each year the president confers the rank of Distinguished Executive and Meritorious Executive on a select group of career members of the Senior Executive Service who have provided exceptional service to the American people. These senior executives are outstanding leaders, who consistently demonstrate strength, integrity, industry, and a relentless commitment to public service. Through their personal conduct and results-oriented leadership, they have earned and kept a high degree of public confidence and trust. Executives from across federal government are nominated by their agency leaders, evaluated by citizen panels, and then designated by the president.
Karl, is a native of Niles, Illinois, and currently resides in Asheville, North Carolina. He will receive the Distinguished Executive award for his dedication to advancing the scientific understanding of climate and his ability to ingeniously and efficiently provide climate and weather data to industrial and business operations.
Ten NOAA executives will receive separate Meritorious Executive awards.
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KCCI-Television in Des Moines along with the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Johnston and Iowa State University in Ames have received the National Weather Association’s “Larry R. Johnson Special Award” for extraordinary accomplishments which significantly contributed to operational meteorology.
The award was presented at the NWA annual conference held in late October in Fort Worth, Texas. The National Weather Association is comprised of 3000 members, including university, media, and government meteorologists.
KCCI-TV joined the National Weather Service and Iowa State University in a first-ever collaboration to share real-time weather data from the TV station’s 44 “SchoolNet” weather sensors. The partnership, known as the Iowa Environmental Mesonet, included development of a system to automatically alert weather service meteorologists in Johnston when wind gusts of 50 mph or greater were reported by the school stations. Seventy-eight such reports were received by the NWS in the spring and summer of 2002, including a 96-mph wind gust in Glidden, Iowa, during a damaging thunderstorm on 10 July. Heavy rain reports were also relayed for use in flash flood forecasting. The Iowa Environmental Mesonet project includes additional weather data from Iowa airports, roadway sensors, cooperative observers, and agricultural weather stations. Weather reports from the partnership can be found at www.mesonet.agron.iastate.edu.
Accepting the award were KCCI chief meteorologist John McLaughlin, Daryl Herzmann from the ISU Department of Agronomy, and Andy Kula of the National Weather Service.
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Dr. Richard W. Spinrad, Technical Director for the Oceanographer of the Navy and AMS member, was recently appointed chair of the Ocean Observations Executive Committee of the National Ocean Research Leadership Council (NORLC). Under the auspices of the National Ocean Partnership Program (NOPP), NORLC coordinates the functions of 12 federal agencies with ocean-related responsibilities. Dr. Rita Colwell, Chair of NORLC and Director of the National Science Foundation, appointed Spinrad in late October.
Spinrad has been involved with NOPP in a variety of capacities since its inception, and he represented the U.S. Navy on the Ocean Observation Executive Committee. As the new chair of the executive committee, he is responsible for overseeing efforts to implement an Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) and identifying federal agency budget initiatives supporting that initiative. He works closely with other committee members to provide policy guidance, ensure federal agency support, and approve implementing documents.
Recent technological developments and new state-of-the-art sensing techniques have improved the quality of ocean observations, but significant gaps in important data still exist in many ocean areas of the world. Improved coordination of data collection and dissemination will improve weather forecasting, enhance detection and forecasting of the ocean components of climate variability, help ensure the safety and success of all maritime operations, and contribute to homeland defense.
As technical director for the oceanographer of the navy, Spinrad is the senior civilian technical advisor to the Navy’s meteorological and oceanographic organization, and ensures that the technical elements of naval oceanography programs are adequate, realistic and consistent with established policy. He is also the oceanographer’s principal advisor on scientific and technical issues, and serves as a key liaison to the military and civilian oceanography communities.
Spinrad is also the editor of Oceanography magazine, a publication of The Oceanography Society. As chair of the Ocean Observations Executive Committee he will replace David Evans, formerly of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
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Philadelphia’s NBC 10 News recently named Glenn “Hurricane” Schwartz NBC 10’s Chief Meteorologist.
Schwartz has been an AMS sealholder since 1981 and joined NBC 10 in October 1995. Prior to that, he worked as the meteorologist for WPBF-TV in West Palm Beach, and WINK-TV in Ft. Myers, Florida; and WRAL-TV in Raleigh, North Carolina. In Ft. Myers, Glenn covered Hurricane Andrew on his first day on the air.
Schwartz got his nickname when he worked at WNYW-TV in New York City from 1992–95. An anchorman dubbed him ‘Hurricane’ after watching old footage of Schwartz being blown around in one. As a hurricane specialist for The Weather Channel in Atlanta from 1983–84, he produced hurricane documentaries for the network and the National Science Foundation. He also became the station’s first “hurricane chaser.”
In 1979–83, Schwartz began his television Meteorology career with WAGA-TV in Atlanta. Before joining WAGA, he was the disaster preparedness meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Atlanta. His experience and interest with hurricanes began with the National Hurricane Center in Miami from 1974–77. From 1972–74, Schwartz worked at Accu-Weather in State College, Pennsylvania, providing radio forecasts for numerous clients.
A 1972 graduate of Penn State, Schwartz earned a B.S. Degree in Meteorology.
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Mary M. Cairns has recently joined NOAA’s Office of the Federal Coordinator for Meteorological Services and Supporting Research in Silver Spring, Maryland. OFCM is an interdepartmental office established to coordinate 15 federal departments and agencies currently engaged in meteorological activities.
As senior staff physical scientist, her primary responsibility will be executive secretariat to the Committee for Environmental Services, Operations, and Research needs, as well as the Committee for Environmental Information Systems and Communications. The committees focus on atmospheric and environmental data requirements, communications, and requirements for research needs.
Before joining OFCM, Cairns spent eight years as the science and operations officer at the Reno, Nevada, National Weather Service Forecast Office. Prior to that, her work entailed meteorological research and development at the Forecast Systems Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado, for over 15 years.
Cairns graduated from San Jose State University in 1978, with a bachelor of science degree in meteorology. In 1988, Cairns earned a master’s degree in atmospheric science from Colorado State University under Dr. Roger A. Pielke Sr.
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The Desert Research Institute has awarded the 2002 Peter B. Wagner Memorial Award for Women in the Atmospheric Sciences to Roberta Quadrelli, a Ph.D. candidate in atmospheric science at the University at Washington in Seattle. The $1,000 annual award was established in 1998 by former Nevada Lt. Gov. Sue Wagner in memory of her husband, Peter, a DRI scientist who died in the 1980 crash of a DRI research aircraft. The purpose of the national award is to encourage women graduate students in the atmospheric sciences.
Quadrelli’s research topic concerned the interaction of the tropical Pacific Ocean’s El Niño phenomenon, which periodically influences weather over many areas of the world during cycles spanning several years, and the winter storm-inducing cycles that develop in northern polar latitudes and create repetitive storm cycles, called Arctic oscillations in northern midlatitudes. These oscillations shift the most intense storm activity to different regions of the Northern Hemisphere, often several times during a winter season.
Quadrelli’s analysis found that during warm El Niño events, when ocean temperatures rise off the coast of California, the Arctic oscillation tends to influence Northern Hemisphere winters more strongly, particularly in Siberia. She said, however, that the variability of northern winter storm patterns is heavily influenced in either cold or warm El Niño events. She found that the prevailing pressure systems over the Pacific and Atlantic oceans tended to be the same during the cold phase of an El Niño cycle.
Applicants for the Wagner Award must be pursuing a Masters or Ph.D. in a program of atmospheric sciences or a related field and must submit a paper based on original research directly related to the identification, clarification, and/or resolution of an atmospheric or climatic problem.
A nonprofit, statewide division of the University and Community College System of Nevada, DRI pursues a full-time program of basic and applied environmental research on a local, national, and international scale.
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A professor of geology who has studied the impacts of tsunamis on the northern coast of California has been named the first recipient of an award named in honor of the manager of the U.S. Tsunami Warning Program. The new award was created by the National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program, of which NOAA is the lead federal agency, to recognize individuals or groups who help build tsunami resistant U.S. communities.
Lori Dengler, a professor at Humboldt State University’s Department of Geology in Arcata, California, received the award today during the annual meeting of the National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program in Seattle. The National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program is a state–federal partnership created to reduce the impacts of tsunamis to U.S. coastal areas by coordinating the state efforts of Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington, with the federal efforts of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the United States Geological Service (USGS).
The Richard H. Hagemeyer Tsunami Mitigation Award was named for Richard “Dick” Hagemeyer, who was internationally recognized for his leadership in developing the United States Tsunami Warning Program.
Hagemeyer joined the National Weather Service in 1950 and from 1982 to his death in 2001 he managed the U.S. Tsunami Program and was the United States representative to the International Coordinating Group for the Tsunami Warning System in the Pacific. He was a member of the National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program (NTHMP) from its inception and his staunch support for tsunami mitigation was a major force in the development and success of the program.
Dengler has made contributions in tsunami awareness and education in a variety of areas, including the publication of On Shaking Ground, which provides information about tsunami hazards and mitigation for the general public. She has raised funds for community activities centered on tsunami education and mitigation and wrote the national Strategic Implementation Plan for Tsunami Mitigation Projects, which provided the framework for a national plan, as well as activities in five states.
Dengler was also cited for her “presentations on historic tsunami and the current tsunami threat to the west coast of the United States (that) have energized the programs of California and have been an essential element in supporting local planning in the state.”
Individuals or groups concerned with tsunami mitigation are eligible for the Richard H. Hagemeyer Tsunami Mitigation Award.
Each year the award will recognize the project or program that most exemplifies building tsunami-resistant U.S. coastal communities. Individuals and programs can be nominated in any or all of the following categories: improving tsunami education; providing tools and training for construction, land use planning, and/or emergency planning and response in tsunami inundation zones; creating and strengthening links within and among coastal communities and states to support long-term tsunami mitigation; improving the tsunami mitigation science infrastructure; and encouraging local innovation and sponsorship of tsunami mitigation programs.
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