Editor: Jim Elliott
Contributors: Alan Weinstein, Ginny Owen, and Julie Burba
Copy Editor: Anne Siefken
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The Senate, by a vote of 99–0, passed an NSF authorization bill for FY98–2000 on 22 May.
The Senate would authorize $3.506 billion for NSF in FY98, $3.77 billion in FY99, and $3.886 billion in FY2000.
Funds already have been appropriated for FY98 (NSF received $3.429 billion), and the FY98 authorization was slightly larger than the amount appropriated.
The authorization for FY99 is comparable to President Clinton's request. The House passed its own, similar version of the bill last year. There is some indication, according to the American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Science Policy News, that the House might accept the Senate version without need for a conference.
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The Senate Appropriations Committee by a vote of 27–0 approved the Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill for FY99 on 4 June. The bill funds the civilian R&D programs within the Department of Energy.
The bill would provide funding equal to the requested amount for high energy physics, nuclear physics, and basic energy sciences. For fusion energy sciences, the committee would provide an amount equal to FY98 funding, an amount greater than the request. The president's budget requests $392.6 million for biological and environmental research, while the Senate bill recommends an appropriation of $407.6 million.
The committee also suggested bringing these four programs together with several others under a newly renamed "Office of Science Research."
A breakdown shows the following in millions.
| Program | FY98 appro. | FY99 request | Senate bill |
| High energy physics | $680.0 | $691.0 | $691.0 |
| Nuclear physics | $320.9 | $332.6 | $332.6 |
| Basic energy sciences | $668.2 | $836.1 | $836.1 |
| Fusion energy sciences | $232.0 | $228.2 | $232.0 |
| Biological and environmental research | $405.2 | $393.6 | $407.6 |
The House is expected to complete its markup before the end of June.
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The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee passed a bill in late April authorizing amounts equal to the FY98 appropriations for NIST's core laboratory activities, construction, and maintenance and the Advanced Technology Program (ATP), and Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), according to a report in the American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Science Policy News.
For FY99, the Senate bill would authorize $287.7 million for NIST's labs, compared to the president's request of $291.6 million. It would authorize $204.0 million, less than the FY99 request, for ATP, but more than the request for the other two main accounts: $114.4 million for MEP and $67.0 million for the construction account.
The authorizations for FY2000 are labs, $296.3 million; construction, $56.7 million; ATP, $210.1 million, and MEP, $114.4 million.
A House bill passed last year would authorize significantly less for ATP in FY99.
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Looking to the future, NWS Director John J. Kelly Jr. has outlined what he refers to as critical actions toward moving the agency into the twenty-first century.
In taking the action, he named three committees:
l. A committee of nine persons will oversee the implementation of actions he recommended in his report to the Secretary of Commerce last October. Vickie Nadolski, modernization system manager, will chair the committee.
2. A second committee is designed to develop a strategic plan for the transition into the twenty-first century. This committee will be chaired by Gary Grice, deputy director of the Storm Prediction Center.
3. The third committee, to be headed by Dr. Tom Potter, will examine the organization structure needed at NWS Headquarters.
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From Alan Weinstein
The Specialist Group for the History of Meteorology and Physical Oceanography of the Royal Meteorological Society has announced its Jehuda Neumann Prize "commemorating the work of Professor Jehuda Neumann (1915–93) on the relationship between weather and history."
The prize will be awarded biennially to the person considered "..to have made the most outstanding contribution to the study of the history of meteorology or physical oceanography during the preceding five years." The prize is open to all.
"The prize shall usually be awarded for a published paper in the English language. Exceptionally, the period may be extended to recognize long-term meritorious contributions."
The prize will be presented at the Annual General Meeting of the RMS. It will carry a value of 50 pounds, plus a certificate and five years free membership of the group (3 pounds per year).
Nominations, with supporting reasons, should be sent to the Honorary Secretary of the Group (Maurice Crewe, 36 Trevelyan,, Bracknell, RG12 8YD, UK, Phone: 44 01344 428438, e-mail: maurice.crewe@virgin.net) by 31 July 1998. See their Web site for full details on the group: http://www.itu.rdg.ac.uk/rms/hisgroup.html.
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Vice President Al Gore, Undersecretary D. James Baker, and federal officials, at a press conference in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on 8 June, released a report by NOAA showing the average global temperatures for January through May far exceed previous records for those months. In addition, the report showed that over the past century, El Niño events have become more frequent and progressively warmer.
The vice president was supported by Thomas R. Karl, head of NOAA's National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, North Carolina, who noted that temperatures for the first five months of this year were higher than normal by an amount "far exceeding anything we've seen in the past." He described the trend as "unprecedented."
"Although it is not clear that the increasing frequency and warmth of El Niños is a direct result of global warming," Gore said, "the analysis suggests that the effects of El Niño are compounded by rising global temperatures."
For the first five months of 1998, he explained, new record temperatures were set in five states and new precipitation records in 13 states. Temperature and precipitation, and in some cases both, were far above normal in 32 states, he said.
Tornadoes have killed 122 people this year, he continued, matching the annual record set in 1984. Elsewhere in the world, he said, unusually warm ocean temperatures have severely damaged fragile coral reefs from the Florida Keys to Australia and prolonged droughts have contributed to thousands of wildfires in Malaysia, Brazil, and Mexico.
NOAA Administrator D. James Baker warned that "This wetter and warmer winter that we've just experienced gives us a glimpse of what we can expect in a greenhouse gas, globally warmed world."
"This report," the vice president said, "is a reminder once again that global warming is real and that unless we act, we can expect more extreme weather in the years ahead."
"This El Niño gives us a taste of the extreme, erratic weather our children and grandchildren can expect more of unless we reverse the trend of global warming," Gore said.
He called for Congress to approve the administration's Climate Change Technology Initiative, which would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by providing $6.3 billion over five years for tax and research incentives to spur the development and use of energy efficient products and clean energy technologies. The package also includes tax credits for consumers who buy superefficient cars, homes, and appliances.
"Regrettably," Gore complained, "there are those in Congress who would rather pretend that climate change is not real. It's time for Congress to wake up to the mounting evidence and help us meet this challenge head on. The time to act is now."
Using charts to emphasize his points, Gore showed that few areas of the United States were not affected by the 1997–98 El Niño, the strongest recorded in this century, surpassing the 1982–83 event.
"Across the United States," said the vice president, "temperatures were 2.5° higher than average. The northeast was 4.4° warmer than normal, and in the Great Lakes region the difference was a full 6.4°."
Several states had record high temperatures, including a March high of 96° in Maryland and 88°– 90° in northern New England.
Based on records dating back to 1895, many states have broken all-time records for mean temperatures and total precipitation. During the first five months of 1998, records for total precipitation were broken in California, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. For the same period, Idaho had its second wettest year to date; Rhode Island its third wettest; Nevada its fourth wettest, and Massachusetts, Oregon, and Pennsylvania their fifth wettest.
Baker said the latest NOAA forecasts indicate a return to near-normal conditions in the tropical Pacific during the next three–six months. Thereafter, he said, models indicate that near-normal conditions will persist through the end of 1998.
The vice president directed NOAA and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to work with other agencies in preparing a detailed review of the 1997–98 El Niño, its impacts and its costs. He also announced a new NASA web site (http://modarch.gsfc.nasa.gov/fire_atlas/fires.html) tracking major forest fires around the world with state-of-the-art satellite imagery. (See related story in this issue.)
The following tables were presented by Vice President Gore and NOAA officials at the White House news conference on 8 June.
Temperatures are shown in Fahrenheit (F), and precipitation in inches.
January–May 1998 was the wettest on record, back to 1895, for two regions and five states.
| Region | 1998 | 1998 % of normal | 1961–90 normal | Second wettest value and year |
| Southeast | 27.72" | 134% | 20.76" | 27.31" in 1979 |
| West | 19.66" | 218% | 9.03' | 9.04" in 1995 |
| California | 28.04" | 228% | 12.31" | 7.49" in 1909 |
| Maryland | 24.55" | 141% | 17.39" | 24.45" in 1924 |
| North Carolina | 29.20" | 145% | 20.08" | 26.31" in 1979 |
| South Carolina | 29.98" | 149% | 20.17" | 28.64" in 1929 |
| Virginia | 27.88" | 162% | 17.26" | 23.30" in 1984 |
January–May 1998 was the second wettest on record (back to 1895) in one state.
| Idaho | 11.89" | 134% | 8.86" | 12.17" in 1996 |
January–May 1998 was the warmest on record for one region and 13 states.
| Region | 1998 value | Dep. from normal | 1961–90 normal | second warmest value & year |
| Northeast | 40. | +5.4 | 35.5 | 30.8 in 1921 |
| Connecticut | 43.6 | +5.2 | 38.4 | 42.8 in 1991 |
| Delaware | 50.0 | +4.9 | 45.1 | 49.5 in 1991 |
| Maryland | 48.8 | +4.5 | 44.3 | 48.6 in 1990 |
| Massachusetts | 41.8 | +4.6 | 37.2 | 41.2 in 1949 |
| Michigan | 39.1 | +6.1 | 33.0 | 38.6 in 1921 |
| New Hampshire | 37.9 | +5.2 | 32.7 | 36.1 in 1953 |
| New Jersey | 47.7 | +5.4 | 42.3 | 46.4 in 1991 |
| New York | 40.1 | +5.8 | 34.3 | 38.9 in 1921 |
| Ohio | 46.4 | +5.9 | 40.5 | 45.8 in 1921 |
| Pennsylvania | 44.5 | +5.9 | 38.6 | 44.0 in 1921 |
| Rhode Island | 44.1 | +4.5 | 39.6 | 43.0 in 1949 |
| Vermont | 36.9 | +5.3 | 31.6 | 35.8 in 1953 |
| Wisconsin | 38.7 | +7.2 | +7.2 | 31.5 37.9 in 1987 |
January–May 1998 was the second warmest on record for two regions and four
states.
| Region | 1998 value | Dep. from normal | 1961–90 normal | Warmest value and year |
| Central | 38.5 | +6.4 | 32.1 | 39.0 in 1987 |
| Central | 48.3 | +4.4 | 43.9 | 49.0 in 1921 |
| Illinois | 46.6 | +5.2 | 41.4 | 47.3 in 1921 |
| Indiana | 46.7 | +5.3 | 41.4 | 47.1 in 1921 |
| Maine | 33.6 | +4.3 | 29.3 | 33.6 in 1913 |
| Minnesota | 36.0 | +7.3 | 28.7 | 37.4 in 1987 |
Source: NOAA/NESDIS National Climatic Data Center.
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National Weather Service Director Jack Kelly has praised the entire NWS organization for its "outstanding efforts and tireless dedication on all aspects of the 1997–98 El Niño."
"The Climate Prediction Center," he said in his message distributed throughout the NWS, "has done, and continues to do, an excellent job in monitoring and forecasting a major climate event of this century and how it is shaping weather patterns in the U.S. and around the globe. The forecasts of El Niño, issued in June 1997, correctly predicted we would have the climate event of the century. The seasonal forecasts for the winter of 1998 were among the best forecasts ever issued by the Climate Prediction Center, they set new skill score records.
"The long-lead forecasts are only a small part of the larger picture. Once forecasts were issued, many of you, from the national centers to the local forecast offices, took to the streets providing countless briefings to our federal, state, and local partners in an effort to reduce impacts and damage. You participated in workshops and set up new experimental products and services and did much, much more to get the word out.
"Through these efforts, the National Weather Service and NOAA has been seen as the expert on El Niño and its impacts. As the storms approached the U.S., you went into action, as you do each time severe weather threatens. Forecasts, watches, and warnings alerted communities that severe weather was on the way and to take proper precautions. In the midst of an extremely active time, especially in California and throughout the Southeast, many of you handled thousands of media interviews answering numerous questions on El Niño and its impacts.
"Thousands of national and international media have covered this story and covered it accurately because of the information all of you provided."
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With the hurricane season opening, NWS officials have launched a campaign they hope will result in making weather alert radios as common as smoke detectors in homes across America.
More widespread use of the radios could save many lives and reduce property damage during the upcoming hurricane season (1 June–30 November), they said.
Deputy Secretary of Commerce Robert Mallett, NOAA Administrator D. James Baker, NWS Director Jack Kelly, and National Hurricane Center Director Jerry Jarrell stressed the importance of alerts at a conference at the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida, in May.
Mallett discussed the Natural Disaster Reduction Initiative, a program that brings together federal agencies for the first time to build disaster-resistant communities and jobs.
"NOAA's continuing investment in science technology has paid early dividends," explained NWS Director Kelly, noting that NOAA's new high-altitude jet, the Gulfstream-IV, was used operationally for the first time last year during Tropical Storm Claudette.
"Preliminary results are promising," he said. "We had a limited number of trials last year using the jet and its instrument packages, yet data collected improved the track forecast by as much as 32% in the critical 24–36 hours when forecasters issue storm warnings and watches.
"On the individual level, new technology for NOAA Weather Radio has improved the way we communicate urgent warning messages to the public."
The newest generation of radios has a feature called Specific Area Message Encoding that lets listeners preselect the NWS warnings they want to receive based on the county in which they live, Kelly explained.
The radios sound an alarm and turn themselves on when severe weather is forecast for that area.
At the same time, officials announced that Vice President Al Gore has taped two public service announcements (PSAs) to highlight the NWS effort to improve public warnings. Played for the first time at the Miami conference, the vice president explains that the NWS will use the NOAA Weather Radio receiver to sound an alarm when it broadcasts emergency messages.
"All across America," Gore said, "families are being hit by severe weather that is devastating their homes and their lives. "That's why I've recorded two PSAs about this special alarm . . . another way to help families protect their homes and their loved ones from severe storms."
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Will La Niña replace El Niño as the next climate phenomenon in the public eye? It's too early to tell whether this cooling of the eastern tropical Pacific will arrive this winter, but an in-depth discussion of La Niña will hit Boulder this summer.
The National Center for Atmospheric Research will host the world's first summit devoted to El Niño's less-studied counterpart 15–17 July. "Review of the Causes and Consequences of Cold Events: A La Niña Summit" is being organized by NCAR senior scientist and El Niño expert Michael Glantz with support from the United Nations University (UNU), based in Tokyo. The summit at NCAR's Mesa Laboratory will draw a number of the nation's top researchers on La Niña and El Niño from universities and government agencies. NCAR's primary sponsor is the National Science Foundation.
La Niña is a drop in the normal sea surface temperatures across the eastern tropical Pacific. Usually, sea surface readings off South America's west coast range from 60° to 70°F, while they exceed 80° F in the "warm pool" located in the central and western Pacific. This warm pool expands to cover the Tropics during El Niño, but during La Niña, the easterly trade winds strengthen, cold upwelling off Peru and Ecuador intensifies, and sea surface temperatures there fall as much as 7° F below normal. Like its counterpart, La Niña tends to be strongest during the Northern Hemisphere winter, and it typically lasts one to two years.
Unnamed until the mid-1980s, La Niña (Spanish for "the girl") has received less attention than El Niño. However, La Niña's effects, such as the 1988 Midwest drought and an increased hurricane threat in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico, cannot be ignored.
In the past 20 years, there have been only three La Niñas, compared to seven El Niños. The uneven count has sparked debate over whether global climate change might be tweaking the Pacific Tropics toward more El Niños or even toward a semipermanent warm state.
The goal of the La Niña summit is to identify what is known about La Niña and its societal and environmental impacts. A workshop report will be released afterward. The summit is the first project in a "usable science" collaboration supported by UNU and aimed at helping Pacific Rim countries respond to El Niño and La Niña risks. Glantz is the project coordinator.
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Four African meteorologists, working with UCAR for nine months in Boulder, have developed a multimedia CD-ROM for use of satellite data in Africa.
The module should improve forecasts, including daily and seasonal rainfall predictions, which are critical to Africa where millions of lives depend on the current year's crops from farms of all sizes, officials predicted.
The module will be distributed to the national weather forecasting centers across Africa, they explained.
Once back in their respective meteorological training centers in Niger and Kenya, the four technology pioneers will teach educators from across the continent the process of building such modules for meteorology and other applications.
The Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology Education and Training, part of the Boulder-based UCAR, trained the four scientists: Koffigan Attitso, of Togo; Emmanuel Kploguede, of Benin; and Joseph Kageny and James Kongoti, both of Kenya.
The German Organization for Technical Cooperation and the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) funded the program, known as the African Satellite Meteorology Education and Training Program.
In many parts of Africa, weather observation stations are located only in regional administrative centers, often hundreds of kilometers apart. WMO's recommendations for station distribution are not fully implemented because of limited resources, officials said.
"We have very little conventional weather data in Africa," according to Attitso. "That is the number one obstacle we face in making a good weather forecast."
Another obstacle facing African forecasters is the lack of forecast models. "The European models are not relevant to the Tropics," Attitso explained. "We have completely different forecasting problems from those in Europe, and these problems vary across our continent."
The module exists in both English and French, the scientists said.
"Our CD-ROM is a tool for studying tropical meteorology anywhere," said Kagenyi. "You can use it in southern California, in Mexico, in any tropical or subtropical region."
EUMETSAT, a consortium of 17 western European countries, operates a weather satellite that provides excellent coverage of Africa.
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Although tornado-bearing thunderstorms raced across central Alabama on 8 April, leaving 34 dead and killing others in Mississippi and Georgia, the high death toll wasn't due to lack of official notice. Tornado watches were issued hours before the twisters struck and 36 warnings from the NWS in Birmingham, Alabama, gave residents an average of 13 minutes to seek shelter.
The warnings largely are the result of forecasters in Birmingham and in Melbourne, Florida, honing their skills with two training modules on CD-ROM: "Anticipating Convective Storm Structure and Evolution" and "A Convective Storm Matrix: Buoyancy/Shear Dependencies."
Both modules were prepared by the Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology, Education and Training (COMET) at UCAR. The two modules combine storm theory, observations, and computer models to help users peg storm types in advance when they know a given day's blend of ingredients; in particular, buoyancy (instability fueled by warm, moist surface air) and shear (winds that strengthen and/or veer with height).
The modules were prepared with the assistance of Morris Weisman, a meteorologist at NCAR.
Recognizing the Florida weather threat of 22–23 February well ahead of time, the Melbourne forecasters alerted the public 36 hours before the deadly outbreak. "The pattern was a classic severe weather setup, just like you see in the modules and the textbooks," according to Tony Cristaldi, a Melbourne forecaster.
Through residence courses and distance learning, the COMET program trains meteorologists at weather services, in the U.S. armed forces, and at universities throughout the world. Sponsored by the NWS, the Air Force Weather Agency, and the Navy Meteorology and Oceanography Command, the program now is focusing to broaden its training to mesoscale convective systems (MCSs), clusters of storms that have their own hazardous qualities.
NCAR meteorologists since the 1980s have forged a body of theory on storm behavior based on the interplay between buoyancy and shear. With Weisman's help, the COMET program's modules convey the group's work in a three-dimensional, animated format.
"Who needs another textbook?" Weisman asked. "We are trying to take a step beyond that to a new level of education."
The "Convective Storm Matrix" includes up to 54 simulated combinations of buoyancy and shear and depicts the kinds of storms one could expect in each situation.
This year, COMET is developing a set of new modules that show not just how a single storm grows and dies, but also how groups of storms interact with each other and behave as an MCS. Two of the new modules are now available on the World Wide Web (http://www.meted.ucar.edu), the first time COMET has placed its modules on the internet. The modules can be accessed by any user whose web domain ends in ".edu."
The online MCS modules feature a wealth of color imagery, downdrafts and updrafts, vortices forming at the ends of squall lines, supercells evolving into bow echoes, and lines evolving into circular masses.
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An ice-breaking ship, research airplanes, space satellites, and an international team of scientists are focusing their attention this month on the Alaskan Arctic to learn more about global climate change through a study of clouds and radiation of the sun during the spring and summer.
The FIRE Arctic Cloud Experiment (FIRE/ICE) is studying a variety of cloud systems in a two-phase campaign that will run through 30 July. FIRE (First International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project Regional Experiment) is led by NASA in collaboration with other government and private organizations. The effort will be concentrated in the Beaufort Sea area and in the skies over the coastal town of Barrow.
"We know very little about Arctic clouds and how they interact with the polar surface and atmosphere," explained Dr. Patrick Minnis, FIRE project scientist from NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.. "The better we can understand it, the more we'll be able to determine the possible effects of potential global change, such as iceberg melting and coastline flooding."
The current campaign will use four aircraft, numerous earth-bound instruments, and six orbiting satellites to take measurements of clouds from high above them, inside them, and below them, officials said.
A NASA ER-2 research plane from Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California, will fly about 70 000 feet with a suite of remote sensors to study clouds that form in the vicinity of "leads," large cracks that expose water, and melt ponds.
Three other aircraft, a University of Washington CV-580, a National Center for Atmospheric Research C-130, and a Canada National Research Council Convair, will use a variety of instruments to take measurements in situ, or inside the clouds.
Additionally, the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker vessel, the Des Groselliers, has been frozen in the Arctic ice pack for a year as part of a climate-modeling project sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research.
Participating will be more than 80 researchers from eight NASA centers, five U.S. agencies, 13 U.S. universities and educational consortia, and three private U.S. companies, as well as scientists from Canada, Great Britain, and the Netherlands.
Detailed information about the project can be found at http://asd-www.larc.nasa.gov/fire/.
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Recent satellite images indicate a section of a large ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula has broken away.
The images, collected by the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder, show that the ice shelf that broke off was about 40 km long and 5 km wide, according to Ted Scambos, a research associate at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, a joint institute of CU-Boulder and NOAA.
NSICS researchers spotted the event within a few days of its occurrence in late February after analyzing images obtained with a radiometer aboard a polar-orbiting NOAA satellite. A second image from 23 March confirmed the disintegrated area of ice of about 200 square kilometers on a shelf known as the Larsen B Ice Shelf. The Larsen Ice Shelf is roughly the size of Connecticut.
"The 26 February image shows that much of the ice was already gone," said Scambos. "The 23 March image made it crystal clear that a significant portion of the ice shelf had broken off."
The satellite pictures appear to confirm earlier studies by the British Antarctic Survey that predicted that the 12 000-square-kilometer ice shelf was nearing its stability limit. Researchers believe it has retreated too far to be able to brace itself against the rocky peninsulas and islands that flank it. If the model is correct, the ice shelf will continue to crumble rapidly beginning early next year, Scambos explained. No more reduction is expected until summer, which begins in Antarctica in December. "This may be the beginning of the end for the Larsen Ice Shelf," Scambos said.
Antarctic Peninsula ice shelves have been in rapid retreat for the last few decades, apparently in response to a regional climate warming of 2.5° C, or 4.5° F, since the 1940s, scientists believe. Although the rate of warming is several times that of the global average, the exact cause of the warming is not known.
"The warming trend appears to be related to a reduction in sea ice," Scambos said. "The question now is what is causing the reduction. At this point, we do not have enough evidence to find a smoking gun."
About two-thirds of the 12 000-square-kilometer ice sheet are now threatening to break off, he explained. The other one third is nestled in bays that are expected to protect it from breaking off.
"This is the biggest ice shelf yet to be threatened," according to Scambos. "The total size of the Larsen B Ice Shelf is more than all the previous ice that has been lost from Antarctic ice sheets in the past two decades."
In early 1995, a smaller ice shelf area, called the Larsen A, completely disintegrated during a single storm after years of gradually shrinking."The speed of the breakup was unprecedented," Scambos said, "and followed several of the warmest summers on record for this portion of the Antarctic."
A much smaller ice shelf, the Wordie, disappeared in the late 1980s.
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The world's largest archive of weather data covering climate change over the past 100 years is now available on the World Wide Web, according to NOAA officials.
Making the data available on the Web was an action taken in celebration of Earth Day, they explained.
NOAA's National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, North Carolina, has focused on several major climatic events of this century: from the 1997–98 El Niño, to the warmest and wettest January and February in more than a century, to near-record temperatures globally.
"This El Niño is consistent with a worldwide trend over the past 40 years toward a warmer and wetter world," NOAA officials said. "This is just the sort of world projected under global climate change. In a sense, the El Niño may be providing us a window on the future.
"While we can't draw a causal link between El Niño and global warming, climate models tell us that global warming will likely first manifest itself in changes in weather patterns similar to El Niño."
Information on El Niño, precipitation, temperatures, and global warming and climate change are available on the new Web site. The address of the Earth Day site ishttp://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/ol/climate/research/1998/earthday/earthday.html.
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AccuWeather, Inc., now offers an Internet service designed specifically for pilots and aviation interests that will enable pilots to file flight plans and receive route weather briefings quickly and conveniently, according to a company announcement.
The service, available for a 30-day free trial period at http://www.personal.accuweather.com, will be available by subscription for $4.95 a month or $39.95 a year, the company announced.
Services to be available include current national, regional, or local Doppler radar images; current visible and infrared satellite images; a complete array of aviation DIFAX charts; Airmets, NOTAMS, PIREPS, Sigmets, and Aviation Area forecasts; raw, decoded, and plain language terminal observations; TAFS; flight rules graphics; winds aloft graphics, and all severe weather watches, warnings, and advisories, according to the announcement.
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A $625 000 contract to design and build a Doppler weather radar has been awarded to Radtec Engineering, Inc., of Broomfield, Colorado, according to NOAA officials.
The radar will be placed aboard NOAA's research vessel, the Ronald H. Brown, and used for the study of global climate change around the world, officials said.
The 274-foot ship was commissioned in July of last year. It is considered among the most technologically advanced seagoing research platforms in the world. Named after the late Commerce Department Secretary who died in a plane crash in 1996, the ship is the first new research vessel constructed for NOAA in 17 years.
The ship is commanded by Captain David Peterson of the NOAA Corps. The Brown's complement includes four commissioned officers, 20 civilian crew members, and up to 35 scientists.
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In an economy move toward the development of a single, integrated environmental satellite system to meet both civilian and military needs, the Air Force has transferred control of its weather satellites to NOAA.
Designed to promote efficiency and reduce public expense, the move is expected to save an estimated $1.3 billion in taxpayer funds, according to a Defense Department official.
The merger was directed by President Clinton on 5 May 1994.
NOAA will operate the satellites from its Satellite Operations Control Center in Suitland, Maryland.
"The transfer of DMSP operations . . . marks another major important milestone in our commitment to implementing weather satellite convergence and building a true operational partnership to satisfy the requirements of the civil and military weather communities," said Robert S. Winokur, NOAA assistant administrator for satellite and information services.
"This transition has been a tremendous teaming success story," explained Brigadier General Robert C. Hinson, Air Force Space Command director of operations. "Since the president's decision, everyone has worked together to keep this project on time and on target."
The original schedule called for the transfer to take place no later than 30 June 1998.
As a result of the transfer, the Air Force will close the Sixth Space Operations Squadron after nearly 35 years of continuous operations at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, and eliminate 228 active duty positions, officials said.
NOAA's Suitland facility will become the primary location for providing functions associated with command and control of all U.S. weather satellites, including early orbit checkout, satellite state of health maintenance, and satellite sensor and payload management, officials explained.
Beginning in October 1998, the Air Force Reserve will operate an alternate DMSP command and control facility at Falcon AFB, Colorado.
NOAA currently operates two operational polar-orbiting satellites, NOAA-12 and NOAA-14. NOAA-15, launched on 13 May, currently is undergoing on-orbit checkout. NOAA also operates the nation's geostationary weather satellites, GOES-8, overlooking the East Coast and an area well out into the Atlantic Ocean, and GOES-9, overlooking the West Coast and well out into the Pacific Ocean, including Hawaii. GOES-10 currently is stored in orbit. With the transfer of the defense satellites, NOAA also is operating the five DMSP satellites.
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NASA researchers, using the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS), have been monitoring the fires in Mexico and the smoke aerosols emitted by them to determine the impact the smoke contributes to the overall global air pollution levels in the air humans breathe.
The fires, which started in southern Mexico and Guatemala near the end of March, have generated smoke levels in Texas and other states causing some of them to issue warnings for people to remain indoors to avoid adverse health impacts, such as asthma.
Increased smoke concentration from human-induced fires also could contribute to global climate change, according to scientists.
"Shortly after the fires started, we noticed the increased amount of aerosols in the region," said Dr. Jay R. Herman, an atmospheric scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland. "By mid-April, large amounts of smoke were covering parts of Mexico with plumes extending into Florida, Texas, New Mexico, California, and Wisconsin."
By 16 May, the smoke plume extended across the eastern United States, passing through Ohio and into southern Canada.
TOMS is a spaceborne instrument that has been used to document events like the highly unusual transport of large amounts of dust from China (Gobi Desert) across the Pacific Ocean and the smoke from Canadian fires in the Pacific Northwest. It also has been used to measure ash from volcanic activities around the world.
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In an effort to provide up-to-date information about current fire situations around the globe to the public and scientific communities, NASA unveiled a new presence on the World Wide Web that provides an up-to-date synopsis of current information about fires and their effect on global climate change. This web site features revealing animation depicting wildfires across the globe.
The new Web site at http://modarch.gsfc.nasa.gov/fire_atlas/fires.html provides recent imagery, analysis of data from the early and mid-1990s, and a synthesis of a range of satellite information resources that are currently available about terrestrial fires and future global fire monitoring capabilities. The Web site draws upon satellite resources from several U.S. agencies and international partners and is intended to serve the needs of the scientific community and the general public.
The recent fires in Mexico and Brazil, and last summer's fires in Indonesia, have heightened public awareness of the importance of natural and human-induced wildfire as a contributor both to regional pollution and global change. Nearly 175 million acres of forest and grasslands are burned each year worldwide. Using data from satellite sensors, aircraft, and ground-based initiatives, scientists are working to develop a new global fire-monitoring program that will enable them to better understand the many implications of this growing problem.
Specifically, efforts are under way to quantify the total area of forests and grasslands burned each year and to more accurately estimate the amount of resulting emission products. These newer and better data will facilitate development of more robust computer models that will enhance scientists' abilities to predict how biomass burning will impact climate, the environment, and air quality.
Since no single satellite or instrument provides optimal characteristics for fire monitoring, data are currently used from several satellite systems. Each system has different capabilities in terms of spatial resolution, sensitivity/saturation level, spectral frequency, overpass time, and repeat frequency.
Among the agencies and programs represented on this Web page are the following.
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The Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., and the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder, Colorado, have been selected by NASA to conduct parallel six-month definition studies of a new small satellite to monitor variations in the amount of solar radiant energy that reaches the earth.
The precise measurements will be made by the Total Solar Irradiance Mission and will help scientists better understand the relationship between the sun's variable energy output and its effects on the earth's climate.
NASA has been measuring the total radiative output of the sun from the unique perspective of space since the late 1970s. The current sensor being used is called the Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor (ACRIM). NASA has flown two ACRIM instruments, including the ACRIM-II on board NASA's Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite. A third ACRIM instrument is scheduled for launch aboard a dedicated small satellite in October 1999.
"TSIM will be developed in 36 months or less using the same key principles of faster, better, cheaper spacecraft demonstrated by the agency's Discovery Program," said Dr. Ghassem Asrar, NASA associate administrator for earth science. "We hope to obtain an instrument payload that is lighter and more technologically advanced, yet provides an exciting additional capability that will give us new knowledge about our climate and why it varies."
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The world's first spaceborne rain radar, aboard the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), a joint U.S.–Japanese mission, is exceeding expectations for accuracy and resolution, and the spacecraft is providing unprecedented insights into rainfall-producing cloud systems over tropical land masses and oceans.
"We're extremely excited about these new images and the quality and quantity of the data we're receiving. In several instances, the data resolution is much better than we had anticipated," said Dr. Christian Kummerow, TRMM Project Scientist, at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland. "Previously, it was not possible to gather radar precipitation data over the oceans and TRMM has changed all that."
TRMM is NASA's first mission dedicated to observing and understanding tropical rainfall, which comprises more than two-thirds of all rainfall, and how it affects the global climate.
Global rainfall is the primary distributor of heat through atmospheric circulation. The recent El Niño serves as a perfect example of the atmospheric circulation changes that can result from a displacement of the normal precipitation patterns in the central Pacific. More precise information about this rainfall and its variability is crucial to understanding and predicting global climate and climate change.
The Precipitation Radar aboard TRMM is the first rain radar ever launched into space. It measures precipitation distribution over both land and sea areas. Some of the most dramatic Precipitation Radar data was received on 9 March over Melbourne, Florida, during the passage of a line of very severe thunderstorms. In comparing the TRMM radar data of the storm with that taken by ground-based radars, the three-dimensional TRMM radar showed better vertical resolution of the storm structure. The vertical structure is critical for determining a storm's overall intensity as well as determining the height at which the heat release associated with precipitation is occurring.
Another image shows TRMM's radar-derived view of a severe thunderstorm over Houston, Texas. The TRMM radar demonstrated significantly better capability to define ambiguities, or occasional "false readings," associated with ground-based radars.
The TRMM spacecraft fills an enormous void in the ability to calculate worldwide precipitation because so little of the planet is covered by ground-based radars, officials explained. Currently, only 2% of the area covered by TRMM is covered by ground-based radars.
"Since rainfall represents energy conversion, hurricane researchers are eager to use the rainfall data as input to hurricane forecast models," notes Jerry Jarrell, director, National Hurricane Center.
Also aboard TRMM is the Microwave Imager, providing exceptional resolution of storm systems. TRMM's Microwave Imager has better spatial resolution and a new lower frequency channel than previous instruments, according to Kummerow.
An interesting preliminary finding from the lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS), another instrument on the TRMM satellite, is that its data indicate little lightning over the oceans and 90% of lightning occurring over land. Researchers believe that the greater lightning activity over land is primarily due to a larger convection, or heat, effect associated with land. This results in greater ice production and, consequently, more lightning. "The beauty of TRMM is that with the Precipitation Radar and the microwave imager, we can test this hypothesis time and again," said LIS Principal Investigator Hugh Christian, at the Global Hydrology and Climate Center at the Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama. "TRMM will enable us to gain fundamental insights into the properties of these convective storms and thus better estimate the effects on global weather patterns."
The Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) instrument aboard the spacecraft measures how much sunlight the planet's atmosphere, surface, and clouds reflect and how much energy it radiates to space from its store of heat energy. "CERES achieved new levels of calibration that we've never reached before in looking at the earth," said Dr. Bruce Barkstrom, a scientist at NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia, which manages CERES. "Those new levels will help us reduce the uncertainty of how the earth uses the energy from the sun to drive the climate system."
By studying rainfall regionally and globally, and the difference in ocean- and land-based storms, TRMM is providing scientists the most detailed information to date on the processes of these powerful storms, leading to new insights on how they affect global climate patterns. TRMM's complement of state-of-the-art instruments will provide extremely accurate measurements of the distribution and variability of tropical rain and lightning and the balance of solar radiation absorbed and reflected by earth's atmosphere.
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A network of six unmanned Antarctic Geophysical Observatories (AGOs) housing instruments to collect data about the earth's ionosphere and magnetosphere at high latitudes is now up and running in the remote reaches of Antarctica. The AGOs operate all year long, including over the long polar winter.
These small trailerlike observatories measure 8 X 8 X 16 feet and provide 50 watts of electrical power to the experiments. They store data to be retrieved later during the Antarctic summer. The AGOs also report on weather and their own status via satellite.
"Antarctica is the only place on earth where there's a landmass to base these instruments to study the upper atmosphere at very high magnetic latitudes and at many different magnetic longitudes," said Louis Lanzerotti of Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies. Lanzerotti uses the observatories to house magnetometers that measure changes in the earth's magnetic field caused by electrical currents in the upper atmosphere. Naturally changing currents can induce secondary currents in long-distance telephone lines, for example, sometimes causing damage or interference.
"Data from the AGOs, added to observations from the inhabited Antarctic stations and from AGOs of the British Antarctic Survey, are beginning to give us a wealth of information about the ionosphere at high geomagnetic latitudes, the region around the earth's geomagnetic pole," said John Lynch, National Science Foundation program director for polar aeronomy and astrophysics.
"This is where magnetic-field lines and ionized particles come down from space to intersect the earth's atmosphere, so we can study the outer parts of the earth's magnetosphere," Lynch said. "The AGOs are also helping to foster better understanding of the earth's response to solar activity."
Knowing the physics of the magnetosphere helps to predict geomagnetic storms that can disrupt power grids and satellite communications.
The long, dark Antarctic winter permits optical observations of the aurora around the clock. The extremely cold, dry air of the East Antarctic plateau also lends clarity to such observations. These measurements cannot be done at similar latitudes in the north that are located above the Arctic Ocean, not a stable observing platform. Beside magnetometers, the AGOs contain very low frequency/high frequency receivers, riometers, and all-sky cameras.
The AGO network is the result of years of planning how to use stable, earth-bound sites to acquire data on the upper atmosphere and space. The network had to overcome the challenge of operating in the harsh environmental extremes of Antarctica. For further information, including photos of an AGO and a map showing the AGO network in Antarctica, see http://www.polar.umd.edu and http://sprg.ssl.berkeley.edu/atmos/data/.
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NASA has terminated the Clark Earth Science mission because of mission costs, launch schedule delays, and concerns over the on-orbit capabilities of the mission.
While it terminated continuance of work on the spacecraft, NASA retained the project's launch services that will be used on another mission yet to be determined, according to a NASA spokesman.
The Clark mission was part of NASA's Small Satellite Technology Initiative program, originally scheduled for launch in mid-1996. Named after the famous American explorer, William Clark, the Clark spacecraft was to provide a very high resolution optical element with stereo imaging capabilities that would provide NASA's former Office of Mission to Planet Earth (now Earth Sciences Enterprise) with useful environmental data. Imagery provided from Clark also would have been available commercially with applications such as helping city planners assess community growth from the unique perspective of space and providing space surveys of construction sites.
The Clark mission's prime contractor originally was CTA, with a launch vehicle to be provided by Martin Marietta Astronautics. Since the start of the program, CTA has been purchased by Orbital Sciences Corp., Dulles, Virginia, and Martin Marietta Astronautics was merged with the Lockheed Corp.
In June 1994, there was an industry-led competition to build, launch, and operate Clark, based on a March 1996 launch. To date, NASA has invested approximately $55 million in Clark. The agency expects to recover some assets of the mission, such as some spacecraft payloads and subsystems, for another project, officials said.
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Airlines and smaller airplanes are one step closer to having up-to-the-minute, graphical weather displays in their cockpits, thanks in part to a new NASA aviation safety initiative.
NASA has selected research proposals from eight industry teams to develop Aviation Weather Information (AWIN) systems for commercial airliners and general aviation aircraft.
"Pilots tell us their number one priority is graphical weather information. We want to make it as easy to get a weather channel in the cockpit as it is in your living room. Technologies already exist that could help make that happen," said Michael Lewis, Director, NASA Aviation Safety Program (AvSP), based at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.
AvSP is a partnership with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the aviation industry (manufacturers and operators), and the Department of Defense (DOD). This partnership supports the national goal announced by President Clinton last year to reduce the fatal aircraft accident rate by 80% in 10 years and by 90% over two decades. Because of advances in the last 40 years, commercial airliners are already the safest of all major modes of transportation. But with an accident rate that has remained relatively constant in the last decade and air traffic expected to triple over the next 20 years, the U.S. government wants to prevent a projected rise in the number of aircraft accidents.
The weather information selections are one of NASA's new investments in that ambitious challenge. NASA asked U.S. companies to submit proposals for research, development, prototyping, and implementation of AWIN systems and components. Industry teams submitted more than 40 proposals in three weather information categories: a national and worldwide system, a general aviation system and topical areas or specific components. NASA, FAA, and DOD researchers evaluated the proposals based on technical merit, cost, and feasibility.
NASA has set aside more than $8 million that will be matched by industry to fund AWIN projects over the next 18 months. More money is expected to be designated later to accelerate commercialization and make some systems available within five years.
NASA envisions a futuristic system that would allow aircraft to be both a source and user of weather information. Airborne sensors would provide data for weather systems on board the plane, on the ground, and in other aircraft. In the cockpit would be easy-to-read, real-time displays that can show weather across the country, not just a limited number of miles ahead. That way pilots could more easily monitor possible trouble spots and make better, more cost-efficient routing decisions.
That weather information would get to and from aircraft by satellite and ground transceivers using broadcast datalink and two way communications systems. Many industry teams also propose to incorporate decision aids into their AWIN designs. Those could include, among other tools, alarm systems or displays of suggested routes to help pilots better avoid potentially hazardous weather situations.
For the first phase of the program, teams led by Honeywell and Boeing/McDonnell Douglas Corp. will receive up to $2.4 million apiece to develop a national and worldwide AWIN solution. Over the same 18-month period, the NavRadio group will be awarded up to $1.2 million and the ARNAV team, up to $400 000, for a general aviation weather information system. Other teams led by Rockwell International, Honeywell, and NavRadio will split $1.6 million to develop specific components for AWIN.
Researchers at four NASA field installations are working with the FAA and industry to develop affordable, implementable technologies to make flying safer: Langley; Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California; Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, California; and Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio.
The aviation safety initiative was created in the summer of 1997 by NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin in response to a report from the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security, chaired by Vice President Al Gore. NASA has designated about $500 million over five years for aviation safety, with more funding expected to follow.
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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the H. John Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment have released a report, Our Ocean Future: Themes and Issues Concerning the Nation's Stake in the Ocean, that outlines the issues affecting the future of the ocean and, consequently, the nation's economic and environmental future. Working under a joint project between NOAA and the Heinz Center, the consensus report was prepared by a steering group representing industry, government, academia, and environmental organizations.
After consulting with 200 ocean and coastal leaders, the steering group concluded that "there is an urgent need for a systematic and comprehensive review of ocean and coastal policies and programs. Unless action is taken now, significant benefits to the economy and quality of life will be lost, and the United States will fall behind other nations in using and conserving the oceans and their resources.
"An integrated vision, and a plan for achieving it, must be developed for U.S. marine areas, resources, and activities. A restructuring of national, regional, and local mechanisms for managing oceans and coasts may be necessary, along with new investments in science, education, and management."
Our Ocean Future does not offer detailed guidance. Rather, it outlines the issues affecting the nation's ocean future and, consequently, its economic and environmental future. It convinces us of the need to achieve a better balance between the use and conservation of oceans and coasts.
Our Ocean Future is the second report resulting from U.S. Year of the Ocean activities; it builds on the Year of the Ocean Discussion Papers recently prepared by the federal ocean-related agencies.
The report may be viewed on the Heinz Center's web site (http://www.heinzctr.org). Copies are available from NOAA.
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EPA's Stratospheric Protection Division has just published a new brochure, Stay Healthy in the Sun: Information About UV Radiation for Meteorologists. This brochure includes information about the health effects of ultraviolet radiation and the UV Index, as well as simple steps that broadcast meteorologists can recommend to viewers to prevent overexposure to the sun. The brochure will also be of interest to other members of the public, because it has a focus on basic sun-protection tips.
The health messages in the brochure are the product of close cooperation between EPA, the National Weather Service, the American Academy of Dermatology, and representatives of the broadcast meteorology community.
For copies of the brochure, please contact EPA's Stratospheric Ozone Information Hotline at (800) 296–1996 or (301) 614–3396, or the National Center for Environmental Publications and Information at (800) 490–9198.
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Elbert W. (Joe) Friday Jr., who served as director of the NWS for many years before becoming assistant administrator for NOAA's Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) last year, is retiring 30 June after 38 years of government service.
In retirement, he will accept a position as director, Board of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate at the National Academy of Science (NAS), Washington, D.C.
In a farewell note to colleagues at NOAA, Friday wrote: "I have been blessed in that I have enjoyed every assignment that I have had during my federal career, particularly the last year in OAR. This is a tremendous organization, contributing greatly to the nation. It is truly with mixed emotions that I leave, but I have always wanted to eventually get to the NAS, and the opportunities do not come along that often."
Friday has been assistant administrator for OAR since July 1997, having moved to the position from assistant administrator for weather services and director of the NWS. He joined NOAA in 1981 as NWS deputy director, following a 20-year career in the U.S. Air Force.
He earned his bachelor of science degree, with special distinction, in engineering physics and his masters and Ph.D. in meteorology from the University of Oklahoma.
He is a fellow of the American Meteorological Society, the recipient of the Presidential Rank Award of Meritorious Service, was named the 1993 Federal Executive of the Year by the Federal Executive Alumni Association, and received AMS's 1998 Cleveland Abbe Award for distinguished service to atmospheric sciences by an individual.
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Ronald (Ron) D. McPherson, director of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) and former president of the AMS, has announced his retirement at the end of June.
Starting as a staff meteorologist for the NWS in Austin, Texas in 1964, he has risen through the ranks to his current position, to which he was appointed in 1990 after having served as deputy director of the NWS. At that time, NCEP was known as the National Meteorological Center.
McPherson earned his B.S. degree in meteorology in 1961, an M.S. degree in environmental engineering in 1965, and a Ph.D. in atmospheric sciences in 1968, all from the University of Texas.
Throughout his career, he has earned a number of honors, including the Department of Commerce Silver Medal in 1980, selection as an AMS Fellow in 1992, winner of the Presidential Rank Award in 1993 and others. He served as president of the AMS in 1997.
A native of Texas, where he was born on the Fourth of July 1938, he has not announced his plans in retirement.
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Dr. Wesley T. Huntress Jr., currently NASA's associate administrator for space science, will join Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory as director in September.
The announcement of the planned appointment was made by Maxine Singer, Carnegie's president, on 26 May.
Huntress will replace Charles T. Hewitt, who has been director of the laboratory since 1986. Hewitt is stepping down on 1 July but will remain as a scientific member of the laboratory staff, according to Singer. An interim director has not yet been chosen, she said.
In his position at NASA, Huntress was responsible for NASA's programs in astrophysics, planetary exploration, and space physics. Before becoming associate administrator for space science, Huntress served as director of NASA's Solar System Exploration Division (1990–93) and as special assistant to the director of the Earth Science and Applications Division of Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California (1988–90).
Huntress will be the sixth director of the laboratory, one of five research departments of the Carnegie Institution, Washington, D.C.
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The Senate has confirmed the appointment of Rita Colwell as director of the National Science Foundation. Swearing in ceremonies were expected to be held in early June. Widely known and respected in the scientific community, Colwell has a Ph.D. in marine microbiology from the University of Washington.
She replaces Neal Lane, for whom a confirmation hearing for his appointment as Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) was held early in June by the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. The committee did not vote on his confirmation because of its heavy workload, but was expected to vote "soon," according to one committee staffer.
Lane has been NSF director since 1993. Prior to coming to NSF, he was provost and a physics professor at Rice University in Houston, Texas, and chancellor of the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs.
The director of OSTP serves as assistant to the president for science and technology and is responsible for providing the president with advice in all areas of science and technology policy. His responsibility also includes the coordination of science, space, and technology policy and programs across the federal government. The director also cochairs the President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology Policy and manages the National Science and Technology Council.
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NOAA Administrator D. James Baker has announced two key appointments for his management staff.
Scott B. Gudes as deputy undersecretary, effective 22 June. Gudes currently is minority staff director for the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and State, the Judiciary and Related Agencies, and the Senate Committee on Appropriations. In addition to his work with the Appropriations Committee, he has had extensive experience at the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of the Secretary of Defense. In making the announcement, Baker said, "Mr. Gudes has broad knowledge of NOAA activities and department-wide programs and will bring to this important leadership position his background of senior experience with a diverse community."
Paul F. Roberts II as Chief Financial Officer, effective 8 June. Roberts has been Director of Business Resources in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Financial Resources Management and Comptroller). He has a long history of senior budget positions in the Department of the Army and will bring in-depth knowledge of financial management, budget formulation and execution, and capital investment programs to NOAA's Office of Financial Administration, Baker said.
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Dr. Alexander E. "Sandy" MacDonald, director of NOAA's Forecast Systems Laboratory, and Helen M. Wood, director of the Office of Satellite Data Processing and Distribution, were among 287 federal professionals recognized and rewarded recently by Vice President Al Gore in ceremonies at Constitution Hall.
The two were recipients of the Presidential Rank Awards, a program that recognizes career members of the senior executive service who demonstrated exceptional performance over time and received outstanding job evaluations over at least three years.
Sixty-three of the award winners, including MacDonald, were designated "distinguished executives" and received cash awards, while 224 winners were named "meritorious" career senior officials and also received a cash award.
MacDonald was selected director of the Forecast Systems Laboratory, located in Boulder, Colorado, in 1990, after having been acting director since 1988. Prior to his appointment, he had been director of the Program for Regional Observing and Forecasting Services (PROFS) from 1983 to 1988. From 1980 to 1982, he was chief of PROFS, Exploratory Development Group, and from 1975 to1980, he was a techniques improvement meteorologist in the Scientific Services Division, Western Region, NWS, Salt Lake City, Utah. He served as an officer in the U.S. Air Force from 1967 to 1971.
MacDonald earned a B.S. degree in mathematics and physics from Montana State University in 1967 and in meteorology from Saint Louis University in 1968, an M.S. degree in meteorology from the University of Utah in 1973, and a Ph.D in meteorology from the University of Utah in 1975.
In her position at NOAA, Wood directs the operation of a system that processes and distributes real-time data gathered by NOAA and other environmental satellites. The data are used to support weather forecasting, coastal ocean monitoring, sea ice detection and prediction, and search and rescue. Wood also leads NOAA's computer network integration planning.
As a senior executive, Wood had led the way for numerous interagency and international partnerships. Because of her efforts, government agencies in the United States have gained access to unique data from foreign environmental satellites. This access means cost savings and avoidance of about $1 billion for U.S. taxpayers.
She developed a NOAA partnership with the space agencies of Japan and Canada so that NOAA can acquire valuable data from those countries' satellites. The data are critical to NOAA's missions of weather forecasting and environmental monitoring. These data also are important to other federal agencies, including the U.S. Navy, the Departments of Agriculture and Interior, and the Army Corps of Engineers.
Wood holds a B.S. in mathematics from the University of Maryland and an M.S. in computer science from American University.
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Three scientists from NOAA have been honored by the International Association for Great Lakes Research for a paper they published in the Journal of Great Lakes Research.
Troy L. Holcombe and Lisa A. Taylor, both of NOAA's National Geophysical Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, and David F. Reid of NOAA's Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Ann Arbor, Michigan, received the award along with colleagues John S. Warren of the Canadian Hydrographic Service and Charles E. Herdendorf of Ohio State University.
The scientists received the association's prestigious Chandler-Misener Award, which is presented annually to the authors of the paper judged to be most notable in the Journal of Great Lakes Research. Their paper, "Lakefloor Geomorphology of Western Lake Erie," presents a discussion of western Lake Erie geology, as revealed by new bathymetry that the authors compiled. The paper includes a full-color bathymetric map of western Lake Erie.
The paper was evaluated on the basis of originality, substantial research contribution, and clarity of presentation by a panel of judges chosen from the association's officers and general membership.
The bathymetry and resulting paper are an outgrowth of NOAA's Great Lakes Data Rescue Project, carried out at NOAA's National Geophysical Data Center, and the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research's Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. An international agreement between NOAA and the Canadian Hydrographic Service serves as the basis for U.S. and Canadian cooperative efforts to assemble new bathymetry for the four Great Lakes shared by the two countries. This is the second year in a row that NOAA scientists have won the award.
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James Lander, former deputy director of the National Geophysical Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, was recently honored by The Tsunami Society for his contributions to the awareness of the hazards of tsunamis: great sea waves caused by underwater earthquakes, landslides, or volcanoes. Lander received the society's award for Long-Term Contributions to Tsunami Science at a scientific conference in Greece.
Lander has made significant contributions to awareness of the tsunami hazard through his efforts to educate the international community on the nature of tsunamis and teletsunamis, and to awareness of the need for preparation and mitigation of the hazard. He has led international cooperation efforts by bringing together members of countries around the world to workshops to study the hazard and make recommendations.
Among his contributions are a number of catalogs of tsunamis (U.S. west coast, Hawaii, Alaska, and others) published by the National Geophysical Data Center. These catalogs contribute to the body of knowledge about this potentially devastating hazard. He is currently compiling a catalog of tsunamis worldwide since 1983, which includes more than 130 events. He is also helping the Caribbean area to develop a warning system. He has information on more than 80 tsunamis that took place in the Caribbean over the past 150 years.
In 1985 Lander retired from the National Geophysical Data Center, an agency of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He is a research scientist emeritus with the University of Colorado and is working with the geophysical center as a guest worker. He lives in Boulder with his wife Corinne.
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