STATE COLLEGE, PA – November 4, 2004 – AccuWeather.com Founder and President Dr. Joel N. Myers has been named the winner of the National Weather Association’s (NWA) 2004 Operational Achievement Individual Award. The award was presented on Oct. 20 at the NWA’s Annual Meeting in Portland, OR.
The award is presented to an NWA member who has made a significant contribution to operational meteorology or a related field. The significant contribution can be an outstanding forecast of a specific major weather event, or it can be for outstanding work of an individual over a defined period of time. Dr. Myers’ award states that the NWA recognizes him “for over 42 years of pioneering operational weather support services, products, and techniques contributing to the applications of meteorology and the advancement of the science.”
Dr. Myers founded AccuWeather in 1962 while he was a Pennsylvania State University graduate student in meteorology. His first client was a Pennsylvania gas utility company. Through innovation, AccuWeather build its customer base from that first client. The company branched out into such vertical markets as business operations and logistics, television weather graphic software, ski resorts, aviation, government, broadcast, print media, Internet and wireless.
For more information, contact Jamie Oberdick at oberdick@accuweather.com.
Arctic Climate Impact Assessment Report Released Today
A four-year scientific study of the Arctic region was released today at a press briefing on Washington, DC. The study was conducted by an international team of 300 scientists. The assessment finds that increasing greenhouse gases from human activities are projected to make the Arctic warmer still, that the Arctic exerts a special influence over global climate, and that changes in the Arctic can have major global impacts, including sea-level rise and intensification of global warming.
The study was commissioned by the Arctic Council, a ministerial intergovernmental forum comprised of eight nations, including the United States, and six Indigenous Peoples federations. The assessments findings and projections are being released at the symposium in Reykjavik, Iceland, November 9-12, 2004. AMS Senior Fellow Robert Corell chaired the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment.
A copy of the report is available online at: http://www.acia.uaf.edu/
Clay Center Holds Weather Festival on 6 November 2004 in Brookline, Massachusetts
The Clay Center will hold Weather Festival events in collaboration with Blue Hill Weather Observatory and the National Weather Service. Many activities have been planned for families and children. Morning and afternoon activities. Free admission.
For full details see and to RSVP (requested), please see:
http://www.claycenter.org/weatherfest/
New Research Helps Protect Airplane Engines from Drizzle
Heavy freezing drizzle--appearing to be harmless light drizzle--has cost airlines as much as $2 million in engine damage in a single storm as jets have waited for takeoff at Denver International Airport. Now Roy Rasmussen of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) has developed a new system to identify the drizzle accurately. His research has enabled airlines to revise pilot training and on-ground procedures to avoid future damage. The new detection system will be installed this winter at Denver International Airport.
Rasmussen studied two cases of heavy freezing drizzle at DIA on October 31, 2002, and the same date in 2003. The two storms wreaked a total of $2.85 million in damage to 18 jet engines on United Airlines 737 aircraft. Trained meteorologists were on site throughout both events, but the freezing drizzle conditions were not accurately noted. In about half of all cases of freezing drizzle, the intensity is underreported, according to Rasmussen.
Rasmussen has worked with United Airlines to alert pilots of 737 aircraft on the haz ard, and the airline has changed its procedures as a result of his research. Formerly, if an airport meteorologist observed heavy freezing drizzle, engines were revved close to flying speed (called an engine run-up) every 30 minutes to throw off ice.
The real-time freezing-drizzle detection system developed by Rasmussen and colleagues will be part of Weather Support for Decision Making (WSDM), a system now at DIA that offers minute-by-minute weather reports tailored to aviation users. WSDM data are displayed in a color-coded, user-friendly format that can be easily read by pilots and other non-meteorologists. WSDM also provides data on snow and unfrozen rain.
The Federal Aviation Administration's Aviation Weather Research Program funded Rasmussen's research. NCAR's primary sponsor is the National Science Foundation.
For more details and graphics see: http://www.ucar.edu/news/releases
AMS Fellow Celebrates 50 Year Anniversary of Government Service
Director of the NOAA Meteorological Development Laboratory and AMS Fellow, Dr. Harry R. “Bob” Glahn, celebrates his 50-year anniversary of government service on 25 October. Glahn’s contributions to meteorology include revolutionary new approaches that have led to improved forecasts that have contributed to saving innumerable lives and protecting economic interests while at the National Weather Service. Recognized throughout the world for his ground-breaking work in the use of applied statistics in automated weather forecasts, Glahn is a key figure in the history of modern meteorology and operational weather forecasting. In the 1970s he conceived and led the development and implementation of the Model Output Statistics (MOS) method of producing weather forecasts. MOS uses advanced statistical techniques to improve the accuracy of forecasts generated by computer models. It is a critical element in producing high-quality weather forecasts out to seven days universally used in forecasting.
Glahn also played a critical role during the sweeping modernization program conducted by the National Weather Service in the 1990s. He identified a new path to harness information technology that would move the products and services of the National Weather Service into the digital age. Forecasters were freed from the traditional burden of hand typing hundreds of text forecasts by using high-tech tools. In doing this, a high-resolution forecast database was developed leading to a myriad of new digital products, which could be automatically produced.
Glahn’s creative vision led to the Interactive Forecast Preparation System (IFPS). He led a NOAA-wide team of researchers and developers to chart a roadmap for the ambitious system, which is on track for completion within the next year at 122 National Weather Service weather forecast offices and nine national centers. This will allow the transition from manpower-intensive text products to low-cost, information-rich digital and graphical weather forecast products — a leap forward into the Internet age of information exchange benefiting the U.S. public and economy.
Glahn created and led a national team to develop a National Digital Forecast Database (NDFD) where the gridded forecasts produced at the individual WFOs would be forged into a single national gridded forecast database. Initial operational capability for some elements of the NDFD will begin in December 2004.
From the start of his career, Glahn envisioned a process where National Weather Service forecasts would become more accurate, timely, detailed and automated. He has promoted probability forecasts and decision theory concepts that can now be fully exploited with the NDFD by private enterprises. Evolution of IFPS and NDFD will bring increased efficiency to National Weather Service operations and more accurate information. Glahn is also a world expert in meteorological data formats and compression technology. He has worked with the World Meteorological Organization to develop gridded formats that have allowed the National Weather Service and weather services around the world to significantly reduce the cost of data transmission across wideband data networks.
NASA Administrator Names New Chief Scientist
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe has named James B. Garvin, chief scientist for NASA's Mars and lunar exploration programs, as the agency’s Chief Scientist.
Garvin, who earlier this year announced the Mars Exploration Rovers had found strong evidence liquid water once existed on the martian surface, will work to ensure the scientific merit of NASA's programs, including those embracing exploration, according to the space agency.
Garvin is currently in charge of formulating scientific requirements for NASA's missions for studying Mars and the moon. His primary areas of scientific specialty include laser altimetry of terrestrial and planetary landscapes; geology of impact craters relevant to exploration of the moon and Mars; and sedimentology on Mars, Earth and Venus. He was chief scientist for the Shuttle Laser Altimeter flights aboard Endeavour (STS-72) and Discovery (STS-85).
Garvin joined the Geodynamics Branch at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in 1984. He led a team of engineers and scientists that developed the first orbiting laser altimeter instruments for quantifying the three-dimensional characteristics of landscapes on the Earth and Mars. After the Challenger accident in 1986, Garvin served as a scientist on astronaut Sally Ride's leadership team.
Garvin has served as a member of the science team for Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Observer and NASA airborne laser topographical surveys of dynamic landscapes in Iceland. He was Project
Scientist for the Earth System Science Pathfinder program, which studies the Earth's oceans, clouds, interior and the aspects of the chemistry of the atmosphere.
He was a member of the international science team for Canada's RADARSAT mission, science team member on the European Space Agency ENVISAT mission, and a science team member on the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous Shoemaker mission.
Garvin received his bachelor's degree in applied math/computer sciences from Brown University, Providence, R.I. in 1978; a master's in computer science from Stanford University, Stanford,
Calif., in 1979; master's in geological sciences from Brown in 1981; and a Ph.D. in geological sciences from Brown in 1984. He was awarded Brown's William Rogers Award this year for his outstanding contributions to society.
Moderate El Nino Is Influencing Winter Outlook
The U.S. Winter Outlook for December 2004 through February 2005 from NOAA calls for warmer-than-normal conditions in theWest and Alaska, and cooler-than-normal conditions in the South and in sections of the mid-Atlantic coast states. For precipitation, NOAA's Outlook calls for drier-than-average conditions in the Pacific Northwest and Ohio Valley and wetter-than-average conditions over parts of the South. In Hawaii, temperatures are expected to be above average with precipitation below average. Elsewhere, there are equal chances of above, below and normal temperatures.
Currently, NOAA is monitoring a weak El Niño in the tropical Pacific, which is expected to continue into early 2005. However, NOAA scientists predict this El Niño will remain much weaker than the 1997-1998 El Niño event.
NOAA scientists say the leading climate patterns expected to impact this winter's weather are long-term climate trends and features such as the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Pacific/North American pattern (PNA), which influence the jet stream and the track storms take across the eastern Pacific and North America. In addition, the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) can affect winter weather in the Northeast by altering the jet stream over the North Atlantic and adjacent areas.
For more details see: Climate Factors Helping to Shape Winter 2004-2005
Evidence Shaky for Sun’s Major Role in Past Climate Changes
Computer models of Earth’s climate have consistently linked long-term, high-magnitude variations in solar output to past climate changes. Now a closer look at earlier studies of the Sun and Sun-like stars casts doubt on the evidence of such cycles, their intensity, and their possible influence on Earth’s climate. The findings, by a solar physicist and two climate experts, appear in the 1 October issue of the journal Science.
The authors write, “. . .long-term irradiance variations used in climate models in the past decade may be a factor of 5 [five times] larger than can be justified. The full impact of this changed outlook on attempts to explain past climate variations and estimates of climate sensitivity to external forcing remains to be seen.”
Scientists have attributed observed climate changes to a combination of natural variations and human activities. Computer models of global climate reproduced an observed global warming during the first half of the 20th century when two solar influences were combined: a well-documented 11-year sunspot cycle and the decades-long solar cycles now in dispute. A more pronounced warming observed during the century’s late decades is attributed to greenhouse gases accumulating in Earth’s atmosphere and is not part of the new study.
Peter Foukal of Heliophysics Inc., Gerald North of Texas A&M University, and Wigley, a climate expert at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), authored the paper.
For details and images see:
http://www.ucar.edu/news/releases
Rainfall Records Shattered Across Southeast
Hurricanes Frances, Ivan and Jeanne, which battered the United States last month, were enough to break rainfall records for September in states throughout the Southeast and along the East Coast. Overall, temperature and precipitation were above average across the contiguous United States in September, according to scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C.
After a cool August, warmth returned in September, especially in the Great Lakes and upper Midwest, while Alaska was cooler than average for the month, compared to a record warm summer (June-August).
NOAA scientists report that the average temperature for the contiguous United States for September (based on preliminary data) was 66.5 F (19.2 C), which was 1.0 F (0.6 C) above the 1895-2003 mean, and the 28th warmest September on record. The mean temperature in 28 states was significantly above average, with six Midwestern states (and New Jersey) averaging much warmer than the long-term mean, in contrast to much cooler-than-average conditions for the Midwest in August. Alaska, which experienced a record warm summer, was cooler than average for September with a statewide temperature of –3.4 F (-1.9 C) below the 1971-2000 mean.
September was the 13th wettest on record averaged across the contiguous United States, with record wet conditions occurring in many areas of the East, resulting from several tropical systems. Pennsylvania, Georgia, West Virginia and many cities had a record wet September. Birmingham, Ala., set a record with 9.75 inches of rain falling in only 24 hours, breaking the previous 24-hour record of 8.84 inches set in July 1916 – a record also established from a tropical storm that crossed the state.
Hurricanes Frances, Ivan and Jeanne came ashore in the Southeast during September, on the heels of five tropical systems that impacted the eastern and southeastern states in August. Although wind damage was extensive with each of the September storms, flooding was a major impact, with states from Florida to New York feeling the effects.
Early snowfall was seen in parts of Alaska, with Anchorage having its greatest snowfall total for any day in September (6 inches) on September 24. This also was the largest monthly snowfall on record for the month of September.
Below-average September precipitation occurred from eastern Texas, northward to Michigan. Michigan, Indiana and Arkansas all had their second driest September since 1895. The drier-than-average conditions were combined with above-average temperatures in the upper Midwest. Although rainfall was near average in many parts of the West, long-term drought conditions continued across most the region. At the end of September, 64 percent of the western U.S. was in moderate-to-extreme drought, compared with 68 percent for August and 79 percent for last year at this time. These measurements were based on a widely used measure of drought, the Palmer Drought Index.
Weak El Niño conditions persisted into September, with sea-surface temperatures in much of the central and east-central equatorial Pacific remaining warmer than average for the month.
Additional information including links to data, graphics and analysis, in addition to further national and global data are online: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/2004/sep/sep04.html.
A detailed summary of hurricane and tropical storm activity can be found on NCDC’s monthly hurricane summary page:
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/2004/hurricanes04.html.
NCAR Study Projects Decrease in Frost Days
Days and nights when the air temperature dips below freezing will become increasingly less common by the late 21st century across much of the world, according to a modeling study by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The reduction in 24-hour periods with freezes (frost days) is projected to be most dramatic across the western parts of North America and Europe.
In a paper published in the 20 August online edition of Climate Dynamics, NCAR scientists Gerald Meehl, Claudia Tebaldi, and Doug Nychka examine the factors that have led to a reduction in frost days in many areas over the last 50 years. The authors then use the Parallel Climate Model, developed by NCAR and the U.S. Department of Energy, to simulate day-to-day temperature changes across the globe for the years 2080 to 2099.
Over the last half-century, many weather stations across the western United States reported a decrease of 10 or more frost days per year, mostly the result of warmer conditions in springtime. Little change in frost-day frequency has been reported across the upper Midwest and Northeast.
This study is the first to examine trends in frost days using a global climate model. Meehl and colleagues found the frost-day trends over the last 50 years intensifying during the next century. Nearly all of the United States and Canada show losses in frost days in 2080-2099 compared to 1961-1990.
Related story: Future Heat Waves: More Severe, More Frequent, Longer Lasting (NCAR news release, August 12, 2004)
http://www.ucar.edu/news/releases/2004/heatwave.shtml
NOAA To Build New Facility on University of Maryland Campus
NOAA has selected the University of Maryland for several new facilities. The new building site called M-Square, is a “crossroad where government, private industry, technology and science converge to be one of the nation’s largest research parks,” according to the agency.
The new building will replace NOAA’s existing World Weather Building in Camp Springs, Maryland., and employ approximately 800 people. The new 250,000 sq. ft. facility is expected to break ground in April 2005 and open in late 2007. This site will be the headquarters for NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Prediction.
In addition to NCEP’s Office of the Director, five of the nine national centers will be located at M-Square. They are the:
• Climate Prediction Center, which assesses and forecasts the impacts of short-term climate variability, emphasizing enhanced risks of weather-related extreme events, for use in mitigating losses and maximizing economic gains;
• Environmental Modeling Center, that develops and improves numerical weather, climate, and ocean prediction through a broad program in partnership with the research community;
• Hydrometeorological Prediction Center, which provides nationwide analysis and forecast guidance products out through seven days;
• NCEP Central Operations, that sustains and executes the operational suite of numerical analyses and forecast models and prepares NCEP products for dissemination; and the
• Ocean Prediction Center, that issues weather warnings and forecasts out to five days for parts of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
Also, the facility will house three other NOAA offices: the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research’s Air Resources Laboratory and the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service’s Satellite Services Division and NESDIS’ Office of Research and Applications.
The Air Resources Laboratory serves as the source of atmospheric transport and dispersion capabilities to the National Weather Service, to NOAA as a whole, and to a wide range of external users.
For details see:
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Prediction: http://www.ncep.noaa.gov/
NOAA Office of Research and Applications: http://www.research.noaa.gov/
NOAA Air Resources Laboratory: http://www.oar.noaa.gov/atmosphere/atmos_arl.html
National Weather Association Honors NWS
The National Weather Association has recognized the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Weather Service employees and partners whose dedicated efforts provide critical meteorological services and information to the public. Launched in 1977, the NWA Awards program is designed to recognize exceptional group or individual achievements in a variety of categories.
The awards were presented on 20 October at the 29th NWA Annual Awards Luncheon at the Doubletree Hotel and Executive Meeting Center in Portland, Oregon. National Weather Service Southern Region employees and a newspaper science writer were honored in four categories.
Operational Achievement Group Award: This award is presented to a group of two or more individuals for a significant contribution to operational meteorology. The award was presented to Miami Weather Forecast Office forecasters Barry Baxter, Wayne Colin, Pablo Santos, Kim Brabander, Robert Handel, Eric Christensen and Guy Rader. They were on duty late in the afternoon of March 27, 2003 when a strong F2 tornado touched down in the Brownsville/Liberty City neighborhood of Miami. Despite the widespread destruction attributed to the tornado, only one death and 14 injuries resulted. A warning lead time of 51 minutes is credited with keeping the death and injury toll at such a minimum. The tornado was one of nine warned for by the Miami forecasters that afternoon. The average lead time was 23 minutes, more than double the national average of 11 minutes.
Aviation Meteorology Award: This award is presented to an individual or group to recognize significant contributions to aviation meteorology. This year’s award was presented to Thomas Amis, James Ott, Doug Reno and Charles Hays of the NWS Center Weather Service Unit in Fort Worth, Texas; and Lynn Sherretz, Greg Pratt, Dennis Rodgers, Jim Frimel, Yung Chun, Lisa Gifford, Chris Masters and Doug Ohlhorst of the Aviation Division, NOAA Forecast Systems Laboratory in Boulder, Colo. They are being recognized for their outstanding daily efforts to enhance and develop new methods of displaying weather information for the aviation community. During a period of phenomenal growth in commercial and general aviation, the air traffic control system has increasingly relied on accurate weather data to help maintain safe and efficient control of the National Air Space system.
Larry R. Johnson Special Award: This award is presented to an individual or a group for recognition of unique events or extraordinary accomplishments, which significantly contributed to operational meteorology. This year, the award recognizes the entire staff at the Midland/Odessa WFO for an exceptional series of outlooks, watches and warnings issued before and during a major West Texas rainfall and flash flooding event. Of particular note was the close working relationship between the staff, county and state officials that led to the closure of an Interstate 20 highway bridge before it collapsed under the pressure of floodwaters racing through the Pecos River’s Salt Draw tributary.
Walter J. Bennett Public Service Award: This award is presented to individuals who directly assist the meteorological community in providing weather-related information to the public. This year, the award recognizes Albuquerque Journal Science reporter John Fleck. A reporter for the Journal since the early 1990s, Fleck has written hundreds of articles covering a wide variety of meteorological and climatological issues. Working closely with the National Weather Service and the academic community, Fleck’s articles have been instrumental in increasing the knowledge and understanding of science issues for thousands of readers in New Mexico.
The National Weather Association is a professional nonprofit association, incorporated in Washington, D.C., in 1975 to serve individuals interested in operational meteorology and related activities. It has more than 3,000 members and subscribers in the United States and overseas.
NSF Grants $25 Million for Climate Related Research
Five interdisciplinary research teams will share some $25 million from the National Science Foundation (NSF) over the next five years to study important aspects of problems associated with understanding climate-related decisions under uncertainty.
Research centers will be located at Arizona State, Carnegie-Mellon and Columbia universities. Other interdisciplinary teams will be conducting research at the University of Colorado at Boulder and Rand Corporation in Santa Monica, Calif.
The increased knowledge generated by recent scientific research on the causes and consequences of climate change and variability has led to a growing need to better understand how decision makers make choices among the alternative courses of action.
The Decision Center for a Desert City (DCDC) at Arizona State University will use nearby Phoenix as a laboratory for studying adaptation strategies, particularly related to water management in an arid climate. The city’s past successes in managing its water supply are being challenged by current drought conditions. The DCDC will seek to engage scientists and decision makers in studying research questions and experimenting with new methods to better understand how to make decisions that reduce this urban region’s vulnerability to climate uncertainty. Results are expected to provide support to decision makers in similar situations all over the world.
At Carnegie Mellon University’s Climate Decision Making Center, researchers will focus on how to deal with irreducible uncertainties, or the current limits that exist to accurate predictions of climate change and its impacts, including costs and policy decision implications. The center will create, illustrate and evaluate decision strategies that incorporate uncertainties.
At Columbia University, a new Center for the Study of Individual and Group Decision Making Under Climate Uncertainty will study decision-making processes on multiple scales. The focus of the center will integrate psychological insights with those of other social sciences – from individuals’ mental processes to the interplay of individual and group decision making, to how individuals and groups interact with organizations. Research on these topics will feed directly into designing and testing decision tools, as well as institutional strategies and educational interventions (including segments for the Weather Channel) that will help people to better understand the impacts of climate change and their response options.
The University of Colorado at Boulder’s Science Policy Assessment and Research on Climate (SPARC) team will examine decision makers’ expectations about what science can deliver, whether policy makers can use available information, and what future information might be useful to them. SPARC will seek to expand the available policy options by exploring what actions make sense under climate change.
The Rand Corporation research team will conduct fundamental research on different characterizations of uncertainty and develop quantitative tools on decision making, drawing upon interactions with decision makers from long-term management of water supplies in California, and in the design of observation systems to provide warning of abrupt climate change.
For more information on NSF's Human and Social Dynamics priority area, see: http://www.nsf.gov/home/crssprgm/hsd/start.htm
For information on the Climate Change Research Initiative, see: http://www.climatescience.gov/about/ccri.htm
NOAA GIVES U.S. WINTER OUTLOOK
Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration today announced that a number of climate conditions will influence the winter weather across the United States from December through February. NOAA is an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
The NOAA 2004-2005 Winter Outlook calls for above-average temperatures in Alaska, much of the West and the northern and central Great Plains. Below average temperatures are expected across the Gulf Coast states, the Southeast and the mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. There are equal chances of warmer, cooler or near-normal temperatures this winter in the Northeast, Midwest and parts of Southwest.
The precipitation outlook calls for wetter-than-average conditions in parts of California, the extreme Southwest and across the Southern U.S. - from Texas to Florida. Drier-than-average conditions are expected in the Midwest, northern Plains, and Pacific Northwest.
The winter outlook indicates some improvement in drought conditions in the West, but long-term drought is expected to persist through the winter in many areas.
NOAA will update its winter outlook on Oct. 21.
The winter outlook reflects a blend of impacts associated with weak-to-moderate El Niño events in the central equatorial Pacific Ocean and is based on the likelihood that these conditions will persist through early 2005. El Niño influences the winter weather patterns by affecting the jet stream and the track storms take across the eastern Pacific and North America. NOAA scientists do not expect this El Niño to reach the strength of the1997-1998 El Niño event.
"Our winter forecast factors-in the effects of a weak El Niño that may strengthen into a moderate event during the winter months," said retired Navy Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. "But we'll keep our eye on other climate features in the Pacific and the North Atlantic that play an important role on the week-to-week variability in our winter weather. These patterns influence the position of the jet stream and dictate where and how winter storms will move."
During weak to moderate El Niño events, shifts in the jet stream change the patterns of storminess over the eastern North Pacific and North America. "In particular, NOAA anticipates enhanced storminess near the Aleutian Islands and in the Southeast U.S., and warmer, drier conditions over western North America," said Jim Laver, director, NOAA's Climate Prediction Center.
Also, the climate system called the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) plays an important role in modulating the winter weather over the eastern half of the U.S. The NAO is a climate pattern that influences the position of the jet stream over the North Atlantic, affecting winter weather over the Northeast.
"To a large extent, our forecast of equal chances of above or below normal temperatures and precipitation over the northeastern U.S. is based on the NAO, which is only confidently predicted one to two weeks in advance," said Ed O'Lenic, meteorologist at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center. Impacts from the NAO are included in NOAA's Climate Prediction Center's 8-14 day and 6-10 day outlooks and U.S. Hazards Assessment.
NOAA continues to improve climate forecasting and push the envelope in understanding the Earth's climate system. For the first time, NOAA's new Climate Forecast System is being used as a tool for this outlook. The Climate Forecast System is a coupled ocean-atmosphere model, which complements other NOAA models and gives increased confidence of probable climate events before they happen.
"NOAA's progress in climate forecasting is based on ongoing research and collaboration with our partners, advancements in our understanding of the global climate system, upgrades to the weather and climate supercomputer, and improvements in the state-of-the-art atmospheric and oceanic modeling applications. The knowledge and understanding NOAA gains is allowing us to begin a new era in climate prediction," said Dr. Louis W. Uccellini, director of NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Prediction.
NOAA is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and providing environmental stewardship of the nation's coastal and marine resources.
For graphic depictions of the temperature and precipitation forecast, go to:
http://www.noaa.gov
On the Web:
NOAA: http://www.noaa.gov.
NOAA National Weather Service: http://www.nws.noaa.gov.
NOAA Climate Prediction Center: http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov.
Contact: Aja Sae-Kung, NOAA, (202) 482-6090
aja.sae-kung@noaa.gov
NOAA GRANT TO FUND CAREER DEVELOPMENT IN SCIENCE-BASED COASTAL MANAGEMENT AND HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOM RESEARCH
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration awarded a $47,000 grant to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to help develop careers in coastal ocean science, management and policy. The grant augments NOAA's existing research and education programs. NOAA is an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
The grant will sponsor two projects. The grant is awarded through NOAA's Ocean Service, National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research/Coastal Ocean Program (CSCOR/COP), to the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass. The first of the grants will send three students to four months of integrated training in a coastal science and management program. The program will provide broad-based experience encouraging interdisciplinary thinking and emphasizing the social and political aspects of coastal management.
Unlike most training opportunities that are strictly science-based, this program incorporates interdisciplinary research and hands-on experience with management agencies to emphasize possibilities beyond research to influence local and national environmental policy. Interns will work with scientists from the Marine Biological Laboratory to study the impacts of additional nutrients on salt marshes, while also assisting the local Conservation Commission to evaluate requests for development permits that have the potential to impact nutrient loading. Similarly, interns will evaluate the effects of nutrient loading on fish habitat at regional National Wildlife Refuges and develop related outreach and education materials. The recruitment announcement will be distributed nationally with an emphasis on targeting minority-serving institutions.
The second grant from CSCOR/COP to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution will fund two students per semester to focus on harmful algal blooms, which have become an increasing threat to the coastal marine environment. A harmful algal research program will be developed and implemented including a mentor-based research internship for undergraduate students coupled with a career symposium. The symposium will showcase the work of undergraduate interns and highlight career opportunities in the coastal ocean sciences. Students will be recruited through an existing internship collaboration with Roger Williams University in Bristol, R.I. There will be a special commitment to increasing research opportunities for under-represented students including women and minorities.
NOAA Ocean Service's Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research, Coastal Ocean Program has awarded up to $30 million annually to academic, state, tribal, and Federal partners to assist NOAA in the study of our coastal oceans. Coastal Ocean Program research provides decision makers with reliable and timely scientific information. These research programs are critical to the NOAA mission of predicting environmental change, managing ocean resources and protecting life and property. NOAA-sponsored competitive research programs like the CCRI demonstrate NOAA's commitment to these basic responsibilities of science and service to the nation.
NOAA is dedicated to enhancing public health and safety, and sound economic interests by researching and predicting weather and climate-related events and protecting our nation's coastal and marine resources. To learn more about NOAA, please visit http://www.noaa.gov.
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