ASPB and CIMSS Weekly Report
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ASPB AND CIMSS WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE WEEK ENDING FEBRUARY 2, 2007

IN THE PRESS:

ITEMS FOR THE ADMINISTRATOR:

ITEMS FOR THE ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR:

ITEMS FOR THE OFFICE DIRECTOR, STAR:

Distinguished Career Award and Bronze Medal: Paul Menzel will receive the 2006 Department of Commerce Distinguished Career Award for "innovative contributions and international leadership in the field of satellite remote sensing, resulting in improved measurements, applications, and understanding of global weather and climate". Dr. Menzel retired from NESDIS in January 2007. Roger Heymann (OSD) and Tim Schmit will receive a DOC Bronze Medal for "reducing costs and increasing satellite earth science global data distribution and archiving through world-leading R&D in data compression". The award ceremony is tentatively scheduled for May 11 in Washington, D.C. (J. Key, E/RA2, 608-263-2605, jkey@ssec.wisc.edu)

Direct Broadcast MODIS Winds Now Available on EUMETCast: The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) polar winds that are generated at direct broadcast sites in Tromsø, Norway, and McMurdo, Antarctica, are now distributed via the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) EUMETCast system. EUMETCast is a broadcast system for environmental data that uses commercial telecommunication geostationary satellites to multicast files (data and products) to a wide user community. EUMETCast is primarily intended for the distribution of image data and products from EUMETSAT's own satellites, but also provides access to data from some external sources, such as NESDIS. To obtain EUMETCast data, users must have a EUMETCast reception station. For more information see http://www.eumetsat.int/Home/Main/What_We_Do/EUMETCast/index.htm?l=en. (J. Key, E/RA2, 608-263-2605, jkey@ssec.wisc.edu)

ITEMS FOR THE DIVISION CHIEF, CoRP:

ABI Critical Design Review (CDR): ABI Critical Design Review (CDR): T. Schmit attended (via a telcon) part of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-R Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) Critical Design Review (CDR). This review was given by the ABI vendor, ITT, and was held February 15-16, 2007 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. (T. Schmit, E/RA2, 608-263-0291, tim.j.schmit@noaa.gov)

CIMSS Realtime Weighting Functions Web Page Updated: The Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS) realtime weighting function web page has been updated. Users requested that weighting functions with the United States Standard Atmosphere appear on the site. At this point the entire site was updated with a java interface which is faster and smoother than the old interface which allows users to easily view atmospheric profile data as well as the weighting functions. (M. Gunshor, CIMSS, 608-263-1146) (S. Bachmeier, CIMSS, 608-263-3958)

More Direct Broadcast Polar Winds With New IPO Antenna: The Integrated Program Office (IPO) and Kongsberg Satellite Services (Ksat) recently installed a new antenna on Svalbard, Norway. This new antenna is now being for MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) polar wind processing in Tromsø. It can provide many more Terra passes each day than the previously-used antenna because of fewer scheduling conflicts. Plots of Tromsø polar winds are available at http://stratus.ssec.wisc.edu/db/tromso. (J. Key, E/RA2, 608-263-2605, jkey@ssec.wisc.edu)

Science Succession Workshop: Paul Menzel and Jeff Key attended the NESDIS Science Succession Workshop that was organized and chaired by Ingrid Guch and hosted by STAR in Camp Springs, MD, on February 16. The goal of the workshop was to examine the characteristics of the NESDIS science workforce over the next 10-20 years as part of the NESDIS Succession Planning effort. Science is one six roles that the Succession Planning Tiger Team has identified. Participants were from NESDIS Headquarters, STAR, NCDC, NGDC, and NODC. QED Consulting provided the facilitators. (J. Key, E/RA2, 608-263-2605, jkey@ssec.wisc.edu)

Manuscript Review: J. Key reviewed a manuscript for the journal Climate Dynamics. The paper addressed differences in regional climate models. (J. Key, E/RA2, 608-263-2605, jkey@ssec.wisc.edu)

Other Meetings and Telecons:

None.

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