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ASPB and CIMSS Weekly Report
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ASPB AND CIMSS WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE WEEK ENDING APRIL 24, 2010
IN THE PRESS:
NPR Interview on Volcanic Ash Remote Sensing: Richard
Harris, Chief Science Correspondent for National Public Radio (NPR),
interviewed M. Pavolonis (NOAA/NESDIS/STAR) to discuss present and
future capabilities for remotely sensing and measuring the properties of
ash clouds, in relation to aviation safety. The air date is to be determined. (M. Pavolonis, E/RA2,
608-263-9597, Mike.Pavolonis@noaa.gov)
ITEMS FOR THE ADMINISTRATOR:
ITEMS FOR THE ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR:
ITEMS FOR THE OFFICE DIRECTOR, STAR:
STAR and CIMSS Support of Eyjafjallajokull Volcanic
Ash Monitoring: Since the start of the Eyjafjallajokull
eruptions on April 14, 2010, the Center for Satellite Applications and
Research (STAR) and the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Studies
(CIMSS) have been providing satellite retrievals of ash cloud height,
mass loading, and particle size to the volcanic ash user and research
community, including the London Volcanic Ash Advisory Center (VAAC),
through an email discussion list. At the request of the London
VAAC, who is responsible for issuing the ash cloud alerts for the
Eyjafjallajokull cloud, STAR and CIMSS have begun to experimentally
generate near real-time volcanic ash products over Iceland using the
Spinning Enhanced Visible/Infrared Imager (SEVIRI) and the ash retrieval
algorithm developed for the next generation Geostationary Environmental
Operational Satellite (GOES-R) by STAR and CIMSS scientists. The
products are available at
http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes_r/proving-ground/geocat_ash/index.html.
In addition, M. Pavolonis (STAR) is serving as a member of
the NOAA Eyjafjallajokull Volcanic Ash Response Working Group and the
NOAA Volcanic Ash Science Team. Several new images and
animations have been added to the CIMSS Satellite Blog
(http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/blog/archives/5212). (M. Pavolonis,
E/RA2, 608-263-9597, Mike.Pavolonis@noaa.gov, J. Sieglaff, CIMSS, S.
Bachmeier, CIMSS)
ITEMS FOR THE DIVISION CHIEF, CoRP:
Participation in Unidata Policy Committee Meeting: As chair of the Unidata Users Committee, T. Whittaker (Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Studies, CIMSS) participated in the Unidata Policy Committee meeting in Arlington, VA, 15-16 April. Major issues discussed were the need to collaborate on defining the file format and conventions for satellite data, handling of climate data and education in the future, and Unidata's role in making AWIPS-II software available to replace the GEMPAK (NAWIPS) software currently used for their analysis and display of data. (T. Whittaker, CIMSS, 608-262-2759)
CIMSS Participation in ITWG-17: Several Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Studies (CIMSS) scientists presented research results at the 17th meeting of the International TOVS (TIROS Operational Vertical Sounder) Study Conference (ITSC-17) held in Monterey, CA from 13-20 April 2010. The ITSC meetings focus on applications of atmospheric sounder data but also include multi-spectral imager applications. Presentations were given by Bob Knuteson, Youri Plokhenko, Elisabeth Weisz, Bill Smith Sr. Liam Gumley, Kathy Strabala, Allen Huang, Eva Borbas, Paul Menzel, and Jun Li. Also, a presentation and demonstration on McIDAS-V (Man computer Interactive Data Access System) was provided by Tom Achtor, Jessica Staude and Tom Rink. (T. Achtor, CIMSS, 608-263-4206)
CI Directors Meeting: Steve Ackerman, Director of the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Studies (CIMSS), attended the NOAA cooperative institute (CI) directors meeting in Washington, DC, April 19-20, 2010. Many important topics were discussed. In summary, 1) The NOAA Research Council has decided it will not put ‘competitive funds’ through any Cooperative Agreement. This is a significant issue for some CIs. For example, education grants are considered competitive funds, and the Office of Education wants CIs to get more involved in their opportunities. But many of them cannot get funding from OoE because it is competitive and thus can not go to the CI directly.
2) This year the CI Committee plans to develop guiding principles for NOAA partnerships, continue to educate NOAA programs about CIs, improve the CI establishment process, increase CI involvement in NOAA planning, find ways to support the NOAA Administrators’ priorities, and institutionalize Task I funding.
3) The ongoing strategic planning of NOAA was described. It will go out for public comment beginning May 17. CI directors will have the opportunity to comment individually by 30 April.
4) Louisa Koch, Director of Education for NOAA, gave an overview of areas of collaboration, primarily educating the future NOAA workforce and increasing climate environmental literacy. NOAA has a mandate to educate; the America COMPETES Act provides broad education authority for NOAA.
5) Dr. Jane Lubchenco participated for part of the meeting via videoconference.
She described some NOAA policy initiatives that are relevant to the CIs, including ensuring the continuity of climate, weather and ocean observations, strengthening climate science and services, improving weather forecasts and warnings, and strengthening Arctic science and stewardship.
In this administration, NOAA is seen as a science agency, and CIs play an important role.
6) The Climate Service line office will include climate science, not just observations. This might have impact on some CIs because of the competitive funding issue. NOAA continues to discuss the human dimension of climate change, though no specific programs have been established yet. (S. Ackerman, CIMSS, 608-263-3647)
Chian-Yi Liu Completes PhD: Congratulations to Chian-Yi Liu, Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Studies (CIMSS), who passed the final oral PhD examination. His dissertation title is "Remote Sensing of the Upper Tropospheric Sate of Storms using Space-Borne High Spectral Resolution Infrared Measurements". In addition to developing a combined AIRS/MODIS temperature and humidity profile retrieval method, he demonstrated the value of the retrieved state of the upper troposphere to study storm development.
(S. Ackerman, CIMSS, 608-263-3647)
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