ASPB and CIMSS Weekly Report
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ASPB AND CIMSS WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE WEEK ENDING SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

IN THE PRESS:

ITEMS FOR THE ADMINISTRATOR:

ITEMS FOR THE ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR:

ITEMS FOR THE OFFICE DIRECTOR, STAR:

Papers on Volcanic Ash Transport Modeling Published: Two papers on volcanic ash transport modeling were published in the Journal of Geophysical Research. The titles of the papers are “A robust method to forecast volcanic ash clouds” and “Analyzing the Eyjafjallajokull 2010 eruption using satellite remote sensing, lidar, and WRF-Chem dispersion and tracking model.” M. Pavolonis (NOAA/NESDIS/STAR) is a co-author on both papers. The papers can be accessed at http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2012/2012JD017732.shtml and http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2012/2011JD016817.shtml, respectively. (M. Pavolonis, E/RA2, 608-263-9597, Mike.Pavolonis@noaa.gov)

NOAA-Environment Canada Meeting on Unmanned Aircraft Systems: A NOAA-Environment Canada (EC) Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Arctic Scoping Workshop was held in Boulder, CO, September 24-26, 2012. NOAA has a  memorandum of understanding (MOU) with EC, and this workshop is one of the MOU tasks. There were participants from NOAA OAR, NOAA NESDIS, NOAA Ocean Service, NOAA Corps, National Weather Service (Alaska), Naval Ice Center, University of Alaska-Fairbanks, University of Colorado-Boulder, U.S European Command, Von Braun Center for Science Innovation, and, of course, Environment Canada. J. Key gave a presentation on satellite applications for Arctic science, focusing on synergistic activities with the UAS program. (J. Key, E/RA2, 608-263-2605, jkey@ssec.wisc.edu)

  (Click image to enlarge)

Figure caption: Various unmanned aircraft. Photo is from the Marginal Ice Zone Observations and Processes EXperiment (MIZOPEX) website, at http://ccar.colorado.edu/mizopex/index.html. MIZOPEX personnel participated in the UAS workshop.

Leo/Geo Winds Recommendation: The Leo/Geo winds product is experimental in which cloud features are tracked at high latitudes from images composed of geostationary and polar orbiting satellite data. The winds have a positive impact in the US Navy's (Naval Research Laboratory, NRL) Atmospheric Variational Data Assimilation System Accelerated Representer (NAVDAS-AR), the NASA Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) Goddard Earth Observing System Model Version 5 (GEOS-5), and with the NCEP Global Data Assimilation/Forecast System (GDAS/GFS) run on NOAA’s S4 supercomputer at CIMSS. These positive results presented at the 5th meeting of the World Meteorological Organization's (WMO) THORPEX (THe Observing system Research and Predictability EXperiment) working group (WG) on atmospheric Data Assimilation and Observing Systems (DAOS) prompted the WG to issue this recommendation: "Action 9: The working group recommends to NOAA that GEO-LEO AMVs are made available to NWP centres in BUFR." (D. Santek, CIMSS, 608-263-7410, C. Velden, CIMSS, 608-262-9168, M. Lazzara, CIMSS/SSEC, 608-262-0436, J. Key, E/RA2, 608-263-2605, jkey@ssec.wisc.edu)

ITEMS FOR THE DIVISION CHIEF, CoRP:

Brief Communication Published In Nature: A reply to a comment published on the recent Nature paper by A. T. Evan, J. P. Kossin, C. E. Chung and V. Ramanathan: "Strengthening of Arabian Sea tropical cyclones and the South Asian atmospheric brown cloud" was published on September 20, 2012. Evan, A. T., J. P. Kossin, C. E. Chung and V. Ramanathan (2012) Reply to “How have tropical storms over the Arabian Sea intensified?”, Nature, 489, E2-E3. The authors provide additional evidence that anthropogenic aerosol pollution over the Northern Indian Ocean has influenced the regional environment in a manner that increases the probability for very intense tropical cyclones. (J. Kossin, NCDC/RSAD, 608-265-5356)

Support as GOES-14 becomes Operational 'East' Satellite: In support of the recent anomalies with the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-13 Imager and Sounder (http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/SATS/bulletins.html), the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS) provided guidance to operational personnel in order to assist them as they migrated their GOES Sounder and Imager processing of products from GOES-13 to GOES-14. The various personnel aided in this process reside at both NOAA/NESDIS in College Park, MD and the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) in Reading, UK. In addition, CIMSS switched its processing to be from GOES-14. Finally, T. Schmit gave a report on the status of the GOES-13 Imager and Sounder to the Calibration Working Group (CWG). (J. Nelson, CIMSS, 608-263-6013, T. Schreiner, CIMSS, 608-263-6754, T. Schmit, E/RA2, 608-263-0291, tim.j.schmit@noaa.gov,G.S. Wade, E/RA2, 608-263-4743, gary.s.wade@noaa.gov).

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