2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006
2012
The focus of Dr. Kummerow's research is global and regional climate change through the use of satellite data. As his colleague in the Department of Atmospheric Science, Dr. Richard Johnson, stated in the nomination document: "Chris has achieved international recognition for his research in atmospheric radiative transfer and remote sensing of precipitation. He is probably the world's leader right now in passive microwave remote sensing of precipitation." The AMS chooses Fellows via nomination by a current member, and the honor belongs to an elite group of researchers who strive for excellence and the pursuit of knowledge and practice in the atmospheric sciences. "I feel deeply honored that the AMS was willing to recognize my work in atmospheric science," Kummerow said. "It is in fact quite humbling when you see some of the really great scientists in the field before me."
Sher Schranz, Project Manager for the Technology Outreach Branch, received recognition as GSD's Employee of the Month for March 2012, for outstanding contributions to GSD and TOB projects throughout the year. Particular achievements include: 1) Managing NWS tasks during a very difficult budget environment. Sher has been able, through continued communication with NWS technical staff, to highlight the importance of this work. 2) Serving as deputy program manager for the FAA/NNEW and NWS/ NextGen programs. In this capacity she is responsible for developing new IT task proposals, and tracking the tasking, budgeting and deliverables for these cross-branch programs. 3) Supervising CIRA employees within TOB, other GSD branches, and even beyond Boulder. This is a very important and time-consuming activity that Sher handles with talent and efficiency. 4) Participating with university and federal colleagues in developing proposals to non-NOAA agencies in search of additional funding to expand the science and research.
Jebb Stewart, Jeff Smith, Randy Pierce and Chris MacDermaid - Innovative research accomplishments in conceiving, designing and developing the NOAA Environmental Information Services (NEIS) data access and visualization framework earned Jebb, Jeff, Randy and Chris this award. Their effort clearly demonstrated initiative, resourcefulness and creativity to provide access to a wide variety of environmental data across different time scales in a platform-independent form that is easy to use and interpret.
Haidao Lin - Haidao is recognized for his innovative and creative effort to develop bias correction methods for the mesoscale model assimilation of AIRS Single-Field-of-View temperature and Moisture retrievals. His results are recognized among his satellite data assimilation collaborators and has increased the visibility of the GSD Rapid Refresh satellite assimilation efforts across the research community.
Robert DeMaria and Andrea Schumacher - Robert and Andrea's noteworthy accomplishments resulted in substantial impact to the operational products issued by the National Hurricane Center, the DoD and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center. Their multi-year effort at improving both the efficiency and the accuracy of the hurricane wind speed probability program has become a fundamental and routine part of determining the posting of hurricane watches and warnings around the world.
Chris MacDermaid - As the Data Systems Group lead and the NOAA/GSD technical coordinator for the FAA NNew and NWS NextGen projects, Chris performs many roles and responsibilities commensurate with his rank as a Senior Research Associate. He is recognized for his outstanding service in administrative oversight, project management and outreach.
2011
Nolan Doesken, Colorado's State Climatologist and a CIRA Principal Investigator, was recently honored for his tireless efforts on behalf of educating the public on water issues. Nolan's work is legendary in Colorado as he is responsible for establishing the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network ("CoCoRaHS"). This citizen network began in the state but has since expanded into a nation-wide effort engaging people in collecting measurements of precipitation right in their backyards. All of this data helps to inform our understanding of weather and longer term climate issues. Nolan was honored at a reception at NCAR on April 8, 2011. CIRA is a long-time supporter of the CoCoRaHS effort and we are proud of Nolan's well-deserved recognition!
Professor of Atmospheric Science and CIRA Fellow, Dr. Sonia Kreidenweis, has been recognized with two recent fellowships. At the American Association for Aerosol Research 29th Annual Conference this past October, Dr. Kreidenweis received one of only 2 openings to become an elected Fellow. A few short months later, she was recognized a second time by the American Meteorological Society as an elected Fellow during the 91st Annual Meeting in Seattle this past January. CIRA is privileged to have Dr. Kreidenweis serve on its own Council of Fellows where her well-regarded expertise on the nature and behavior of particulate matter in the atmosphere and its effects on climate and visibility contribute greatly to CIRA science.
Dr. Pieter Tans, a new CIRA Fellow, was recently awarded the Revelle Medal in acknowledgement for his work in understanding Earth's carbon cycle. The ceremony took place during the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. Dr. Tans works in the Earth System Research Lab in Boulder where many CIRA staff are collocated to work with NOAA scientists on research topics of mutual interest. Dr. Tans' findings have advanced our understanding of the global carbon cycle and climate change. He is best known for his discovery that the carbon dioxide released by burning fossil fuels which is not accounted for in the ocean and atmosphere can be found stored in the land ecosystems of the Northern Hemisphere. He was further recognized for his invention of a formula now used throughout the scientific community as well as his founding role in the Carbon Tracker system — which calculates carbon dioxide uptake and release over time.
For exceptional and sustained contributions to the CloudSat Mission in the development of the CloudSat Data Ingest and Processing System.
Missy's work as deputy program manager for the Forecast Impact and Quality Assessment (FIQAS) Section of ACE is outstanding. She provides excellent project management for many of the section's scientific assessments through extensive coordination with external sponsors, such as the FAA, and hands-on direction of the scientific team. She is able to communicate complicated abstract concepts to programmatic audiences through clearly written documents and program plans. For example, she recently completed two extensive documents for the Network-Enabled Verification Service (NEVS): the Concept of Operations, and Technical Requirements. These documents have laid the foundation for a NEVS transition to the NWS as well as the foundation for a verification capability supporting automated operational decision-making. Missy is the lead for the FIQAS Computer Resource Committee and the OSIP process for the NEVS transition, both of which are extensions to her main responsibilities. Her contributions to the FIQAS Program have been exceptional!
In her multiple roles, Leigh made very significant contributions in several areas related to the Geo-Targeting Alert System (GTAS) and the Next Generation Aviation Transportation System (NextGen). For GTAS, she developed a GIS database to provide street-level mapping capabilities that are vital for decision support. The resulting GTAS system is assisting the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA's) requirements to provide air dispersion and toxic plume information along with NOAA environmental data to state and local emergency management agencies. Additionally, she provides training and evaluation for forecasters and emergency managers on GTAS at locations around the U.S., resulting in strengthened relationships between local NWS Weather Forecast Offices and Emergency Operation Centers through shared situational awareness of vital data. Leigh also compiled NextGen evaluations of the Auto-Nowcaster tool, which provides automated, short-term forecasts to detect and warn of high-impact weather events associated with thunderstorms.
Over the past year, Bob has done an excellent job serving as the Central Facility production control manager. In this role, he keeps the Data Systems Group processing cluster functioning as a highly-reliable data delivery service for GSD. Bob has also stepped up to lead the Data Storage Study Group. This group is tasked with a top to bottom review of GSD's storage capability while identifying future needs and recommending optimization strategies. Bob is also leading ITS's contribution to the Wind Forecast Improvement Project (WFIP) by assisting with the required storage needs for this project. Bob provides valuable support for the Hydrometeorology Testbed, as well as many other projects and programs, and his outstanding support and contributions have led to the success of many programs.
Prasanjit Dash - Together with Dr. Xingming Liang, for development of the SST Quality Monitor (SQUAM) near-real time monitoring system, which complements Dr. Liang's Monitoring of IR Clear-sky Radiances over Oceans for SST (MICROS) monitoring system and provides online access of these important analysis tools for the research community.
Xingming Liang - Together with Dr. Prasanjit Dash, for development of the Monitoring of IR Clear-sky Radiances over Oceans for SST (MICROS) near-real time monitoring system, which complements Dr. Dash's SST Quality Monitor (SQUAM) monitoring system and provides online access of these important analysis tools for the research community.
Wei Shi - For innovative use of shortwave infrared (SWIR) bands on NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor for the purpose of deriving more accurate ocean color data products in the challenging coastal zones, as well as demonstrating the many practical applications of these improved ocean color products.
2010
Two more CIRA employees were honored for their work in collaboration with NOAA research teams. The Meteorological Development Laboratory Recognition of Excellence award was recently given to the NWS AutoNowcaster Demonstration Team. Team Members include: Scott O'Donnell and Ken Sperow, both of CIRA, as well as Steve Olson, Curt Neidhart (OST/PPD), Chris Adams, and Mamoudou Ba.
The team was recognized for the successful implementation of the NCAR AutoNowcaster system within AWIPS to provide real-time thunderstorm nowcasts at National Weather Service Forecast Offices in Dallas-Fort Worth and Melbourne, Florida in support of NextGen. Congratulations to Scott and Ken!
CIRA is proud to acknowledge two of its on-site NOAA collaborators (and CSU alums!), John Knaff and Mark DeMaria, who were recently honored with the 2009 NOAA Bronze Medal. Also, three staff members from our Boulder CIRA team were celebrated as collaborators on Bronze-Medal winning teams.
The NOAA Bronze Medal is the highest honorary award granted to NOAA employees by a head of an operating unit or Secretarial Officer or equivalent. It is defined as superior performance characterized by outstanding or significant contributions which have increased the efficiency and effectiveness of the operating unit. All of the esteemed award recipients were honored at a ceremony held on Tuesday April 27th in the NOAA Auditorium in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Mark and John are both members of NOAA's RAMMBranch: The Regional and Mesoscale Meteorology Branch (RAMMB) of NOAA/NESDIS, which is collocated at CIRA. Mark is the Branch head and John both a former CIRA employee and now RAMMB team member. RAMMB conducts research on the use of satellite data to improve analysis, forecasts and warnings for regional and mesoscale meteorological events. The work honored with the award focused on developing, implementing, and conducting outreach for the new National Hurricane Center Tropical Cyclone Surface Wind Speed Probability products. The entire winning team is: Mark DeMaria, John Knaff, Alison Krautkramer, Chris Lauer, Chris Sisko, Richard Knabb, Chris Juckins, Timothy Schott, Michelle Mainelli, Edward Rappaport.
Since the Bronze Medal can only be awarded to NOAA employees, CIRA issues its own citations for employees who collaborated on winning teams, including a one-time special cash award for each CIRA winner. Among the CIRA staff associated with Bronze Medal winning teams are Isidora Jankov, Kevin Brundage and Bob Lipschutz.
From their long and distinguished vantage point, Dr. Stan Kidder and CIRA Emeritus Director, Dr. Tom Vonder Haar, took to the pages of Science magazine recently to describe the evolution of space-based Earth observation. In their article appearing in the February 26th issue, Kidder and Vonder Haar wrote, "The first 50 years of space-based Earth observation progressed from crude observation to scientific understanding to stewardship of the atmosphere and of Earth. The new observations will result in many scientific insights and should help humanity to weather what could be the worst of global warming and other environmental problems."
As a core mission of our Institute, this unique overview of how satellite observations have changed atmospheric science is a true must-read. The full article is available here.
Michael Leon of the Aviation, Computing and Evaluation (ACE) Branch is the Technical Lead for the NextGen Network-Enabled Weather (NNEW) program which is developing state-of-the-art data handling capability based on standard data formats and standard data services as specified by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). Michael led the GSD team in preparing for and participating in the FAA/NWS IT Capabilities Evaluation (CE), held in September at the FAA Technical Center. The GSD team performed outstandingly and contributed greatly to the success of the CE. The CE was a highly-visible joint FAA/NWS effort and was the first major accomplishment of the NextGen Weather Working Group — and the first major accomplishment of the entire NextGen Program.
The following nomination comes from Forecast Applications Branch Chief, Zoltan Toth:
The Team of Steve Albers and Isidora Jankov - This honor acknowledges contributions to Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) forecasting — and more specifically research which focuses on the initialization of fine scale numerical models in GSD's Local Analysis and Prediction System (LAPS) and research efforts aimed at improved physical parameterization schemes and ensemble forecast techniques in NWP.
Dale Reinke - This honor acknowledges contributions to the CloudSat Program and, specifically, design, development and implementation of what could be considered the most significant piece of software for the CloudSat ground data processing system — the Science and Engineering Data Ingest and Processing System. Development and implementation of the Data Distribution sub-system is also being recognized.
Laura Leinen - This honor is for leadership of CIRA's Biz Hub and its efforts to better serve CIRA's research activities by performing a multitude of administrative tasks for the CIRA Community as well as duties as the editor of the CIRA Magazine and organization of monthly confabs. Most noteworthy is the efficiency and willingness to work long hours to ensure the timely submission of numerous research proposals (especially ones requiring short turn-around time).
2009
The American Meteorological Society announced that Steven E. Koch, director of the Global Systems Division at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, has become a fellow of the society. Koch joined the ESRL Global Systems Division in 2006 after leading the Forecast Systems Laboratory, also in Boulder. Koch is a CIRA Fellow and member of the CIRA Advisory Council. Koch's area of expertise is in numerical weather prediction, data assimilation, predicting turbulence and understanding large-scale meteorological events.
Dr. Frank P. Kelly assumed responsibilities as Regional Director for the Alaska Region at the National Weather Service (NWS) on October 27, 2008. In this position, Dr. Kelly oversees the management of all operational and scientific meteorological, hydrologic, and oceanographic programs of the region including observing networks, weather services, forecasting, climatology, and hydrology. Prior to assuming this position, Dr. Kelly served as the head of the Programs and Plans Division of the Office of Science and Technology at NWS since 2002. His education includes both Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Atmospheric Science from Colorado State University and a B.S. in Earth Science from Montana State University.
An exerpt follows:
Technology Outreach Branch Chief Bill Bendel presented CIRA’s own Ning Wang with the NOAA/GSD Team Member of the Month award last fall. Ning Wang received this acknowledgement in recognition for outstanding contributions to the Flow-following Finite-volume Icosahedral Model (FIM) and Flow-following Non-Hydrostatic Icosahedral Model (NIM) work and for continuing support of the compression algorithms for FX-Net activities. Congratulations to Ning!
Randy Collander was part of a team that was awarded the August GSD Team Member of the Month award for their work on MADIS (Meteorological Assimilation Data Ingest System. FSL's MADIS Project makes integrated, quality-controlled observations available to the meteorological community. Information on MADIS: http://www-sdd.fsl.noaa.gov/MADIS_Overview/MADIS_Overview.html
The following nomination comes from Assimilation and Modeling Branch Chief Stan Benjamin:
The following nomination comes, via Aviation Branch Chief Mike Kraus, from AB/Advanced Computing Section's Mark Govett:
The following nomination comes from Information Systems Branch Chief Carl Bullock:
Former NSSL Director Robert Maddox, now a Professor at the University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ is honored for a lifetime of service to Atmospheric Science through seminal contributions to scientific research, inspirational leadership, and exemplary program management that promoted important interactions between research and operations. Dr. Maddox is internationally recognized as an expert on mesoscale cloud systems who has worked at the National Severe Storms Lab in Norman Okalhoma. His characterizations of mesoscale convective complexes (MCCs) were pioneering. He was a CIRA PhD student in the early 1980's under Professor Thomas Vonder Haar.
Don Reinke headed to NASA/JPL in early June to accept his recently announced NASA Exceptional Public Service Medal for his leadership and tireless efforts on behalf of the CIRA CloudSat Data Processing Center! The citation notes:
Michael Hiatt was honored at the "Celebrate Colorado State!" awards ceremony for the 2009 Distinguished Administrative Professional Award. The citation notes:
Linn Barrett - for outstanding performance, dedication to the people of CIRA in successfully managing the complex Human Resources function, and contributions to the administrative team.
Jacques Middlecoff - for outstanding performance as an integral part of the development of GSD's state-of-the-art global weather and climate predication model.
Sher Schranz - for outstanding leadership of researchers and software developers in the design, development, testing, deployment and operational support for the FX-Net, Gridded FX-Net and Fire Weather Projects.
Ning Wang - for outstanding performance as an integral part of the development of GSD's state-of-the-art global weather and climate predication model.
Dr. William Malm received the following EPA Clean Air Excellence Award in May 2009: Thomas W. Zosel Outstanding Individual Achievement Award
While some call him Dr. Visibility, Dr. William Malm of the National Park Service is more formally recognized as the leading scientist behind the visibility protection provisions of the Clean Air Act. His science-driven policies are a testament to his dedication to the environment and his perseverance in bringing science to the issue of air quality. Since making some of the first visibility and air quality measurements in the National Park Service system at the Grand Canyon in 1972, he has designed and built instrumentation to measure the effects of atmospheric aerosols on the scenic qualities of landscape features, as well as their optical and chemical properties. By linking visibility impairment to specific sources, Dr. Malm's studies have lead to requirements for pollution reduction at major power plants in the Southwest. Through his formulation of radiation transfer algorithms and his leadership in collaborative efforts, Dr. Malm has also played an integral role in improving air quality by significantly reducing sulfur emissions. In addition to his technical achievements, Dr. Malm serves as the intellectual leader responsible for the Interagency Monitoring of PROtected Visual Environments (IMPROVE) Network. Dr. Malm has demonstrated leadership, outstanding achievement, and lasting commitment to promoting clean air and helping to achieve better air quality for 30 years.
Highlights included:
- I served as a member of the US Delegation to TECO WIGOS (March 23-24) and CBS (March 25- April 1).
- I presented accomplishments for the CBS Open Program Area Group on Integrated Observing Systems (OPAG-IOS).
- I was awarded the Cosmonautics Federation of Russia Yuri Gagarin Medal.
Mark DeMaria received the Richard H. Hagemeyer Award at the 63rd Interdepartmental Hurricane Conference, which is given annually to honor people who have made sustained contributions to the U.S. Hurricane Program. The primary basis of the award was a long history of successful development and operational transition of tropical cyclone forecast products, including the SHIPS and LGEM intensity models, the rapid intensity index (co-developed with HRD), the NHC wind speed probability program and the NESDIS tropical cyclone formation probability product.
The paper "Stratospheric impact of the Chisholm pyrocumulonimbus eruption: Part 1. Earth-viewing satellite perspective," by M. Fromm (NRL) et al., for which Dan Lindsey is a co-author, has been selected to receive an Alan Berman Research Publication Award at the Naval Research Laboratory.
A recent initiative from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Jonas Gahr Støre, aims to strengthen U.S.-Norwegian collaboration in polar research, with a special focus on Svalbard, Norway. Their initiative was presented and discussed at the 50-year anniversary meeting of the joint Arctic Council and Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting in Washington, D.C., in April 2009. Among the list of suggested Norway-US research collaborations was a merging of CIRA snow, weather, and climate modeling tools with Norway's field observations in Svalbard, Norway. For the past 15 years, under the leadership of Dr. Glen Liston, scientists at CIRA/CSU have been developing regional climate modeling tools to simulate the evolution and changes occurring within Arctic systems. These tools include atmospheric models, hydrologic models, ecosystem models, data assimilation models, and a nested modeling structure that is able to simulate the feedbacks and interactions among the key climate systems and associated variables.
Last spring, April 2009, Mrs. Weisman's third grade Bauder Elementary class studied outer-space. She invited me to visit her class to discuss space, gravity, and show pictures of deep-space objects. During my visit I asked the class to, "jump up". Everyone was unable to "just" jump-up; they all came back down. When I asked them why they all came back down, I was overwhelmed with all kinds of answers. After their "gravity" experiment, I explained how gravity helps to form a star. From here, I introduced them to two stars rotating around each other: a binary pair. The class was more than happy to break up into groups of two and rotate around each other like a binary pair of stars. I asked if they would like to see some deep-space objects. They all replied with an enthusiastic yes! They saw actual images of open star clusters, globular star clusters, gaseous nebula, planetary nebula, and galaxies. I finished up by telling them that all deep-space objects are held together by the same thing that holds us all to the ground: Gravity.
At the conference in Omaha there were student awards given in four categories among 42 competitors. Darren tied for first place in the category "M.S./B.S. Student Poster Presentation" with his poster "Relating Snowfall Patterns over the Central and Eastern US to Infrared Imagery of Extratropical Cyclone Comma Heads."
2008
Don Hillger was part of a Group Achievement Award presented to the GOES-N Series Team by NASA in April as recognition "for providing the next generation of advanced weather satellites, a service essential to the Nation." Hillger coordinated the GOES-13 Science Test in December 2006, and was assisted by many other scientists whose analysis was complied into NOAA Technical Report NESDIS 125, available at http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/projects/goes_n/.
The following CIRA researchers (along with their federal colleagues) were recognized with a Certificate of Appreciation at the GSD "Town Hall" meeting on April 16 for their contributions to the integrated demonstration of GSD global modeling for Mary Glackin (NOAA Deputy Under Secretary for Oceans and Atmosphere) during her visit to ESRL on March 6:
Setting Up Real-Time Flow-following finite-volume Icosahedral Model (FIM) Runs on wJet and Getting Output on /public in a Timely Manner - Bob Lipschutz (Coordination of Team Activities), Paul Hamer, Patrick Hildreth, Chris MacDermaid
FIM Code Management with Subversion and GForge / Allowing Well-Controlled Frequent Changes to FIM from Developers - Tom Henderson, Richard Ryan
Actual Code Developers for FIM Model and Post-Processing / Many Key Changes Over a Three-Week Period - Jacques Middlecoff, Ning Wang
FIM Display Capabilities on Science On a Sphere® - Steve Albers, Mike Biere, Jebb Stewart
FIM Display Capabilities Using ALPS - Tom Kent
FIM Display Capabilities for Hall Display - Kevin Brundage, Brian Jamison
Graeme Stephens received an Exceptional Public Service Medal at an award ceremony held at JPL July 23, 2008. He was honored for his exceptional scientific leadership of the CloudSat Project and for his visionary promotion of combined active and passive measurements for atmospheric science.
Phil Partain also received an Exceptional Public Service Medal for his unique contributions to the CloudSat mission. Phil began his association with the CloudSat mission in 2000, when he was assigned to develop the Level 2 science data processing infrastructure for the CloudSat data processing center. Phil combined an existing university prototype with numerous innovations of his own to develop an advanced Level 2 processing system that has been recognized as state of the art by experts from JPL, GSFC, and LaRC.
The IAMAS International Radiation Commission (IRC) selected Graeme Stephens as the awardee of an IRC Gold Medal. This medal is given to a world's key scientist who made a great contribution to the radiation community. Graeme was invited to speak at the International Radiation Symposium 2008 and receive his pure gold medal at that time.
"I would like to congratulate you on the excellent science conducted by ESRL GSD and notably acknowledge the work of Tracy Lorraine Smith, Stanley G. Benjamin, Seth I. Gutman, and Susan Sahm on the "Short-range Forecast Impact from Assimilation of GPS-IPW Observations into the Rapid Update Cycle", Monthly Weather Review, Vol. 135, C03S90, doi: 10.1175/MWR3436.1. This paper was deemed to be one of the most original, important, useful, and best written, by a team of reviewers and has been awarded the 2008 OAR Outstanding Scientific Paper Award. We received many excellent papers this year and congratulate your Laboratory and the work of your scientists on their efforts towards this accomplishment." ---Richard Spinrad
"Congratulations to Tracy Smith, Stan Benjamin, Seth Gutman, and Susan Sahm of GSD for having been awarded the 2008 OAR Outstanding Scientific Paper Award. This is one of three papers that we submitted for consideration, and two of the three were awarded to GSD scientists. This is truly a remarkable achievement for GSD!" ---Steve Koch
Dr. Jankov has been a member of Forecast Applications Branch for the last three years. After receiving her Ph.D in 2006 at Iowa State University, Isidora joined the staff as a CIRA-supported post-doctoral associate. In October of 2007, she was hired as a CIRA Scientist. Isidora has made valuable contributions to the International H2O project and the Hydometeorological Testbed project in ensemble design and optimization. During her tenure at ESRL, she has published numerous papers as primary and co-author. With the recent departure of Dr. Chris Anderson to Iowa State University, Dr. Jankov has taken on the important role of primary modeler for the branch including configuring the realtime system for this year's HMT and California Department of Water Resources Projects. Dr. Jankov has strong collaborations with other CIRA and CIRES research efforts. She is an absolutely indispensable member of FAB.
Chris is ITS' nomination for GSD's Team Member of the Month for May 2008. He is recognized for his dedication to providing outstanding customer support as well as his exceptional skills and knowledge of data systems. Chris leads the Data Systems Group (DSG) within ITS. His group works with GRIB, BUFR, GVAR, METAR and other data. Some of the projects supported by Chris' group are MADIS, FSL to GSD Web project, ATAMS, RUC, WRF and FIM.
Best New Site — Brian Jamison for the FIM Real-Time Model Graphics Sites These sites provide real-time images of FIM global model output for the entire globe and selected sub-regions such as the CONUS, Africa, the Arctic, and Atlantic and Pacific basins. The web pages have options for several kinds of images, available in an easy to navigate menu. These plots have been invaluable for making real-time images available to developers, both here at GSD and elsewhere. Brian's FIM graphics have been critical in showing that the FIM can be competitive with operational models for hurricane track forecasting. Check out Brian's sites: http://fim.noaa.gov/fimgfs, http://fim.noaa.gov/fimconusTACC.
Paul Hamer has been instrumental in developing and supporting the Object Data System (ODS) software architecture that underlies the success of the Central Facility data system of the NOAA ESRL Global Systems Division (GSD). As a result of Paul's work, the ODS methods routinely and reliably accommodate ingest data formats such as GOES GVAR, WSR-88D Level-II, GRIB Edition-1 and -2, BUFR and ASCII. Paul's leadership in developing ODS has provided GSD with an asset that is the foundation upon which many of GSD's successful projects rely.
Andrea Schumacher worked as part of a NESDIS team on the development and transition of a new operational NESDIS product for estimating the probability of tropical cyclone formation. Andrea took the lead on generalizing the product to include the central and western north Pacific, and at present the final product is in the final stages of transition to NESDIS operations. The NOAA members of the NESDIS team on which Andrea worked received the NOAA Bronze Medal for their work (which unfortunately Andrea could not also receive because she was not a NOAA employee).
Jeff Smith has significantly impacted the Global Systems Division in respect to web applications, web services and java programming. He led the design and development of Weather Research and Forecast Domain Wizard, a graphical tool used to define the spatial domain needed to run the new WRF Pre-processor System. He helped design and develop the WRF Portal, a java application which allows users to develop, configure, run, and monitor the execution of complex WRF model workflows. He developed a java training course for the ESRL staff, and he won a web award for his work on Data Locator, a web services based data access and display tool integral to exploratory work on the Open Geospatial Consortium Web Coverage Service.
2007
Dr. Tom Vonder Haar, University Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science, has been elected Chairman of the Interdisciplinary Section of the National Academy of Engineering. The Academies of Engineering and Science and the Institute of Medicine were founded by President Abraham Lincoln to serve as advisors to the Nation. The Interdisciplinary Section includes 140 Academicians from industry, research laboratories and the university community.
The following nomination for GSD Team Member of the Month - December 2007 comes from Aviation Branch Chief Mike Kraus:
"Sean Madine is GSD's Team Member of the Month for December. We in the Aviation Branch would like to recognize Sean's significant contributions to the Forecast Verification Program. Sean is a key contributor to the success of the Verification Program. He provides programmatic coherence, project leadership and vision, and has infused innovative scientific concepts into the verification and evaluation process. For instance, Sean is leading the design of the next generation RTVS, is developing a significant cutting edge project with Boeing Corporation to understand the economic value of weather forecasts, and is working to extend verification concepts and information for automated decision support. Thanks Sean for all you do and congratulations!"
The following nomination for GSD Team Member of the Month - November 2007 comes from Information Systems Branch Chief Carl Bullock:
"I am nominating Leigh Cheatwood-Harris for GSD's November 2007 Team Member of the Month. Leigh has supported a number of important evaluation and training activities in ISB over the past several months. Two of particular note were her work with the AWIPS II development and GFE training for River Forecast Center forecasters. For AWIPS II, Leigh was persistent in working with the version 1.0 despite many problems typical of a first release of software. She became the de-facto expert on this system helping others learn and use AWIPS II. She also developed test metrics which will be used to evaluate the new AWIPS II system."
GSD Director Steve Koch stated that:
The following nomination comes from Technology Outreach Branch Chief Bill Bendel:
This new site provides a search engine for finding GRIB and NetCDF meteorological data here at GSD. Employing a web coverage service (WCS) to return subsets of desired data in NetCDF format, the Data Locator web application can either return this data as a downloaded NetCDF file (.nc), or it can generate web pages for viewing the data in a web browser or from within Google Earth. A web service is also available for other applications to invoke in order to find and retrieve this data.
Best Product/Internal Use: Patrick Hildreth - "FIDO" - Short for FICS DocsThe GSD ITS Operations staff have long relied upon FICS to assist them in monitoring the various systems in support of the research projects here at GSD/ESRL. "Fido", short for FICS Docs, is an add-on to FICS used to store and manage the detailed information pages associated with these systems. With Fido, operators are now able to edit, add, and delete information pages as well as view an archive of previous versions. The primary users of the system like it so well that they have expressed a desire to move all of their documentation to this new system.
Jebb Stewart was behind the system design and technical leadership necessary in the development of enabling technology for the Gridded FX-Net system. The system has since been adopted by operational fire weather forecasters working for the National Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and National Interagency Fire Center. The data provided by the system is essential to daily fire prediction forecasts.
Glen Liston is well known among his peers for his innovative blowing snow model. His modeling suite represents a tremendous advance forward in the field, and he has been sought after as a collaborator on a number of projects (including treks across Canada and the Antarctic) both here and abroad. Snow research promises to be a growing area thanks to the expertise and reputation Glen brings to CIRA.
The NOAA 2007 Environmental Hero Awards were presented by retired Navy Vice Admiral Conrad Lautenbacher, Ph.D., Undersecretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA Administrator, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on April 20, 2007. Nolan Doesken was one of ten recipients of the prestigious award. "Doesken organized a network of citizen volunteers to measure and report precipitation from their homes following a flash flood that killed five people in Fort Collins, Colorado in 1997. Starting with a few volunteers in 1998, the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow (CoCoRaHS) network involves thousands of volunteers in 17 states, and enhances the forecasting and warning capabilities of the NOAA National Weather Service."
At the annual NWS Incident Meteorologist (IMET) Workshop in Boise, Idaho during the week of March 12, 2007, the National Weather Service Director, Brig. General D.L. Johnson, USAF (Ret.), presented Certificates of Recognition to two members of the FX-Net project team: Sher Schranz, Project Manager, and Jebb Stewart, Development Lead. "In Recognition of your leadership to ensure operational excellence via innovative development and maintenance of critical software for our IMETS."
Poster Award for Use of WRF Portal to Support the Developmental Testbed Center
2006
Kevin received the award based on his significant participation on the NOAA Research and Development High Performance Computing System Procurement as well as his continuing superior performance on collaborative research with NOAA/RDTL GSD's Assimilation and Modeling Branch. Louie Grasso and Manajit Sengupta received the award for their outstanding work on the GOES-R Project.
Dr. Shripad Deo, a CIRA Research Associate based in Kansas City, MO with our National Weather Service Central Region Headquarters colleagues, was recently recognized with a Regional Excellence Award. The focus of Dr. Deo's research has been in trying to help the NWS communicate with the public more clearly and effectively. In this project, the goal was to develop a web portal that would allow the lay public access to NWS information without being overwhelmed. With help from the webmaster, the project was completed in June of 2006.
Congratulations to Jim Frimel for his selection as recipient of this year's CSU Distinguished Administrative Professional Award. Jim is being recognized for his key leadership of several high visibility research projects, including the FAA- and NWS-sponsored Volcanic Ash Coordination Tool project that recently received the 2006 NOAA Bronze Medal. He was presented his award at the Celebrate Colorado State! Luncheon on April 26 at the Lory Student Center.
Congratulations to Don Reinke on his selection as recipient of this year's College of Engineering Distinguished Administrative Professional Award for his exceptional performance as Leader of the CloudSat Data Processing activity since 2001. CloudSat is a NASA-managed cloud imaging satellite that has been making unique vertical structure measurements since June 2006. Don was presented his award at the annual College of Engineering Visual Arts and College Awards Reception held April 12th.
Evan Polster was named GSD's December 2006 Team Member of the Month. Evan serves as the Technology Outreach Branch programmer Analyst for the FX-Net Technology. He was recognized for his outstanding efforts in furthering the FX-Net activities including: contributing innovative ideas on improving recent FX-Net Client updates; working hard to meet many development and software release deadlines; maintaining the Starteam software version control system and the FX-Net group Wiki site; and providing Java development leadership. http://www-tod.fsl.noaa.gov/fxnet.html
CIRA Research Associate Jeff Smith was recognized at the NOAA/Global Systems Division (GSD) Christmas party this past December (2006) with a web award for "Best New Site." Jeff's creation, called "JavaZone" was created as a supplement to Jeff's Java class for the Earth Systems Research Laboratory (NOAA) in Boulder, CO. However, it has taken on a life of its own and become a valuable resource for many GSD developers who weren't able to take the class. The site is fun, clever and user-friendly. Power Point training slides, Java programming exercises, downloads, links and a "fun stuff" category are all provided on the site. Jeff's well-designed and well-coded site is GSD's Best New Site of 2006. http://www-ad.fsl.noaa.gov/ac/javazone/
The ESRL/Global Systems Division's GPS-Met team received the 2006 Department of Commerce Gold Medal for its development of Global Positioning System (GPS) meteorology, a new low cost, upper-air observing system that uses GPS to continuously measure the total amount of water vapor in the atmosphere. Although only Federal employees are eligible for this award, CIRA Research Associate Tracy Smith was a key member of the team that successfully demonstrated new applications for GPS meteorology that are essential to NOAA's Integrated Earth Observing System/Global Earth Observing System of Systems. Their efforts have advanced weather forecasting, climate monitoring, and atmospheric research by providing a new way to monitor atmospheric water vapor.
Tracy was also one of the coauthors on a paper selected as one of the 2005 OAR Outstanding Scientific Paper Awards announced in June. The award-winning paper, "An Hourly Assimilation-Forecast Cycle: The RUC," was published in Monthly Weather Review. This paper describes the analysis system utilized within the Rapid Update Cycle (RUC) and discusses some issues associated with high-frequency data assimilation cycling. The RUC is an operational NCEP weather forecast system Tracy helped develop as part of the GSD Assimilation and Modeling Branch.
GPS-Met: http://gpsmet.noaa.gov/jsp/index.jsp
RUC (now known as Rapid Refresh): http://rapidrefresh.noaa.gov/
A copy of the MWR paper can be found at:
http://www-frd.fsl.noaa.gov/pub/papers/Benjamin2004c/j.pdf
Dr. Tom Vonder Haar, University Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science and Director of CIRA, has been elected Chairman of the Interdisciplinary Section of the National Academy of Engineering. The Academies of Engineering and Science and the Institute of Medicine were founded by President Abraham Lincoln to serve as advisors to the Nation. The Interdisciplinary Section includes 140 Academicians from industry, research laboratories and the university community.
A NASA Group Achievement Award was presented to the CSU-CIRA Team comprised of Kenneth Eis, Phil Partain, Dale Reinke, Donald Reinke, Laura Sample, and Michael Hiatt for "exceptional contributions to the CloudSat mission in the design, development and implementation of the CloudSat Data Processing System." CloudSat launched on April 28th, 2006 and the Data Processing Center has processed 100% of the data collected by the instrument since it became operational on June 2nd 2006. A formal announcement of this award was made at the awards ceremony at JPL on June 21st. Phil Partain traveled to JPL to accept the Award for the DPC. Phil is an employee of Science Technology Corporation, METSAT Division and is working under a subcontract to CIRA as the CloudSat Data Processing Center System Engineering and Operations Manager.
