Weekly Report for the Week of May 12, 2008
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CODE 613 LABORATORY FOR ATMOSPHERES
Conferences Attended
The following presentations were made at the 28th Conference on Hurricanes and Tropical Meteorology in Orlando, FL, April 28-May 2, 2008:
S. A. Braun (613.1), and C.-L. Shie: Examination of the influence of the Saharan Air Layer on hurricanes using data from TRMM, MODIS, and AIRS.
G. Heymsfield (613.1), L. Tian (613.1/UMBC), L. Li (613.1/UMBC), "Characteristics of Intense Deep Tropical Convection During TCSP and other NASA Field Campaigns". This paper presented characteristics of tropical convection updrafts based on over ten years of ER-2 Doppler Radar (EDOP) data. The results indicated some interesting differences between hurricane hot towers and isolated tropical convection.
Mallen, K. J., M. T. Montgomery, and S. A. Braun (613.1): An observational analysis of the genesis of Tropical Storm Gert (2005).
Mallen, K. J., M. T. Montgomery, S. A. Braun (613.1), and W. Schubert: A diagnostic analysis of high-resolution numerical simulations of the genesis of Tropical Storm Gert (2005). (poster)
In addition, Paul Newman (613.3) and Scott Braun (613.1) held an informal session on the use of the Global Hawk Unmanned Airborne System for hurricane studies entitled "Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3)—Application of the Global Hawk for Hurricane Studies". They presented background information on the capabilities of the Global Hawk and on the potential science that could be accomplished with their use to study hurricanes. They also answered questions and solicited feedback from the audience about how best to bring the Global Hawks into science operations.
Participation in Workshops
David Whiteman (613.1) led a workshop at the Howard University Beltsville Campus on Friday May 9 discussing the results of the WAVES_2008 field campaign. WAVES_2008 was hosted at the HU/Beltsville site under support of the NASA Aura Validation program from February 2 – March 26 with related follow-up measurements extending until April 17. The main goals of the field campaign were acquiring direct validation data for the Aura and Aqua satellite and studying the upper tropospheric and lower stratospheric water vapor measurement capabilities of Raman lidar. Dr. Whiteman presented two senior-authored and two co-authored talks. Dr. Ken Jucks from NASA HQ, the manager of funding program at NASA HQ, was in attendance.
Papers Submitted
Matsui, T., X. Zeng, W.-K. Tao, H. Masunaga, W. S. Olson, and S. Lang (2008), Evaluation of long-term cloud-resolving model simulations using satellite radiance observations and multi-frequency satellite simulators. Journal of Atmospheric and Oceannic Technology (submitted)
News Items
"Using Volcanic Eruptions as Natural Laboratories to Study Climate Responses"
URL: http://climate.gsfc.nasa.gov/viewImage.php?id=232
Images from Terra-MODIS from May 2, 2008 captured the mushroom cloud of the eruption of the Chaitén volcano in southern Chile during the early morning of that day. This eruption threw copious amounts of pyroclastic material which, according to preliminary reports, reached well above 10km from the surface. No injuries were reported, but several towns were evacuated as a precautionary measure. A large area downwind covered by ash is posing a major risk to the local sheep and tourist industry.
This was the first high-latitude eruption in the southern hemisphere since the eruption of the Hudson volcano in the early 1990s. This is a significant event since volcanic material injected in the stratosphere (the region of the atmosphere above 10km) is known to impact climate, and depending on the length of the eruption and the amount of material released, there is potential for a cooling effect as was demonstrated by the gigantic eruptions of the Pinatubo and Krakatoa volcanoes. Furthermore, it has been recently suggested that by artificially injecting sulfurous aerosols (very similar to those emitted during volcanic eruptions) in the stratosphere it would be possible to counteract the warming effect of greenhouse gases. This effect has been termed “geoenginnering”. Although this eruption does not appear to be as large as the Pinatubo or Krakatoa eruptions, it offers an opportunity to study the evolution and impact of the emissions in the following days and to confirm some the hypothesis suggested by geoengineering proponents.
The top figure shows the mushroom cloud of the eruption expanding sideways. In addition, the lower clouds to the right of the volcano, carried by the prevalent westerlies, are drifting towards the Patagonia region in Argentina. The bottom figure is a Terra-MODIS image from May 3, 2008 showing the extent of the plume reaching the South Atlantic and the large area covered by ash. The volcano is still active as of May 6, 2008.
Submitted by Santiago Gassó (613.2/GEST/UMBC). Figures provided by Louis Gonzales, the EARTH FROM SPACE MODIS survey website of the University of Lille.
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