Weekly Report for the Week of September 15, 2008
Print 
GSFC Laboratory for Atmospheres, Code 613
Noteworthy science achievements/awards
The July-August issue of "The Earth Observer", Volume 20, Issue 4 published an article entitled "For hurricanes, storms, raindrop size makes All the difference". The story was written by Gretchen Cook-Anderson, NASA-GSFC. The story was based on research published recently in Monthly Weather Review by Ali Tokay (613.1/UMBC), P. G. Bashor (Computer Sciences Corporation, NASA Wallops Flight Facility), E. Habib (University of Louisiana-Lafayette), T. Kasparis (University of Central Florida). This research improves radar total rainfall estimates in tropical cyclones and the modeling of raindrop size distribution in tropical cyclones.
Ali Tokay was interviewed by WALO radio in Puerto Rico on the same topic on Wednesday, September 3. Rainfall estimate improvements are of particular interest in Puerto Rico due to the dangers of flash floods.
Noteworthy personnel awards and staff changes
Matthew Davis has joined 613.2 as a programmer through SSAI and will be supporting Ralph Kahn with his research using the MISR instrument on the Terra satellite. His support will primarily be in the form of programming, application implementation, and application development. Matt is a recent graduate of San Diego State University with a M.S. in astronomy.
Tianle Yuan has joined 613.2 as a post-doc through JCET. He recently received his Ph.D. from UMD College Park under Prof. Zhanqing Li, and he will be analyzing satellite data to study aerosol effects on clouds.
Proposals
Howard University was awarded a 5-yr NASA University Research Center grant entitled “Howard University Beltsville Center for Climate System Observation”. Several NASA employees are named collaborators on this proposal including Wei K. Tao (613.1), Bruce Gentry (613.1), Gerry Heymsfield (613.1), Ali Tokay (UMBC/613.1), David Whiteman (613.1), Warren Wiscombe (613.2) and Alexander Marshak (613.2). This award is significant because it will permit the Howard University Beltsville Campus to conduct research of interest to NASA jointly with NASA scientists in the areas of Wind Lidar studies, Water vapor validation and climate data records, GPM validation, and Air quality and weather research.
NSF awarded the proposal: "Collaborative Research: Rainfall estimation accuracy and classification fromdeep underwater sound measurements" by Eyal Amitai (613.1, Chapman University), Jeffrey Nystuen (UW) and Emmanouil Anagnostou (UCONN.). Why is it important? The underwater hydrophones provide a measurement of rainfall with a spatial scale that varies with the depth of the hydrophone and could be of the same order as those of ground- and space-based radars. Therefore, there is the potential to provide surface truth for rainfall measurements from spaceborne radars in oceanic regions where ground-based radar observations are not available. The NSF's Physical Oceanography Program concurred that "the PIs should work to strengthen the connections to the GEWEX GPCP and/or NASA PMM communities as well as collaborations with the research groups that need their observations."
External interactions (HQ, universities, other Gov't organizations, etc.)
LaunchFest Activities, September 13, 2008
George J. Huffman (SSAI; 613.1) served as a LaunchFest Expert for Building 32. This was an important activity that contributed to the success of LaunchFest because guests needed a great deal of guidance in knowing where they were, what the 32/33 exhibits were, and particularly what buses to use to exit the Center.
Several members of the Atmospheric Chemistry and Dynamics Branch (613.3), Bryan Duncan, Ken Pickering, Joanna Joiner, participated in Launchfest. Using displays in the lobby of Building 33, they explained how instruments on the Aura satellite monitor air pollution, the ozone hole, volcanic eruptions, etc. and they showed plots and animations to illustrate the data. They also explained basic concepts about visible and ultraviolet radiation with the aid of prisms and UV-sensitive frisbees, which were popular with the kids.
Jim Irons (613) had a poster in the lobby of Building 33 that explained the history and current measurements made by Landsat.
Other Activities
Steven Platnick (613.2) and Lazaros Oreopoulos (613.2) received recognition through Environmental Research Web regarding their recently released paper Radiative susceptibility of cloudy atmospheres to droplet number perturbations: 2. Global analysis from MODIS, J. Geophys. Res., 113, D14S21, doi:10.1029/2007JD009655, 2008.
Accepted papers
Simulation of vector semi-binary homogeneous random fields and modeling of broken clouds, Prigarin, S.; Marshak, A., Siberian J. Numeric. Math., Vol. 11, pp. 347-356 (in Russian) and Numeric. Anal. Appl., Vol. 3, pp. 285-292 (in English), 2008
Hansell, R. A., K. N. Liou, S. C. Ou, S. C. Tsay, Q. Ji, and J. S. Reid (2008), Remote sensing of mineral dust aerosol using AERI during the UAE2 : A modeling and sensitivity study, J Geophys. Res., 113, D18202, doi:10.1029/2008JD010246
Physical interpretation of the spectral radiative signatures in the transition zone between cloud-free and cloudy regions, Chiu, J. C.; Marshak, A.; Knyazikhin, Y.; Pilewskie, P.; Wiscombe, W., Atmos. Chem. Phys. Disc., 2008 [In press]
Ground-based measurements of airborne Saharan dust in marine environment during the NAMMA field experiment, Jeong, M.-J.; Tsay, S.-C.; Ji, Q.; Hsu, N. C.; Hansell, R. A.; Lee, J., Geophys. Res. Lett., doi:10.1029/2008GL035587, 2008 [In press]
Noteworthy talks/presentations
Toshihisa Matsui (613.1/GEST) gave a invited seminar at University of Alabama / NASA MSFC on Sep 10 2008. The seminar title was "On the Development of Multi-Scale Cumulus Ensemble Models with Satellite Radiance Observations and Multi-Frequency Satellite Simulations". Dr. Matsui also held a short tutorial training course on the Goddard Satellite Data Simulation Unit at NASA MSFC Short-term Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) Center.
Ralph Kahn (613.2) and N. Christina Hsu (613.2) are presenting papers at the 3rd International Workshop on Mineral Dust, Leipzig, Germany, September 14-17, 2008.
Peter Colarco (613.3) was invited to give the Stout Lecture in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. He presented a lecture titled "A View of Earth's Aerosol System from Space and Your Office Chair" on September 12, 2008. He presented the same lecture to the Creighton University (Omaha, NE) Physics Department a day earlier.
Seminars, Meetings and Workshops
September 12 at 11:00 AM - Brian Kahn: "Relationships between clouds, temperature, and humidity: A perspective from AIRS, CloudSat, and CALIPSO"
Papers Submitted
An assessment of aerosol-cloud interactions in marine stratus clouds based on surface remote sensing, McComiskey, A.; Feingold, G.; Frisch, A. S.; Turner, D.; Miller, M.; Chiu, J. C.; Min, Q.; Ogren, J., J. Geophys. Res, 2008
Quantitative precipitation estimation over ocean using Bayesian approach from microwave observations during the typhoon season, Hu, J. C.; Chen, W. J.; Chiu, J. C.; Wang, J. L.; Liu, G. R., Terr. Atmos. Oceanic Sci, 2008
Print-friendly
page
(new window)
