Weekly Report for the Week of December 1, 2008
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GSFC Laboratory for Atmospheres, Code 613
External interactions (HQ, universities, other Gov't organizations, etc.)
Scott Braun (613.1) and Gerry Heymsfield (613.1) participated in a meeting of the Office of the Federal Coordinator for Meteorology (OFCM) Working Group on Tropical Cyclone Research, a multi-agency (NASA, NOAA, Navy, NSF, DoD, and others) group working to coordinate research efforts related to tropical cyclones. A goal of the group is to determine what activities are currently active or planned and to identify gaps in research efforts that may be important to improving prediction of tropical cyclones.
Eyal Amitai (613.1, Chapman University) attended the 4th NASA Energy and Water Studies (NEWS) P.I. Meeting, 3-5 November 2008, Four Points Sheraton BWI, Baltimore, MD.
Papers
The following paper was accepted for publication in the Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology on November 21, 2008.
Wolff, D. B., and B. L. Fisher, 2008: Assessing the Relative Performance of Microwave-Based Satellite Rain Rate Retrievals Using TRMM Ground Validation Data, J. Appl. Met. and Clim., [Accepted].
This paper is important in that it assesses the performance of several satellite platforms: AMSU (N15, N16 and N17), SSM/I (F13, F14 and F15), AMSR-E and TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI). We have shown that both TMI and AMSR-E are the premier space-based precipitation platforms, with superior skills, correlations, and lowest biases in both observing and estimating surface rain rates when compared to TRMM Ground Validation data at Kwajalein, RMI and Melbourne, FL.
Bolvin, D.T., R.F.Adler, G.J. Huffman, E.J. Nelkin, J.P. Poutiainen, 2008: Comparison of GPCP Monthly and Daily Precipitation Estimates with High-Latitude Gauge Observations, J. Appl. Meteor. and Climatol., Submitted.
Noteworthy talks/presentations
Participation in National Academy of Sciences Workshop
Three Laboratory members are participating in a "Workshop on Uncertainty Management in Remote Sensing of Climate Data" on Dec. 4, 2008 being conducted by the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC. Steve Platnick (613.2) is a co-organizer and is also serving as Discussion Moderator for the session on remote sensing of aerosols. Lorraine Remer (613.2) will speak on uncertainty issues associated with remotely sensed data sets for aerosols. Thomas Bell (613.2) will speak there on statistical problems associated with remote sensing of precipitation.
Education and Outreach
The Discovery Channel (DC) visited Goddard on November 24 and 25 to do some filming for a new special on hurricanes. Scott Braun (613.1) was filmed at several locations: At his desk, talking about currently available satellite data and how it is used to study hurricanes; in instrument labs with Gerry Heymsfield (613.1) to talk about development of new radar technologies; in another instrument lab with Matt McGill (613.1) to talk about lidar technologies; at the visitor center to talk in front of the Science on a Sphere about hurricanes; and in a clean room where a satellite is being built to talk about the deployment of new technologies on space-borne platforms.
Michael Reilly of Discovery Channel News published on Nov. 26 a news item based on an interview with Laboratory member Tom Bell (613.2) about recent research results showing a pronounced increase in summertime lightning activity in the southeast U.S. during the middle of the work week. The results support satellite observations showing similar midweek increases in storms in the region. Bell's research with Danny Rosenfeld of Hebrew University will be reported at the American Geophysical Union meeting next month.
Nick Krotkov (613.3/GEST) served on the Ph.D. dissertation committee of UMCP student Cam Li. Cam Li’s dissertation, “Emissions, Transport, and Evolution of Atmospheric Pollutants from China: An Observational Study”, was accepted by the Graduate School.
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