NASA: Atmospheres - Weekly Report for the Week of January 5, 2009

Weekly Report for the Week of January 5, 2009

GSFC Laboratory for Atmospheres, Code 613

Noteworthy science achievements/awards

J. Hansen (611) has been chosen to receive the 2009 Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research medal, the highest honor bestowed by the AMS. He earned the medal for “outstanding contributions to climate modeling, understanding the climate change forcings and sensitivity, and for clear communication of climate science in the public arena.”
On Dec. 30, 2008, it was announced that J. Hansen (611) was named by EarthSky Communications and a panel of 600 scientist-advisors as the Scientist Communicator of the Year. Peers cited Dr. Hansen as an “outspoken authority on climate change” who had “best communicated with the public about vital science issues or concepts during 2008.”
A. Douglass (613.3) has been selected as a member of the AMS council.

Noteworthy personnel awards and staff changes

Recent additions to Code 613.2 include, Dr. Can Li (UMD-ESSIC), working with Si-Chee Tsay (Code 613.2) and Dr. Zhibo Zhang (UMBC-GEST), working with Steven Platnick (Code 613.2).

Projects/missions

The fifth meeting of the USGS-sponsored Landsat Science Team convened January 06 – 08 in Fort Collins, Colorada.. LDCM Project Manager, Bill Ochs (427), Project Scientist, Jim Irons (613.0), and Cal/Val Manager, Brian Markam (614.4) attended from the NASA LDCM Project along with Team members Bob Bindschadler (614.0), Darrel Williams (614.0), Lazaros Oraiopoulos (613.2), and Feng Gao (ERT/614.4) from GSFC. A meeting highlight was a Team visit to the Ball Aerospace and Technology Corporations (BATC) facility in Boulder, CO where the LDCM Operational Land Imager (OLI) is in development. BATC provided a tour of the facilities and was able to show the OLI work-in-progress including OLI components such as the optical bench.

Significant planned events

Proposals

A proposal submitted by Charles Ichoku (PI, 613.2), Bob Cahalan (Co-I, 613.2), and Charles Gatebe (Co-I) (UMBC) to the NASA-HQ Office of Earth Science, Education Programs Division Intramural Call for Participation by NASA Scientists in the GLOBE Climate Change Student Research Campaign has been selected. The proposal was entitled " Integration of NASA climate research in Community education on Climate Change through involvement in the GLOBE Student Climate Research Campaign (SCRC)".
A proposal entitled "Study of the Relationship Between the Telescope FOV and Cloud Forward Scattering in Support of the ICESat-II Science Requirements" (08-ICESATII08-8) submitted by A. Marshak (PI, 613.2), W. Wiscombe (co-I, 613.2), Y. Yang (co-I, 613.2) to the SMD Earth Science Division, in response to NRA NNH08ZDAOOIN-ICESAT-II, ROSES-2008, Program Element A.26: ICESat-II Science Definition Team (SDT) has been selected.

Highlights of inter-Directorate teaming

External interactions (HQ, universities, other Gov't organizations, etc.)

William Lau (613.0), Si-Chee Tsay (613.2), and Judd Welton (613.1), attended the 2nd International Workshops on TIGERZ and 7 South East Asian Studies (7-SEAS) last week at the Indian Meteorological Department in New Delhi, India. These studies are a part of the Asian Monsoon Years Aerosol-Cloud Observations. They participated in site visits and technical training for aerosol-cloud interactions and aerosol long-range transport observations.
Warren Wiscombe (613.2) and Alexander Marshak (613.2) are performing joint research on clouds and aerosols and discussing research results in Rehovot, Israel.
Final preparations are under way for an intensive field campaign at the Howard University Beltsville Campus that will occur between February 1 and March 15. The focus of this field campaign is the characterization of upper tropospheric and lower stratospheric water vapor measurement capability of Raman lidar for the Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC). Visiting scientists from Bolivia and Argentina will aid in the accomplishment of the objectives of the campaign. Contact PI David Whiteman (613.1) for further information.

Accepted papers

Kato, S., and A. Marshak (2009), Solar zenith and viewing geometry-dependent errors in satellite retrieved cloud optical thickness: Marine stratocumulus case, J. Geophys. Res., 114, D01202, doi:10.1029/2008JD010579 [published].
Wilcox, E.M., Harshvardhan, and S. Platnick (2009): An estimate of the impact of absorbing aerosol over cloud on the MODIS retrievals of cloud optical thickness and effective radius using two independent retrievals of liquid water path, J. Geophys. Res. [in press].

Noteworthy talks/presentations

On January 9, 2009, a set of Code 610 presentations were made to Dr. Ed Weiler. The presentations represented the Division's research efforts in terrestrial water cycle. R. Reichle (610.1) gave a presentation on satellite data integration for a consistent representation of the terrestrial water cycle. D. Hall (614.1) gave a presentation on satellite observations of snow. R. Koster (610.1) gave a presentation on soil moisture's role in drought, weather, and climate prediction.
On January 11, GMAO (610.1) hosted a short course on its MERRA (Modern Era Retrospective-analysis for Research and Applications) at the AMS meeting in Phoenix, AZ. There were 15 attendees from a variety of backgrounds, research and applications, universities and government. The objective was to provide the basic understanding of the system, information on system validation, on how to use the data in research and how to access the data with traditional methods, and newer online software access. The short course was led by M. Bosilovich and A. da Silva (610.1) and included presentations and hands-on exercises by them and by S. Berrick and D. Ostrenga (both 610.2).

Major events in the coming week

The GEWEX Science Steering Group Meeting, Irvine, California next week. Lazaros Oraiopoulos (Code 613.2) has been invited to give the GEWEX Radiation Panel Science talk and William Lau (Code 613.0) will also attend.

Issues and Concerns