Weekly Report for the Week Ending July 31, 2009
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GSFC Laboratory for Atmospheres, Code 613
Noteworthy science achievements/awards
Noteworthy personnel awards and staff changes
Projects/missions
- Steven Platnick (613.2) is attending the CALIPSO End of Prime Mission review, July 27, 2009 and the CloudSat-CALIPSO Science Team Meeting in Madison Wisconsin, July 28-31, 2009.
Significant planned events
Proposals
- Judd Welton (613.1) submitted a proposal entitled "Assessing and Improving GEOS-5 Aerosol Products Using the CALIPSO Vertical Feature Mask" to the CloudSat and CALIPSO Science Team Recompete announcement, with co-investigators Peter Colarco (613.3), Andrea Molod (610.1), Lesley Ott (610.1) and collaborators Arlindo da Silva (610.1) and James Campbell (NRL Monterey).
- Submitted in response to A.18 CloudSat and CALIPSO Science Team Recompete:
Investigation of aerosol effects on clouds using CALIOP-MODIS joint retrieval over ocean (PI: Lorraine Remer/613.2).
Use of CALIPSO in understanding the effect of clouds on aerosol properties and interpreting MODIS aerosol retrievals near clouds (PI: Alexander Marshak/613.2).
Toward a climatology of blowing snow and polar cloud properties through combined use of CALIPSO, CloudSat and MODIS data (Co-I: Alexander Marshak/613.2), (PI: Stephen Palm (SSAI/613.1).
Extracting the essence of cloud horizontal and vertical variability from CloudSat and CALIPSO for the benefit of Large Scale Models (PI: Lazaros Oreopoulos/613.2) .
Investigation of Ice Cloud Optical Thickness and Particle Orientation Using CALIPSO, CloudSat, and MODIS Observations (Co-I: Stephen Platnick/613.2).
An investigation of Interaction of Saharan dust and Atlantic ITCZ using Cloudsat-Calipso and A-train data, PI: William Lau (613), Co.-I's: Eric Wilcox (613.2), Kyu-Myong Kim (613.2), and others from the Laboratory.
- Submitted in response to NNL09ZB1005C - Global Climate Change Education (GCCE): Research Experiences, Teaching & Learning:
Earth in the Balance -- Simple Earth Radiation Experiments for Students (PI: David Brooks (Institute for Earth Science Research and Education; Co.-I.: Eric Wilcox, 613.2).
Highlights of inter-Directorate teaming
External interactions (HQ, universities, other Gov't organizations, etc.)
- Bo-Wen Shen (UMCP/ESSIC and CICS, 613.1), who was recommended by the dean's office, serves as a member of high-performance computing (HPC) committee at UMCP. The HPC committee is chaired by Jeff Huskamp (VP and CIO of UMCP) and its primary goal is to define needs and determine implementation of campus support for HPC.
- Eric Wilcox (613.2) is visiting Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD July 27 to August 27, 2009 to collaborate on studies of climate change impacts in Asia.
- Warren Wiscombe (613.2) is meeting at Brookhaven National Laboratory, July 27-31, 2009.
Accepted papers
- Tang (Tenn. Tech. U.), L., F. Hossain (Tenn. Tech. U.), G.J. Huffman(SSAI; 613.1), 2009: Transfer of Satellite Rainfall Error from Gauged to Ungauged Regions in Anticipation of the Global Precipitation Measurement Mission. J. Hydrometeor., submitted.
- Influence of ice particle model on satellite ice cloud retrieval: Lessons learned from MODIS and POLDER cloud product comparison, Z. Zhibo (UMBC-GEST/613.2), P. Yang, G. Kattawar, J. Riedi, L. C.-Labonnote, B. Baum, S. Platnick (613.2), and H.-L. Huang. [In press]
- Uncertainties in ice sheet altimetry from a space-borne 1064 nm single channel lidar due to undetected thin clouds, Yang, Y. (UMBC-GEST/613.2); Marshak (613.2), A.; Varnai, T. (UMBC-JCET/613.2); Wiscombe, W. J. (613.2); Yang, P., IEEE Trans. Geos. Remote Sens, 2009. [In press]
- The Saharan Air Layer and the Fate of African Easterly Waves: NASAís AMMA 2006 Field Program to Study Tropical Cyclogenesis: NAMMA, Zipser, E. J.; Twohy, C. H.; Tsay, S. C. (613.2); Thornhill, K. L.; Tanelli, S.; Ross, R.; Krishnamurti, T. N.; Ji, Q. (ESSIC/613.2); Jenkins, G.; Ismail, S.; Hsu, N. C. (613.2); Hood, R.; Heymsfield, G. M.; Heymsfield, A.; Halverson, J.; Goodman, M. W.; Ferrare, R.; Dunion, J. P.; Douglas, M.; et al., Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc, 2009. [In press]
- Effects of Particle Nonsphericity and Radiation Polarization on Retrieving Dust properties from Satellite Observations, Feng, Q.; Yang, P.; Kattawar, G. W.; Hsu, N. C. (613.2); Tsay, S. C. (613.2); Laszlo, I., J. Aerosol Sci, 2009. [In press]
- Two contrasting dust-dominant periods over India observed from MODIS and CALIPSO data, Gautam, R. (UMBC-GEST/613.2), Z. Liu, R. P. Singh, N. C. Hsu (613.2), Geophy. Res. Lett., 2009. [In press]
- Multilayer cloud detection with the MODIS near-infrared water vapor absorption band, Wind, G.; Platnick, S. (613.2); King, M. D.; Hubanks, P. A.; Pavolonis, M. J.; Heidinger, A. K.; Yang, P.; Baum, B. A., J. Appl. Meteor. Climatol, 2009. [Submitted]
- Cloud base height sensitivity to biomass burning smoke and cloud cover in the Amazon Basin, Correia, A. L. (ORAU/613.2), T. Yuan (UMBC-JCET/613.2); J. V. Martins (UMBC-JCET/613.2); L.A. Remer (613.2); H. Yu (UMBC-GEST/613.2), 2009. [Submitted]
Noteworthy talks/presentations
- Bo-Wen Shen (UMCP/ESSIC and CICS, 613.1) attended the EarthCARE Workshop 2009 in Kyoto, Japan, June 10-12, 2009. He presented research results on "Global Multiscale Modeling on NASA Supercomputers: Preliminary Extended-range Simulations of Madden-Julian Oscillations and African Easterly Waves." In addition, Bo-Wen Shen and Yukari Takayabu chaired the session of "model and cloud feedback" on June 11.
- Several Code 613.2 branch members are attending the International Association of Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences (IAMAS) meeting in Montreal, Canada, July 19-29, 2009. Ritesh Gautam (UMBC/613.2) presented a talk titled 'Pre-Monsoon Aerosol Radiative Effects and Tropospheric Warming over the Himalayan-Gangetic Region'. Robert Cahalan (613.2) presented a talk titled ìModeling the wavelength and time dependence of solar forcing of Earthís atmosphere and ocean mixed layer using RCMs and GISS GCMî and is the main convener and Co-Chair of the International Comparison of 3-Dimensional Radiative Transfer Code (I3RC) Meeting (July 22). He is also presiding as President of IRC at the International Radiation Commission (IRC) Business Meeting (July 24), presenting at the Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) Meeting (July 27), and attending the IAMAS Executive Committee Meeting (July 27).
Major events in the coming week
Education and Outreach
- Robert Cahalan (613.2) and Charles Ichoku (613.2) will discuss ìClimate change research and the role of secondary educational institutionsî and ìAtmospheric Aerosols and Climateî to visiting educators at the GSFC Visitor Center on August 4, 2009.
- Steven Platnick (613.2) presented ìNASA Earth Science & Observationsî to students at the National Youth Science Foundation Camp, Bartow, WV, July 21-23, 2009.
- Code 613.2 Image of the week: "Eruption of Sarychev Volcano in the Kuril Islands, Russia" Submitted by Ashley Griffin (SSAI Summer Intern and University of Maryland College of Computer, Mathematical and Physical Sciences); Lorraine Remer (NASA Mentor). URL: http://climate.gsfc.nasa.gov/viewImage.php?id=264
Issues and Concerns
Status of any major actions
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