Weekly Report for the Week Ending August 7, 2009
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GSFC Laboratory for Atmospheres, Code 613
613 Weekly Report – Week Ending 08/07/09
Noteworthy science achievements/awards
- University of Nebraska-Lincoln geosciences graduate student David Peterson has received a prestigious NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship, which will fund three years of doctoral research. Peterson, who will finish his master's degree in meteorology this fall, studies the causes of wildfires in the boreal forests of Canada and Alaska. He will continue his research as a doctoral student, using satellite images provided by NASA to study fires caused by dry lightning strikes, in an effort to improve overall forecasting of fire weather. Mr. Peterson was mentored by GEST Visiting Fellow Jun Wang (University of Nebraska-Lincoln), Charles Ichoku (613.2) and Lorraine Remer (613.2) during the 2008 Graduate Student Summer Program at Goddard.
Noteworthy personnel awards and staff changes
Projects/missions
- The ER-2 Cloud Physics Lidar (CPL) completed a series of flights in support of CALIPSO validation. Flights were conducted from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton Ohio over the period June 26-July 28. Flights were conducted to far northern latitudes (approximately 65 N) to gather data for validating the CALIPSO 532 nm calibration scheme. The CPL is under the direction of Dr. Matthew McGill (613.1) along with Dennis Hlavka, Bill Hart, and John Yorks.
- Lorraine Remer (613.2), Charles Ichoku (613.2), Ralph Kahn (613.2), Si-Chee Tsay (613.2), Santiago Gasso (GEST), Rob Levy (SSAI), Charles Gatebe (GEST) and others are attending the Aerosol, Clouds and Ocean Ecosystems (ACE) Decadal Survey Mission Workshop in Santa Fe, New Mexico, August 4-7, 2009.
- Alexander Marshak (613.2) is attending the "NPOESS Capabilities Production Document (CPD) Working Group" in Silver Spring, MD, August 5-6, 2009.
Significant planned events
Proposals
Highlights of inter-Directorate teaming
External interactions (HQ, universities, other Gov't organizations, etc.)
- The Landsat 7 and LDCM Project Scientists, Darrel Williams (614.0) and Jim Irons (613.0), respectively, presented their views on past, present, and future Landsat interagency partnership at the invitation of a National Academy of Science (NAS) committee convened to examine Impediments to Interagency Cooperation on Space and Earth Science Missions. The presentation was made during committee meetings on July 31 at the NAS building in Washington, DC. The committee was co-chaired by James Baker, former NOAA administrator, and included A. Thomas Young, former GSFC Director, and Mark Schoeberl (610), currently the Chief Scientist of the GSFC Earth Science Division, Code 610.
- Dr. Igor Veselovskii of the Physics Instrumentation Center, Troitsk, Russia is a visiting scientist in Code 613.1 working with David Whiteman on multi-wavelength lidar retrievals of aerosol physical properties funded under the Radiation Sciences Program.
Accepted papers
Noteworthy talks/presentations
- Joel Susskind (613.0) was invited to attend the SPIE Infrared Spaceborne Remote Sensing and Instrumentation XVII Conference in San Diego, California, August 2-6. He presented two papers on August 5, paper #7453-16 titled "Improved Determination of Surface and Atmospheric Temperatures Using Only Shortwave AIRS Channels" by Joel Susskind, and paper #7453-17 titled "Improving Forecast Skill by Assimilation of Quality Controlled AIRS Version 5 Temperature Soundings" by Joel Susskind and Oreste Reale.
- Tianle Yuan (JCET/613.2) presented ìAerosol convective cloud interactions: mechanisms and regimesî and ìAerosols change glaciation temperature of deep convective cloudsî and T. V·rnai (JCET/613.2) presented an invited talk titled ìMODIS Observations of 3-D Radiative Effects in Clear Areas Near Cloudsî at the MOCA-09 conference co-sponsored by the International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences (IAMAS) in Montreal, Canada, July 19-29, 2009.
Major events in the coming week
Education and Outreach
- 613.2 Summer Institute and Graduate Student Summer Program Presentations "Analysis of Errors Associated with the Estimation of Smoke Emission Rates from Satellite Fire Radiative Power Measurements over North America " by K.G.Thishan Dharshana, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (Mentor: Charles Ichoku/613.2). ìFactors that Affect Smoke Plume Injection Heightsî by Catherine May, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (Mentor: Charles Ichoku/613.2). ìAerosol-Vegetation-Cloud Interactions over the Amazonî by John Ten Hoeve, Stanford University (Mentor: Lorraine Remer/613.2). ìCorrelation of AIRS CO and MODIS AOD over the Northern Hemisphere from June-August 2008î by Kiran Quraishi, UMBC (Mentor: D. Allen Chu/GEST/613.2). ìAtmospheric Transport of Patagonian Dust and Itís Influence on Marine Biological Activity in the South Atlantic Oceanî by Matthew Johnson, North Carolina State University (Mentor: Santiago Gasso' /GEST/613.2). ìNLDAS Drought Monitors: Precipitation Deciles and the Palmer Drought Severity Indexî by Vishana Ramdeen, Rutgers University (Mentor: David Mocko/SAIC/613.2). ìDriving Forces Behind Himalayan Glacial Meltî by Brandon Cottom, UMBC (Mentor: Eric Wilcox/613.2).
Issues and Concerns
Status of any major actions
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