Presenter Biographies and Abstracts

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Steve Ackerman
Professor, CIMSS Director
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Joint Presenter with Tom Whittaker (see Tom's Bio below)

I have a BS in Physics from the SUNY at Oneonta and MS and PhD degrees from CSU. I came to the UW-Madison in 1987, joined the faculty of the Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Departement in 92 and became director of Copperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies in 1999. Most of my research is related to satellite remote sensing of Earth's
atmosphere. I received the AMS Excellence in Teaching Award in 2009.

Title:  Satellite Observations in Science Education

This workshop will focus on using satellite data in the classroom.  We will begin with an interactive challenge for the participants to fill out a Science Traceability Matrix related to some specific issues in satellite remote sensing.  Guided by the results of this matrix, we will present several examples of using Reusable Content Objects (RCOs) to create lesson content.   RCOs are freely available building blocks for creating exciting, interactive web-based content to support student learning.  The remainder of the time will be spent having the participants learn to create their own lessons using RCOs.

Jeffrey Anderson - NCAR

Jeffrey Anderson is a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research where he heads the Data Assimilation Research Section. From 1992 to 2000 he was a scientist at NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory where he led the experimental prediction group. He has made research contributions in theoretical geophysical fluid dynamics, seasonal prediction, predictability, and ensemble data assimilation. His work is focused by a goal to improve geophysical prediction. He has an M.S. in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley and a Ph.D. in atmospheric and oceanic sciences from Princeton University.

Title:  Ensemble Kalman Filters for Geophysical Data Assimilation

A sequence of Matlab demonstrations is used to introduce ensemble Kalman filter algorithms for geophysical applications. Bayes rule for gaussian distributions in one-dimension is presented first. The use of ensembles to approximate Bayes is presented next along with data assimilation examples for a single variable model. The extension of the ensemble Kalman filter algorithms to a pair of variables, one observed and one unobserved, is described next. This is sufficiently general to support any geophysical assimilation problem. Examples in the 3-variable Lorenz-63 system and the 40-variable Lorenz-96 system demonstrate the behavior of ensemble filters. A brief introduction to the Data Assimilation Research Testbed, which can be used for ensemble filtering in large geophysical models, concludes the presentation.

Richard A. Anthes
President of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR)
Boulder, CO

Richard Anthes is the president of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), which manages the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).  He is a highly regarded atmospheric scientist, author, educator and administrator who has contributed considerable research in the atmospheric sciences.  Dr. Anthes has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles and books and participated on or chaired over 40 different U.S. national committees.  He has also received numerous awards for his sustained contributions to the atmospheric sciences.  In October 2003 he was awarded the Friendship Award by the Chinese government, the most prestigious award given to foreigners, for his contributions over the years to atmospheric science and weather forecasting in China.  He was co-chair in 2004-2007 of the first ever National Research Council “Decadal Survey” for Earth Science observations from space.  Most recently, Dr. Anthes served as President of the American Meteorological Society for 2007.

Title: Unidata’s Role in Educating and Training the Community in New Observational Technologies and Data Sets

Unidata has an important role in UCAR’s mission of serving and leading the university community.  It supports education and research through the delivery of operational and research observations to the universities.  Historically Unidata’s role has been to make conventional, operational weather data produced by NOAA available to the universities, and this remains a crucial part of Unidata’s mission today.  However, in recent years, Unidata had started to distribute less well-known data sets, and thus assumes a broader role of educating the community about the properties and uses of novel technologies and data sets.  Unidata’s delivery of COSMIC (Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate www.cosmic.ucar.edu/ ) is an excellent example of this expanded role.  Even more than 10 years after the proof-of-concept GPS/MET experiment, surprisingly few students, faculty and researchers in the atmospheric sciences are aware of radio occultation as a powerful observing technique, contributing to weather research and forecasting, climate science, and space weather.  My talk will highlight the role of Unidata in educating and training the community in new data sets, with COSMIC as an example.

Sean Arms
University of Oklahoma
Norman, OK

Sean Arms is a PhD student at the University of Oklahoma, where he also received his BS (2004) and MS (2006) degrees.  His general research area is boundary layer turbulence over vegetative and urban canopies, and is currently investigating the role of coherent structures in the interaction between the urban canopy layer and the urban roughness sub layer.  Sean expects to complete his PhD dissertation during the 2009-2010 academic year. Sean has been involved with teaching a junior level course, METR 3613:Meteorological Measurements, since he began his graduate studies in 2004.  He has directed undergraduate and graduate course related observational research projects.  Sean has been heavily involved in the major reconstruction of hands on laboratories for the measurements course, as well as the addition of semester long in-situ base observational projects.  After five semesters of being involved with the course, Sean is scheduled to be the course instructor for the Fall 2009 semester.

Title: "Students and observationally based research: start small, think big, and everyone wins."

"Over the past five years, the level of undergraduate exposure to field work at the University of Oklahoma has went from few to all.  Due to the efforts of the instructors of the METR 3613 Meteorological Measurements course, all undergraduate students are now exposed to observationally based semester long projects.  Each project involves equipment setup and take down, and data collection and analysis.  This talk is intended to provide a brief tour of the long and winding road to the current state of the measurements course, student reaction over the years, and  future plans.  In addition, the case will be made that observationally rich courses can be extremely beneficial to the students, be relatively cheap to implement, and can remain in-line with the instructor's research plans without compromising the course specific goals.

William Brown
NCAR Earth Observing Lab
Boulder, CO

Dr. Brown is a Project Scientist in the Earth Observing Lab at NCAR in Boulder.  He leads the Atmospheric Profiling Group which includes the radiosonde balloon sounding and wind profiler systems.  He has a PhD from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, did postdocs at Kyoto University in Japan and McGill University in Canada, and has been at NCAR since 1998.
  
Title: MISS (Mobile Integrated Sounding System)

At the Unidata Workshop he will be leading a demonstration of the MISS (Mobile Integrated Sounding System)
facility.

Greg Byrd
COMET, NCAR,
Boulder, CO

Joint Presenter with Bryan Guarente (see Bryan's bio below)

Dr. Greg Byrd, senior project manager has been with the COMET Program for the past 15 years. In addition to his current position, he previously served as manager for COMET’s residence and outreach programs, scientific group head, resident instructor, and content developer/reviewer for a variety of distance learning modules. Prior to coming to COMET, he was on the faculty of the State University of New York College at Brockport, where he taught courses in synoptic, dynamic, physical, mesoscale and aviation meteorology and climatology, and had an active research program studying lake-effect snowstorms. He is also a past member of the Unidata Users Committee.

Title: Use of Observational Datasets in Current and Future COMET Online Learning

Over the years, COMET has integrated observational data into a number of multimedia training modules. Perhaps the most comprehensive usage has occurred in our interactive, case-based learning modules on a variety of topics: barrier jet forecasting, ocean-effect snow, polar lows, Alberta Clippers, and fire weather forecasting. We have also integrated sounding data into interactive learning exercises in the Skew-T Mastery module. In addition embedded video has been used to demonstrate proper techniques for taking field observations in our fire weather training series.

We are currently experimenting with geophysical data in Google Earth, and hope to employ this application in our future modules. From the global temperature record to near-real-time surface winds, we are covering the gamut from the climate record to near-real-time local scale data. Our presentation will consist of an overview of how observational data is and will be used in our learning modules by means of several short, on-line demonstrations.

Phillip Chilson
University of Oklahoma
Norman, OK

A recurring theme in the research interests of Dr. Chilson has been the study of dynamics and stratification of the atmosphere using profiling radars (profilers).  Unlike weather radars, profilers are used to probe the atmosphere directly above.  Since obtaining his PhD in physics, Dr. Chilson has used profiling radars located around the world to observe such phenomena as the ablation of meteors in the atmosphere, high altitude (85 km!) ice clouds, shear-induced dynamic instabilities, effects of ionospheric modification, the evolution of the atmospheric boundary layer, and orographically induced gravity waves.  After joining the faculty of the School of Meteorology in 2005, he has has become involved in several projects focused on weather radar studies.  One aspect of these studies involves precipitation research using a variety of radar techniques.  To that end, Dr. Chilson is helping to develop a research site near OU (the Kessler Farm Field Laboratory), where targeted in-situ and remote sensing precipitation measurements can be made.  He has also begun working on the development of different "virtual radars", which are used to probe model-produced simulated atmospheres.  Other research projects involve the use of small UAS (unmanned aerial system) platforms for atmospheric measurements and radar validation as well as the study of biological targets (birds, bats, and insects) using radar.  Before coming to OU, Dr. Chilson was a research scientist with CIRES at the University of Colorado where he worked with the NOAA Environmental Technology Laboratory.  Earlier appointments were with the Swedish Institute of Space Phyiscs and the Max-Planck-Institut für Aeronomie (currently the Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung).

Title: Curriculum Materials for an Interdisciplinary Program on Multi-Function Radar

The University of Oklahoma has recently launched a new Strategic Initiative in Weather Radar, which strives to unify and strengthen the various radar and radar related enterprises across campus and within the community.  An outgrowth of this program has been the formation of the Atmospheric Radar Research Center (ARRC).  An integral component of the ARRC's activities is the continuing development of a healthy and vibrant academic radar program for our students.  Cognizant of this fact, several of the faculty within the School of Meteorology (SoM) and the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) have taken it upon themselves to develop a new cross-disciplinary curriculum targeted at achieving this objective. The result of these efforts is the Weather Radar Curriculum, which consists of roughly 20 courses at the undergraduate and graduate level in both SoM and ECE.  Although, some of these courses were already in place, several have been developed specifically for the curriculum.  Considering the relevance of weather radar for many observational studies of atmospheric phenomena, a strong ``hands-on'' component is essential for the overall success of the program and to better serve the evolving needs of the students.  Our curriculum provides a complete theoretical framework with which to understand weather radar theory while also providing access to local weather radar systems.  In close collaboration with our NOAA partners at the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL), we have developed laboratory modules for many of the radar courses using a suite of meteorological radars.  Many of these modules have been and are being developed as part of a National Science Foundation (NSF) Course Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement (CCLI) grant.  Experimental design, operation, data analysis, and interpretation are emphasized. A description of the curriculum development effort including the role of the CCLI support will be provided.  Examples of laboratory modules will also be presented, which emphasize the practical aspects of this program.

Richard D. Clark, Ph.D.

Millersville University
Millersville, PA

Professional Preparation:
University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY          Atmospheric Science                        Ph.D., 1987
University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY          Atmospheric Science                        M.S.,  1985
Point Park College, Pittsburgh, PA                Chemistry and Mathematics             B.S.,   1975
Penn State University, State College, PA       Astronomy (grad. level, 1976)        no degree

Academic and Professional Appointments: Anthropogenic emissions from urban sprawl, traffic, and industrialization along the northeast corridor of the United States are having an increasingly profound effect on urban and regional air quality.  Surface air quality over populated areas is an important issue given persuasive data linking high levels of atmospheric oxidants and particulate matter to deleterious human health effects and higher morbidity in at-risk populations.

Predictions of air quality episodes along the Northeast corridor can be confounded by the frequent occurrence of local and regional scale circulations that can influence the magnitude, timing, and spatial extent of air pollution events. While there may be good understanding of the synoptic scale patterns associated with severe air pollution episodes in the mid-Atlantic region, local and regional gradients generated by land-sea discontinuities, topographic features, urban environments, and complicated by a convoluted coastline can give rise to sub-synoptic circulations that are difficult to predict. Forecast skill is often compromised due to the complex scale interactions between the surface layer, boundary layer, and free troposphere. An improved understanding of the influence of local and regional circulations on sources, sinks, transport, mixing, and photochemical transformations controlling the observed abundances of photochemical oxidants and fine particle haze over the mid-Atlantic region is key to developing more reliable pollution forecast capability.

During the summers of 1999, 2001, and 2002 investigators from several institutions and government laboratories conducted an intensive field campaign about 18 km ENE of Philadelphia (40.04o N, 75.00o W). The objectives of this project were to investigate the conditions within the urban polluted environment to find relationships between the meteorological conditions and high O3 concentrations, increased levels of PM2.5, and contributions from local and distant sources. Data were gathered by a number of platforms including Raman Lidar, 915 MHz profiler, multiple tethered balloons, and a suite of surface based criteria and other trace gas analyzers. This presentation will focus on local and regional circulations such as low-level jets and sea breezes that had a profound effect on the air quality and meteorology at the site.

Following on the summer campaign a local study of particulate matter in the wintertime boundary layer was conducted in January-February 2004. These winter investigations support the position that sub-synoptic scale circulations can have a significant influence on the surface and boundary layer variability of trace gas and particle concentrations at a local site. In-situ meteorological observations of select meteorological events and their influence on the trace gas and fine particle concentrations will be presented.

Time permitting this presentation may also include a brief description of several other ongoing research and education initiatives. Emphasis will be given to undergraduate participation in each of the projects.     

Dr. Eugene Cordero
Associate Professor, Department of Meteorology
San Jose State University

Dr. Eugene Cordero is an Associate Professor in the Department of Meteorology at San Jose State University.  His research interests are focused on understanding the processes responsible for long-term changes in climate through the use of observations and climate models. Eugene teaches courses in climate change and is also involved in projects working to improve methods of public education that engage and ultimately stimulate social change.  He has also recently coauthored /Cool Cuisine: Taking the Bite out of Global Warming/, a book that looks at the multiple connections between the food we eat and global warming.

Title:  Using a library of downscaled climate projections to teach climate change analysis

A data set of climate model projections used for the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report has been downscaled to the conterminous US plus portions of Canada and Mexico (Credit:  Edward Maurer, Santa Clara University).  The publically available dataset contains 112 downscaled climate projections, based on output from 16 GCMs and 3 different emissions scenarios with a common resolution 1/8 degree (~140 km).  After demonstrating the user interface, the talk will describe a variety of learning activities that utilized this dataset to teach concepts in climate change and statistics. 

Mike Daniels
Computing, Data and Software (CDS)
Facility within the Earth Observing Laboratory (EOL) of NCAR
Boulder, CO

Mike Daniels is the Manager of the Computing, Data and Software (CDS) Facility within the Earth Observing Laboratory (EOL) of NCAR.  The EOL and CDS are charged with developing and deploying instrumentation for atmospheric research, and thus have highly developed expertise in research-grade deployment of facilities and in-field coordination of different instrument types and the associated data, networking and software tasks associated with them. This includes worldwide deployments to remote or otherwise challenging field experiment sites and working satellite data links associated with aircraft or balloon based platforms.  The EOL has two research aircraft and a large variety of ground-based remote and in-situ sensing systems.  The ground-based systems include near-surface flux, soil and chemical measurement systems, integrated sounding systems and wind profilers, aerosol lidars, GPS sondes, driftsondes, and scanning Doppler radars. EOL/CDS is responsible for data systems, long term archival and stewardship of all NCAR Lower Atmosphere Observing Facility data as well as the coordination, quality assurance and linkages to supporting datasets (frequently non-NSF) which are necessary for NSF sponsored field experiments.  NCAR also provides an active visitor program, with therefore significant opportunities to facilitate collaboration. We also can readily collaborate with other scientific staff at NCAR and with the nearby NOAA laboratories and research universities, as needed.  Further information can be found at http://www.eol.ucar.edu/about/our-organization/cds

Title: The Virtual Operations Center (VOC)

Science derived from observing platform data is the result of years of planning before a field deployment, and millions of dollars are spent on the deployment itself in hopes of obtaining the desired dataset. Unprecedented project control, such as vectoring multiple aircraft within hurricane rainbands, is possible today using a structured combination of real-time data, information and communications infrastructure. Providing such capability for field projects benefits the resulting science, and requires a modular, flexible and well-engineered system that 1) visualizes data from different time and spatial domains, 2) allows participation and collaboration among distributed participants, 3) interacts directly with instrumentation,
4) assimilates near-real-time data into models to provide guidance for field operations, and 5) disseminates data as soon as it is acquired for planning purposes and further research. Such a system fills critical

Brian Etherton
Renaissance Computing Institute
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

Brian Etherton is a senior scientist at the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI), affiliated with the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Prior to this position, he was an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina Charlotte, where he began a meteorology program. His Ph.D. Is from Penn State University, where his dissertation was focused on the use of ensembles for data assimilation and adaptive observations. He has been a member of the Unidata Users Committee since 2008.

Title: Data Assimilation Introit / Barnes Analysis in IDV

Data assimilation is the process of combining observational data, which is temporally and spatially irregular, and a model based first guess field, which is on some sort of grid, into a new best estimate of the state of the system. This presentation will serve as an introduction to data assimilation, with the terminology and concepts introduced. The session will end with a hands on exercise using the Integrated Data Viewer (IDV) to perform a simple data assimilation technique, the  Barnes Analysis. In the exercise, the importance of how the observations and first guess are weighted will be explored.

Bart Geerts, PhD
University of Wyoming
Laramie, WY

University of Washington 1990 is an Assoc. Prof. at the University of Wyoming. He teaches synoptic and mesoscale meteorology. His work addresses the mesoscale dynamics of precipitating systems, boundary-layer circulations over flat and complex terrain, cloud dynamics, and cloud and precipitation radars. In the last decade his main tools have been the Wyoming Cloud Radar and the University of Wyoming King Air aircraft.

Title: IDV as a tool to examine combined experimental and operational data
Bart Geerts, Larry Oolman and Joshua C. Demko

We propose a 50 min hands-on lab session for beginning to intermediate users of IDV. We will use data collected in the 2006 CUmulus Photogrammetric In-situ and Doppler Observation (CuPIDO) field campaign near Tucson, Arizona, accessible through the RAMADDA server. Experimental data include aircraft in situ data and surface meteorological data. Operational data include radar and satellite imagery and model output. We will also use IDV to display high-resolution (1 km) WRF V3 model output. Participants will learn how to display these data and examine flight response to convective development over the Santa Catalina Mountains in virtual real-time.

Bart Geerts
Department of Atmospheric Science
University of Wyoming
Dept. 3038, 1000 E. University Ave.
Laramie WY 82071 USA
+1 307 766 2261

Bryan Guarente
COMET, UCAR,
Boulder, CO

Joint Presenter with Greg Byrd (see Greg Byrd's bio above)

Bryan Guarente has been an instructional designer at the COMET Program for just over a year. He is currently enamored with the use of Google Earth as a learning tool, jQuery for interactions, and interview-style learning modules. In his previous job, he was an instructor/course designer at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he taught face-to-face meteorology classes for non-major undergraduates. During this time, he gained a solid understanding of web technology for instruction and used many different tools to engage learners, including Flash, Google Earth, and COMET Modules. If you see something you like in his presentation or have an application for Google Earth that you haven't seen available yet, he would love to talk to you.

Title: Use of Observational Datasets in Current and Future COMET Online Learning

Over the years, COMET has integrated observational data into a number of multimedia training modules. Perhaps the most comprehensive usage has occurred in our interactive, case-based learning modules on a variety of topics: barrier jet forecasting, ocean-effect snow, polar lows, Alberta Clippers, and fire weather forecasting. We have also integrated sounding data into interactive learning exercises in the Skew-T Mastery module. In addition embedded video has been used to demonstrate proper techniques for taking field observations in our fire weather training series.

We are currently experimenting with geophysical data in Google Earth, and hope to employ this application in our future modules. From the global temperature record to near-real-time surface winds, we are covering the gamut from the climate record to near-real-time local scale data. Our presentation will consist of an overview of how observational data is and will be used in our learning modules by means of several short, on-line demonstrations.

Josh Hacker
NCAR/RAL
Boulder, CO

Abstract: A nonlinear dynamical systems perspective

A nonlinear dynamical systems perspective provides framework in which one can explicitly visualize the impact of model inadequacy on forecasting and data assimilation.  Attractors define the space in which solutions to equations evolve; model inadequacy renders the model attractor different from the true system attractor, which can be shown graphically.

John Horel
Department of Atmospheric Sciences
University of Utah

Dr. Horel's research is centered on the weather and climate of the western United States, data assimilation, mountain meteorology, fire weather, and Great Salt Lake studies. He has been a member of the faculty at the University of Utah since 1986 and involved in improving access to mesonet observations for over a dozen years as part of the MesoWest project. MesoWest provides access to surface weather observations for operational, research, and educational applications. The MesoWest observations also provide a foundation from which to conduct research to improve data assimilation techniques over complex terrain. He participates in a National Weather Service effort to develop a mesoscale Analysis of Record and its prototype the Real Time Mesoscale Analysis.

Title: Analyzing Surface Weather Conditions on the Mesoscale

Variational data assimilation techniques are introduced and applied to the analysis of surface weather conditions on the mesoscale. The sensitivity of mesoscale analyses to the assumptions regarding observational and background error covariances are illustrated. The characteristics  of NCEP's operational Real Time Mesoscale Analysis of temperature, wind, and moisture are discussed. Students will use Matlab to create local mesoscale variational analyses and investigate the impact of removing observations on the analyses.

Patrick C. Kennedy
Radar Facility Manager
Colorado State University
Greeley, Colorado

BS Meteorology 1980 University of Utah
MS Meteorology 1983 University of OklahomaPat Kennedy’s association with the CHILL Facility began when the radar was operated by the Illinois State Water Survey in the late 1980’s.  (The radar was originally a joint development effort by the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois at Urbana; thus the CHILL acronym).  Pat accompanied the radar to Colorado in 1990 when the NSF reassigned the Cooperative Agreement that supports the radar’s operation to Colorado State University.  Throughout this period, Pat’s Facility Manager position has provided considerable experience in the collection and analysis of polarimetric weather radar data.  Improving the educational utility provided by the CSU-CHILL Radar Facility continues to be one of his primary interests.

Title: Educational Services Available from the CSU-CHILL Radar Facility

CSU-CHILL is a dual polarization, S-Band research weather radar funded by the NSF and operated by Colorado State University at a site near Greeley, Colorado.  In recent years, several methods of providing remote classroom access to the CHILL facility via the internet have been developed  This talk will demonstrate some of these remote access methods including presentations of both live and archived data using the Virtual CHILL (VCHILL) software, and on-line video camera imagery from the radar site.  (For more information on the CSU-CHILL facility, please visit the web site: chill.colostate.edu)

Dr. Alexander E. (Sandy) MacDonald
Office of the Director
NOAA/Earth System Research Laboratory
Boulder, CO

Dr. Alexander E. (Sandy) MacDonald was named the first Director of the Earth System Research Laboratory and first Deputy Assistant Administrator for NOAA Research Laboratories and Cooperative Institutes on July 27, 2006. Dr. MacDonald served as Acting Director for the Earth System Research Laboratory and Director of the ESRL Global Systems Division during the consolidation of the Boulder Laboratories into the Earth System Research Laboratory in 2006. Prior to the consolidation, Dr. MacDonald led the Forecast Systems Laboratory.

Dr. MacDonald was the Director of the Program for Regional Observing and Forecasting Services (PROFS) from 1983 to 1988. From 1980 - 1982, he was Chief of PROFS' Exploratory Development Group and from 1975 - 1980 he was a Techniques Improvement Meteorologist in the Scientific Services Division, Western Region, National Weather Service in Salt Lake City, UT. He was an Air Force Officer while a member of the U.S. Air Force from 1967 - 1971.

Title: NOAA’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems Program

NOAA started a base funded research and development program for unmanned aircraft systems at the beginning of FY 2008.  The goal of the program is to develop unmanned aircraft systems and determine their usefulness in supporting NOAA’s mission.  As a part of the development effort, NOAA has been using the UAS in research and development, and testing different platforms for operational suitability.  A number of the tests of unmanned aircraft will be described.  The plans for additional research and development will be discussed, including the development of test beds.  Currently NOAA is developing three test beds; an Arctic test bed that is used for marine mammal surveys and climate change, a Pacific test bed that will study atmospheric rivers, and an Atlantic test bed that will be applied to improvement of tropical storm prediction.  The UAS program is headed by Robbie Hood, and is developing an Analysis of Alternatives to inform NOAA of the operational uses that UAS should encompass.

Greg McFarquhar
University of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign

Dr. Greg McFarquhar is an associate professor at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. He received his Ph.D. in cloud physics from the University of Toronto in 1993 and studied at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the National Center for Atmospheric Research before joining Illinois in 2001. Because the most fundamental and complex problems in climate and weather research today are our poor understanding of the basic properties of clouds and our inability to determine quantitatively the many effects cloud processes have on weather and climate, his research concentrates on cloud microphysics with the end goal of improving the representation of clouds in weather and climate models. His work uses a combination of field observations, satellite retrievals and numerical modeling studies.

Title: Engaging Students in Atmospheric Science Field Campaigns

Over the past 8 years, field projects conducted by the University of Illinois have benefited from the involvement of graduate students in the organization, execution and analysis of data collected from observational field campaigns. Likewise, graduate students have benefited from their unique experiences during these projects. This presentation will overview the role that graduate students have played in recent experiments conducted at locations such as Darwin Australia, the North Slope of Alaska, the Cape Verde Islands, the Gulf of Mexico, Missouri and Oklahoma. After describing the aircraft and instruments that can be used to make measurements of the microphysical properties of clouds (e.g., size and shape distributions of hydrometeors, mass contents), it will be shown that student involvement in these projects has lead to fundamental breakthroughs in the following areas: 1) how clouds affect the transmission of radiation through the atmosphere; 2) how the Saharan Aerosol Layer impacts hurricane genesis; 3) how cloud processes influence the development of severe straight-line winds found behind mesoscale convective systems; 4) how haze associated with the transport of anthropogenic pollutants to the Arctic impacts cloud properties; and 5) how field data can be used to improve the representation of clouds in climate and weather models. Upcoming opportunities for student involvement in a National Science Foundation project sampling the microphysical properties of snowbands will be described.

Anthony Mostek
NOAA/NWS - Office of Climate Water,and Weather Services
Training Division - Forecast Decision Training Branch
Federal Program Officer for UCAR's COMET Program
Boulder, CO

Anthony (Tony) Mostek is with the Training Division of NOAA's National Weather Service (NWS). He is the Branch Chief of the Forecast Decision Training Branch (www.fdtb.noaa.gov) and the Federal Program Officer for UCAR's COMET Program. Tony has been located at the COMET offices in Boulder, CO since he moved from Maryland in 1995. When he first moved to Boulder he was the Satellite Training Leader for the NWS. He helped form the Virtual Institute for Satellite Integration Training (VISIT - rammb.cira.colostate.edu/visit/visithome.asp) in 1998 and is the NWS VISIT Program Leader. Tony is a NOAA representative to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Space Programme Expert Team. Prior to moving to Boulder, Tony was with the National Centers for Environmental Prediction from 1984 until 1994. He was also the Satellite Program Leader for the NWS from 1990 to 1992.

Title: NOAA Environmental Satellite Data & Products Where to find them and training on how to use them

Thomas Phillips
University of Colorado at Boulder

Thomas Phillips was born and raised in Zurich, Switzerland. After attending high school where he majored in Mathematics and Physics he took some time out and travelled Australia in 2000. During that year he decided to concentrate on studying natural sciences largely due to the beauty of the country he visited. He enrolled in geography at the University of Zurich and got minors in physics, mathematics, glaciology and history. His interest shifted to ice dynamics and climate and he completed his Masters in atmospheric sciences at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich and at the University of Zurich in 2005. After working briefly in a soil chemical laboratory he left Switzerland for the University of Colorado at Boulder, Colorado in 2006 to study climate change and ice sheet dynamics. His main interest is using remote sensing data as well as field data in order to model the influence of melt water on the en-glacial temperature. He is currently a PhD candidate with Professor Konrad Steffen and expects to complete his research in the spring of 2010.

Abstract: The Greenland Ice Sheet experiences a large amount of melt each summer forming moulins and a well developed en-glacial water network. Is this en-glacial network a new network each year or does it remain at least partially open over winter, allowing the melt water of the following year to use the same network, thus enhancing efficiency of en-glacial water transport? We try to answer these questions by exploring the potential influence of the winter snow layers and water bodies in the ice at the end of the melt season on the thermal regime during the winter. During the summer months the short wave radiation warms the surface of the Greenland ice sheet generating surface melt. Melt water penetrating deep into the ice can potentially carry some of the energy to depth. In the Arctic regions snow plays a major role in protecting the underlying surface from losing too much energy to the cold winter atmosphere. In addition, if some of the water entering moulins and crevasses does not reach the bed, but is rather stored in water bodies within the ice at the end of the melt season, the ice sheet will experience a large local latent heat flux that may moderate the cooling of ice during the winter months. In this study we use temperature profiles of the upper 10 meters of ice as well as a two dimensional heat transfer model to simulate the seasonal thermal evolution of an ablation zone on the Dead Glacier in Western Greenland. This area of the Greenland Ice Sheet experienced annual snow thicknesses of approximately 80cm. We simulate the temperature variation with time and depth for different years considering the amount of available melt water and the insulating snow height in winter. The possibility of a positive feedback between ice sheet warming due to radiation and melt water in the summer, increased snow cover accumulation and reduced cooling in winter is discussed. In addition we use satellite imagery to understand the supra-glacial network and the distribution of moulins and crevasses. The first 200 meters of the en-glacial system was studied using a smart floating device that could measure the volume and the structure of the large cavities and channels of the system.

Wayne Powell
Chair
Department of Geology
Brooklyn College, CUNY

Wayne Powell is an Associate Professor and Chair of Geology at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. Wayne has received several grants from NSF (GeoEd, GK12, STEP) and the New York State Department of Education that focus on the design of earth science curricula and professional development for undergraduates, graduate students, and earth science teachers that integrate urban resources, urban priorities, and community partnerships. Together with Brooklyn College colleagues and FIPSE support, Prof. Powell has revised the freshman geoscience curriculum to stress the development of skill sets associated with data collection, interpretation and presentation of results based on the local New York City urban environment. He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Geoscience Education. His scientific research applies principles of petrology to broader field-based problems such as the timing of metallic ore deposits and the mineralogical mechanisms of exceptional fossil preservation.

Dr. Mohan Ramamurthy
Director, Unidata
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
Boulder CO

Dr. Mohan Ramamurthy is the Director of UCAR’s Unidata Program and is a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.  Unidata is a national facility, funded by the National Science Foundation, and its mission is to provide the data services, tools, and cyberinfrastructure leadership that advance Earth system science, enhance educational opportunities, and broaden participation.

Dr. Ramamurthy studied weather processes and prediction, including mesoscale phenomena such as snowbands, gravity waves, and hurricanes, and conducted research in data assimilation and ensemble forecasting for 25 years. His current interests are focused on information technology, interactive-multimedia instruction and learning, scientific data services, and more broadly the application of cyberinfrastructure in the geosciences. Dr. Ramamurthy has published more than 50 peer-reviewed papers on many topics in meteorology, information technology, and geoscience education.

Dr. Ramamurthy joined UCAR in 2003 after spending nearly 17 years on the faculty in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Ramamurthy has a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Physics from the University of Poona in India. He earned his Ph. D. in Meteorology from the University of Oklahoma, where his doctoral research dealt with the analysis of data and modeling of disturbances associated with monsoons. Dr. Ramamurthy is a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society.

Perry Samson
Dept. Atmospheric, Oceanic & Space Sciences
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI

Perry Samson is Associate Chair of the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences at the University of Michigan where he has been honored as an Arthur Thurnau Professor for his contributions to undergraduate education. While his research focuses on air pollution modeling and interpretation, his passion is innovative use of technologies to stimulate student learning. Recent projects in this area include on-line portfolio systems, integrating faculty-learning objects with course-tool systems and tools for exploring real-time data. Perry is a co-founder of The Weather Underground, an on-line resource for real-time weather information.

Title: A Web 2.0 "Clicker" System for the Geosciences Abstract:

 LectureTools, which is being used by a number so classes at a number of universities and represents what a "clicker" system for meteorology might look like.2. XamPREP, which is an online textbook that forces students to read the text before lecture and contains many active learning modules.3. New research on how the introduction of laptops has affected student attentiveness, engagement and learning

LectureTools (http://www.lecturetools.org) is a free web application that allows students to 1) type notes synchronized with the lecture slides; 2) self-assess their confidence in understanding the material being discussed; 3) pose questions for the instructor and/or teaching assistant; 4) view answers to questions (with questioners names removed) as posed by teaching assistant during or after class; 5) pop up the slide, draw on it (cross-platform on Mac or Windows) and save the drawing; 6) respond to instructor questions, including image-based questions; 7) view podcasts, if any, that are uploaded by the instructor after class; and 8) print the lecture slides and notes for off-line review. Results suggest that a) students are more likely to be do tasks unrelated to lecture with their laptop available, but b) despite that, most students actually feel they are more attentive, significantly more engaged and learn more using this system.

Bill Schreiner
UCP/COSMIC
Boulder, CO

Bill Schreiner is a project scientist and Systems Manager in the UCAR  Community Programs COSMIC Project Office.  He received his PhD in Aerospace Engineering Sciences from CU-Boulder  in 1993 and then came to UCAR to work on the GPS/MET radio occultation proof-of-concept mission. He  is currently doing research in GPS data processing, satellite orbit determination, and atmospheric  remote sensing with the radio occultation technique.

Title: COSMIC: Constellation Observing System for Meteorology,  Ionosphere and Climate: Overview, Status, and Results

This presentation gives and overview of the COSMIC Project Office  which is part of the UCAR Community Programs.  The presentation starts with a brief introduction to the radio  occultation (RO) technique, then provides a summary of the COSMIC Data Analysis and Archival Center (CDAAC)  processing system and data product availability, and finishes with a brief overview of ground-based precipitable water  vapor (PWV) data processing and data availability.

Brian Tang
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA

Brian Tang received his B.S. in Atmospheric Science and Applied Mathematics at UCLA in 2004 and is currently a PhD student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Program in Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate. He has been a teaching assistant for the past three years for both graduate and undergraduate fluid dynamics courses, department pre-orientation activities, and a weather forecasting crash course during MIT’s independent activities period. Brian’s primary research activities focus on how vertical wind shear affects tropical cyclone structure and intensity via ventilation of the inner core by drier, cooler ambient air and plans to defend his dissertation next year.

Title: Weather in a Tank: Exploiting laboratory experiments in the teaching of meteorology, oceanography, and climate

The presentation explores how basic principles of geophysical fluid dynamics can be conveyed through rotating fluid tank experiments with emphasis on encouraging students to make connections between phenomena in the real world, laboratory abstractions, and theory. The first half of the presentation will highlight some of the advantages of using lab experiments in the curriculum and also outline the variety atmospheric phenomena that one can use fluid lab experiments to detail. The second half of the presentation will detail one laboratory experiment in particular: the mid-latitude general circulation experiment. A live demo will be performed.

Junhong Wang
Earth Observing Laboratory (EOL) at NCAR
Boulder, Colorado

Dr. Wang is a scientist at Earth Observing Laboratory (EOL) at NCAR inBoulder, Colorado. She received a B.S. in Atmospheric Science from Peking University, Beijing, China and a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science from Columbia University, New York, NY. She served as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at University of Colorado in Boulder, CO before joining NCAR in 1999. Dr. Wang’s expertise is on climate observations and measurements, especially related to radiosonde and ground-based GPS observations, and on weather and climate variability.

Randolph "Stick" Ware
Chief Scientist, Radiometrics
NCAR Visiting Scientist
CIRES Associate Senior Scientist
Boulder, CO

Dr. Ware directed the UCAR UNAVCO program and was Principal Investigator of the GPS/MET radio occultation and SuomiNet programs. Through these programs he helped develop ground and space-based atmospheric sensing with GPS. Through Radiometrics he helped develop commercial microwave radiometry for upper-air thermodynamic and liquid water remote sensing.

Title: Microwave remote sensing of air temperature, humidity and liquid structures that define local weather. A first hand look at this technology follows with a tour of Radiometrics (2 blocks south of NCAR Center Green and one block east of Boulder Beer).

Tom Whittaker
Researcher
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Joint Presenter with Steve Ackerman (see Steve's bio above)

I have BS and MS degrees in Meteorology and have worked for the National Weather Service and the University of Wisconsin-Madison (Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science, and the Space Science and Engineering Center).  Most of my work has been related to developing software related to atmospheric science for use in research and education.   Although I "retired" in 2005, I continue to work part time and remain active in the community.  I have been involved with the Unidata community since its inception, and currently am a member of the Users Committee.

Title:  Satellite Observations in Science Education

This workshop will focus on using satellite data in the classroom.  We will begin with an interactive challenge for the participants to fill out a Science Traceability Matrix related to some specific issues in satellite remote sensing.  Guided by the results of this matrix, we will present several examples of using Reusable Content Objects (RCOs) to create lesson content.   RCOs are freely available building blocks for creating exciting, interactive web-based content to support student learning.   The remainder of the time will be spent having the participants learn to create their own lessons using RCOs.

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Workshop Contact

Workshop Coordinator
UCAR Office of Programs, Unidata
P.O. Box 3000
Boulder, CO 80307-3000
phone:  303.497.8643
fax:  303.497.8690