Staff Notes Daily Announcements

Details on August 21, 2017, solar eclipse viewing 

For those of you who aren’t traveling to Wyoming, Nebraska, or elsewhere to see the total solar eclipse, there is still an opportunity to view a partial eclipse right here! In Boulder, the moon will cover 94 percent of the Sun, with the peak partial eclipse occurring at 11:46 a.m. on Monday.

To aid in safe viewing, UCAR SciEd has some eclipse glasses at CG1, FL2, and the Mesa Lab. Staff are welcome to pick up a pair of glasses (limit one) this week, while supplies last, so you can watch the eclipse from outside your own building, at home, or wherever you might be on Monday. 

We encourage CG and FL staff to view the eclipse from sites other than the Mesa Lab.

As many of you may have also heard, we are hosting a public eclipse viewing at the Mesa Lab Tree Plaza from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Monday. While we have not extensively promoted this event, we have seen strong interest from people across the Front Range. We will be monitoring traffic and parking on the day of the event in case we reach capacity and need to turn away visitors at the bottom of the road as well as to maintain access to the building for staff.

If your main office is at the Mesa Lab, we strongly encourage you to take the shuttle on Monday. Please inform any visitors you are expecting at the Mesa Lab on Monday to expect heavier than normal traffic, limited parking, and the potential that the road will be closed. We also recommend coming earlier in the day since shuttle capacity is limited.

And finally, a reminder to all staff that taking proper eye-safety precautions when viewing the eclipse is critical.

If you have any questions concerning the content of this email, please contact Tim Barnes (tbarnes@ucar.edu) with the UCAR Center for Science Education.

At its May 9–10 meeting in Washington, D.C., the UCAR Board of Trustees appointed five new NCAR Senior Scientists:

• George Bryan (MMM)
• Louisa Emmons (ACOM)
• Andrew Gettleman (CGD)
• Matthias Steiner (RAL)
• Michael Wiltberger (HAO)

Senior scientists provide NCAR with long-term scientific leadership. The qualifications for the position are analogous to those for a full professor at a university. The board also appointed Mary Hayden (RAL) and Jadwiga "Yaga" Richter (CGD) to the Scientist III level. Two recently retired senior staff were awarded the title of Senior Scientist Emeritus: Brant Foote (RAL) and Art Richmond (HAO).

Congratulations to all of these scientific leaders for achieving significant professional milestones. Read profiles of the new Senior Scientists and Scientist IIIs in Staff News.

ACOM Seminar

Title:  Chemical Data Assimilation and Analog-Based Uncertainty Quantification to Improve Short-term Air Quality Predictions Over the U.S.

Speaker:  Lucca Delle Monache

Abstract: One of the key tools used by decision makers across the U.S. to protect the public from adverse health effects caused by poor air quality (AQ) is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) / National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) operational AQ forecasting system. To enhance this decision-making activity, this project funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), aims to improve the accuracy of NOAA/NCEP short-term predictions of ground-level ozone and particulate matter less than 2.5 µm in diameter (PM2.5) and to provide reliable quantification of their uncertainty, by exploiting NASA Earth Science Data with chemical data assimilation and analog-based approaches. The three main project objectives are:

• To improve the initialization of the NOAA/NCEP operational AQ system, which is based on the Community Multiscale AQ (CMAQ) model, through chemical data assimilation of satellite retrieval products with the Community Gridpoint Statistical Interpolation (GSI) system. GSI is being used to assimilate retrievals of aerosol optical depth from the NASA Aqua/Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS).
• To considerably improve the CMAQ deterministic predictions and reliably quantify their uncertainty with analog-based post-processing methods applied to the CMAQ deterministic predictions.
• To extrapolate deterministic and probabilistic point-based predictions to a two-dimensional grid over the U.S. with a Barnes-type iterative scheme.

Results from the aforementioned objectives will be reported, with a focus on the analog-based techniques, quantifying the developed system performance with a range of metrics for both deterministic and probabilistic predictions of PM2.5 across several hundreds of stations over the U.S.

NCAR Foothills Laboratory
3450 Mitchell Lane, Boulder, CO  80301
FL2 1022 (large seminar room)
Monday, 28 August 2017
3:15 - refreshments
3:30 - seminar

Outcomes of the Coastal Convective Interactions Experiment and new horizons with the Australian radar network

Abstract: This seminar will present two topics from the Australian observational meteorology research space.

(1) The densely populated coastal regions of eastern Australia contains diverse physical settings that add considerable uncertainty for convection nowcasting, which currently relies primarily upon the analysis of broad-scale meteorology (e.g., synoptic boundaries and air masses). The Coastal Convective Interactions Experiment (CCIE) was coordinated to address these challenges with a focus upon the South East Queensland region of Australia. Major outcomes are presented, including (i) analysis of thunderstorm hotspots drivers using an 18 year radar-derived climatology, and (ii) the critical near surface and boundary layer processes which favour the development of severe convective storms in marginal synoptic environments.

(2) Weather radar is a fundamental remote sensing tool, however, limitations in data access/standards and ongoing changes in technology presents considerable challenges (and opportunities) for the Australia community. Regarding accessibility, a proposed open-access solution for hosting the Australian operational radar archive using modern data standard is presented, drawing upon the success of the NEXRAD dataset. The database architecture, integration with the research community and applications for historical and real-time radar-based services are discussed. Alongside the 2017 arrival of operational dual-pol to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology radar network, the University of Queensland will be coordinating the calibration and verification of radar-based severe hail and wind detection algorithms. This will include both a multi-season field campaign in the South East Queensland region using mobile dual-pol radar, hail disdrometers and mobile wind towers, and a community science initiative to promote hail reporting. Outcomes will be applied to hazard nowcasting and to improving radar-derived hazard climatologies.

Bio: Joshua Soderholm a PhD Graduate from the University of Queensland, Australia and Australian Bureau of Meteorology. His dissertation explored the climatological and meteorological aspects of sea breeze interactions with warm-season thunderstorms in South East Queensland, Australia. As part of the PhD project, Joshua established the UQ-XPOL mobile radar was established and has seen several successful deployments across Australia for both convective and bushfire research. In addition, Joshua has also worked on radar applications for the energy distribution and insurance sectors and is a keen collaborator across operational, industry and amateur meteorology groups.