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2009 STAR
News & Events
Top: Eye overpass image of Typhoon
Choi-Wan Showing CloudSat Path, 9-15-2009
Bottom: Chart Plotting Reflectivity Against Height
Top: Eyewall crossing of Typhoon Choi-Wan on 9-15-2009,
showing CloudSat groundtrack (red line) overlaid upon Advanced
Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) 89 Gigahertz brightness
temperatures (colors; with yellow/red denoting regions of high ice
scattering in the eyewall and feeder bands). Bottom: CloudSat
reflectivity along the groundtrack plotted against height. Red colors
denote regions of high radar reflectivity, corresponding to high water
content and large hydrometeors. The vertical region of zero
reflectivity denotes clearly the eye of the storm. Images courtesy of
the Naval Research Laboratory,
Marine Meteorology Division, Monterey CA.
Learn more about:
Special thanks to John Knaff and Mark DeMaria of CoRP,
Don Reinke, Mary McInnis-Efaw, Kathy Fryer, and Steven Miller of CIRA,
and Natalie Tourville at Colorado State University for their
assistance in preparing this story.
CIRA's CloudSat Data Processing Center Captures Unique Typhoon Overpass
September 15, 2009 - The Cooperative Institute for
Research in the Atmosphere's (CIRA's) CloudSat Data Processing Center
captured a rare direct overpass of the Typhoon Choi-Wan's eye by the
CloudSat satellite. This is an extraordinary event.
In the image at right, the thin red line from lower right to upper left
traces CloudSat's path directly over the cyclone's eye.
- How unusual is this view of a typhoon?
According to Don Reinke of CIRA: "I would call it rare.
CloudSat's swath is only 1.3km wide and it makes 14.5 orbital passes
per day, thus scanning only about 0.15% of the earth's surface; there
are 80 tropical storms per year lasting at least 1 day within 30
degrees of the equator; therefore, the odds of a direct overpass are
quite low. Based on over 3 years of data collected to date by the
CloudSat mission, scientists estimate that the odds are about 1 in
4,000 (0.025%) that the satellite's swath would pass directly over the
eye of a tropical storm."
- What can we learn from this observation and others like it?
CloudSat provides detailed vertical structure of clouds and
precipitation that is not available from standard visible/infrared
imaging platforms. It is analogous to the difference between
examining an injured body part using a camera and doing an exam with
an MRI device.
Despite 30 or so years or aircraft-based hurricane reconnaissance missions, we
still know little about cloud structure in hurricanes. Typical radar
is sensitive to rain-sized water droplets not cloud-sized droplets.
CloudSat can provide the first climatology of cloud structure in
tropical cyclones, and for that matter cloud distributions globally.
Questions concerning the location and percentage of convective vs.
stratiform, precipitating vs. non-precipitating clouds, the height of
the cloud tops in the eyewall, rainbands, and in the region adjacent
to the eye, "the moat region", can be quantified. Other issues like eye
slope, location of the freezing level, and ice/droplet distributions can
also be better understood and quantified. The answers to these
questions directly feed back on other efforts, including modeling,
through better understanding of the physical processes. While CloudSat
answers basic science questions, hopefully the findings will lead to
improvements in things like intensity, track and surface wind
structure forecasting.
- What projects at STAR / CIRA / CoRP will benefit from this data?
- CloudSat provides new insights into:
- The vertical distribution of liquid and ice water content;
- Probability of precipitation with respect to total cloud cover;
- Distribution of precipitating clouds;
- Frequency of occurrence of cloud layers and layer thickness;
- Heating/cooling rates with respect to vertical cloud distributions;
... to name a few.
CloudSat data are currently being used by developers of cloud
algorithms for the future GOES-R satellite mission, and have also be
used to validate the future NPOESS/VIIRS cloud base height algorithm.
All of these data provide a better understanding of derived
products from future visual/infrared/microwave imaging systems.
Four STAR Scientists Receive 2009 Administrator's Awards
August 28, 2009 - Dr. Jane Lubchenco today announced
the winners of the 2009 Administrator's and Technology Transfer
Awards. The Administrator's Award recognizes significant
contributions to NOAA programs in equal employment opportunity,
diversity, scientific research, public service, engineering
development, environmental conservation, policy development,
administrative support, public affairs, and information systems. STAR
is very proud of this year's award winners and the innovative and
groundbreaking work for which they are being recognized.
   
Jeff Key, Pablo Clemente-Colón, Fuzhong Weng and Yong Han
STAR Recipients of the 2009 NOAA Administrators' Awards
For scientific leadership and excellence in support of domestic and
international polar observing activities during the International Polar
Year.
 Polar regions are of great environmental and socioeconomic importance.
They are a sentinel for climate change. Significant natural (oil and
gas) and living marine (commercial fisheries, marine mammals) resources
are found in these regions. Dr. Pablo Clemente-Colón and Dr. Jeffrey Key
demonstrated significant scientific leadership and made many important
polar science contributions during the International Polar Year (IPY).
IPY, March 2007 to March 2009, was an international scientific program
focused on the polar regions. IPY will have a lasting impact on our
ability to monitor and understand the polar regions, particularly in the
context of climate change. Drs. Clemente-Colón and Key led complex polar
observing coordination and support activities across numerous domestic
and foreign agencies and entities to support goals of the International
Polar Year and the Global Earth Observation System of Systems.
Dr. Key built national and international coordination by leading the
development of an international cryosphere observing strategy, achieving
a consensus of over 100 scientists in 17 nations on the way forward for
polar observations. The result of their work, detailed in the Integrated
Global Observing Strategy (IGOS) Cryosphere Theme Report, provides NOAA,
NASA, and GEOSS with guidance regarding gaps in the space- and surface-
based observing networks and identified partnerships that will
ultimately benefit the U.S. government financially and scientifically.
Dr. Clemente-Colón, as Chief Scientist at the National Ice Center (NIC),
developed and led a landmark multinational Arctic symposium in July 2007
titled "Impact of an Ice-Diminishing Arctic on Naval and Maritime
Operations" with high-level participants from the U.S. government,
industry, and international partners with polar science and commerce
interests. A follow-on symposium was held this year. The symposium
opened and strengthened lines of communication across U.S. government
agencies and between U.S. and Canadian agencies to address issues
relating to naval operations and national strategic issues, commercial
shipping, oil and gas exploration and exploitation, fisheries,
environmental protection, and oceanographic research in an opening
Arctic. This symposium and its associated efforts have helped mobilize
support for ratifying the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea
(UNCLOS).
For improving the accuracy of weather
forecasts by developing new and powerful radiative transfer models and
techniques to assimilate advanced satellite data.
The current weather conditions are the starting point for all computer
weather prediction models, and satellite observations provide most of
the needed data. But satellites do not measure weather variables
directly. They measure reflected sunlight and emitted heat radiation
from the earth at different spectral wavelengths. The intensity and
spectral distribution of this radiation depends on important weather
variables, for example, atmospheric temperature, humidity, cloudiness,
precipitation, and surface properties. A radiative transfer model is the
glue that connects the remote satellite observations to the weather
conditions. It is a complex numerical model that, given surface and
atmospheric conditions, permits calculation of the radiation, and, given
measurements of the radiation, enables extraction of information on the
surface and atmosphere. The radiative transfer model must not only be
accurate but must be fast enough to enable assimilation of millions of
satellite observations in a matter of minutes.
The nominees were challenged to develop new and powerful radiative
transfer models and techniques to assimilate advanced satellite data
into the NWS/NCEP global forecast system to meet NOAA's mission goals
for serving society's need for weather and water information.
With strong collaboration between NESDIS and NWS, as well as support
from JCSDA and external community scientists, the nominees developed,
tested and implemented the community radiative transfer model (CRTM)
into the NWS/NCEP global forecast system (GFS) in the extraordinarily
short period of 1-2 years. The new capabilities to assimilate the
advanced hyperspectral IR observations and more atmospheric
observations over land have resulted in large positive impacts on
weather forecasts, increasing forecast accuracy and extending the
useful range of medium range predictions by almost half a day. This
translates to improved accuracy, lead time, and false alarm rates in
tornado warnings, flash flood warnings, winter storm warnings,
Atlantic hurricane forecasts, 3-day precipitation, marine wind and
wave forecasts.
STAR Announces Paul DiGiacomo as New Chief of the
Satellite Oceanography and Climatology Division
June 15, 2009 - STAR is pleased to announce that Dr. Paul M. DiGiacomo has
accepted the position of Chief of the Satellite Oceanography and
Climatology Division (SOCD) in the NOAA/NESDIS Center for Satellite
Applications and Research (STAR). Paul first came to NOAA in 2006,
having served the past three years as the Chief of the Marine
Ecosystems and Climate Branch in STAR/SOCD, as well as the NOAA
CoastWatch Program Manager. Prior to joining NOAA, Paul served as
Supervisor of the Earth Missions Concepts Group at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, CA, as well as the
Discipline Program Manager of the Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems
Program Office at JPL.
Paul is a biological oceanographer, with
particular interest in the remote sensing of coastal regions. He
has a B.S. from Penn State University and a Ph.D. from UCLA, both in
Biology, and subsequently was a National Research Council (NRC)
Resident Research Associate at JPL. Paul is active in a number of
national and international working groups and panels, including
presently serving as Co-Chair of the GOOS Panel for Integrated
Coastal Observations and Co-Chair of the Coastal Zone Community of
Practice of the Global Earth Observing System of Systems (GEOSS),
and he also serves as the NOAA Representative to the International
Ocean Colour Coordinating Group. Please join us in congratulating
Paul and wishing him and SOCD much success!
Over 20 STAR Scientists Honored with Dept. of Commerce 2008 Bronze Medal Honor Awards
April 7, 2009 - On Tuesday, April 7, at the NOAA Honor Awards Ceremony in downtown Washington, D.C.,
over 20 STAR scientists received Bronze Medals honoring their work on three different
projects. Dr. Jane Lubchenco, NOAA's new administrator, addressed the assembly, and praised the
work of the award winners.
For innovative uses of operational weather satellites to understand climate change
and to quantify trends in the global climate system:
- Jeffrey Key
- Andrew Heidinger
- Ralph Ferraro
- Thomas Smith
- Mark Eakin
- Kevin Gallo
For implementing processing systems that create Metop products and make
them available for assimilation into U.S. forecast systems in record time.
- Sid-Ahmed Boukabara
- Christopher Barnet
- Mitchell Goldberg
- Fuzhong Weng
- Ralph Ferraro
- Walter Wolf
- Limin Zhao
- Tom Schott
- Awdhesh Sharma
- Huan Meng
For developing NOAA's Strategic Satellite Plan to balance
requirements, observation capabilities, and resources.
- Alfred M. Powell, Jr.
- Michael Crison
- Robert Kuligowski
- Dan Tarpley
- John Pereira
- Ingrid Guch
- David K. Hermrick
- Larry Flynn
- Fuzhong Weng
- Laury Miller
- Vanessa Griffin
- Steve Goodman
- Jim Yoe
- Timothy Schmit
Limin Zhao, Steve Goodman, Larry Flynn, Ralph Ferraro, Huan Meng,
Bob Kuligowski (in back), Laury Miller, Awdhesh Sharma,
Al Powell, Thomas Smith, Mitch Goldberg, Sid Boukabara,
Chris Barnet and Fuzhong Weng
Jane Lubchenco, Thomas Smith, Ralph Ferraro, and Abigail Harper of NESDIS
Jane Lubchenco, Fuzhong Weng, Limin Zhao, Sid Boukabara,
Chris Barnet, Mitch Goldberg, Awdhesh Sharma, Ralph Ferraro,
Huan Meng, and Abigail Harper of NESDIS
Bob Kuligowski, Jane Lubchenco, Tim Schmit, Steve Goodman,
David Hermrick, Laury Miller, John Pereira, Vanessa Griffin, Fuzhong Weng,
Larry Flynn, Al Powell, Abigail Harper, and Jim Yoe
Ralph Ferraro & Chris Barnet Enjoying the Awards Reception
Fuzhong Weng & Steve Goodman
Al Powell, David Hermreck, Jim Yoe
Enjoying the Reception:
Tim Schmit, Larry Flynn, Fuzhong Weng, Steve Goodman, and Jim Yoe
Sid Boukabara and his son Selim
Mark DeMaria Honored at the 2009 Interdepartmental Hurricane Conference
 March 5, 2009 -
Mark DeMaria received the "Richard H. Hagemeyer Award" at the March
2009 Interdepartmental Hurricane Conference recently held in St.
Petersburg, FL. The award is given annually to honor people who have
made sustained contributions to the US Hurricane Program. Mark was
recognized for his long history of successful development and
operational transition of tropical cyclone forecast products,
including the Statistical / Hurricane / Intensity Prediction Scheme
(SHIPS) and Logistic Growth Equation Model (LGEM) intensity models,
the rapid intensity index (co-developed with the Hurricane Research
Division), the National Hurricane Center wind speed probability
program and the NESDIS Tropical Cyclone formation probability
product.
Dr. Peter Romanov Named NOAA Team Member of the Month
 January 2009
- Dr. Peter Romanov was
the recipient of the January 2009 NOAA Team Member of the Month
Award. He was recognized for developing operational algorithms for
fully automated snow and ice cover maps, based upon optical data
from a variety of NOAA and NASA satellites, and microwave data from
the DMSP (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program) satellites. Dr.
Romanov has also been very innovative in developing automated
methods of validating the snow products with ground truth data.
A major milestone in Dr. Romanov's product development activities
occurred in February 2008 when his automated product for the Southern
Hemisphere was transitioned to full operations. The 4-km spatial
resolution of this new product is 8-12 times higher that the resolution
of existing microwave-based global products over the Southern
Hemisphere.
Dr. Romanov has been a cooperative institute scientist at STAR's
Satellite Meteorology and Climatology Division since 1998. He is
currently affiliated with the Cooperative Institute for Climate Studies,
University of Maryland, as an Associate Research Scientist. A web-based
data visualization and distribution system of Dr. Romanov's products is
available at
http://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/smcd/emb/snow/HTML/snow.htm.
2008 STAR news items
2007 STAR news items
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