Outstanding Accomplishment Awards

1997 Award winners and nominees

At the holiday party on 19 December, a select group of staff was honored with the annual institution-wide Outstanding Performance Awards. Division and program directors made 25 nominations this year in the five categories described below. Winners are chosen by interdivisional committees and announced at the holiday party; they receive cash awards and medals. Here are the 1997 nominations and winners.

Nominations and winners:
1995 • 1996 • 1997 • 1998 • 1999 • 2000 • 2001 • 2002 • 2003 • 2004 • 2005 • 2006 • 2007

All Award Winners, 1967–present

1997 Winners

Outstanding Publication
James Hurrell (CGD), "Decadal trends in the North Atlantic Oscillation [NAO]: regional temperatures and precipitation," Science 269 (1995), 676-679, and "Influence of variations in extratropical wintertime teleconnections on Northern Hemisphere temperature," Geophysical Research Letters (GRL) 23 (1996), 665-668

Technology Advancement
Mike Exner, Doug Hunt, Chris Rocken, Bill Schreiner, and Randolph Ware (UNAVCO), Bill Kuo (MMM), Xiaolei Zou (MMM/Florida State University), Da Sheng Feng and Ben Herman (University of Arizona), Tom Meehan (Jet Propulsion Laboratory), and Sergey Sokolovskiy (Russian Institute of Atmospheric Physics) for their pioneering efforts in the design, development, 1995 launch, and operation of the Global Positioning System/Meteorology (GPS/MET) payload on the MicroLab-1 satellite; development of associated software; and analysis and validation of the derived atmospheric profiles

Education
Bob Henson (UCAR Communications) for his creative writings and presentations on atmospheric science over the past eight years

Technical Support
Norm Zrubek (ATD) for 30 years of dedication and technical excellence in aeronautical engineering at NCAR's Research Aviation Facility

Administrative Support
Aaron Andersen (SCD) for the design, development, and implementation of NCAR's Web-based Room Reservation System

1997 Nominees

Technology Advancement

—Rachel Ames, Jeff Cole, Frank Hage, Tres Hofmeister, Nancy Rehak, and Ren Tescher (RAP) for developing, deploying, and demonstrating the Weather Support to Deicing Decision Making (WSDDM) system at La Guardia and O'Hare International Airports. WSDDM is an integrated system that depicts short-term forecasts of snowfall rate, wind speed and direction, temperature, and humidity, all in an easy-to-interpret format. Last winter, this FAA-supported system was tested by four airlines at the two airports above, as well as by the New York Traffic Control center at LaGuardia. One of the system's greatest strengths is its use of snow-gauge data to determine liquid equivalent snowfall rates—the most important factor that determines how often aircraft must be deiced. One study estimated that the annual cost savings to an airport using WSDDM would be more than $1 million. To support the many data sources and widely dispersed users, the WSDDM team created the largest, most complex networking system in RAP's history.

—Ned Chamberlain, Hal Cole, Terry Hock, Errol Korn, Dean Lauritsen, Ken Norris, and James (Chip) Owens (ATD) for development of the Global Positioning System dropsonde. The new system takes advantage of GPS technology to produce unprecedented accuracy in wind, temperature, pressure, and humidity profiles. It was built to allow deployment from NOAA's new Gulfstream-IV high-altitude jet at speeds up to 800 kilometers (500 miles) per hour into temperatures as low as -50 degrees C (-58 degrees F). To make this possible, the NCAR team designed an innovative square-cone parachute and completely updated the sonde's electronics system. Along with their technical achievements, the team forged a partnership with NOAA and the German Aerospace Research Establishment to support the new sonde. The GPS dropsondes were used this year to sample Hurricanes Erika and Guillermo, where they provided the first-ever vertical wind profiles from an intense hurricane eyewall.

—John Clyne, Don Middleton, and Tim Scheitlin (SCD) for the ongoing design and development of the NCAR Visualization Lab. By depicting the output of scientific models in two- and three-dimensional formats, the Viz Lab has fostered the practice of "visual science" among a large number of NCAR investigators. Custom developments include the recent integration of stereo-3D into all phases of the lab's products. The lab's recent work includes visualizations of sulfate-aerosol evolution, solar magnetic flux tubes, mesoscale convective vortices, forest fires, and clear-air turbulence (a project that produced 60 gigabytes of data at its innermost domain). The group has shared its technology and results with other laboratories, the public, political entities, the news media, and all levels of educational institutions.

Jack Fellows (far left), Bob Serafin (third from right), and Rick Anthes (far right) flank the GPS/MET team, winners of the Technology Advancement award: (left to right) Doug Hunt, Bill Schreiner, Sergey Sokolovskiy, Bill Kuo, Chris Rocken, and Mike Exner. Not pictured: Da Sheng Feng, Ben Herman, and Xiaoleu Zou. In presenting the award, Rick acknowledged the role of UNAVCO director Stick Ware (who nominated the team) in conceptualizing GPS/MET.

—Del Harris and Jim Van Dyke (SCD) for their roles in bringing the Mesa Lab Network Access Completion (MLNAC) project to fruition. The MLNAC team had to use inspired measures to install a network infrastructure while the building was occupied—a feat unprecedented at NCAR's major facilities. Working under a large number of fiscal, technical, and scheduling constraints, the project team saw that MLNAC was completed on time and on budget. Nearly 400 new telecommunications outlets, along with state-of-the-art copper and optical fiber wiring, were installed with minimal disruption to staff. As a result, network access for more than 200 users has been improved by a factor of ten. The new system is expected to accommodate further networking growth for at least a decade.

—Rick Shetter (ACD) for development of the actinic flux spectroradiometer. The interaction of light with atmospheric molecules is a fundamental process that ultimately determines the atmosphere's oxidizing capacity. To fully gauge the impact of light on air chemistry, scientists must measure the actinic flux (the radiance coming from all directions) rather than irradiance (the radiance striking a flat, horizontal surface). Previous methods for measuring actinic flux required a separate instrument for each molecule of interest, while radiometers in general were not designed to collect light with equal sensitivity from all directions. Rick addressed both issues with a design that allows for optimal light from all directions and spectrally resolves the light. With the new instrument, photolysis rates of various molecules can be determined more directly than before, leading to better understanding of ozone production rates and other issues of crucial importance to tropospheric chemistry.

Outstanding Publication

—Ben Bernstein, Roy Rasmussen, and Greg Stossmeister (RAP) and Masataka Murakami (Meteorological Research Institute, Tsukuba, Japan), for a paper coauthored with Jon Reisner (Los Alamos National Laboratory) and Boba Stankov (NOAA), "The 1990 Valentine's Day Arctic outbreak, Part I: Mesoscale and microscale structure and evolution of a Colorado Front Range shallow upslope cloud," Journal of Applied Meteorology 34 (1995), 1481-1511. Shallow upslope storms, which develop along the Front Range two to six times per year and last from three to four days each, are of great interest to atmospheric scientists as well as to pilots. The storms' relatively warm cloud tops allow droplets to remain unfrozen for long periods, posing a significant aviation hazard. This study examines a 1990 storm in detail, showing the dynamical and microphysical mechanisms that led to long-lived regions of supercooled liquid water and freezing drizzle aloft. These mechanisms include upper-level jet streaks, which can help suppress vertical development of the precipitation, and sequential surges of cold air, which at first hasten but eventually diminish the production of supercooled liquid water. Insights from this and later work have led to improved pilot training, better algorithms of in-flight icing, and improved paramaterization of supercooled liquid water in mesoscale models.

—Frank Bryan (CGD), "The axial angular momentum balance of a global ocean general circulation model," Dynamics of Atmospheres and Oceans 25 (1997), 191-216. The ocean acts as an intermediary in transferring atmospheric pressure load and torque from surface winds to the solid earth. Current observations do not allow the ocean's angular momentum, or torques acting on the ocean on a global scale, to be assessed. Such forces could help explain the observed variability in the earth's rotation rate. Frank's paper is one of the first to examine the oceans' axial angular momentum balance, accomplished by using an early version of the NCAR climate system model's ocean component. The results indicate that, on seasonal time scales, the ocean has a very limited storage capacity for axial angular momentum. Also, the paper notes, the two most widely used wind-stress climatologies differ in the sign of the net wind torque on the ocean.

—Larry Cornman, Gary Cunning, and Corinne Morse (RAP), "Real-time estimation of atmospheric turbulence severity from in-situ aircraft measurements," Journal of Aircraft 32 (1995), 171-177. This paper presents a new concept for automated, quantitative measurements of atmospheric turbulence: the use of commercial aircraft as turbulence-sensing platforms whose data can be assembled and processed in real time at a ground site. The vertical accelerations of an aircraft, routinely measured in flight, can be used to infer the turbulent forces producing up-and-down motions. By adopting simplifications to this highly complex mathematical and physical problem, the authors produced an algorithm that can be easily implemented on any aircraft. The technique is being deployed on over 200 United Airlines aircraft in the next few months. Along with its potential for real-time detection and warning, the algorithm also promises to give scientists a wealth of data for research on the structure of atmospheric turbulence.

—Maura Hagan (HAO), "Comparative effects of migrating solar sources on tidal signatures in the middle and upper atmosphere," Journal of Geophysical Research 101 (1996), 21,213-21,222. Atmospheric tides—global waves with periods of 12 and 24 hours—dominate the dynamics of the atmosphere above 80 kilometers (50 miles). Generated mainly by diurnal variations in solar heating, these tides produce large daily variations in temperature, wind, composition, and other upper-atmospheric variables. As they dissipate, the tides contribute to momentum and energy budgets. While theoretical models have captured the overall magnitude of observed tidal phenomena, the variety in tidal amplitudes and phases has proven difficult to model. In this paper, Maura examines the sources of tidal development in different seasons and finds a delicate balance between two previously identified sources: solar-infrared absorption in the troposphere (for the 12-hour tide) and ultraviolet absorption in the middle atmosphere (for the 24-hour tide). These sources are often out of phase, so that their effects partially cancel each other. The paper also provides the first model-based demonstration that latent heat release from clouds may also play a significant role in tidal generation and variability.

Friday, 19 December, was a busy day for Jim Hurrell. The CGD scientist couldn't be on hand to pick up his Outstanding Publication honor; he was at the hospital with his wife, Cathy, after she gave birth to the couple's first child. Rachel Caitlin, born at St. Anthony Hospital North in Westminster at 5:49 a.m., weighed in at 3.95 kilograms (that's 8 pounds, 13.5 ounces).

—Xiaolei Zou (MMM/Florida State University), for a paper coauthored with Ying-Hwa (Bill) Kuo, "Rainfall assimilation through an optimal control of initial and boundary conditions in a limited-area mesoscale model," Monthly Weather Review 124 (1996), 2859-2882. Although a variety of new observing systems promise unprecedented resolution in time and space, they also involve a variety of error characteristics. Moreover, some of these systems measure basic meteorological variables indirectly rather than directly. Advanced data-assimilation techniques are needed to bring such data into a forecast model and fully realize their potential impact on weather prediction. This paper describes a four-dimensional variational data assimilation technique that successfully incorporates rainfall data to improve a mesoscale model's quantitative precipitation forecasts (QPFs). Although society relies on accurate predictions of rainfall and snowfall, QPFs are the biggest single challenge for forecast models. This paper shows that rainfall assimilation can improve a model's QPF skill by more than a factor of two, offering great promise for operational use.

Technical Support

—Glenn Davis, Steve Emmerson, and Russ Rew (Unidata) for the development and support of Unidata's netCDF-3 software. The software provides a common interface between Unidata applications and real-time meteorological data. The most recent netCDF version, released in May, is roughly twice as fast as netCDF-2, with improved usability. Its creation required more than twice the source code of the previous version, with over three times as many functions in its C-language interface. The development team managed to add functionality to netCDF-3 and preserve its portability and compatibility without changing the underlying file format. Over 2,000 host computers in 55 countries now employ netCDF-3; it is one of only a handful of data-access interfaces used across many disciplines, including geology, chemistry, ecology, and space sciences.

—Barb Emery (HAO) for her long history of dedicated and productive research support. Barb's involvement with the Assimilative Mapping of Ionospheric Electrodynamics (AMIE) project has included processing, interpretation, and distribution of data to the broader community. She has been active in bringing AMIE data into the NCAR thermosphere-ionosphere-electrodynamics general circulation model (TIE-GCM) and in developing new applications of the TIE-GCM. Barb is also the long-time organizer of the annual Boulder-based workshop on Coupling, Energetics, and Dynamics of Atmospheric Regions (CEDAR) and serves as head of the CEDAR data base. For the CEDAR workshop, she interacts closely with the CEDAR Science Steering Committee, monitors the meeting budget, and arranges travel for more than 100 student participants each year. Because of her expertise with AMIE and CEDAR data, Barb has been invited to serve on a number of national advisory committees on data management.

—SCD's Data Support Section (Roy Barnes, Joey Comeaux, Bob Dattore, Roy Jenne, Dennis Joseph, Debby Novak, Chi-Fan Shih, Will Spangler, Ilana Stern, Gregg Walters, Steve Worley) for their progress with the NCAR/National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Global Atmospheric Reanalysis Project over the past five years. This team is preparing 50 years of global observations and leading the work on output distribution, helping to create a landmark description of the world's atmosphere. As recently as the early 1990s, climate researchers were hindered by the lack of consistent global data sets. Thanks to the teamwork of NCAR and NCEP staff, the reanalysis project will provide the foundation for many studies in both atmospheric and oceanic sciences.

—David Tanner (ACD) for more than five years of support in instrument development and measurement. David's technical expertise and his teamwork with scientist Fred Eisele have led to the successful measurement of a wide range of atmospheric chemicals, including gas-phase sulfuric acid, other sulfur compounds, and the hydroxyl radical. In particular, David has assembled, tested, calibrated, and maintained four versions of the selected ion chemical ionization mass spectrometer (SICIMS). In several recent field campaigns from the tropical Pacific to the Antarctic, David has taken a lead role in SICIMS measurement. His incisive scrutiny of observational data has helped locate and correct numerous problems and contributed greatly to the success of ACD research efforts.

Norm Zrubek receives the Technical Support award from (left to right) Jack Fellows, Bob Serafin, and Rick Anthes.

Education

—Joan Burkepile and Art Hundhausen (HAO) for their many presentations on coronal and heliospheric physics to audiences of all levels. In the past decade, Art and Joan have been among the most visible of NCAR's scientific emissaries, bringing high-quality presentations to groups ranging from high school students and teachers to professional scientists and the general public. Their appearances typically include a generous supply of handouts for audience members to read and study, providing a valuable contribution to public awareness of astronomy. Not only do Art and Joan educate the general public on solar-terrestrial science, they also inform specialists about NCAR research that forms a central basis for understanding space weather.

—Mickey Glantz (ESIG) for more than 20 years of education and outreach to improve societal understanding of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) process. As far back as the late 1970s, Mickey recognized a lack of information for the general public on ENSO. To address this gap, Mickey has written numerous popular articles and served as a frequent contact for major national and international media. Last fall, Mickey's survey of ENSO, Currents of Change: El Niño's Impact on Climate and Society, was released by Cambridge University Press to many favorable reviews. Mickey has also organized several workshops to connect physical scientists with users of ENSO information. He coordinated the 1997 Advanced Study Program Summer Colloquium, which focused on a multidisciplinary systems approach to ENSO. The colloquium's innovative Web site allowed for daily feedback from the public and included abstracts in Spanish.

Bob Henson (third from left) receives the Education award.

—Lee Klinger (ACD) for his broad involvement in educational activities, including university teaching, student mentoring, scientific seminars, community and school lectures, and science fair judging. Lee has contributed to education at over 30 schools and institutions in 15 states and several countries, at levels ranging from elementary to graduate school. His close involvement with the Boulder Valley School District has led to the inclusion of ecosystem theory and Gaia theory in many BVSD classrooms. This fall, Lee taught an introduction to Gaia theory in the University of Colorado at Boulder's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Through Lee's efforts, the systems-based approach to studying global change is being taught and discussed in many institutions and communities.

—Nita Razo and Linda Carbone (NCAR Visual Communications) and Bob Henson (UCAR Communications) for the creation of the Walter Orr Roberts Weather Trail and its virtual counterpart on the World Wide Web. Unveiled this July behind the Mesa Lab, this interpretive trail is believed to be the first in North America dedicated to weather and climate. It has been enthusiastically received by the education community and the general public. The trail's 11 signs, each of which explains a facet of local weather and climate, were designed and installed at minimal cost on a tight schedule with assistance from the city of Boulder and Facilities Support Services. The Weather Trail now serves as a point of departure for more than 50,000 NCAR visitors each year and thousands more who hike the Mesa Trail. While extending NCAR's exhibit space outdoors, it supports UCAR's efforts to raise scientific literacy and enhance informal education in the atmospheric and related sciences.

Administrative Support

Aaron Andersen (third from left) accepts the Administrative Support award.