Outstanding Accomplishment Awards

1998 Award winners and nominees

At this year's holiday party on Friday, 11 December, a select group of staff was recognized with the institution's most prestigious honors, the annual Outstanding Performance Awards. Winners of Outstanding Performance Awards receive cash awards and medals.

Below are the nominations and winners for 1988. See the December 1998 issue of Staff Notes Monthly for more on the restructuring of the award process.

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

All Award Winners, 1967–present

1998 Winners

Outstanding Publication
Lynn Russell (ASP/Princeton University), Don Lenschow (MMM), and Krista Laursen (ATD) for contributions to "Bidirectional mixing in an ACE-1 marine boundary layer overlain by a second turbulent layer," Journal of Geophysical Research 103, No. D13 (1998), 16,411-16,432.

Honorable mention:
Phil Judge (HAO) and Øivind Wikstøl and Viggo Hansteen (both from the University of Oslo)
"On inferring the properties of dynamic plasmas from their emitted spectra: The case of the solar transition region," The Astrophysical Journal 501 (1998), 895-910.

Education
Raj Pandya (ASP/MMM), Kevin Petty (ASP/RAP), and Charlie Knight (MMM) for significant contributions to bringing current knowledge on weather and climate to teachers throughout Colorado through NCAR's Project LEARN (Laboratory Experience in Atmospheric Research at NCAR).

Technology Advancement
Terry Hock, Hal Cole, Dean Lauritsen, Ken Norris, Ned Chamberlain, Errol Korn, and Chip Owens (ATD) and Jim Franklin, Alan Goldstein, and Jeff Smith (NOAA) for development of the Global Positioning System (GPS) dropsonde system.

Honorable mention:
Don Middleton, Jeff Boote, John Clyne, and Tim Scheitlin (SCD) for SCD's recent developments in visualization technology.

Technical Support
Rich Lueb (ACD) for the design and construction of whole-air sampling systems for two stratospheric aircraft, modification of existing instruments, and field deployment.

Administrative Support
Eron Brennan (FSS) for development of UCAR's multimedia capabilities.

Honorable mention:
Cindy Worster (HAO) for administering the HAO Visitor's Program.

1998 Nominees

Administrative support

This award honors an individual or group for a single outstanding performance or a long history of support beyond the call of duty in such areas as improving a management practice or skillfully handling an operational effort.

for administering the HAO Visitor's Program. Over the past three years, Cindy has assumed sole responsibility for most of the program's day-to-day operations. Working with a small scientific committee, Cindy has made invaluable contributions in monitoring the programs' budget, coordinating with almost 100 visitors each year (many of them new to the United States), allocating office space and computer resources, and facilitating the commitee's annual selection of visitors. Cindy's diligence, organization, wide-ranging knowledge, and friendly, forthright personality have allowed for excellent interactions among the committee and with the visitors themselves.

for landscaping improvements and general maintenance of UCAR grounds. The landscape at FL--in disrepair when UCAR purchased the site in 1990--has been transformed into a showcase for xeriscape gardening, thanks to Rich's commitment, imagination, and careful tending. At the ML entrance, the evergreens of years past have been replaced by a creative combination of seasonal flowers, hardier plants, and shrubs. Along with these initiatives, Rich has managed each winter's snow removal on the mesa road, led this year's improvements to the road's shoulders and drainage, and kept noxious weeds at ML and FL under control.

for the F&A property administration program. Janet was hired as the property administrator late in fiscal year 1997 after the position went unfilled for several months. She completed an enormous amount of work in a short time span far beyond expectations. Janet's patience, training, and perseverence has paid off in improved relations between the Property Office and administrators in the programs and divisions. This summer, the property administration program received excellent ratings after an on-site review from NSF.

for development of UCAR's multimedia capabilities. Within the past year, Eron has transformed multimedia support at UCAR sites from overheads and flip charts to a full range of computer-generated electronic presentations. Many of these use PowerPoint software displayed on state-of-the-art In Focus projectors. Eron's guidance and resourcefulness in adopting these and other systems have placed UCAR at the forefront of meeting and presentation technology. His creativity and dedication has played a major role in overcoming connectivity challenges and other technical hurdles.

for developing A Strategic Plan for UCAR Networking: Welcome to the 21st Century. This document provides a context for UCAR to make intelligent fiscal decisions in keeping with its information-technology goals and budget constraints. As the document's principal architects and authors, Marla and Basil contributed tremendous effort and considerable thought in crafting the plan from the contributions of many people throughout the institution. One immediate and important result has been the acceleration of recabling efforts to support local area networks (LAN). This project was stressed by the report and is scheduled to be accomplished in fiscal year 2000 thanks to the timely identification of the need for a better LAN structure.

for developing and administering the Microsoft Open License Program and a pricing agreement with Dell Computer Corp. Together, these programs have saved UCAR over $150,000. The Microsoft program required Tom to establish an internal system for tracking and distributing over 500 pieces of software and correctly charging back the costs, thus decreasing the overall cost for procuring software from Microsoft. The Dell arrangement followed Tom's close collaboration with the Desktop Systems Advisory Committee to establish requirements for such systems. The agreement provided UCAR with over 200 standardized Dell systems, including upgrade options, at a savings of more than $100,000 over standard government pricing.

Technical Support

This honor recognizes a team or individual for a single superior performance or a history of noteworthy effort in such areas as instrument maintenance or fabrication, computer or data management, software/system development, or other technical support.

for development of NCAR's climate system model. This group of associate scientists and software engineers have been involved with the CSM from its beginning over five years ago. They have overcome formidable technical and scientific problems in bringing the CSM to its current status as a keystone of global climate models. Each of the CSM's components was developed independently. Software had to be developed to interpolate across grids while conserving important quantities. Most crucial was the unique creation of the flux coupler, which links the component models and allows experiments to be performed on all parts or only on selected parts of the CSM, as scientists see fit.

for the development, maintenance, and upgrading of software tools on research aircraft at NCAR and elsewhere. A major effort began in the 1980s to develop real-time display capabilities that would make in-flight measurements available to scientists on board. Since no such software existed commercially, the RAF development team created three main programs and three supplemental programs. The result is a system that displays a range of raw and derived data (including more than 300 variables) in a variety of formats that are easy to manipulate and intuitive to use, yet analytically sophisticated, with self-explanatory graphical user interfaces. Despite ever-growing demands on their time, the software team continues to adapt these programs to the changing needs of their users.

for the Jeffco Network Infrastructure Completion Project (JEFNIC). JEFNIC involved a complete overhaul of the Jeffco network infrastructure while the facility was occupied. Thus, it required close coordination with occupants and facilities staff, as well as innovation, creativity, and flexibility in dealing with unplanned requirements and obstacles. The JEFNIC team overcame limited budgets and staff time, poor wiring documentation, and other challenges in order to provide Jeffco with a state-of-the-art network, its capacity upgraded by an order of magnitude. Their professionalism and expertise helped complete the project nearly a month ahead of schedule.

for the design and construction of whole-air sampling systems for two stratospheric aircraft, modification of existing instruments, and field deployment. In the past two years, major field projects examining the upper stratosphere and lower troposphere have relied on ACD's whole air sampler. Its use was dramatically expanded by Rich's engineering expertise. To accomodate a different instrument, Rich redesigned the sampler's deployment in the NASA ER-2 on a tight time frame while nearly doubling the sampler's capacity. Another of Rich's recent creations is a modular sampler design suitable for both the WB-57 and ER-2 platforms. These and other projects throughout Rich's career demonstrate his exceptional commitment to maximizing the scientific return of an experiment or mission.

Technology advancement

This award honors major individual or group creations of the past five years that represent technical achievements in engineering, computer science, or applied science.

for development of the Global Positioning System (GPS) dropsonde system. In just over two years, this ATD design has become one of the most important observing tools on 18 research aircraft in three countries. The dropsonde has provided order-of-magnitude improvements in data quality and reliability. To build this next-generation dropsonde, the development team made a series of key decisions, including the use of a low-cost codeless GPS module that uses the aircraft data system for position calculations and a cone-shaped parachute that allows fragile sensors to be dropped safely and quickly from high-altitude aircraft. Groundbreaking research and improved forecasts have already emerged from the data gathered by GPS dropsondes in hurricanes and winter storms.

for SCD's recent developments in visualization technology. Over the past three years, the Visualization Group has customized its Vis5D package, which now supports very large files and stereo/three-dimensional viewing. The 3-D capability has allowed scientists to detect previously hidden features in turbulence, forest fires, coastal cyclones, and other geophysical phenomena. The group's other innovations include the Earth System Web, which makes its visualizations accessible over the World Wide Web through a special server, and a unique volume-rendering shell (Volsh) that allows researchers to interactively explore time-varying datasets.

for development of Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver arrays for a variety of geosciences applications, including surveying and atmospheric sensing. Starting in the 1980s, geophysical scientists began using GPS to measure distances of several hundred kilometers or more with 10-centimeter precision. The accuracy eventually improved to the millimeter level, but the highest-precision receivers remained expensive ($15,000-$25,000). The GST team engaged industry partners and NASA to sponsor a lower-cost, state-of-the-art system. The resulting L1 system (named for its innovative use of only one of the two standard GPS frequencies) began use last August at a cost of about $3,500 per station. The resulting fivefold increase in deployment affordability makes GPS equipment and methods available to a wider variety of atmospheric and related scientists for such projects as water-vapor tomography.

Education

This award honors the most significant individual or group achievement in postgraduate, graduate, undergraduate, K-12, or general public science education, including such areas as development of programs or curricular materials in science, mathematics, and technology transfer.

for significant contributions to bringing current knowledge on weather and climate to teachers throughout Colorado through NCAR's Project LEARN (Laboratory Experience in Atmospheric Research at NCAR). Over the seven years of Project LEARN's existence at NCAR, Raj, Kevin, and Charlie have been leaders, helping to design the three-week summer workshops, preparing and assisting with lectures and activities, and traveling throughout the state for LEARN teacher-enrichment workshops. Through the hundreds of teachers reached by Project LEARN, many thousands of students in Colorado have benefitted from these scientists' efforts to communicate concepts with rigor, yet in a friendly, nonthreatening atmosphere.

Outstanding Publication

Nominees for this honor have published, in the past five years, either results of original work or other contributions, such as review papers or books, that have significantly increased the understanding of atmospheric science.

"The NCAR climate system model, version one," Journal of Climate 11 (1998), 1115-1130. Part of a special issue of the Journal of Climate devoted to the CSM, this paper describes the model's formulation, including the innovative flux coupler that links the various model components, allowing for simulations of more than 100 years of climate without flux adjustments. The authors discuss results from the model's landmark 300-year, constant-forcing simulation, which show variability in surface temperature of a reasonable magnitude on all time scales without any significant drift. Although the CSM is a major step forward in climate modeling, Byron and Peter clearly identify some of the problems in the model and discuss what is needed to remedy those problems.

"On inferring the properties of dynamic plasmas from their emitted spectra: The case of the solar transition region," The Astrophysical Journal 501 (1998), 895-910. A key unsolved problem in solar physics is the contrast between the elevated temperature of the tenuous outer solar atmosphere, or corona (several million degrees K), and the dense underlying photosphere (only a few thousand degrees K). In this paper, Phil joins Øivind and Viggo, both former HAO visiting scientists, in a critical reexamination of the physics of the solar transition region that lies at the base of the solar corona. The authors consider recent attempts to attribute transition-region emissions to unresolved fine structures magnetically and thermally disconnected from the corona. They argue for another interpretation, in which the emissions are formed throughout the time-varying thermal interface of the transition region.

for contributions to "Bidirectional mixing in an ACE-1 marine boundary layer overlain by a second turbulent layer," Journal of Geophysical Research 103, No. D13 (1998), 16,411-16,432. Rapid mixing due to turbulence is a characteristic of the atmosphere's lowest few hundred meters, the planetary boundary layer (PBL). Although eddies within the PBL are known to transport air downward from the free atmosphere into the PBL, the reverse process (eddies above the PBL bringing air upward) has been considered insignificant. This paper uses data gathered from the NSF/NCAR C-130 aircraft over the South Pacific in the Aerosol Characterization Experiment (ACE-1) to document, for the first time, the transport of PBL air upward into the free atmosphere through clear-air turbulence. The authors document the resulting formation of an intermediate "buffer layer," roughly a kilometer deep, between the PBL and the free atmosphere. Mixing rates between the PBL and buffer layer were derived from an sophisticated analysis of subtle variations in aerosol physical properties and concentrations of dimethyl sulfide (DMS).