UCAR Update

October 2007

Previous issues • Subscriptions

In brief
• Space available in workshop on atmospheric science and climate literacy
• WRF tutorial set for January
• New postdoc program in climate prediction and applications
• IMAGe workshops set for 2008
• New COMET publications: fire weather, ocean currents, Spanish translations
• Reminders from last issue

Space available in workshop on atmospheric science and climate literacy
A limited number of spaces (with travel support) are available for scientists, educators, and policy specialists to attend the Atmospheric Science and Climate Literacy Workshop on 27-29 November at UCAR in Boulder.

The objective of this NSF-funded workshop is to develop a consensus framework for enhancing our nation's atmospheric science and climate literacy. The diverse group of around 60 participants will include teachers, scientists, informal educators, and policy specialists. Their agenda will build on numerous prior efforts to provide standards and benchmarks for science education in general and on weather, climate, and ocean concepts and linkages in particular. After community review, the consensus framework drafted at the workshop will be submitted to NSF to help decision makers more effectively shape the nation's priorities and strategies for science education.

To apply for the workshop, please fill out the online form below. Participants will be chosen to ensure disciplinary, institutional, and geographic balance. Applicants will be notified of selection decisions by 2 November.

WRF tutorial set for January
A five-day Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF) tutorial will be offered during the week of 14–18 January at the NCAR Foothills Lab in Boulder. The tutorial will consist of lectures on various components of the WRF modeling system, including both the Advanced Research WRF (ARW) and Nonhydrostatic Mesoscale Model (NMM), as well as hands-on practice sessions. Basic knowledge of atmospheric science, numerical modeling, Fortran, and Unix is required. All participants are strongly encouraged to work through one or more of the online tutorials for ARW, NMM, and WRF-Var prior to attending the tutorial class. Registration is $400 ($300 for university students and postdocs).

Registration/payment deadline: 2 November
Contact: Sudie Kelly, NCAR/ESSL/MMM, 303-497-8591
Registration

New postdoc program in climate prediction applications
The U.S. CLIVAR Climate Prediction Applications Postdoctoral Program (CPAPP) has been developed to build the pool of scientists qualified to transfer advances in climate science and prediction into decision frameworks and tools. Managed by UCAR's Visiting Scientist Programs, CPAPP seeks recent or anticipated Ph.D.s who are interested in applying their knowledge of the climate system and its prediction to the decision needs of society.

The 2008 CPAPP research theme is water resource management. Two fellowships are available, one each on the topics of (a) climate variability and municipal water management in the southeastern United States, and (b) climate change impacts on regional water management for the western United States.

Details on applying for the CPAPP positions are at the URL below. The positions will be filled by April for work beginning no later than 1 October 2008.

Application deadline: 15 December
Contact: Meg Austin, UOP/VSP, 303-497-8649
VSP website

IMAGe workshops set for 2008
An important part of NCAR's Institute for Mathematics Applied to Geosciences (IMAGe) is its Theme-of-the-Year (TOY), focusing on some aspect of applied mathematics and the geosciences. The TOY series is designed to advance research and education between the mathematical and the geoscience communities.

For 2008, IMAGe's Theme-of-the-Year is Geophysical Turbulence Phenomena. Related activities, including workshops and a summer school to be held in Boulder, will be led by Keith Julien (University of Colorado at Boulder) and Annick Pouquet (NCAR). The difficulty of solving classical problems in turbulence through direct mathematical analysis has engendered a multidisciplinary approach in which mathematical and physical models, computational science, observations, and experiments are combined to make advances. IMAGe will explore turbulence from these different perspectives, with the goal of increasing the interconnections among theory, computation and experiments.

TOY08 events are as follows:

• Turbulent Theory and Modeling, 27-29 February
• Petascale Computing for Geophysical Turbulence, 5-7 May
• Observing the Turbulent Atmosphere: Sampling Strategies, Technology, and Applications, 28-30 May
• Summer School: Geophysical Turbulence, 14 July-1 August

New COMET publications: fire weather, ocean currents, Spanish translations
Below are details on new online resources available from UOP/COMET. Please see the accompanying Web links for more details.

Fire Weather Grid Techniques: Relative Humidity and Dewpoint Temperature
This 30-minute webcast describes techniques and best practices for creating scientifically consistent grids of fire weather parameters. The intended audience for this module is forecasters who develop gridded fire weather products. A case study is used to apply Smart Tools to model guidance for editing relative humidity and dew point temperature grids.

Introduction to Ocean Currents
This module discusses the origin of ocean currents in both the open ocean and in coastal areas and focuses on the mechanisms that drive currents (wind, horizontal density differences, and tides), along with influences that modify existing currents (friction, bathymetry, Coriolis). The module concludes with a demonstration of data products and a brief overview of forecast considerations.

Spanish translations
The following modules have been translated into Spanish: Flash Flood Cases, Mesoscale Banded Precipitation, Forecasting Radiation Fog, and Thermally-forced Circulation II: Mountain/Valley Breezes. A complete listing of Spanish translations is available.

Contact: Hildy Kane, UOP/COMET, 303-497-8470
COMET MetEd site

Reminders from last issue

Apply now for NOAA Climate and Global Change postdoc program
Application deadline: 11 January

UCAR Update is e-mailed monthly to all UCAR member and affiliate representatives. Please forward to colleagues and students in your department or at other institutions.

View previous issues • Subscribe or unsubscribe

Questions or news tips: Bob Henson, 303-497-8605
Published by UCAR Communications