News Items
2007
Nobel Peace Prize to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Members
of the Climate Variability and Trends group join the global climate
research and assessment community in celebrating the announcement
of the 2007
Nobel Peace Prize, awarded to the IPCC "for their efforts
to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate
change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed
to counteract such change". This high honor is a recognition
of the contributions of thousands of individuals around the world,
of the incremental and cumulative nature of scientific progress,
and of the ability of the scientific community to meaningfully address
the critical environmental issue of our time.
Department
of Commerce Gold Medal for Temperature Trends Study
On
15 November 2007, NOAA contributors to the US Climate Change Science
Program synthesis and assessment report on "Temperature
Trends in the Lower Atmosphere" were awarded the Gold Medal
for Scientific/Engineering Achievement "For improving the understanding
of observed climate change and causes by showing that global average
atmospheric warming is similar to surface warming". Recipients
include Chris Miller, V. Ramaswamy, John Lanzante, Dian Seidel,Tom
Karl, Tom Peterson, Russel Vose, Richard Reynolds. Colleagues from
other institutions also contributed to the report.
NOAA
RATPAC Team Awarded Department of Commerce Bronze Medal
At
a May 2007 ceremony, the team of NOAA scientists responsible for
development of Radiosonde Atmospheric Temperature Products for Assessing
Climate (RATPAC) was awarded a DOC Bronze Medal. Members of the
team include: Melissa Free, Dian Seidel and Jim Angell (NOAA Air
Resources Lab), John Lanzante (NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Lab),
Imke Durre, Jay Lawrimore and Tom Peterson (NOAA National Climatic
Data Center). The work was supported by the NOAA Climate Program
Office's Climate Change Data and Detection program, managed by Bill
Murray and Chris Miller. RATPAC
(see below) datasets are publicly available and have been used in
international and national climate assessments.
Dian
Seidel Elected to AMS Council
Dian
Seidel has been elected a Councilor of the American Meteorological
Society (AMS) for a three-year term beginning January 2007. The
Council is the principal governing body of the AMS and meets twice
annually to conduct its business. She welcomes input from colleagues
with ideas, suggestions, complaints, and general perspectives on
the AMS and its governance.
Julian
Wang Selected for AMS IIPS Committee
Julian
Wang has been named a member of the American Meteorological Society
(AMS) Interactive Information and Processing Systems (IIPS) Program
Committee for Meteorology, Oceanography, and Hydrology. His term
extends from 2007 to 2010. The AMS IIPS Committee is responsible
for planning and organizing AMS IIPS activities and conferences.
Dian
Seidel Serving as Science Advisor for Earth and Sky
Dian
Seidel has been invited to serve as a Science Advisor for Earth
and Sky, a daily radio and online program addressing science
topics. Science advisors provide ideas for stories and perspectives
on topics of interest to Earth and Sky and its listeners.
Benedicte
Dousset Elected IAUC Board Member
Benedicte
Dousset has been elected to serve a four-year (2006-2010) term as
a member of the Board of the International
Association for Urban Climate The IUAC sponsors the INternational
Conference on Urban Climate, facilitates communication among urban
climatologist via email listserves and presents awards for work
in urban climatology.
CCSP
Synthesis and Assessment Product 1.1
The
first synthesis and assessment product of the US Climate Change
Science Program addresses "Temperature
Trends in the Lower Atmosphere: Steps for Understanding and Reconciling
Differences". This topic is central to our group's research
program, and we have made substantial contributions to the report.
Dian Seidel is a lead author, Melissa Free is a contributor, and
Jim Angell served as a reviewer of the National Research Council
review of the draft report. The report was released
in May 2006.
University
of Maryland Award
Dian
Seidel was awarded a Distinguished Alumna award from the University
of Maryland's Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science at the
18th Annual Academic Festival, April 28, 2006. She received her
Ph.D. from the then Meteorology Department in 1992.
Public
Launch of RATPAC Data
The
new Radiosonde Atmospheric Temperature Products for Assessing Climate
(RATPAC) datasets are now available to the public at http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/cab/ratpac
along with descriptions of the products. The datasets are derived
from the Lanzante-Klein-Seidel (LKS) adjusted data (Lanzante et
al. 2003) and the Integrated Global Radiosonde Archive (IGRA) dataset.
They include hemispheric, tropical and global mean temperature anomalies
from 1958 to the present and station data from the LKS dataset extended
from 1997 to the present using the IGRA archive. RATPAC was a collaborative
effort between the Climate Variability and Trends group and scientists
from NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) and the
National Climatic Data Center (NCDC). The datasets are updated routinely
and used for climate monitoring by NCDC and are describe in a Journal
of Climate article.
Melissa
Free Appointed Journal of Climate Associate Editor
In
January 2006, Melissa Free became an associate editor of the Journal
of Climate. Associate editors provide additional expertise to the
editors in selected cases when editors receive split decisions on
manuscripts.
Dian
Seidel to Co-Chair 2007 AMS Annual Meeting
Dian
Seidel has agreed to serve as co-chair of the American Meteorological
Society's 2007 Annual Meeting, working with Mary Cairns (Office
of the Federal Coordinator for Meteorological Services and Supporting
Research). AMS
President-Elect Franco Einaudi will preside over the meeting and
has chosen the theme "Bridging Weather and Climate Studies".
Co-chair responsibilities are to ensure an interesting and logically-planned
program, coordinating among all the specialty conferences, forums,
and symposia. The meeting will be held 15-19 January 2007 in San
Antonio, TX.
IPCC
Fourth Assessment Report
ARL
Climate Variability and Trends group members are contributing to
the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change. Melissa Free is a contributing author
for Chapter 3 (Observations: Surface and Atmospheric Climate Change)
and Dian Seidel is serving as an expert reviewer and a member of
the U.S. Government Review Panel for the Working Group I report
Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis.
Updates
of Angell Temperature Data
Jim
Angell has updated his seasonal upper-air temperature anomalies
from a global 54-station radiosonde network through DJF 2004-05.
These data, along with other Angell datasets, can be obtained directly
from our ftp
site.
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