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.

Archived News Items from the Climate Variability and Trends Group