Laury documented the first altimeter observations of an El Niño,
showing that Westerly Wind Bursts were responsible for the generation of
Kelvin waves during the onset of an El Niño event. Recently he and
co-author Bruce Douglas published a 2004 paper in the journal Nature,
entitled "Mass and Volume Contributions to the Twentieth-Century Global
Sea Level Rise", that helped resolve a controversy regarding the rate and
causes of 20th Century sea level change.
In recognition of this accomplishment, Laury received a U.S. Department of
Commerce Silver Medal Award in 2004. He also received a Gold Medal Award
in 1997 for helping develop NOAA's operational El Niño prediction program,
and a Silver Medal Award in 1987 for his contribution to the NOAA GEOdetic
SATellite (GEOSAT) project.
Laury received his Ph.D. in physical oceanography from the University of
Rhode Island, and a Bachelor's degree in physics from Antioch College,
Yellow Springs, Ohio.
Leuliette, E. W., and L. Miller (2009), Closing the sea level rise
budget with altimetry, Argo, and GRACE, Geophys. Res. Lett.,
36, L04608, doi:10.1029/2008GL036010.
Miller, L., and B. C. Douglas (2007), Gyre-scale atmospheric
pressure variations and their relation to 19th and 20th century sea level
rise, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L16602,
doi:10.1029/2007GL030862.
Miller, L., and B. C. Douglas (2006), On the rate and causes of
twentieth century sea-level rise, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. A.,
364, 805-820, doi:10.1098/rsta.2006.1738.
Miller, L., Satellite altimetry and the NOAA/NESDIS
sea surface height team, Backscatter, 29-34, 2004.
Miller, L. and B. C. Douglas, Mass and
Volume Contributions to 20th Century Global Sea Level Rise,
Nature, 248, 407-409, 2004.
Miller, L., and B. C. Douglas, Mass & Volume Contributions to 20th
Century Global Sea Level Rise, Jason Science Working Team Meeting,
Arles, France, 2003.
Miller, L. and B. C. Douglas, Sea Level Rise During the Past 80 Years
Determined From Tide Gauge and Hydro Observations: Do They Agree?, EGS-AGU-EUG joint assembly, Nice, France, 2003.
Miller, L., R. Cheney, D. Behringer, C. Maes, Assessing the Impact of Satellite
Altimeter Data on the NOAA/NCEP Operational Analysis, Proc. of Int.
Sympos. "En Route to GODAE", Biarritz, France, pp. 299-300,
2002.
Vossepoel, F. C., R. W. Reynolds, and L. Miller, The Use of Sea Level
Observations to Estimate Salinity Variability in the Tropical Pacific,
J. Atm. Ocean. Tech.,16,1400-1414, 1999.
Carton, J. A., B. S. Giese, X. Cao, and L. Miller, Impact of TOPEX and
Thermistor Data on Retrospective Analyses of the Tropical Pacific Ocean,
J. Geophys. Res.,101,14,147-14,159, 1996.
Cheney, R., L. Miller, R. Agreen, N. Doyle, and J. Lillibridge, TOPEX/POSEIDON: The 2-cm Solution, J.
Geophys. Res., 99, (C12), 24, 555-24564, 1994.
Donohue, K.A., M. Wimbush, X.Zhu, S. Chiswell, R.Lukas, L. Miller, H.
Hurlburt, Five years central Pacific sea level from in-situ array,
satellite altimeter and numerical model, Atmosphere-Ocean,
32 (2), 495-506, 1994.
Miller, L., R. Cheney, and J.Lillibridge, Blending ERS-1 Altimetry and
Tide Gauge Data, EOS, Trans., Amer. Geophys. Union, 74,
(16), 185 and 197, 1993.
Reed, R. K., F. Gonzalez, and L. Miller, On the structure and stability
of the Alaskan Stream, J. Mar. Res., 49, 719-726, 1991.
Miller, L., and R. Cheney, Large-scale meridional transport in the
tropical Pacific during the 1986-87 El Nino, J. Geophys. Res.,
95, 17905-18920, 1990.
Cheney, R. E., and L. Miller, Recovery of the sea level signal in the
western tropical Pacific from Geosat altimetry, J. Geophys. Res.,
95 (C3), 2977-2984, 1990.
Douglas, B. C., R. E. Cheney, L. Miller, W. E. Carter, and D. S. Robertson,
Greenland ice sheet; is it growing or shrinking?, Science,
248, 288, 1990.
Cheney, R. E., B. C. Douglas, and L.Miller, Evaluation of Geosat
altimeter data with application to tropical Pacific sea level variability,
J. Geophys. Res., 94 (C4), 4737-4747, 1989.
Miller, L., R. Cheney, and B. C. Douglas, GEOSAT Altimeter Observations
of Kelvin Waves and the 1986-87 El Nino, Science, 239, 52-
54, 1988.
Cheney, R., and L. Miller, Mapping the 1986-87 El Nino with GEOSAT
altimeter data, EOS, Trans. Amer. Geophys. Union, 69, (31),
754-755, 1988.
Milbert, D., B. Douglas, R. Cheney, L. Miller, R. Agreen, Calculation of
sea level time series from noncollinear GEOSAT altimeter data, Mar.
Geodesy, 12, 287-302, 1988.
Miller, L, R. Cheney, and D. Milbert, Sea level time series in the
equatorial Pacific from satellite altimetry, Geophys. Res. Lett.,
13, (5), 475-478, 1986.
Cheney, B. Douglas, R. Agreen, L. Miller, D. Milbert, and D. Porter,
The GEOSAT altimeter mission: a milestone in satellite oceanography,
EOS, Trans., Amer. Geophys. Union, The Oceanography Report,
67, (48), 1354-1355, 1986.
Miller, L., R. Watts, and M. Wimbush, Oscillations of dynamic topography
in the eastern equatorial Pacific, J. Phys. Oceanogr., 15
(12), 1759-1770, 1985.
Dept. of Commerce • NOAA • NESDIS • STAR • Last revised: March 15, 2012
Dr. Laury Miller, Chief of NOAA's Laboratory for Satellite
Altimetry in Washington, joined the agency in 1985. His primary research
interests include the use of satellite altimeter measurements to study
equatorial dynamics; climate change; and sea level rise.