{"id":3882,"date":"2002-12-03T10:21:33","date_gmt":"2002-12-03T16:21:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/?p=3882"},"modified":"2013-07-24T17:05:36","modified_gmt":"2013-07-24T22:05:36","slug":"monthly-news-summary-december-2002","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/articles\/3882","title":{"rendered":"Monthly News Summary &#8211; December 2002"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1><em>Winter Starts in Wisconsin<\/em><\/h1>\n<h5><em>by Terri Gregory, SSEC Public Information Coordinator<\/em><\/h5>\n<p><em>This month\u2019s column includes news coverage and research primarily from November. Use images freely with credit to the Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin\u2013Madison.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Madison\u2019s\u00a0<em>Wisconsin State Journal<\/em>\u00a0newspaper documented this season\u2019s first real snow with pictures. SSEC\u2019s Scott Lindstrom provided numbers to reporter Brenda Ingersoll. The inch-plus snowfall comes after the eighth coldest October since the late 1800s, averaging 44.8\u00b0 F (49.3\u00b0 is normal). November averaged 34.3\u00b0, compared to 35.5\u00b0 normally. Our December 2 snowfall is nothing compared to what has fallen on the U.S. east coast, but after a cold fall, it\u2019s welcome mostly only to skiers. Lindstrom provided a ray of hope for those of us less than enthused about a \u201ctypical\u201d Wisconsin winter. \u201cThe outlook for December through February is warmer than normal,\u201d he said, \u201cso maybe we&#8217;ll have an early winter that ends early.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Steve Ackerman does not completely believe national forecasts that a weak El Ni\u00f1o will keep our winter a little warmer than normal with less precipitation. His skepticism is in keeping with Wisconsin\u2019s low temperatures and heavy snowfalls across the eastern U.S. Weather Guys Steve Ackerman and Jonathan Martin answered many interesting meteorological questions on the last Monday in November, their regularly scheduled gig on WHA Radio with host Larry Meiller. The guys discussed the string of unusual November tornadoes in the U.S. south, east and midwest. Ackerman explained how lakes freeze top down, because water becomes less dense when it freezes, so it floats. Martin explained clearly how layered clouds move in different directions because of vertical wind shear, sometimes at the top of an inversion layer. They explained why fall is so much warmer than the spring\u2014although the earth is in the same position regarding the sun, the earth stays warm longer than it takes to get cold. Calls moved from the purely meteorological realm to questions about global warming\u2014Wisconsin temperature records show a warming trend, how moon phase affects air temperature\u2014it doesn\u2019t, and the cooling effects of erupting volcanos. A representative from Audubon Society appeared to talk about annual natural events, especially those in the\u00a0<em>Weather Friend<\/em>\u00a0calendar.<\/p>\n<p>The Weather Guys will answer all your meteorologically-related questions on Monday, December 30 at 11:45 a.m.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wpr.org\/webcasting\/\">Weather Guys on WHA<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aos.wisc.edu\/~sco\/\">State Climatologist<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><a name=\"ag\"><\/a><em>Agricultural Research<\/em><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cals.wisc.edu\/media\/news\/10_02\/P_loss_study.html\"><strong>Runoff Study<\/strong><\/a>\u2014As Wisconsin\u2019s new non-point pollution rules take effect, UW\u2013Madison researchers will quantify losses of phosphorus from farm fields. The College of Agricultural and Life Sciences released news of the USDA research grant in October;\u00a0<em>Wisconsin Week,<\/em>\u00a0the campus newspaper, noted it November 6; the\u00a0<em>Wisconsin Week Wire,<\/em>\u00a0on November 13. John Norman, Soil Science, leads a team of researchers including Christine Molling and George Diak from SSEC in developing a computer model, Precision Agricultural-Landscape Modeling System, or PALMS, that can be used to \u201cprovide guidance to farmers on compliance with regulations.\u201d Researchers developed the model to predict corn growth and yield but it is flexible enough to be used for many factors, including the amount of phosphorus in a field. The model is a tool for agricultural consultants to use with farmers to make useful management decisions.<a name=\"antarctica\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h2><em>Antarctica<\/em><\/h2>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.polar.org\/antsun\/Sun111002\/Sun111002.pdf\">Shopping habits<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0of SSEC\u2019s Antarctic field workers made front page news in November. Mark Sabbatini of the\u00a0<em>Antarctic Sun,\u00a0<\/em>newsletter for the McMurdo Station U.S. Antarctic Program, featured the station\u2019s grocery store, officially the Berg Field Center Food Room, on November 10. While he visited, shoppers were members of SSEC\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/a3ri\/icds\/\">Ice Coring and Drilling Services<\/a>, including engineer Jim Green (SSEC) and machinist Jay Johnson (Physical Sciences Laboratory). They were choosing supplies, about 600 pounds worth, that they\u2019d need for their time at the South Pole drilling holes for\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.globaltechnoscan.com\/3rdOct-9thOct01\/antarctica.htm\">SPRESO<\/a>\u00a0(the South Pole Remote Earth Science Observatory), a seismic emplacement for the U.S. Geological Survey. In a quiet location at the spin access of the earth 8 km (5 mi) from the South Pole, geologists take seismic readings as control measurements for studies of earthquakes.<\/p>\n<p>SSEC\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/amrc.ssec.wisc.edu\/amrchome.html\">Antarctic Meteorological Research Center<\/a>\u00a0(AMRC) is providing specialized NOAA satellite imagery (local area coverage) to NASA researchers in Virginia. Headquartered at Wallops Island, Virginia, researchers are working with Chilean scientists to study the Patagonian glaciers in west Antarctica. One weather forecaster sent a grateful message telling how he used the images most recently. \u201cWe used your image this morning to decide not to launch a mission to Pine Island. We also used your infrared and visible composites along with a forecast from Rothera to fly the Antarctic Peninsula. The mission was 75\u201380% successful. We landed at 21:45 so we will not launch another flight until Thursday morning.\u201d The AMRC posts most imagery and data on the AMRC\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/amrc.ssec.wisc.edu\/amrc\/realtime.html\">Web<\/a>\u00a0site for anyone to use.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Pinguine<\/em><\/strong><em>\u2014Spezialisten f\u00fcrs Kalte<\/em>\u00a0[Penguins, Cold Specialists], by Boris Culik, uses an image provided by the Antarctic Meteorological Research Center to illustrate a predicament posed by large icebergs B-15A, C-16 and C-19, primarily. They all have broken free from the Ross Ice Shelf since March 2000 and are, in combination, cutting off access to traditional breeding and feeding grounds for Adelie and Emperor penguins.\u00a0<em>Pinguine<\/em>\u00a0is published in Germany by BLV.<\/p>\n<p>Jonathan Thom, a researcher in UW\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/uwamrc.ssec.wisc.edu\/aws\/\"><strong>Automatic Weather Station<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0program, helps collect temperature and other weather information from stations all over the continent. He also has spent months at a time \u201con the Ice\u201d performing maintenance on the stations. So, when he saw the September 2002 issue of\u00a0<em>Smithsonian<\/em>\u00a0magazine, he knew that the caption for an aerial photograph of the Adelie Coast contained an error. In a letter to the editor, he noted, \u201cThe temperature range for Antarctica, from 32\u00b0 F to -13\u00b0 F, is wrong. Temperatures in Antarctica can range from around 50\u00b0 F to as low as -129\u00b0 F. Last year at the United States Antarctic Program\u2019s McMurdo Station a temperature of 51\u00b0 F was recorded. The lowest temperature recorded in the world occurred at Vostok Station, Antarctica and was -129.3\u00b0 F.\u201d The\u00a0<em>Smithsonian<\/em>published part of Thom\u2019s letter in November.<\/p>\n<h2><em>Data and Imagery<\/em><\/h2>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.osei.noaa.gov\/iod.html\">NOAA\u2019s Daily Significant Event Imagery Report<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0used as an Image of the Day one from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on a NASA earth observing satellite received at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/~gumley\/IMAPP\/doc\/SPIE_MODIS-DB_OCT2002_V1.pdf\">SSEC\u2019s direct broadcast facility<\/a>. Both images depict snow on western U.S. mountain tops. The November 21 image features California\u2019s Sierra Nevada. On\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.osei.noaa.gov\/Events\/Snow\/US_West\/2002\/SNWusW333_MOL.jpg\">November 26<\/a>, the focus is on the U.S. Four Corners area and Montana and Idaho. Current MODIS images from SSEC\u2019s direct broadcast are posted on the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/eosdb.ssec.wisc.edu\/modisdirect\/?sat=terra\">Web<\/a>.<\/p>\n<table cellpadding=\"5\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2002\/12\/Dec.2002Cal-thumb.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3884\" alt=\"Dec.2002Cal-thumb\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2002\/12\/Dec.2002Cal-thumb.jpg\" width=\"250\" height=\"274\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td valign=\"center\">\n<h5>This small image shows the snow on California&#8217;s Sierra Nevada mountains on November 21.<\/h5>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/visitview\/\"><strong>VisitView<\/strong><\/a>\u2014Vesa Nietosvaara of the Finnish Meteorological Institute recently used VisitView software for a 20-person synoptic analysis course. He reports that, \u201cfor an exercise with satpics [satellite imagery] and overlay fields, it was just marvelous to work with.\u201d He reports that this scientific software package is easily understandable, quick and really comfortable. Software programmer Tom Whittaker develops VISITView as a tool to train National Weather Service forecasters to use satellite imagery. Because of its ease of use, it has begun to be used to train meteorologists around the world.<\/p>\n<p>An SSEC global satellite imagery\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/data\/comp\/latest_cmoll.gif\">montage<\/a>\u00a0will be used in\u00a0<em>Maps and the Internet,<\/em>\u00a0a book to be published by Elsevier Science Ltd, UK. The montage will appear in the article, \u201cInternet Maps in Teaching,\u201d by James Carter, who uses SSEC satellite imagery from the Web in his geography classes at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ilstu.edu\/\">Illinois State University in Normal<\/a>.<a name=\"polar\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h2><em>Polar Science<\/em><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/arcane.ucsd.edu\/\"><strong>Satellite Data Survey<\/strong><\/a>\u2014Do you use satellite data in your polar research? If so, your input is needed in a survey sponsored by NSF to judge the research need for satellite data. The results of this survey will enable NSF-supported polar-satellite remote sensing activities, including those at the Arctic and Antarctic Research Center at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the Antarctic Meteorology Research Center at the University of Wisconsin\u2013Madison, and the National Snow and Ice Data Center to formulate and recommend improvements to polar satellite remote sensing services for the benefit of high latitude researchers worldwide. The survey hopes to comprehensively assess how satellite data are presently used to support polar research and expeditions, and to provide recommendations for improvement. Survey creators need your input by December 31, 2002 at\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:survey@arcane.ucsd.edu\">survey@arcane.ucsd.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/stratus.ssec.wisc.edu\/products\/rtinversions\">Inversions<\/a><\/strong>\u2014Jeff Key (NOAA, at SSEC) and Yinghui Liu (CIMSS graduate student) are now retrieving temperature inversion information in the polar regions in near real time with MODIS data, received via direct broadcast at SSEC. The strength (temperature difference across the inversion) and height of low-level, clear sky atmospheric temperature inversions are estimated with channels on MODIS sensitive to water vapor and infrared wavelengths. Key and Liu are posting composites daily on the Web. Other\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/stratus.ssec.wisc.edu\/products\/realtime.html\">real-time polar<\/a>\u00a0products are also available.<\/p>\n<table cellpadding=\"5\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2002\/12\/dec.2002inversion-thumb.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3887\" alt=\"dec.2002inversion-thumb\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2002\/12\/dec.2002inversion-thumb.jpg\" width=\"250\" height=\"222\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td valign=\"center\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Jeff Key spoke with A. Lam of the\u00a0<em>Daily Planet,<\/em>\u00a0a science news show on Canada\u2019s Discovery Channel, about how much solar energy the polar regions reflect. The Antarctic area reflects most, with an annual average planetary albedo of more than 75%. The Arctic value is 50%, compared to the global average of about 30%. Ms. Lam also asked whether painting all the roofs in the world white would offset global warming, and by how much. Key is a polar scientist and NOAA team leader at SSEC.<a name=\"fires\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h2><em>Tracking Fires<\/em><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/goes\/burn\/wfabba.html\">The CIMSS group<\/a>\u00a0who uses U.S. geostationary weather satellites (GOES) to monitor agricultural burning and wildfires now provides fire products in McIDAS format to the Unidata program, managed in Boulder, Colorado. Chris Schmidt (CIMSS) and Elaine Prins (NOAA) worked with McIDAS programmer Russ Dengel to produce special fire products based on the WildFire Automated Biomass Burning Algorithm (WF-ABBA) in real time every 3 hours for dissemination to the university user community. The\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/my.unidata.ucar.edu\/\">Unidata program<\/a>\u00a0enables universities to acquire and use meteorological and related data sets and is operated by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR). The WildFire algorithm was released this summer to be used routinely by the National Weather Service in forecasting weather conditions favorable for fires.<\/p>\n<p>Elaine Prins and CIMSS\u2019 Joleen Feltz are collaborating with J. Pereira of the Instituto Superior de Agronomia at the Universidad Tecnica de Lisboa in Lisbon, Portugal to compare methods of detecting active fires and burn scars. Preliminary mappings of burned areas based on SPOT-4 (Satellite Pour l\u2019Observation de la Terre) vegetation data at 1 km spatial resolution appear to indicate that there are regions in Brazil where burn scars are hard to capture at 1 km resolution (scars are smaller than that). In those situations, active fires detected with the GOES Wildfire Automated Biomass Burning Algorithm (WF-ABBA) are needed to complement burned area maps. SPOT-derived burn scar maps are also being compared with higher resolution Landsat scenes. This study is providing valuable insight on the utility of combining multisensor active fire and burn scar products to correctly characterize fire regimes in South America.<\/p>\n<p>Feltz, Schmidt and Prins also have provided K. Knapp (Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere) with multispectral GOES-8 data for the time period October 2000 through February 2001. Knapp will process the data with his GOES Aerosol Smoke Product (GASP) algorithm as part of a collaborative effort to study the relationship between extreme wildfire activity detected with the WF-ABBA in Argentina during the austral summer of 2000\/2001 and extensive smoke transport throughout the region.<a name=\"research\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h2><em>Weather Research<\/em><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/\">CIMSS<\/a>\u00a0has published Volume 3 of the\u00a0<em>Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS) Newsletter<\/em>. This science news magazine provides recent information about CIMSS\u2019 research and education activities. To be added to the mailing list, email editor\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:leanne.avila@ssec.wisc.edu\">Leanne Avila<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NASA\u2019s<\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/eospso.gsfc.nasa.gov\/eos_observ\/9_10_02\/Sept_Oct_02.pdf\"><em><strong>\u00a0Earth Observer<\/strong><\/em><\/a>\u00a0for September\/October 2002 featured reports from the MODIS Science Team Meeting, held in July. All MODIS researchers are happy with the \u201coutstanding results\u201d from MODIS data products from NASA\u2019s Terra satellite. Researchers also celebrated the successful launch of Aqua, Terra\u2019s sister satellite, in May. All three science teams reported, including the atmospheres group, composed mostly of CIMSS and NOAA scientists at SSEC. Paul Menzel, a NOAA chief scientist at SSEC, is key atmospheres researcher. These scientists are pleased with atmosphere data products from the MODIS instrument on Terra. The MODIS on Aqua is performing well and initial products look good, but software will need to be adjusted. The group concluded that \u201chaving two MODIS instruments will result in better polar wind [measurements]; improved diurnal process studies of aerosols, moisture, and clouds; and improved AIRS and MODIS observations of cloud properties and surroundings.\u201d AIRS, the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder, provides information through the atmosphere in high vertical resolution, while the MODIS, the MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, provides detailed resolution horizontally. The Earth Observer also featured a MODIS image of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/media\/spotlight\/isidore.html\">Hurricane Isidore<\/a>\u00a0from SSEC\u2019s direct broadcast facility.<\/p>\n<p>A major specialty of SSEC\u2019s CIMSS is simulating products from future NASA or NOAA satellite instruments. Recently student researcher Justin Sieglaff compared which exact regions of the electromagnetic spectrum are measured by the current GOES imaging instrument and the proposed Advanced Baseline Imager. Sieglaff has calculated spectral response functions (SRF) for both instruments and shows them graphically. He lists\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/goes\/goesmain.html#imgrinfo\">differences<\/a>\u00a0in average radiances (or the amount of energy emitted) in a cloudy area and a clear, heavily vegetated area for the current GOES Imager and the proposed instrument, which would measure a narrower band of wavelengths. He also includes a small program that allows you to plot the SRF for several different GOES Imagers.<\/p>\n<p>With Tim Schmit (NOAA, at SSEC) Sieglaff also has provided an\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/goes\/goesmain.html#overview\">overview<\/a>\u00a0of all five infrared bands on the current GOES imager and links to detailed pages where it is possible to see subtle differences between each GOES SRF. As in the visible SRF page, a user can toggle between any combination of GOES-8 through GOES-12 InfraRed Spectral Response Functions.<\/p>\n<p>Wayne Feltz, Derek Posselt, John Mecikalski (all of CIMSS) and Gary Wade and Tim Schmit (both with NOAA at SSEC) have submitted the paper, \u201c12 June 2002 Rapid Water Vapor Transitions During the IHOP Field Program,\u201d for the annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society\u2019s Symposium on Observing and Understanding the Variability of Water in Weather and Climate. The paper highlights dramatic oscillations (1 cm) of total precipitable water observed by SSEC\u2019s Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (AERI) and a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver during the International H20 Program on June 12, 2002 at the Homestead site in the Oklahoma panhandle. The researchers compared total precipitable water observations from GOES-11 and GOES-8 sounder instruments with AERI and GPS measurements showing consistent tendencies until 1100 UTC (6 a.m. U.S. Central Time), showing skill at resolving these small-scale water vapor features. The GOES sounder data smooth over the last water vapor transition, likely because of the instrument\u2019s relatively large field of view, compared with the tight water vapor gradient detected by the AERI and GPS, both ground-based sensors that measure a much smaller area.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2002\/12\/dec.2002homesteadTPW.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-3886\" alt=\"dec.2002homesteadTPW\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2002\/12\/dec.2002homesteadTPW.gif\" width=\"361\" height=\"240\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Geary Callan (NOAA, at SSEC) has written a computer program to catch a hanging semaphore (a file signaling a certain condition) in the process CIMSS uses to acquire data from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction. The use of a semaphore prevents concurrent running of multiple processes, but can be problematic if the computer crashes. Before using this program, human monitoring was required. At CIMSS, NCEP data is used in the generation of many satellite-derived products as well as to initialize numerical weather forecast models.<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"education\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h2><em>Education, Outreach<\/em><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/icecube.wisc.edu\/\"><strong>The IceCube Web site<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0now includes information on\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/icecube.wisc.edu\/workshops\/2002class.html\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cAstronomy in the Ice,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0a professional development course that features AMANDA\/IceCube and related science developed by Jim Madsen at UW\u2013River Falls. This site includes resources for inquiry-based laboratory problems that can be used with high school students.<\/p>\n<p>Students at Gallaudet University\u2019s Model Secondary School for the deaf in Washington, D.C. were pleased to receive a presentation on Weather on Planets from SSEC planetary scientist and outreach director Sanjay Limaye, with teacher Mary Ellsworth signing. They expressed their delight with several email messages.<\/p>\n<p>Limaye also gave talks on Planetary Meteorology at Neville Public Museum in Green Bay and to Madison\u2019s Falk Elementary kindergarten. Appreciative kindergarteners are shown with Limaye, left and Rosalyn Pertzborn, SSEC outreach coordinator.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2002\/12\/dec.2002Falkbest.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-3885\" alt=\"OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2002\/12\/dec.2002Falkbest.jpg\" width=\"346\" height=\"259\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2002\/12\/dec.2002Falkbest.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2002\/12\/dec.2002Falkbest-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2002\/12\/dec.2002Falkbest-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2002\/12\/dec.2002Falkbest-400x300.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 346px) 100vw, 346px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h2><em>Honors, Awards<\/em><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.spie.org\/home.html\"><strong>SPIE,<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0the international society for optical engineers, presented SSEC senior scientist<strong>Edwin Eloranta<\/strong>\u00a0with the Scientific Achievement Award in Remote Sensing at the Society&#8217;s recent annual meeting in Hangzhou, China. Eloranta, who leads UW-Madison&#8217;s lidar\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/lidar.ssec.wisc.edu\/\">group<\/a>, was honored for developing two state-of-the-art lidar instruments that enable detailed analysis of atmospheric structure. The group is completing a new version of the University of Wisconsin\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/lidar.ssec.wisc.edu\/syst\/ahsrl\/intro.htm\">High Spectral Resolution Lidar<\/a>\u00a0for routine, untended measurement of arctic clouds and aerosols, to be placed in the ice near Barrow, Alaska. Eloranta is an acknowledged pioneer in atmospheric lidar.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/media\/images\/eloranta-award-thumb.gif\" width=\"350\" height=\"292\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Hung-Lung (Allen) Huang,<\/strong>\u00a0SSEC senior scientist, has been appointed chair of the National Academies\u2019 Committee on Environmental Satellite Data Utilization. According to The Space Studies Board, which oversees Huang&#8217;s committee, it will advise the government on issues of future environmental satellite data utilization, and is charged with an end-to-end review of data products from instruments launched from 2010 to 2020, with an eye toward their usefulness and positive economic impacts. Huang brings to the committee 20 years experience in most aspects of meteorological satellite data processing and applications, including developing the complex software necessary to make useful products from the data. He also models data products for proposed instruments. He has served as principal investigator for developing the International MODIS and AIRS data Processing Package, NOAA\u2019s Advanced Baseline Imager and Sounder instruments, and the Navy\u2019s Multiple University Research Initiative. Huang will serve until November 2004 and is assisted by SSEC\u2019s Brian Osborne. The National Academies includes the National Academy of Science and of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council. The committee reports to the Academies\u2019 Space Studies Board.<\/p>\n<p><em>To define or explain some terms, I used the textbook,\u00a0<\/em>Meteorology\u2014Understanding the Atmosphere,<em>\u00a0by Steven A. Ackerman and John A. Knox, \u00a9 2002, Thomson-Brooks\/Cole.<\/em><\/p>\n<h1><\/h1>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the News &#8211; December 2002<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3884,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-monthly-summary"],"acf":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3882"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4345,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3882\/revisions\/4345"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}