{"id":3898,"date":"2002-10-03T10:36:30","date_gmt":"2002-10-03T15:36:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/?p=3898"},"modified":"2013-07-24T17:07:40","modified_gmt":"2013-07-24T22:07:40","slug":"monthly-news-summary-october-2002","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/articles\/3898","title":{"rendered":"Monthly News Summary &#8211; October 2002"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1><em>Monitoring Phosphorus Loss<\/em><\/h1>\n<h5><em>by Terri Gregory, SSEC Public Information Coordinator<\/em><\/h5>\n<p><em>This month\u2019s column includes news coverage mostly from September, current research and future events. Use images freely with credit to the Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin\u2013Madison.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/resac.gis.umn.edu\/agriculture\/agriculture_index.htm\"><strong>UW\u2013Madison researchers<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0will study how phosphorus, mostly in manure, is lost from farm fields to waterways. The three year grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture will enable researchers from Soil Science, Biological Systems Engineering, Space Science and Engineering Center, and Agricultural and Applied Economics to measure phosphorus moving from fields to surface waters, where it promotes harmful algae blooms and endangers the lives of fishes and other stream inhabitants. Phosphorus is also believed to contribute to the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nos.noaa.gov\/products\/pubs_hypox.html\">Dead Zone<\/a>\u00a0in the Gulf of Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>John Norman of Soil Science in the university\u2019s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences leads the research to study a watershed in Buffalo County, WI. This area contains headwaters of two streams leading to Traverse Valley Creek, a Class 1 trout stream. The area also includes a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.discoveryfarms.org\/\">Discovery Farm<\/a>, which will participate in the study. The State of Wisconsin set up the Discovery Farm program as an independent network of operating, commercial Wisconsin farms to engage in research and demonstration projects.<\/p>\n<p>Key to quantifying results from the phosphorus study is a model developed by SSEC\u2019s Christine Molling and George Diak and John Norman called the Precision Agricultural-Landscape Modeling System. Faculty from Cooperative Extension will help ensure that PALMS can be used to assess phosphorus loss from several commercial farm fields used to validate the model. The PALMS Model is designed to be used easily by agricultural consultants who work with farmers. Eventually, researchers hope to use PALMS to combine productivity, profitability and environmental issues and strengthen relationships between Cooperative Extension, agricultural consultants, state regulatory agencies and the agricultural research community.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/media\/agresearch.htm\">Release<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a name=\"Antarctica\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h2><em>Antarctica<\/em><\/h2>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/uwamrc.ssec.wisc.edu\/\">AMRC<\/a>\u00a0tenth anniversary<\/strong>\u2014SSEC\u2019s Antarctic Meteorological Research Center is ten years old this October 30. Matthew Lazzara, who manages the AMRC, says that the first\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/uwamrc.ssec.wisc.edu\/amrc\/realtime.html\">composite<\/a>\u00a0of Antarctica was made from satellite imagery that day in 1992 at 6:00 UTC. Today, many more satellites are used in the composite and the continent is covered more often.<\/p>\n<table cellpadding=\"5\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2013\/07\/oct.2002smlcomp.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3901\" alt=\"oct.2002smlcomp\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2013\/07\/oct.2002smlcomp.gif\" width=\"249\" height=\"243\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td valign=\"center\">\n<h5>SSEC\u2019s AMRC created this image of Antarctica from infrared imagery from several weather satellites, primarily polar orbiting. The image was produced on October 2, 2002. Blocks of black space indicate missing imagery or a lack of satellite coverage.<\/h5>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Chuck Stearns, principal investigator of the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/uwamrc.ssec.wisc.edu\/aws\/\">AWS<\/a>\u00a0and AMRC projects, provided background for a film on Robert F. Scott\u2019s tragic journey to the South Pole. October Films, London, borrowed a tape, \u201cWorking in Antarctica,\u201d produced by NSF that contains footage of the Automatic Weather Station program. The film will be shown in January on Channel Four in England and on PBS in the U.S. as \u201cTragedy at the Pole.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ian Frazier\u2019s article on Arctic and Antarctic icebergs appears in\u00a0<em>Outside<\/em>\u00a0magazine\u2019s 25th anniversary issue, October 2002. Frazier interviewed SSEC staff in UW\u2013Madison\u2019s AWS and AMRC projects for background on Antarctica. The feature article stresses human interest and confuses the presence of icebergs with global warming.<\/p>\n<p>The January issue of\u00a0<em>National Geographic Kids<\/em>\u00a0will include an article about emperor penguins with background on Ross Sea icebergs. SSEC\u2019s AMRC has monitored the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/uwamrc.ssec.wisc.edu\/amrc\/iceberg.html\">icebergs<\/a>\u00a0since B-15 calved in March 2000. Information from the Iceberg FAQ was used.To access the FAQ, click on Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) on the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/uwamrc.ssec.wisc.edu\/amrc\/iceberg.html\">icebergs<\/a>page.<a name=\"data\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h2><em>Data and Imagery<\/em><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/software\/mcidas.html\"><strong>McIDAS<\/strong><\/a><strong>\u00a0users meet<\/strong>\u2014The annual McIDAS\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/mug\/\">Users Group<\/a>\u00a0Meeting is scheduled for October 9\u201310 at Union South in Madison. Users of SSEC\u2019s McIDAS (Man computer Interactive Data Access System) will arrive from around the world to share information and concerns. Some users will speak briefly about their site and the work they are doing with McIDAS, which is used for weather forecasting and research and imagery analysis of all sorts. Among those attending are Fred Mosher, with the National Weather Service\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/aviationweather.gov\/\">Aviation Weather Center<\/a>\u00a0in Kansas City; Louis Nguyen of NASA\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.larc.nasa.gov\/\">Langley Research Center<\/a>; Brian Hughes of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.oso.noaa.gov\/\">Satellite Operations<\/a>\u00a0in NOAA\u2019s World Weather Building near Washington, D.C.; James Kelly of Australia\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bom.gov.au\/bmrc\/\">Bureau of Meteorology Research Centre<\/a>; and Marianne K\u00f6nig of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.eumetsat.de\/\">Eumetsat<\/a>\u00a0in Germany.<\/p>\n<p><strong>David Kuck,<\/strong>\u00a0teacher in Sheboygan, Wisconsin\u2019s Urban Middle School, uses the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/data\/comp\/latest_cmoll.gif\">global montage<\/a>\u00a0and the movies based on them to demonstrate how temperatures change around the world. Kuck doesn\u2019t have a Web site; he shows the images on a screen with an LCD projector and says they \u201care of tremendous help.\u201d For example, \u201cwatching the cloud patterns over the Andes indicates the wet and dry side of mountains while also indicating what zone the clouds are in.\u201d Kuck said that he uses the images from the CIMSS \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/tropic\/tropic.html\">Tropical Cyclones<\/a>\u00a0page to indicate to students where hurricanes start forming.\u201d Besides using the imagery in class, he also shares it with parents who have Internet access, so they&#8217;re always tuned into his earth science classes.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Craig Dremann<\/strong>\u00a0is an ecologist using the SSEC\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/data\/comp\/latest_cmoll.gif\">global montage<\/a>\u00a0as the opener on his browser. He recommends it in his article appearing in Brazil\u2019s\u00a0<em>The Ecologist<\/em>\u00a0magazine for fall 2002. The article is written in Portuguese. Note that the image Dremann used sometimes experiences problems, and a better page to publish may be the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/data\/composites.html\">Composites<\/a>page, with a wealth of different satellite composite imagery.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dlese.org\/\"><strong>DLESE<\/strong><\/a>\u2014The Digital Library for Earth System Education has included SSEC\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/data\/\">Images and Data<\/a>\u00a0Web page in the library\u2019s Broad Collection. The library, a collection of resources for earth system teachers, is divided into Broad and Reviewed collections. Any member of the \u201cDLESE Community\u201d can nominate a Web site or other educational resource for the broad collection, while items in the reviewed collection must meet certain criteria, including scientific accuracy, pedagogical effectiveness, and ease of use. SSEC has been invited to submit our Web page for review, and we have done that. If it passes review, it will be included in the DLESE Discovery System.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ersc.wisc.edu\/research\/sloi\/modisserver\/\"><strong>MODIS Served<\/strong><\/a>\u2014Thanks to SSEC\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/eosdb.ssec.wisc.edu\/modisdirect\/\">Direct Broadcast<\/a>\u00a0facility, UW\u2013Madison\u2019s Environmental Remote Sensing Center (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ersc.wisc.edu\/home\/home.htm\">ERSC<\/a>) is serving daily MODIS images of Wisconsin. ERSC director Thomas Lillesand announced October 3 that their MODIS Web site was up and running. \u201cERSC is in the same building as SSEC, so it was natural for us to think to serve the data to the people of Wisconsin,\u201d Lillesand said. ERSC\u2019s MODIS Server developers acknowledge the help of Liam Gumley, broadcast facility manager. ERSC enhances the images to focus on land features, not clouds.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/visit\/AniS\/\"><strong>AniS<\/strong><\/a>\u2014<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/HLN\/\">CNN Headline News<\/a>\u00a0used a Java applet developed at SSEC to show the progress of Tropical Storm Isidore on September 25. The applet, called AniS, is developed by SSEC\u2019s Tom Whittaker to animate images and is based in the work done for\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/visitview\/\">VISIT<\/a>, a National Weather Service training program for weather forecasters. AniS and other SSEC software is available on the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/software\/\">Web<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>An image from the\u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.noao.edu\/wiyn\/\">WIYN<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0telescope was featured in\u00a0<em>Wisconsin Research: Profiles in Discovery,<\/em>\u00a0published in September by University Communications for UW\u2013Madison\u2019s Graduate School. SSEC designed and fabricated the control system for the telescope, built and run by a consortium of universities (Wisconsin, Indiana, Yale) and the National Optical Astronomical Observatories. The image shows a galaxy in the constellation Cygnus.<a name=\"neutrinos\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h2><em>Neutrino News<\/em><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/icecube.wisc.edu\/pub_and_doc\/conferences\/NeSS_Sep2002\/karle_ness_astrocosmo.pdf\"><strong>Neutrino 2002 report<\/strong><\/a>\u2014\u201cIceCube\u2014the next generation neutrino telescope at the South Pole\u201d was presented at the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/neutrino2002.ph.tum.de\/\">20th International Conference<\/a>\u00a0on Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics held May 25\u201330, 2002 in Munich, Germany. Professor Albrecht Karle, of UW\u2013Madison\u2019s Department of Physics, submitted the report on behalf of the many members of the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/icecube.wisc.edu\/\">IceCube<\/a>\u00a0collaboration, scientists from around the world. Karle stated that recent progress in simulations is based primarily on Henrike Wissing\u2019s work at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www-zeuthen.desy.de\/main\/html\/home\/\">DESY<\/a>\u00a0in Zeuthen, Germany. He notes that improved analysis methods were used to obtain quantitative results on the sensitivity of IceCube at energies above one PeV (one million times a billion electron Volts) for particles entering the telescope from above. \u201cNeutrinos are the only subatomic particles able to transit the entire earth to enter the detector from below, whereas millions of cosmic ray particles enter from above, enabling us to calibrate the detector,\u201d explained project scientist Robert Morse. This increased sensitivity is a big step forward, because it shows that IceCube can operate efficiently at high energies as an all-sky neutrino telescope. Science institutions around the world are involved in\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/amanda.physics.wisc.edu\/\">AMANDA<\/a>, the Antarctic Muon and Neutrino Detector Array, the first neutrino telescope to be based in polar ice, and IceCube, its much larger extension. The complete list of participating institutions is available on the Web and in the report.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.exploratorium.edu\/origins\/antarctica\/tools\/amanda-main.html\"><strong>Exploratorium features AMANDA<\/strong><\/a>\u2014San Francisco\u2019s premier science museum features AMANDA on its Origins Web site. The site presents interactive activities and essays on AMANDA, including an essay by Francis Halzen, AMANDA scientist and principal investigator for IceCube.<\/p>\n<h2><em><a name=\"fires\"><\/a>Tracking Fires<\/em><\/h2>\n<p><strong>Monitoring fires in Southeast Asia<\/strong>\u2014The National Weather Service\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.oar.noaa.gov\/organization\/backgrounders03\/ia.html\">International Activities Office<\/a>\u00a0has asked the SSEC group monitoring fires with geostationary weather satellites to propose adapting their technique to work with a GOES satellite to be positioned over Asia. Up to now, the Wildfire Automated Biomass Burning Algorithm (<a href=\"http:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/goes\/burn\/wfabba.html\">WF-ABBA<\/a>) has been used with GOES-8 and -10 satellites. The GOES-9 instrument will be placed over the equator at 155\u00b0 E. The proposal supports the Program to Address ASEAN (Association of South East Asia Nations) Regional Transboundary Smoke (PARTS). The primary user of the fire product will be the ASEAN Specialized Meteorological Center (ASMC) in Singapore. The Wildfire ABBA will provide an overview of the diurnal fire cycle and will augment current fire products produced from NOAA and U.S. Air Force polar orbiting weather satellites. This activity will also be used to prepare for future geostationary fire detection throughout the region with the launch of the Japanese Multi-functional Transport SATellite in 2003.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/goes\/burn\/wfabba.html\">Western wildfires<\/a><\/strong>\u2014The CIMSS\/NOAA wildfire detection technique (WF-ABBA) is featured in\u00a0<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.uwalumni.com\/onwisconsin\/\">On Wisconsin<\/a><\/em>\u00a0magazine, fall 2002. The article notes that the technique went \u201conline in the midst of one of the country\u2019s worst fire seasons.\u201d It had been tested for years and new technology made operational use possible this year. In the last sentence, editors mistakenly attributed a variety of applications to the team who monitors fires. In reality, the entire\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/\">Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies<\/a>\u00a0develops a variety of applications for the GOES and other satellites.<a name=\"cyclones\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h2><em>Tropical Cyclones<\/em><\/h2>\n<table cellpadding=\"5\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2013\/07\/oct.2002tlLili.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3902\" alt=\"oct.2002tlLili\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2013\/07\/oct.2002tlLili.jpg\" width=\"350\" height=\"270\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2013\/07\/oct.2002tlLili.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2013\/07\/oct.2002tlLili-300x231.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td valign=\"center\">\n<h5>This MODIS image shows Hurricane Lili in the Gulf of Mexico on October 2 at 1640 UTC. Its exact location is 25.3S 89.4W. The 250 m resolution image was received at SSEC&#8217;s Direct Broadcast Facility.<\/h5>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/tropic\/tropic.html\"><strong>Hurricane Research<\/strong><\/a>\u2014On September 25,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.news.wisc.edu\/ucomm\/\">University Communications<\/a>\u2019 Emily Carlson released SSEC imagery showing Hurricane Isidore approaching landfall on the U.S. Gulf of Mexico coast. She noted that the CIMSS Tropical Cyclones group monitors hurricanes throughout the season and that the techniques it develops are used by the U.S. Navy, the National Hurricane Center and other agencies to continually update their ability to track hurricanes. CIMSS researcher Tim Olander talked with WIBA news director Josh Wescott about CIMSS\u2019 long history (since 1980) of tropical cyclone research. His interview appeared on WIBA 1310-AM throughout Thursday afternoon.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.badgerherald.com\/\"><em>The Badger Herald<\/em><\/a>, a UW\u2013Madison student newspaper, featured the hurricane research on September 30.<\/p>\n<table cellpadding=\"5\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2013\/07\/oct.2002ltl-izzi.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3900\" alt=\"oct.2002ltl-izzi\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2013\/07\/oct.2002ltl-izzi.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"333\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2013\/07\/oct.2002ltl-izzi.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2013\/07\/oct.2002ltl-izzi-270x300.jpg 270w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td valign=\"center\">\n<h5>This image of Tropical Storm Isidore was received by SSEC\u2019s Direct Broadcast Facility on September 20. It appeared on NASA\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/earthobservatory.nasa.gov\/Newsroom\/NewImages\/images.php3?img_id=10767\">Earth Observatory<\/a>\u00a0Web page and on the home page of the Goddard Space Flight Center\u2019s Web site on September 23. Isidore changed from Tropical Storm to Hurricane and back as it hit landfall in Louisiana and Alabama, dumping inches of rain along the way.<\/h5>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>In an August 18 article on the tenth anniversary of Hurricane Andrew, the\u00a0<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jsonline.com\/\">Milwaukee Journal Sentinel<\/a><\/em>\u00a0featured an image produced by the CIMSS Tropical Cyclones group. It was attributed to the Associated Press.<a name=\"experts\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h2><em>Weather Experts<\/em><\/h2>\n<p><strong>Weather Guys<\/strong>\u00a0Steve Ackerman (CIMSS director and AOS) and Jonathan Martin (AOS) appeared again on Larry Meiller\u2019s Monday morning WHA Radio call-in show. On September 30, they answered questions about climate, local weather and the impending winter. Ackerman said that this El Ni\u00f1o will not have as strong an influence on this Wisconsin\u2019s winter as did the last El Ni\u00f1o; he expects us to have almost as much snow as normal, at least enough for cross-country skiing. His remarks were caught by WPR\u2019s Melva Lara for the Wisconsin segment of\u00a0<em>All Things Considered<\/em>. The Weather Guys generally appear on WHA the last Monday of every month from 11:45 to 12:30. In south and central Wisconsin, you can listen at 970 AM and 90.7 FM, or listen from anywhere on the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.wpr.org\/webcasting\/\">Web<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>El Ni\u00f1o information<\/strong>\u2014SSEC scientist David Martin provided information on the impending El Ni\u00f1o for the German magazine\u00a0<em>Max<\/em>. He agreed with groups like the U.S.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov\/products\/analysis_monitoring\/lanina\/\">Climate Prediction Center<\/a>\u00a0that an El Ni\u00f1o has begun. He noted that, thus far, it seems to be one of the weaker ones.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/newtexts.com\/newtexts\/book.cfm?book_id=919\"><strong>New book<\/strong><\/a>\u2014Steve Ackerman\u2019s book, \u201cMeteorology &#8211; Understanding the Atmosphere,\u201d was mentioned in\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.news.wisc.edu\/view.html?id=7811\"><em>Wisconsin Week<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>Wisconsin Week Wire<\/em>\u00a0(September 18). Ackerman co-authored the book, published by Brooks\/Cole-Thomson, with John Knox, professor and scientist at the University of Georgia.<a name=\"research\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h2><em>Weather Research<\/em><\/h2>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/goes\/realtime\/grtmain.html#ctop\">How high the cloud?<\/a><\/strong>\u2014When GOES-12, NOAA\u2019s newest and most advanced geostationary weather satellite, comes into routine use, it will be possible to more accurately measure the height of volcanic dust clouds. These clouds of dust, ash and gas can extend as high as 40,000 feet (12 km), as high as jetliners fly, but previous satellites could not accurately measure that directly. The channel used on the satellite imaging instrument was at 11 microns, in the infrared, or a \u201cwindow\u201d channel, making it necessary to make statistical assumptions about the cloud. Sometimes this led to a false reading; the cloud was thought to be warmer and lower in the atmosphere than it was. The imaging instrument on GOES-12 has a channel that allows the effects of carbon dioxide to be measured directly, making it possible to infer the height of the volcanic dust cloud. SSEC has developed a technique, called CO2\u00a0Slicing, that enables measurements to be directly used for determining the height of a cloud.<\/p>\n<table cellpadding=\"5\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2013\/07\/oct.2002CO2_volc_dust_big.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-3899\" alt=\"oct.2002CO2_volc_dust_big\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2013\/07\/oct.2002CO2_volc_dust_big.gif\" width=\"460\" height=\"345\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td valign=\"center\">\n<h5>Click on this image for a larger version of cloud-top height measurements. White is highest in the atmosphere, green lowest.<\/h5>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Tony Schreiner (of SSEC\u2019s CIMSS) applied that technique to the Popocatepetl volcano (19.01\u00b0 N and 98.37\u00b0 W) in Mexico. For the eruption on January 23, 2001, Schreiner based cloud-height measurements on radiance measurements from the GOES-8 Sounder (the GOES-12 Imager was not operational at the time). Using reports from the Volcanic Ash Advisory Center (VAAC) in Washington, D.C. describing the location of the Popocatepetl volcano dust cloud, Schreiner tracked the height for eight time periods on January 23. With researchers Tim Schmit (NOAA, at SSEC) and Gary Ellrod (NOAA), he found the top of the cloud to be between 400 and 200 hPa (roughly 25,000 to 40,000 feet). The VAAC height estimate was about 200 hPa (about 40,000 feet).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/goes\/abs\/simulation.html#AIRS\"><strong>Using AIRS data<\/strong><\/a>\u2014Now that the high vertical resolution data of the Atmospheric InfraRed Sounder (AIRS) instrument is available to researchers, they are using it to simulate instruments that are being developed. AIRS was launched this spring on NASA\u2019s Aqua satellite, the latest in the Earth Observing System. CIMSS researchers Fengying Sun and Mat Gunshor are using AIRS data to simulate spectral coverage of the future Hyperspectral Environmental Sounder (HES). Animations of the AIRS bands can be seen on the CIMSS\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/goes\/goesmain.html#sndrinfo\">Web<\/a>\u00a0page.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/goes\/abs\/simulation.html#AIRS\">The habits of clouds<\/a><\/strong>\u2014It is now possible to simulate the effects of ice cloud particle shapes and sizes on satellite observations, as shown in \u201cParameterization of short-wave ice cloud optical properties for various particle habits,\u201d to be published in the\u00a0<em>Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres<\/em>. Authors are J. Key (NOAA team leader at SSEC), P. Yang (Texas A&amp;M University), B. Baum (NASA\u2019s Langley Research Center, stationed at SSEC), and S. Nasiri (SSEC\u2019s CIMSS). The authors present in a new way the short-wave optical properties of various ice particle \u201chabits\u201d including hollow and solid columns, aggregates, plates, bullet rosettes, and dendrites.<a name=\"education\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h2><em>Education, Outreach<\/em><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/media\/wsgc-desig.html\"><strong>WSGC status<\/strong><\/a>\u2014According to a University Communications News Brief published September 16, NASA has announced designated status for the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium. \u201cDesignated\u201d status confers additional budget and program responsibilities. The Green Bay-based group will have its budget roughly doubled. Member colleges and universities, including UW\u2013Madison, benefit through research grants to students and faculty. Tom Achtor, SSEC\u2019s Executive Director for Science and WSGC\u2019s Associate Director for Research stated that research support would increase by two to three times. Sanjay Limaye, UW\u2013Madison institutional representative to the WSGC, cautioned that funds have not yet been received in Wisconsin and that nothing much will change until NASA\u2019s budget is approved. The award was also noted in<em>Wisconsin Week Wire<\/em>\u00a0for September 18 and\u00a0<em>Wisconsin Week<\/em>.<a name=\"wings\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h2><em>In the Wings<\/em><\/h2>\n<p>Elaine Prins gives the public lecture at Space Place, 1605 South Park Street on October 8. Prins directs the CIMSS group who develops computer techniques that use the GOES satellite to monitor fires from space. She will present the group\u2019s research along with many examples.<\/p>\n<p>According to University Communications\u2019\u00a0<em>News Briefs<\/em>\u00a0for September 12, Francis Halzen will give the campus Roundtable lunch talk on October 16. Physics professor Halzen is principal investigator for the IceCube project and will discuss \u201cIce Fishing for Neutrinos at the South Pole.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>in the News &#8211; October 2002<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3901,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3898","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\/3898","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=3898"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4347,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3898\/revisions\/4347"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}