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TIIMES Staff in the News
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FY-2008 Science Reports:1 October 2007 - 30 September 2008 |
FY-07 Science Rpts:1 Oct 2006 - 30 Sept 2007 |
FY-06 Science Rpts:1 Oct 2005 - 30 Sept 2006 |
2009 |
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NCAR: World's Rivers Shrinking - Freshwater sources dwindle due to climate changeby Randloph E. Schmid, Associated Press, printed in the Daily Camera
An analysis of 925 major rivers from 1948 to 2004 showed an overall decline in total discharge. The reduction in inflow to the Pacific Ocean alone was about equal to shutting off the Mississippi River, according to the new study appearing in the May 15 edition of the American Meteorological Society's Journal of Climate. The only area showing a significant increase in flow was the Arctic, where warming conditions are increasing the snow and ice melt, said researchers led by Aiguo Dai of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder. "Freshwater resources will likely decline in the coming decades over many densely populated areas at mid- to low latitudes, largely due to climate changes, Dai said. "Rapid disappearing mountain glaciers in the Tibetan plateau and other places will make matters worse." Added co-author Kevin Trenberth, "As climate change inevitably continues in coming decades, we are likely to see greater impacts on many rivers and water resources that society has come to rely on."...more As World Warms, Water Levels Dropping in Major RiversNSF Press Release Rivers in some of the world's most populous regions are losing water, according to a comprehensive study of global stream flows. The research, led by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo., suggests that the reduced flows in many cases are associated with climate change, and could potentially threaten future supplies of food and water. The results will be published May 15 in the American Meteorological Society's Journal of Climate. The research was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), NCAR's sponsor. "The distribution of the world's fresh water, already an important topic," says Cliff Jacobs of NSF's Division of Atmospheric Sciences, "will occupy front and center stage for years to come in developing adaptation strategies to a changing climate." The scientists, who examined stream flows from 1948 to 2004, found significant changes in about one-third of the world's largest rivers. Of those, rivers with decreased flow outnumbered those with increased flow by a ratio of about 2.5 to 1...more Other News Coverage: |
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Saving the Oceans: 'Mission Possible'by Daniel Glick, Daily Climate |
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NCAR Forecasts Will Help Xcel Energy Harness WindWilliam Mahoney, Ned Patton, Tom Warner... BOULDER—The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) has reached an agreement with Xcel Energy to provide highly detailed, localized weather forecasts to enable the utility to better integrate electricity generated from wind into the power grid. The forecasts will help operators make critical decisions about powering down traditional coal- and natural gas-fired plants when sufficient winds are predicted, allowing the utility to increase reliance on alternative energy while still meeting the needs of its customers. The U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will support the project by developing mathematical formulas to calculate the amount of energy that turbines generate when winds blow at various speeds...more
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OCB Ocean Acidificaiton White PaperJoanie Kleypas & Richard Feely (NOAA) | by nisumaa EPOCA Ocean acidification is a high priority research topic identified by OCB. The far-reaching effects of ocean acidification on marine biogeochemical cycles and biology, combined with the increasing interest in the topic both nationally and internationally, prompted the OCB-SSC to recommend the formation of an Ocean Acidification Subcommittee. The Subcommittee is being co-chaired by Joan Kleypas (NCAR) and Richard Feely (NOAA/PMEL). With approval from the OCB-SSC, the Ocean Acidification subcommittee members were invited from the U.S. community of researchers. The collective expertise of the Subcommittee encompasses the broad spectrum of topics relevant to ocean acidification...more |
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Scientists Take off on Historic Mission to Measure Greenhouse Gases That Have an Impact on ClimateBritt Stephens & Steven Wofsy (Harvard) - NSF Press Release
Starting Jan. 7, 2009, the HIAPER Pole-to-Pole Observations (HIPPO) mission will cover more than 24,000 miles as an international team of scientists makes a series of five flights over the next three years sampling the atmosphere in some of the most inaccessible regions of the world. The goal of the mission is ambitious--the first-ever, global, real-time sampling of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses across a wide range of altitudes in the atmosphere, literally from pole-to-pole...more NSF Coverage: Additional Articles: |
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Forecasting advance tipped as lifesaverDave Parsons - THORPEX Millions of lives could be saved from natural disasters around the world by the biggest revolution in weather forecasting since the introduction of computers. Weather forecasters from all corners of the globe, including New Zealand, are joining forces to push back the prediction limits of severe weather such as tropical cyclones, thunderstorms and tornadoes, torrential rain, heatwaves and heavy snow. Extreme weather cannot be forecast accurately beyond two or three days at present but the 10-year Thorpex (The Observing System Research and Predictability Experiment) study is effectively thumbing its nose at that....more |
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Scientists set out to debunk cloud seeding mythRoy Rasmussen Some might try to blame this week's snowy weather on a cloud seeding program underway in Wyoming. But the scientists running the project say let's wait til the results are in. They're doing the nation's only scientific study on whether cloud seeding increases snowfall and in the process, they hope to banish some misconceptions about seeding the clouds. Wyoming Public Radio's Addie Goss reports...Time will tell whether this seeding project will actually increase snow pack. Roy Rasmussen at NCAR is one of the scientists looking into that question. He says it's hard to tease apart the effect of cloud seeding from natural changes in weather. For example, did the project cause some of this week's snowfall? Or was the snow just heavy on its own?...more |
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Modeling turbulence far from stormsStan Trier & Bob Sharman Several red-eye commercial flights were rocked by moderate to severe turbulence as they flew across northeast Kansas early on June 17, 2005. Thunderstorms cause at least 20% of aircraft encounters with turbulence at cruising altitudes. In this case, however, the thunderstorms responsible for the turbulence were located in Oklahoma, hundreds of miles south of the bumpy flights. The graphic below shows the storm complex and the flight paths, with orange and red segments denoting moderate to severe turbulence. A new study by Stan Trier (ESSL/MMM) and Bob Sharman (RAL) uses modeling to connect the Oklahoma storms with the Kansas turbulence. The link involves strong upper-level winds that blow anticyclonically outward from mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) like the one in Oklahoma. Strong vertical wind shear that supports turbulence production occurs on the north side of the MCS, where its anticyclonic outflow is unopposed by the prevailing upper-level westeries...more |
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2008 Outstanding Publication Award:
Congratulations to BRITT STEPHENS & BGS!
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2008 UCAR Mentoring Award: Congratulations to CHRIS DAVISAwards for mentoring efforts that have influenced and motivated numerous graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and junior scientists. |
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Science and Education in KenyaSherri Heck Sponsored by: NCAR Directorate and Diversity Initiative, EOL, ESSL, Africa Initiative, TIIMES and Biogeosciences, UCAR Education and Outreach Division and GLOBE. Overall Goals and Objectives The project’s overarching goals are to provide valuable scientific data, promote technological transfer and help NCAR meet its diversity and education goals. By focusing on underrepresented people in terms of the education and outreach (E&O) and under-sampled areas in terms of the carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration data (these two areas often coincide), the project is providing invaluable data to the science community and bolstering science education in areas that would have most likely otherwise been ignored. It is vital to not only further educate students so as to motivate them to continue with their education and therefore improve a country’s science literacy; it is also important to fill in the key gaps of CO2 concentration data so that a more representative picture of regional to global CO2 concentration and flux distribution can be determined...more |
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Climate change expert to discuss grim global warming predictionsKevin Trenberth October 28, 2008 On the day Americans elect a new president, one of the nation's leading climate change experts will speak at the University of Houston and outline the daunting global warming challenges awaiting the next administration. ...more |
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FY-2008 |
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When pine bark beetles kill trees, scientists believe they may also alter local weather patterns and air quality:Alex Guenther September 24, 2008 (from NSF) Pine bark beetles appear to be doing more than killing large swaths of forests in the Rocky Mountains. Scientists suspect they are also altering local weather patterns and air quality. A new international field project, led by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo., is exploring how trees and other vegetation influence rainfall, temperatures, smog and other aspects of the atmosphere. Plants take in and emit chemicals that affect the air, and they also absorb varying amounts of incoming heat from the sun. When portions of a forest die, the local atmosphere can change in subtle ways. "Forests help control the atmosphere, and there's a big difference between the impacts of a living forest and a dead forest," says NCAR scientist Alex Guenther, a principal investigator on the project. "With a dead forest, we may get different rainfall patterns, for example."...more
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NCAR model shows decrease in global dust by 2100Natalie Mahowald September 12, 2008 One of the first global-scale simulations of dust and climate from preindustrial times to the year 2100 projects a worldwide decrease in airborne dust of 20–63% by the end of this century. The computer model studies show less wind, more moisture, and enhanced vegetation in desert areas as carbon dioxide increases over the next century, keeping more of the world’s dust on the ground. Coauthor Natalie Mahowald of the National Center for Atmospheric Research presented the results this week at the American Geophysical Union’s annual meeting in San Francisco. "Reductions in global dust levels could have a profound impact on future climate predictions," says Mahowald. Dust helps to lower global temperature by reflecting sunlight, as well as by depositing iron in the ocean and thus fertilizing marine organisms that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. ...more |
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Field Project Seeks Clues to Climate Change in Remote Atmospheric RegionLaura Pan & START--08 June 12, 2008
Findings from the project, based at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo., will be used by researchers worldwide to improve computer models of global climate in preparation for the next report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The project, which continues through this month, is known as START 08 (Stratosphere-Troposphere Analyses of Regional Transport). It focuses on a remote part of the atmosphere called the tropopause, which ranges in altitude from approximately 32,000 to 56,000 feet. Scientists are increasingly interested in the tropopause because of both its importance in the global climate system and the buildup of greenhouse gases has altered this atmospheric region in ways that are not yet understood. "This region of the atmosphere is the weak link in climate research," explains NCAR scientist Laura Pan, a principal investigator on the project. "In order to understand climate change, you need to have accurate computer models of the planet. In order to have accurate models, you need to understand what's going on in the tropopause."...more Additional Articles: |
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Carbon Dioxide EmissionsSOS (14 April 2008) One in a new generation of computer climate models that include the effects of Earth's carbon cycle indicates there are limits to the planet's ability to absorb increased emissions of carbon dioxide. If current production of carbon from fossil fuels continues unabated, by the end of the century the land and oceans will be less able to take up carbon than they are today, the model indicates...more |
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Nineteen researchers selected as 2008 Leopold Leadership FellowsLeopold Leadership Program (19 March 2008) Based at Stanford University's Woods Institute for the Environment, the Leopold Leadership Program was founded in 1998 and is funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Each year the program selects up to 20 mid-career academic environmental scientists as fellows, who receive intensive communication and leadership training to help them deliver scientific information more effectively to journalists, policymakers, business leaders and the public. One of the 19 includes Joan Kleypas, scientist II, Institute for the Study of Society and Environment, National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Research: ocean acidification and the effects of climate change on coral reefs....more |
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Climate Change Threatens Native LivelihoodsKUNC 91.5 Public News Room by Kirk Siegler interview with Beth Holland (25 March 2008) Public opinion polls in the United States continue to show significant skepticism that global warming is happening. Some scientists believe that's because, for the most part, our lives have yet to change much. A group of scientists and Native American leaders meeting in Boulder this month sought ways to change this perception. KUNC's Kirk Siegler reports...more (mp3 direct link)
Bridging divides at climate change symposiumIndian Country Today by Carol Berry (31 March 2008) BOULDER, Colo. - Scientists and American Indian tribal leaders met March 20 to bridge cultural and technical divides in an effort to combat global warming and to forge a Western/indigenous approach to other hazards facing planet Earth and its inhabitants...more |
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Rit Carbone: the newest member of the AMS Executive CommitteeCongratulations to Dr. Carbone for being elected a member of the AMS Executive Committee The American Meteorological Society (AMS) promotes the development and dissemination of information and education on the atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic sciences and the advancement of their professional applications. Founded in 1919, AMS has a membership of more than 11,000 professionals, professors, students, and weather enthusiasts. AMS publishes nine atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic journals — in print and online — sponsors more than 12 conferences annually, and offers numerous programs and services. The Executive Committee is the executive arm of the Council (the principal governing body). The Committee meets as often as necessary and is empowered to interpret and execute Council policies when the Council is not in session to ensure that reasonable actions are taken to accomplish the purposes of the Society - scientific, fiscal, and organizational. It is composed of six past AMS Presidents and two rotating positions. Dr. Carbone has been appointed until 2010. |
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David Parsons: new Chief of the World Weather Research Programme - THORPEXDr. Parsons has been appointed the new Chief of the World Weather Research Programme (WWRP) - THORPEX (THe Observing System Research and Predictability EXperiment). He also retains his head of the North American THORPEX Regional Inititative program. The program is overseen by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). WMO is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) . It is the UN system's authoritative voice on the state and behaviour of the Earth's atmosphere, its interaction with the oceans, the climate it produces and the resulting distribution of water resources. As weather, climate and the water cycle know no national boundaries, international cooperation at a global scale is essential for the development of meteorology and operational hydrology as well as to reap the benefits from their application. WMO provides the framework for such international cooperation. The World Weather Research Programme's mission is to develop improved and cost effective forecasting techniques, with emphasis on high impact weather and to promote their application among Member States. THORPEX, an element of the WMO WWRP, is a major contribution to the WMO Natural Disaster Reduction and Mitigation Programme. Under the auspices of THORPEX, regional and global projects and experiments will be carried out to:
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Click here for other News in FY-2008 |
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The flow of water in the world's largest rivers has declined over the past half-century, with significant changes found in about a third of the big rivers and a 14 percent decrease in the Columbia in the Pacific Northwest, according to new research by Boulder scientists.
HIAPER, one of the nation's most advanced research aircraft, is scheduled to embark on an historic mission spanning the globe from the Arctic to the Antarctic.
Health Standards Exceeded by Ozone Pollution in Wildfires: Pollution in Wildfires
Plants Make Own Painkillers
Scientists Test System to Forecast Flash Floods along Colorado's Front Range
Scientists are deploying an advanced research aircraft to study a region of the atmosphere that influences climate change by affecting the amount of solar heat that reaches Earth's surface.
UTLS: START-08 campaign - updated 23 June 2008 
