GSD Researchers Contribute to New Book "Meteorological Air Quality Models for Urban Areas"

Global Systems Division CIRES researchers, Georg Grell and Steve Peckham have coauthored a section in this new book that is now available through Springer  publishing.  The section is titled, On-Line Chemistry Within WRF: Description and Evaluation of a State-of-the-Art Multiscale Air Quality and Weather Prediction Model, authors Georg Grell, Jerome Fast, William I. Gustafson Jr, Steven E. Peckham,Stuart McKeen, Marc Salzmann, and Saulo Freitas.

This book is one of the first attempts to give an overall look at such integrated meso-meteorology and chemistry modelling approaches. It reviews the current situation with the on-line and off-line coupling of mesoscale meteorological and ACT models worldwide as well as discusses advantages and shortcomings, best practices, and gives recommendations for on-line and off-line coupling of NWP and ACT models, implementation strategy for different feedback mechanisms, direct and indirect effects of aerosols and advanced interfaces between both types of models. The book is oriented towards numerical weather prediction and air quality modelling communities.

Three NOAA Scientists Named CIRES Fellows

 

CIRES has named three NOAA scientists as new members of its Council of Fellows: Stan Benjamin (Global Systems Division of the Earth System Research Laboratory), Steve Montzka (Global Monitoring Division), and Judith Perlwitz (Physical Sciences Division). The Council constitutes the “Board of Directors” and chief governing body of CIRES. It is comprised of individuals with an outstanding record of achievement and expertise in diverse areas of environmental sciences.

ESRL's Ryan Neely Wins AGU Award

Ryan Neely of ESRL's Global Monitoring Division (third from left, above) has won an Outstanding Student Paper award for his presentation at the 2010 American Geophysical Union fall conference in San Francisco. "Congratulations!  Your presentation was recognized as among the best of a strong group of student presenters, which sets an example for your fellow students and the entire AGU membership," wrote AGU's Kara Smedley. Award winners will be highlighted in an upcoming issue of Eos.

Stratospheric Water Vapor Increases

Water vapor in the atmosphere is responsible for a significant portion of the greenhouse effect, and even small changes in the upper troposphere or lower stratosphere can have a large effect on climate. A new analysis of balloon-borne water vapor measurements using frost point hygrometers over Boulder, Colorado, shows that stratospheric water vapor has increased over the past 30 years. Hurst et al. in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres break the long measurement record into four discrete time periods and determined the water vapor trends in each period for five 2-kilometer-thick stratospheric layers 16 km to 26 km above the ground. They find that, on average, stratospheric water vapor increased by about 1 part per million by volume (27 percent) over the past 30 years, though there were many shorter-term variations in the record. Water vapor levels increased during 1980 to 1989 and 1990 to 2000, decreased from 2001 to 2005, and then increased again after 2005. The authors find that, at most, 30 percent of the observed water vapor increases can be attributed to greater amounts of methane oxidation in the stratosphere. The 2001 to 2005 decrease in midlatitude water vapor has been linked to observations of anomalously low tropopause temperatures in the tropics, but, to date, no connection between the observed water vapor increases and tropical tropopause temperatures has been found despite ongoing efforts. doi:10.1029/2010JD015065.

Federal Labs Injected $1.5B into Colorado

The federal laboratories in Colorado and affiliates contributed $1.5 billion to the state economy in 2010, and accounted for more than 16,000 direct and indirect jobs, a new survey shows. More: http://www.colorado.edu/news/r/513d7fb4f20e77d20751022f117aa71b.html

Arctic Ozone Thins

Unusually chilly temperatures in part of the Arctic atmosphere and iridescent ice clouds there are triggering significant depletion of the protective ozone layer, according to recent, ongoing observations by NOAA scientists and international colleagues. Full Story.

Mapping the Japanese Tsunami

This tsunami map from NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory is today's featured "Picture of the Day" on Science360 news service.