Regional and Mesoscale Meteorology Branch

Severe Storms (Weaver, Lindsey, Dostalek, Grasso, Bikos, Coleman)

A project is currently underway to establish a climatology of “reflective” signatures on thunderstorm anvils. Regions of ice clouds above thunderstorms occasionally have warmer 3.9 µm brightness temperatures, suggesting the presence of relatively small ice particles. This project will utilize the CIRA cloud climatology archive and will search 2-hourly daytime GOES imagery in order to establish a diurnal, seasonal, or geographical trend in reflective storm tops.

An article titled, “Heavy Snowfall in the Midst of a Drought” by J.F. Weaver appears in the Fall 2004 issue of the CIRA news magazine. A PDF version of the magazine can be found at:

http://www.cira.colostate.edu/newsletter/fall2004.pdf

An article titled, “Central Colorado’s Severe Downslope Windstorms” by J.F. Weaver was written for the Colorado Climate Center’s semi-annual magazine, Colorado Climate, and is currently in press.

Work is ongoing with analyzing cases where satellite imagery was key in showing returning moisture prior to a severe convective event. The case study data have been collected, we are now in the analysis and write-up phase. The results of this study will be documented in both VISIT training and as a possible submission to Weather and Forecasting.

All severe weather related, web-based VISIT teletraining sessions now have audio versions available (see VISIT category)

A new CIRA research associate, Kimberly Mueller, has joined the RAMM team. Her interests are in tropical meteorology. During her first month, she was involved in the study of the wind structure of tropical cyclones using infrared satellite data. She is currently running independent tests on some 2004 imagery, comparing the results to climatology, and working on a paper to publish her findings. In the study, infrared satellite data are used to provide estimates of the symmetric and total wind fields in a tropical cyclone. Estimates are constructed from predictions of an azimuthally-averaged radius of maximum wind (RMAX), a symmetric tangential wind speed at a radius of 182 km (V182), and a storm motion vector. The algorithms were derived using IR data from 91 tropical systems in the Atlantic and East Pacific ocean basins during the 1995-2003 hurricane seasons. The scheme was independently tested on IR data from seven tropical storms and hurricanes which occurred during the 2004 season. Aircraft reconnaissance measured RMAX and V182 are used as dependent variables in a multiple linear regression technique. Estimates of RMAX and V182 exhibit a root mean square error (RMSE) of 39.9 km and 8.7 kt respectively, for each of 406 twelve-hour analysis periods in 91 separate systems. A modified combined Rankine vortex model is used to predict the one dimensional symmetric tangential wind field in each case, resulting in a RMSE of 10.2 kt for the retrieved symmetric winds. A best track storm motion vector is incorporated into the analysis in order to produce estimates of the total symmetric plus asymmetric wind field. By directly adding the motion vector, the two-dimensional wind field RMSE error improves from 15.5 kt to 13.4 kt. Figure 1 shows an example of resulting wind fields.

Figure 1. Aircraft measured symmetric tangential wind field (upper right) and the total aircraft measured wind field (upper left), along with the analogous IR derived symmetric tangential wind field (lower right) and the total IR derived wind field (lower left). This example is from Hurricane Fabian at 00:00 UTC on 6 September 2003.   Click on images to enlarge.

Code which converts Global Forecast System (GFS) model analyses from grib format to a packed ASCII format running on a NESDIS operational computer has been updated. In particular, a directory switch was performed and a compiler issue resolved. The packed ASCII format of the GFS data is used in subsequent programs for tropical cyclone research, and is one of the final steps in the transition of the experimental tropical cyclone genesis parameter to NESDIS operations.

A paper entitled “An Operational Statistical Typhoon Intensity Prediction Scheme for the Western North Pacific” discussing the development and operational performance (July 2003-October 2004) of the Statistical Typhoon Intensity Prediction Scheme was written, submitted, and revised for Weather and Forecasting.

A project to expand the STIPS model formulation to the Southern Hemisphere and North Indian Ocean, funded by the Office of Naval Research, is entering the transition to operations phase. Models for each basin have been developed. Dependent results are similar to the original STIPS model developed for the western North Pacific, which currently produces the only skillful intensity guidance for this basin. The model code is being ported to the Automated Tropical Cyclone Forecast (ATCF) system at NRL, Monterey with the help of C. Sampson. Once the code has been successfully ported to the ATCF, the transition to JTWC operations will occur with the annual update of ATCF in spring 2005.

A manuscript entitled “ A note on the influences of vertical wind shear on symmetric tropical cyclone structure derived from AMSU” was published in the October 2004 issue of Monthly Weather Review (pages 2503-2510). The paper discusses composite analyses that show as vertical wind shear increases the hurricane’s warm core structure and associated winds become shallower.

A paper describing modifications to the inland decay model (Kaplan and DeMaria 1995, 2001) has been submitted to the Journal of Applied Meteorology. The model is used in both the Statistical Hurricane Intensity Prediction, and the Statistical Typhoon Intensity Schemes to account for the landfall effects. The current model over-estimates the amount of inland decay for storms moving over narrow land masses. To rectify this problem the inland decay is weighted by the fraction of land that is within a specified radius of the tropical cyclone center. The idea is to develop a version of the model that improves the island wind decay, while not degrading results for other cases. For this work, islands are considered landfalls in which the storm emerges back over the ocean in less than 48 hours, continent cases are those storms that made landfall and stayed inland for 48 hours or more. It was found that both and island decay can be improved using the fractional land approach. By using historical data we found that the root mean square errors as a function of the radius of influence are minimized near 110 km (or about 1 degree of latitude/ twice the climatological radius of maximum wind for a typical hurricane) for the inland, continental, and total sample (Fig. 2). Figure 3 provides an example of the differences that occur between the two decay formulations when applied to SHIPS forecasts of Hurricane Gilbert (1988), which made three landfalls during the time series.

Figure 2. The mean absolute error of the modified decay model as a function of storm circulation (R s) radius for the island, continent and total samples.

Figure 3. The best track maximum winds and the predictions by the new and old versions of the decay model for six days of Hurricane Gilbert beginning at 12 UTC on 12 September 1988.

A paper entitled “ Effects of Environmental Vertical Wind Shear and Storm Motion on Tropical Cyclone Rainfall Asymmetries Deduced from TRMM” by M. Lonfat, S. Chen, J.A. Knaff, and F. Marks was submitted to the Journal of Atmospheric Science for review. The paper discusses the asymmetries of tropical cyclone rainfall with respect to motion and the 200 to 850 hPa vertical wind shear. Results show that the effects of storm motion and vertical wind shear combine to explain much of the storm-to-storm variability of rainfall asymmetries. It is hoped that the relationships will improve both forecasting and modeling of tropical cyclone related rainfall.

Collection of datasets necessary for the creation of satellite tropical cyclone wind fields has been automated. The collection of cloud drift winds (GOES-E and GOES-W), Quikscat wind fields, and IR imagery is triggered by the advisory information available from the Automated Tropical Cyclone Forecast (ATCF) system at both the National Hurricane Center and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center. Four km Mercator remaps of IR imagery come from GOES 9, 10, 12, and Meteosat 5 and 7, while Quikscat output are obtained from NESDIS MCIDAS servers. The collection of AMSU based wind retrievals and GOES cloud track winds will be accomplished next quarter. This process will also automate the collection of IR imagery in the CIRA/NESDIS tropical cyclone IR archive. Efforts continue to obtain a real-time feed of SSMI surface wind estimates.

The process of collecting real-time water vapor imagery for the GOES-based, PSDI-funded tropical cyclone formation product has been automated on the machines at CIRA and at NESDIS/SSD. Data are 16km Mercator remaps of the GOES-12, full disk imagery. This has enabled the transition of this product to SSD pre-operations for testing.

Two papers (“The tropical rainfall potential (TRaP) techniques, Parts I and II”) have been accepted for publication in Weather and Forecasting.

An article titled, “Heavy Snowfall in the Midst of a Drought” by J.F. Weaver appears in the Fall 2004 issue of the CIRA news magazine. A PDF version of the magazine can be found at:

http://www.cira.colostate.edu/newsletter/fall2004.pdf  

J. Weaver and D. Bikos completed the production of a new, two-part VISIT teletraining session titled, “Utilizing GOES Imagery within AWIPS to Forecast Winter Storms.” The material covers several ways that satellite data can be utilized to more accurately define synoptic systems. It also looks at such sub-synoptic forecasting problems as; 1) identifying mesoscale regions of extratropical cyclones locally favorable for heavy snow, 2) identifying places where mesoscale banding, or deformation, is occurring, 3) helping to clarify the problem of snow versus liquid precipitation, and several others. Seven case studies from various regions around the CONUS are used to illustrate various principles. The session has been presented to several forecast offices.

Atmospheric profiles from the ATOVS [Advanced-TOVS (Tiros Operational Vertical Sounder)] data were used to analyze a mid-latitude cyclone which occurred over the eastern North Pacific on 19 December 2002. Temperature and moisture profiles from three NOAA-16 passes near 00 UTC were combined and gridded over the storm and its immediate environment. The hydrostatic equation was then integrated downwards from 100 hPa, giving the height of various pressure levels, as well as the surface pressure. The 100 hPa heights from the NOGAPS analysis were used as a boundary condition. Figure 1 shows the surface pressure (black) and 950 mb potential temperature (red) plotted on top of a GOES-10 10.7 μm image of the system. For comparison, the 00:00 UTC NCEP analysis for 19 December 2002 is also shown in Figure 2. The central pressure of the southeastern lobe of the low as derived from the ATOVS data was 986 hPa, NCEP analyzed a 984 hPa low. The northwestern lobe as measure by the ATOVS technique and as analyzed by NCEP were 989 hPa and 986 hPa, respectively. The low’s accompanying cold and warm fronts were also captured by the ATOVS data, and line up well with the cloud field as seen on the satellite image.

Figure 1. GOES-10 10.7 μm image from 00 UTC 19 December 2002 overlaid with surface pressure (black, mb) and 950 hPa potential temperature (red, K) derived using ATOVS data from NOAA-16.  Click on images to enlarge

Figure 2. 00:00 UTC 19 December 2002 analysis from NCEP.

A case study of a polar low has been chosen for the GOES-R and NPOESS Risk Reduction database. The rare summertime event occurred on 15 August 2004 off the northwest coast of Norway. Visible and Infrared loops from AVHRR and a variety of MODIS bands from Terra and Aqua can be found on the GOES-R study database at:

http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm /KFIntranet/GOES-R_IPO/GOESR_IPO_case_study_database.html

Additionally, a fog event from California’s central valley and Hurricane Isabel have been added to the case study database.

A polar-orbiting satellite version of the RAMSDIS-type systems featuring geostationary data, has been developed, tested, and moved to the CIRA weather laboratory for use in daily weather discussions. The system has been set up with both AVHRR (worldwide) and MODIS (both direct readout and granule) data, utilizing the infrared window and water vapor bands to show the types of image products that are possible. Projections over North America and the entire world are standard, as well as the North and South Poles, as those areas are frequently viewed by polar-orbiting passes from NOAA-15, 16, and 17, and EOS-Terra and Aqua. Floater sectors are also available for looking at specific regions of the earth. It is possible to change the spectral bands being displayed for any of the displayed products. Eventually some of the products will be available on RAMSDIS Online for users outside of CIRA.

The new Polar RAMSDIS system can be used to display MODIS imagery for user-selected areas. An example image was shown at the RAMMB satellite briefing on 3 November (Figure. 1). This particular image is a 250-m resolution Terra visible view of the recent snow over the Texas panhandle. Notice the snow-free Palo Duro Canyon located just southeast of the Amarillo metro area.

Figure 1. Terra MODIS 250-meter resolution visible image from 1800 UTC on 3 November 2004 over the Texas panhandle. The snow-free Palo Duro Canyon southeast of the Amarillo metro area is evident.  Click on images to enlarge.

A request was sent out by the Ecosystems Team for examples of NESDIS satellite-derived products that may be of use in ecosystem research and applications. The following PowerPoint slides were prepared and forwarded as examples from the RAMM Team.

Figure 2. Three-color analysis of dust in west-central Great Plains – 18 April 2004. Analysis utilizes multi-band differencing techniques of MODIS imagery. During springtime in the U.S., large areas of surface-borne dust can arise during cold front passages. This dust not only affects surface heating, but can be a significant atmospheric pollutant/contaminant, and is an indication of low surface moisture and vegetation.

Figure 3. Two different three-color analyses of dust in west-central Great Plains – 18 April 2004. Analysis utilizes multi-band differencing techniques of proposed GOES-R infrared bands currently available (but at lower spatial resolution) on AIRS.

Figure 4. Three-color analysis of volcanic ash in Ecuador – 4 November 2004. Analysis utilizes multi-band differencing techniques of MODIS imagery. Volcanoes are known to eject ash and dangerous gasses, SO2 and other sulfur compounds, into the atmosphere. These contaminants can travel long distances and are sometimes hard to detect, but can cause significant damage to aircraft operations and affect the environment far from the source of the problem.   Click on images to enlarge.

Figure 5. Two different three-color analyses of volcanic ash in Ecuador – 4 November 2004. Analysis utilizes multi-band differencing techniques of proposed GOES-R infrared bands currently available (but at lower spatial resolution) on AIRS.

Figure 6. Example of the monthly cloud frequency imagery derived by temperature threshold (273 K) from hourly infrared 10.7 μm image for May – August, 1998-2003 over Central America. Cloud frequency is an important component that affects the energy budget of an ecosystem. It reflects precipitation patterns and topographic influences across a region.  Click on images to enlarge.

The following two images show a smart analysis of MODIS multi-band imagery for detecting fog, for a central valley of California case (19 November 2004, 2115 UTC). The first image was trained to discriminate between fog, snow-capped mountains, and surrounding land, as seen by various band combinations using Principal Component Image analysis; and, as a result, this product does a good job of discriminating between these features. The second image was similarly trained to detect variations in the fog deck in particular. Those variations may be due to either the fog thickness or the particle size distribution with in the fog, neither of which is known without ground-truth data.

Figure 7. False-color image of fog in the central valley of California (19 Nov 2004, 2115 UTC), produced from MODIS multi-band imagery by Principal Component Image analysis and further training to discriminate between fog, snow, and land.

Figure 8. Same as previous, but trained to detect variations in the fog deck, presumably due to either fog thickness variations or changes in the particle size distribution within the fog. Note the high-spatial resolution color changes across the fog deck, as well as the general change in characteristics of the fog from north to south.

D. Hillger attended the first meeting of the GOES-R Cal/Val Steering Committee on 13 September 2004 in Silver Springs MD. The main/initial recommendation from the meeting was that a single NOAA person be given the responsibility for GOES-R calibration now that M. Weinreb has retired from NOAA.

Processing of the large sector U.S. climatologies continues on schedule. Products completed include monthly large sector composites for September, October and November, 2004.

Processing of wind regime products is on schedule. Monthly wind regime composites from both channel 1 and channel 4 for August, September and October 2004 have been completed. Seven year, monthly combined products have also been completed for these months and channels.

During this past quarter, we began testing a new 64-bit cluster in parallel mode. Several challenges were overcome with the result that we are now running three simulations with up to 20 Gb of RAM per simulation. This has allowed simulations of relatively large regions with 2 km horizontal grid spacing, which is similar to the footprint of the GOESR-ABI channels. Similarly, regions as large as eastern Kansas have been simulated with grid spacings of 400 m–similar to the footprint of the polar orbiting VIIRS instrument.

The VISIT team continued its collaboration with more than a dozen NWS forecast offices in the development of a Winter Weather teletraining session. The new session is approximately 3-hr long (taught in two parts) and covers numerous winter weather topics from regions all across the continental United States. Thus far, the supporting offices include New York City, NY, St. Louis, MO, Denver/Boulder, CO, Riverton, WY, Medford, OR, Tulsa, OK,

J. Weaver, D. Lindsey and D. Bikos traveled to Boulder, CO on Monday, November 1 to meet with COMET staff on the topic of the inclusion of satellite data in Weather Event Simulator (WES) cases. COMET is where the national WES data base is located. WES cases are short studies of interesting weather events put together by NWS Science and Operations Officers from AWIPS data. The cases are submitted, along with talking points, to COMET. COMET then produces a finished WES case that can be played back in displaced real time on the WES. NWS forecasters are required to go through at least two cases per year. Since WES cases have been generally light on satellite, the CIRA team has agreed to review the satellite content of each new WES case, and to supply supplementary data/information as required, before the material is made available to the field.

John Weaver and Dan Bikos visited with Robert Glancy at the National Weather Service office in Boulder. The purpose of the visit was to go over a new VISIT teletraining session on utilizing satellite data in the forecast process. Valuable critique was offered and will be incorporated into the session in time for the beta-test, which will be scheduled soon.

The manuscript entitled, “Microscale Aspects of Rainfall Patterns as Measured by a Local Volunteer Network” by N. Doesken, J.F. Weaver and M. Osecky has been accepted by National Weather Digest contingent on a number of revisions. N. Doesken ( Colorado Climate Center) continues to work on reviewer suggestions.

An article titled, “Central Colorado’s Severe Downslope Windstorms” by J. F. Weaver was written for the Colorado Climate Center’s semi-annual magazine, Colorado Climate. The article is currently in press.

Brazil Project:

Nothing New to Report This Quarter.

Japanese Interaction:

A draft of a manuscript describing a method to reduce AMSU tropical cyclone wind estimates from 850 hPa to the surface is nearly complete. The paper also describes an evaluation of the 3-D AMSU wind retrieval method. This is a collaboration project with JMA/MRI.

MITCH Reconstruction Project:

Nothing New to Report This Quarter.

RMTC Project:

GOES-8 imageryfor September through November 2004 were processed for the Regional Meteorological Training Centers (RMTCs) in Costa Rica and Barbados. The archives are being used to look at cloud frequency during the rainy and dry seasons, and to detect local variations from year to year. The monthly cloud frequency composites for September – November 1997-2004 determined from the 10.7 μm temperature threshold technique for Costa Rica is presented in Figure 1. Click on images to enlarge.

Figure 1. Monthly cloud frequency composites for September -November 1997-2004 by 10.7 μm temperature threshold technique for Costa Rica.

A comparison of cloud frequency derived by temperature threshold of 10.7 μm imagery for September – November 1998 – 2004 for Barbados is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Comparison of cloud frequency derived by temperature threshold of 10.7 μm imagery for September – November of 1998 – 2004 for Barbados.

The archived imagery also provides access to examples for use in satellite focused training efforts.

The following web pages continue to provide on-line imagery in jpg format over Central and South America and the Caribbean:

http://www.cira.colostate.edu/RAMM/rmsdsol/RMTC.html

http://www.cira.colostate.edu/RAMM/rmsdsol/COS.html (for imagery over Costa Rica and Barbados)

SICA Project:

The project officially ended on December 31, 2001, but a web page displaying satellite precipitation estimates and fire products continues to operate:

http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/sica/main.html

The site continues to be useful as a backup for the imagery when the server in Costa Rica goes down.

The RAMMB web page is currently being migrated to a new server at:

http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/

The server, which is based on DELL PowerEdge 2650, has already been configured. Specifications are as follows: 3.0 GHz, FSB Xeon, 2 processors, 1GB DDR SDRAM, 200 GB 10K RPM Ultra 320 SCSI HD, 1 G bit NIC, MS Windows 2003 Server. The setup is a three months temporary installation in the CIRA Server room. The procurement of a new rack is underway, and once purchased and setup, it will be the permanent host for the Web Server. During the transition, various parts of the site will be updated to reflect new information, and the code making up the pages will be streamlined to meet or exceed current web standards.  The effort is being undertaken by D. Molenar, H. Gosden, D. Watson, K. Micke, K. Fryer, and K. Jekel, with new content for the site being provided by all members of the RAMMB.

Biographies have been received from all CoRP employees, and will be incorporated into the updated CoRP and RAMM pages.

WES 3.3 is now installed on a LINUX workstation. WES cases will be analyzed that are developed from COMET in order to add/enhance satellite related discussion to the student guide before they are made available to NWS offices.

Final specifications for requirements of a CIRA “baby AWIPS” system have been sent to Northrup Grumman. The all-Linux release of OB5 in February of 05 and the transition to the less expensive DVBs NOAAPORT system should result in a significant decrease in the cost of the system.

The satellite data servers in NESDIS are being updated, and to reflect the changes, the satellite data ingest/retrieval processes were modified on the RAMSDIS systems. The changes were implemented on the HRD, TAE, and some of the CIRA RAMSDIS systems. One product created on the satellite server (the combined water-vapor product) will be removed; therefore a set of new algorithms will be implemented on the individual RAMSDIS systems.

RAMSDIS Online Setup Guide – A guide to help users setup their own online server was added to RAMSDIS Online. This guide describes how to set up the Javascript looper used in ROL to view animated loops on the web. The guide will be added as a resource tool for WMO sites associated with the Virtual Lab for Satellite Training and Data Utilization (VL).

A new RH WS Linux system has been configured, and WES 3.3 has been installed on the system to help the VISIT staff keep training material in current NWS presentation format.

During this quarter 28 VISIT teletraining sessions were delivered; 514 students from 185 NWS offices participated.

J. Weaver and D. Bikos completed the production of a new, two-part VISIT teletraining session titled, “Utilizing GOES Imagery within AWIPS to Forecast Winter Storms.” The material covers several ways that satellite data can be utilized to better define synoptic systems. It also looks at such sub-synoptic forecasting problems as; 1) identifying mesoscale regions of extratropical cyclones locally favorable for heavy snow, 2) identifying places where mesoscale banding, or deformation, is occurring, 3) helping to clarify the problem of snow versus liquid precipitation, and several others. Seven case studies from various regions around the CONUS are used to illustrate various principals. The session has been presented to several forecast offices. See:

http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/visit/winter.html

The following table shows a breakdown of the metrics for each VISIT teletraining session valid April 1999 – December 10, 2004. For a complete list and description of each VISIT session see this web-page:

http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/visit/ts.html

A training certificate of completion is sent out to VISIT teletraining participants who have returned their student evaluation forms. The following graph shows the total number of certificates issued since we began in April 1999. As of December 14, the total is 14,377 certificates.

Web versions of most VISIT sessions can be found at the following addresses:

Boundary Detection:  http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/visit/boundaries1/title.asp

CONUS Cloud to Ground Lightning Climatology:   http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/visit/lightning/title.asp

Convective Initiation by Low-Level Boundaries:  http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/visit/lessons/bndry2/viewmaster.html

Cyclogenesis:  http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/visit/cyclo/title.asp

Detecting Boundaries:  http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/visit/boundaries1/title.asp

Elevated Mesoscale Ascent:  http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/visit/ascent/title.asp

GOES enhancements/color tables in AWIPS:  http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/visit/istpds/awips/awips_1.html

Lake-effect snow I (basic):  http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/visit/les/title.asp

Lake-effect snow II (intermediate/advanced):  http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/visit/les2/title.asp

Lightning Meteorology I:  http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/visit/ltgmet1/01_title.asp

Lightning Meteorology II:  http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/visit/ltgmet2/title.asp

Mesoscale Analyses and Techniques:  http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/visit/mesoana/title.asp

Mesoscale Anal. of Conv. Wx. using GOES RSO:  http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/visit/newrso/title.asp

NDIC:  http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/visit/ndic/title.asp

Rapid Scan Operations:  http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/visit/rso/title.asp

Tropical Satellite Imagery and Products:  http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/visit/tropical/title.asp

QuikSCAT:  http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/visit/qscat/title.asp

Pre-recorded audio versions of a number of VISIT training sessions are now available on the web. The downloadable files can be found by going to the list of teletraining sessions at:

http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/visit/ts.html

then selecting from titles that have small, microphone-shaped icons preceding the listing. Each link leads to a page that provides instructions for various aspects of participation in VISIT training, including instructions for downloading audio versions.

A new system has been configured to replace the old Pasiphae. The operating system has been upgraded to RH WS and PGI FORTRAN 5.2. This has caused several problems with software license access and code compilation. The IDL and PGI licenses now utilize the CIRA license server instead of the old static licenses. Once the old Pasiphae hardware has been repaired, it will be configured as a mirror for Pasiphae and Ulysses to prevent future interruptions like those caused with this crash.

RAMM Team’s network infrastructure upgrade to gigabit speeds has been completed, making file transfers over the network 10 times faster than before. The upgrades were completed by D. Molenar, H. Gosden, D. Watson, and K. Micke.

Web-formatted biographical sketches were completed by all RAMMB employees. Further discussion is required with ORA to finalize the locations of these bios. The RAMMB preference is to host them on the RAMMB page which is on a local CIRA computer. This will facilitate updates of the pages, and the use of links to master copies of employees’ publication lists.

M. DeMaria was appointed as an associate editor for Monthly Weather Review for a one-year term. The primary duties are to review a few extra papers and help to make decisions on manuscripts with conflicting reviews, with emphasis on articles concerning tropical cyclones.

he newly acquired HP Color Laser Jet 4600n is printing unwanted color “spots” in its printouts. A troubleshooting of the problem revealed a discoloring of the ETB belt. A service call to the HP Customer Representative resulted in a replacement of the ETB belt, which was still under warranty.

A plan to migrate from the HP system Helene has been developed. New hardware and software have been ordered.

A new system has been ordered for Dan Lindsey, RAMM Team’s newest federal employee.

Visitors:

Meetings, Conferences, Workshops:

D. Hillger gave a seminar on “Metric Transition in the U.S.: Where we are and where we are headed”. The talk was originally given to groups in Colorado but was suggested by F. Holt as appropriate for NESDIS/ORA scientists, especially with the imbedded humor and details that scientists generally don’t know about the metric status of the U.S. Attendance and feedback from the seminar was very positive.

Several RAMMB members attended the AMS satellite conference in Norfolk, VA, 20-23 September 2004.

J. Dostalek attended The First THORPEX International Science Symposium in Montreal, Canada.  There were around 200 participants from 30 countries. From its mission statement, THORPEX (THe Observing system Research and Predictability EXperiment) is “an international research program to accelerate improvements in the accuracy of 1 to 14 day weather forecasts for the benefit of society and the economy.”  At the symposium, J. Dostalek presented a poster entitled “Analysis of Mid-latitude Cyclones and Fronts Using ATOVS Soundings.” 

AMS: American Meteorological Society

AMSU: Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit

AWIPS: Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System

CAMEX: Convection and Moisture Experiment

CG: Cloud to Ground

CIMSS: Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies

CIRA: Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere

COMET: Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology, Education, and Training

CONUS: Continental U.S.

CoRP: Cooperative Research Programs

CSU: Colorado State University

EUMETSAT: European Meteorological Satellite

FEMA: Federal Emergency Management Agency

FTP: File Transfer Protocol

GIMPAP: Goes I-M Product Assurance Plan

GOES: Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite

HRD: Hurricane Research Division

IR: Infrared

JHT: Joint Hurricane Transition

LAPS: Local Analysis and Prediction System

LES: Lake-Effect Snow

McIDAS: Man Computer Interactive Data Access System

MODIS: Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer

NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NCAR: National Center for Atmospheric Research

NDIC: Natural Disaster Information Cards

NESDIS: National Environmental Satellite Data Information Service

NHC: National Hurricane Center

NIDS: NEXRAD Information Dissemination Service

NOAA: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

NWS: National Weather Service

NWSFO: National Weather Service Forecast Office

OM: Office of Meteorology

ORA: Office of Research and Applications

PACJET: Pacific Landfalling Jets Experiment

POES: Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite

POP: Product Oversight Panel

RAMMT: Regional and Mesoscale Meteorology Team

RAMS: Regional Atmospheric Modeling System

RAMSDIS: Regional and Mesoscale Meteorology Team Advanced Meteorological Satellite
Demonstration and Interpretation System

RMTC: Regional Meteorological Training Center

ROL: RAMSDIS Online

SAB: Satellite Applications Branch

SHIPS: Statistical Hurricane Intensity Prediction Scheme

STIPS: Statistical Typhoon Intensity Prediction Scheme

SOCC: Satellite Operations Control Center

SOO: Science Operations Officer

SRSO/RSO: Super Rapid Scan Operation/Rapid Scan Operation

STAR: Office of Satellite Research and Development

STEPS: Severe Thunderstorm Electrification and Preciptation Study

TPC: Tropical Prediction Center

USWRP: United States Weather Research Program

UTC: Universal Time Coordinated

VISIT: Virtual Institute for Satellite Integration Training

WMO: World Meteorological Organization

WV: Water Vapor