Academic literature on the topic 'National Center for Atmospheric Research (U.S.)'

AbstractThe purpose of this study is to identify characterize and quantify local, regional and remote effects of snow cover on western U. S. climate and water resources. An ensemble of predictability and sensitivity studies was made with the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Community Climate Model, version 3 (CCM3) to investigate the relative roles of snow-cover anomalies and initial atmospheric states in the subsequent accumulation and ablation seasons. The suite of model experiments focuses on the direct effect of snow on regional climate anomalies and ultimately will be used to examine the lagged effect of anomalous snow cover on the climate. The set of ensemble simulations presented here looks at the climate-system response to anomalously high and low snow cover at the start of the ablation season over the western U.S.A. These current results suggest that the initial state of snow cover is more important than the initial state of the atmosphere or of sea-surface temperatures because of direct thermal effects on the surface and subsequent indirect, dynamical effects on the atmospheric circulation.

ABSTRACT During oil spill incidents involving damaged tankers, the amount of product released may be uncertain. Many accidents occur under adverse conditions, so determining the volume lost by sounding the tanks may not be practical. In the first few hours, initial volume estimates often are based on visual observations of the resulting slick, a notoriously unreliable approach. Oils that have special characteristics, such as group V oils and Orimulsion®, that may or may not result in a surface slick, further complicate this problem. The Hazardous Materials Response Division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA/HAZMAT) has developed a leaking tank module for its oil weathering software, ADIOS2. Because the present version of the model is not designed for heavy oils, NOAA/HAZMAT is undertaking a series of model-scale tests using releases of canola oil and Orimulsion®. These tests are an extension of leaking tank experiments done earlier for NOAA and for the U. S. Coast Guard, and are part of a joint research program by NOAA/HAZMAT and the U.S. Coast Guard Research and Development Center on the behavior of heavy oil products. This paper describes these tests and their possible application to new spill release models.

AbstractThe National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) operates a state-of-the-art S-band dual-polarization Doppler radar (S-Pol) for the National Science Foundation (NSF). This radar has some similar and some distinguishing characteristics to the National Weather Service (NWS) operational Weather Surveillance Radar-1988 Doppler Polarimetric (WSR-88DP). One key difference is that the WSR-88DP is used for operational purposes where rapid 360° volumetric scanning is required to monitor rapid changes in storm characteristics for nowcasting and issuing severe storm warnings. Since S-Pol is used to support the NSF research community, it usually scans at much slower rates than operational radars. This results in higher resolution and higher data quality suitable for many research studies. An important difference between S-Pol and the WSR-88DP is S-Pol’s ability to use customized scan strategies including scanning on vertical surfaces ([range–height indicators (RHIs)], which are presently not done by WSR-88DPs. RHIs provide high-resolution microphysical structures of convective storms, which are central to many research studies. Another important difference is that the WSR-88DP simultaneously transmits horizontal (H) and vertical (V) polarized pulses. In contrast, S-Pol typically transmits alternating H and V pulses, which results in not only higher data quality for research but also allows for the cross-polar signal to be measured. The cross-polar signal provides estimates of the linear depolarization ratio (LDR) and the co- to cross-correlation coefficient that give additional microphysical information. This paper presents plots and interpretations of high-quality, high-resolution polarimetric data that demonstrate the value of S-Pol’s polarimetric measurements for atmospheric research.

AbstractThis study presents a new approach for hurricane wind direction retrieval utilizing rainband streaks contained in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images without hurricane eye information, based on the hurricane inflow angle. To calculate the wind direction field, a method for estimating the location of the hurricane center is given. In this paper, four Sentinel-1A (S-1A) images with a hurricane eye are used to clarify the center estimation method. Three S-1A SAR images without a hurricane eye are studied to evaluate the accuracy of the new method. The estimated locations of hurricane centers show good agreement with hurricane track data provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) Hurricane Research Division (HRD), HurricaneCity, and the National Institute of Informatics (NII). To validate the estimated wind directions, the NOAA HRD dropwindsonde observations for Tropical Storm Karl are collected and compared. The wind directions retrieved by our approach are more consistent with visual inspection than the fast Fourier transform (FFT) method in subimages. Moreover, the retrieved wind speeds utilizing C-band model 5.N (CMOD5.N) are compared with wind speed estimations observed by Stepped Frequency Microwave Radiometer (SFMR). The results suggest that the proposed method has good potential to retrieve hurricane wind direction from SAR images without a hurricane eye and external data.

Abstract To design X-band radar systems as well as evaluate algorithm development, it is useful to have simultaneous X-band observation with and without the impact of path attenuation. One way to develop that dataset is through theoretical models. This paper presents a methodology to generate realistic range profiles of radar variables at attenuating frequencies, such as X band, for rain medium. Fundamental microphysical properties of precipitation, namely, size and shape distribution information, are used to generate realistic profiles of X band starting with S-band observation. Conditioning the simulation from S band maintains the natural distribution of rainfall microphysical parameters. Data from the Colorado State University’s University of Chicago–Illinois State Water Survey (CHILL) radar and the National Center for Atmospheric Research S-band dual-polarization Doppler radar (S-POL) are used to simulate X-band radar variables. Three procedures to simulate the radar variables and sample applications are presented.

The 19th International Conference on Chemical Thermodynamics (ICCT-19) took place as part of THERMO International 2006, together with the 16th Symposium on Thermophysical Properties and the 61st Calorimetry Conference, from 30 July to 4 August 2006 at the University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA. Dr. W. M. Haynes was President of the Executive Board of THERMO International 2006, and Drs. M. Frenkel, R. D. Chirico, and J. W. Magee were the organizers of ICCT. Overall, 768 speakers submitted the abstracts of their presentations, including about 30 students and 11 exhibitors, from 62 countries (235 from North America, 341 from Europe, 76 from Japan, and 33 from China). About 65 % of the participants were from academia and 15 % from industry, with 20 % from governmental and international organizations.These individual conferences have an overlap of areas of interest, but this was the first time that they have been held jointly at the same site. This provided a unique opportunity for researchers and practitioners worldwide to meet and discuss a broad range of scientific problems in the fields of thermodynamics and thermophysical properties for a wide variety of systems, with applications in chemistry and other scientific and engineering disciplines.After the official opening ceremony, there was an invited keynote presentation by Prof. W. A. Wakeham from the University of Southampton, Southampton, UK, entitled "Thermophysical property measurements: The journey from accuracy to fitness for purpose". The Rossini Award lecture was given by Prof. A. Navrotsky on "Calorimetry of nanoparticles, surfaces, interfaces, thin films, and multilayers".The ICCT program consisted of nine symposia, some of which were held jointly with the other conferences. The plenary lecturers and invited speakers in these symposia, and the titles of the plenary lectures, were as follows:Electrolyte and Non-Electrolyte Solution Thermodynamics: J. M. Prausnitz (plenary), "Some promising frontiers in the thermodynamics of protein solutions"; C. G. Panayiotou, P. R. Tremaine, and T. Kimura (invited)Ionic Liquids: K. Seddon (plenary); "The mark of an educated mind"; L. P. N. Rebelo and C. J. Peters (invited)Molecular Modelling, Including Simulation: D. Evans (plenary), "The fluctuation and non-equilibrium free energy theorems: Theory and experiment"; H. Tanaka, J. Errington, and A. Klamt (invited)Thermochemistry and Molecular Energetics: J. A. de Sousa Martinho Simões (plenary), "Energetics of free radicals: Bridges between gas-phase and solution data"; W. E. Acree, Jr. and J. S. Chickos (invited)Thermodynamics and Properties in the Biological, Medical, Pharmaceutical, Agricultural, and Food Sectors: P. L. Privalov (plenary), "Thermodynamic problems in structural molecular biology"; J. M. Sanchez-Ruiz and H. H. Klump (invited)Databases, Data Systems, Software Applications, and Correlations: M. Satyro (plenary), "Life, data and everything"; R. L. Rowley and R. Sass (invited)Phase Equilibrium, Supercritical Fluids, and Separation Technologies: S. Sandler (plenary), "Computational quantum mechanics: An under-utilized tool for applied thermodynamics"; L. F. Vega and R. P. Danner (invited)Colloid and Interface Science: L. Piculell (plenary), "Controlling structure in associating polymer-surfactant mixtures"; H. K. Yan and K. Lohner (invited)New Materials: V. K. Pecharsky (plenary), "Structure, mechanism, and thermodynamics of novel rare-earth-based inter-metallic materials"; C. Staudt-Bickel and J. Pons (invited)The plenary lectures, with the exception of the lecture by Prof. K. Seddon, are published in this issue.There were workshops on New Experimental Techniques, with Profs. C. Schick and J. P. M. Trusler as invited speakers, on Properties and Processes for a Hydrogen-Based Economy, where Prof. C. J. Peters was the invited speaker, and on Thermodynamic Frontiers and Education, with Profs. R. N. Lichtenthaler and R. Battino as invited speakers.In addition, there was a workshop on the Thermodynamic Properties of Hydration (with Prof. V. Majer as invited speaker), software demonstrations, and two afternoon poster sessions, with over 400 posters. The sessions were held in the well-appointed Stadium Club, against the beautiful backdrop of the Flatirons to the west and the plains stretching across to the east. IUPAC had donated three poster prizes, a framed certificate signed by IUPAC President Brian Henry, a copy of the IUPAC "Gold Book" and a two-year subscription to Chemistry International. These were awarded to Martinez-Herrera Melchor (Mexico), Lisa Ott (USA), and Isabel Marrucho (Spain).Doctorate awards were presented by the International Association of Chemical Thermodynamics (IACT), with sponsorship from Elsevier. The four recipients were M. Fulem (Prague, Czech Republic), Y. U. Paulechka (Minsk, Belarus), E. Asabina (Nizhni Novgorod, Russian Federation), and J. Xu (Trondheim, Norway). They each received a certificate, plus a cash prize of $500, and presented their papers at the conference.All the lectures demonstrated how chemical thermodynamics is making, and will continue to make, very significant contributions to the rapidly developing interdisciplinary fields such as the life sciences, new materials, medicine and pharmacy, new energy resources, the environment, separation technologies, agriculture, green chemistry, and so on. These are all extremely important issues for scientists worldwide, and particularly for those who are in developing or economically disadvantaged countries. The opportunity for face-to-face discussion and communication with scientists from developed countries was a great benefit, which will lead to further research and improved education.The weather was most pleasant for the conference. This, together with the attractive setting of the campus, the welcoming reception, the conference banquet at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and the high standard of the presentations, made this a memorable conference. In addition, there was a full program of tours for accompanying persons, which included a visit to the mile-high city (Denver). Our thanks are extended to the Conference Chair and Co-chairs, and to all members of the local Organizing Committee, the members of the International Advisory Committee, and the members of the International Scientific Committee. We are most grateful to IUPAC, the International Association of Chemical Thermodynamics, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Elsevier, Honeywell, and Mettler Toledo for sponsoring THERMO International 2006.Thermodynamics will continue to be an important area of research for many years to come, with a wide range of applications from chemical engineering to the biosciences. We look forward to the presentation and discussion of the results of further advances in chemical thermodynamics at the next ICCT, which will take place in Warsaw, Poland in August 2008.John H. DymondConference Editor

This report summarizes presentations and discussions that occurred at a workshop held in conjunction with the XIXth General Assembly of the European Geophysical Society (EGS) from 22 to 24 April 1994. The purpose of this workshop was to define the state of the art of micrometeorological flux measurements, to identify problem areas, and to define any additional data that must be taken to solve these problems. This workshop was organized in response to a proposal made at the 1993 EGS conference by T. Foken, T. Delany (National Center for Atmospheric Research), S. Oncley, and L. Tsvang (Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Russia) for a new experiment to investigate the problem of the “unclosed” energy balance. Sixty-one scientists from 14 countries participated in the workshop.

Abstract The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)’s Arctic Radiation-IceBridge Sea and Ice Experiment (ARISE) acquired unique aircraft data on atmospheric radiation and sea ice properties during the critical late summer to autumn sea ice minimum and commencement of refreezing. The C-130 aircraft flew 15 missions over the Beaufort Sea between 4 and 24 September 2014. ARISE deployed a shortwave and longwave broadband radiometer (BBR) system from the Naval Research Laboratory; a Solar Spectral Flux Radiometer (SSFR) from the University of Colorado Boulder; the Spectrometer for Sky-Scanning, Sun-Tracking Atmospheric Research (4STAR) from the NASA Ames Research Center; cloud microprobes from the NASA Langley Research Center; and the Land, Vegetation and Ice Sensor (LVIS) laser altimeter system from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. These instruments sampled the radiant energy exchange between clouds and a variety of sea ice scenarios, including prior to and after refreezing began. The most critical and unique aspect of ARISE mission planning was to coordinate the flight tracks with NASA Cloud and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) satellite sensor observations in such a way that satellite sensor angular dependence models and derived top-of-atmosphere fluxes could be validated against the aircraft data over large gridbox domains of order 100–200 km. This was accomplished over open ocean, over the marginal ice zone (MIZ), and over a region of heavy sea ice concentration, in cloudy and clear skies. ARISE data will be valuable to the community for providing better interpretation of satellite energy budget measurements in the Arctic and for process studies involving ice–cloud–atmosphere energy exchange during the sea ice transition period.

Mamoru Tobisu received his PhD from Osaka University under the direction of Prof. Shinji Murai (2001). During his PhD studies, he was a visiting scientist (1999) with Prof. Gregory C. Fu at MIT. Following a period as a scientist at the Takeda Pharmaceutical Company (2001–2005), he started his academic career at Osaka University in 2005 as an assistant professor with Prof. Naoto Chatani. He was then appointed as an associate professor at the Center for Atomic and Molecular Technologies at Osaka University (2011) and was promoted to full professor at the Department of Applied Chemistry of Osaka University (2017). He received the Thieme Chemistry Journals Award (2008), the Chemical Society of Japan Award for Young Chemists (2009), the Young Scientists’ Award, a Commendation for Science and Technology from the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (2012), the Merck-Banyu Lectureship Award (2012), Thomson Reuters Research Front Award (2016), and the Mukaiyama Award (2018). Naoto Chatani received his PhD in 1984 under Professors Noboru Sonoda and Shinji Murai. In 1984, he joined the Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research at Osaka University as an Assistant Professor in the laboratory of Professor Terukiyo Hanafusa. After postdoctoral studies (1988–1989 under Professor Scott E. Denmark at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), he moved back to Osaka University and was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor (1992) and to Full Professor (2003). He is a recipient of The Chemical Society of Japan Award for Young Chemists (1990), The Green & Sustainable Chemistry Award from the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (2005), the Nagoya Silver Medal (2013), The Chemical Society of Japan Award (2017), a Humboldt Research Award (2017), a Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researcher (2017) and will be a recipient of an Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award (2018). Victor Snieckus was born in Kaunas, Lithuania and spent his childhood in Germany during World War II. He received training at U. Alberta, Canada, (B.Sc.), U. California, Berkeley (M.Sc. D.S. Noyce), and U. Oregon (Ph.D. Virgil Boekelheide). He returned to his adopted country for postdoctoral studies (National Research Council, Ottawa, Ted Edwards). Appointments: U. of Waterloo, Assistant (1966) to Professor (1979); Monsanto/NRC Industrial Research Chair, 1992–1998; Queen’s University, Inaugural Bader Chair in Organic Chemistry (1998–2009); Bader Chair Emeritus and Director, Snieckus Innovations, 2009-. Selective awards: A.C. Cope Scholar (2001, one of 5 Canadians), Order of the Grand Duke Gediminas (2002, from the President of Lithuania), Arvedson-Schlenk (2003, Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker), Bernard Belleau (2005, Canadian Society for Chemistry), Givaudan-Karrer Medal (2008, U. Zurich), Honoris causa (2009, Technical U. Tallinn, Estonia), Global Lithuanian Award (2012), Yoshida Lectureship (2017). He hopes that he has only temporarily discontinued playing hockey and wishes also to return to the clarinet.

Abstract Verification was performed on ensemble forecasts of 2009 Northern Hemisphere summer tropical cyclones (TCs) from two experimental global numerical weather prediction ensemble prediction systems (EPSs). The first model was a high-resolution version (T382L64) of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Global Forecast System (GFS). The second model was a 30-km version of the experimental NOAA/Earth System Research Laboratory’s Flow-following finite-volume Icosahedral Model (FIM). Both models were initialized with the first 20 members of a 60-member ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) using the T382L64 GFS. The GFS–EnKF assimilated the full observational data stream that was normally assimilated into the NCEP operational Global Statistical Interpolation (GSI) data assimilation, plus human-synthesized “observations” of tropical cyclone central pressure and position produced at the National Hurricane Center and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center. The forecasts from the two experimental ensembles were compared against four operational EPSs from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), NCEP, the Canadian Meteorological Centre (CMC), and the Met Office (UKMO). The errors of GFS–EnKF ensemble track forecasts were competitive with those from the ECMWF ensemble system, and the overall spread of the ensemble tracks was consistent in magnitude with the track error. Both experimental EPSs had much lower errors than the operational NCEP, UKMO, and CMC EPSs, but the FIM–EnKF tracks were somewhat less accurate than the GFS–EnKF. The ensemble forecasts were often stretched in particular directions, and not necessarily along or across track. The better-performing EPSs provided useful information on potential track error anisotropy. While the GFS–EnKF initialized relatively deep vortices by assimilating the TC central pressure estimate, the model storms filled during the subsequent 24 h. Other forecast models also systematically underestimated TC intensity (e.g., maximum forecast surface wind speed). The higher-resolution models generally had less bias. Analyses were conducted to try to understand whether the additional central pressure observation, the EnKF, or the extra resolution was most responsible for the decrease in track error of the experimental Global Ensemble Forecast System (GEFS)–EnKF over the operational NCEP. The assimilation of the additional TC observations produced only a small change in deterministic track forecasts initialized with the GSI. The T382L64 GFS–EnKF ensemble was used to initialize a T126L28 ensemble forecast to facilitate a comparison with the operational NCEP system. The T126L28 GFS–EnKF EPS track forecasts were dramatically better than the NCEP operational, suggesting the positive impact of the EnKF, perhaps through improved steering flow.

Jerome E. Dobson, professor emeritus, University of Kansas; president of the American Geographical Society; and recipient of the 2014 James R. Anderson Medal of Honor in Applied Geography, discusses his career in the context of America's academic purge of geography. Highlights include his time as a Jefferson Science Fellow with the National Academies and U. S. Department of State. Dobson has been recognized with two lifetime achievement awards for his pioneering work in geographic information systems (GIS) and as Alumnus of 2013 at Reinhardt University. His contributions include the paradigm of automated geography, his instrumental role in originating the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis, and his leadership of the LandScan Global Population Database, the de facto world standard for estimating populations at risk. His recent research includes testing a new system for mapping minefields; designing and promulgating the current world standard for cartographic representation of landmines, minefields, and mine actions; and leading six AGS Bowman Expeditions.

The Allison Gas Turbine Division of General Motors Corporation (GMC) completed the Advanced Gas Turbine Technology Project under contract to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Lewis Research Center (LeRC) using funding received from the Heat Engine Propulsion Division, Office of Transportation Systems in the Conservation and Renewable Energy Group of the Department of Energy (DOE) in the summer of 1987. This advanced, high risk work was initiated in the fall of 1979 under charter from the U. S. Congress to promote an engine for transportation that would provide an alternative to reciprocating spark-ignition (SI) engines for the U. S. automotive industry and simultaneously establish the feasibility of advanced ceramic materials for hot section components to be used in an automotive gas turbine (AGT).

In recent years, many studies on base isolation strategies and devices have been developed and applied in U. S. A., Europe, Japan, and New Zealand. The high damping rubber bearing belongs to one kind of the earthquake-proof ideas of base isolation technologies. The installation of high damping rubber bearings can lengthen the natural period of a building and simultaneously reduce the earthquake-induced energy trying to impart to the building. The objective of this paper is to investigate the base isolation effect of high damping rubber bearings. The uniaxial, biaxial, and triaxial shaking table tests were performed to study the seismic behavior of a 0.4-scale three-story isolated steel structure in the National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering in Taiwan. The experimental and analytical results show that the nonlinear mechanical characteristics of the high damping rubber bearings can be reasonably simulated.