march 1998 - university corporation for atmospheric research

Staff Notes Monthly March 1998

http://www.ucar.edu/communications/staffnotes/9803/[4/19/2013 10:50:49 AM]

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Volume 33, Number 3 -- March 1998

In this issueWeb EXTRA! Eclipse!

On to the Caribbean: All eyes on the eclipse

Who needs an eclipse, anyway? Down to the wire Farewell to an NCAR landmark

Random Profile: Ben Felzer A SHEBA photo gallery--brought to you by IDC

An unexpected icebreaker at the SHEBA party New convenience for your color-copying dollar at IDC

UCAR-DU-Boulder project: E-mission accomplished Science Briefing

From AAAS: The van Loon-Labitzke correlations pass muster down under Also from AAAS: New insight on the sun's output

Buzbee to retire in '98 New Hires

Other issues of Staff Notes Monthly

Just One LookFor those people pining for snow after Boulder's oddly temperatemidwinter, ponder the seriousness of weather in the Arctic. A clutchof ATD and JOSS staff went to the ice pack north of Alaska lastOctober to install networking equipment and four portable automatedmesonet stations, including the one shown above. A color-photogallery of the visit--made on behalf of the Surface Heat Budget of theArctic Ocean (SHEBA) project--can be found on pages 5 and 6. Alsoincluded is an update from project participants, who have found the

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Staff Notes Monthly March 1998

http://www.ucar.edu/communications/staffnotes/9803/[4/19/2013 10:50:49 AM]

ice beneath their feet to be unexpectedly mobile. (Photo courtesy ofATD.)

About this publicationProductionWriter/editor: Bob HensonDesign: Michael ShibaoPrinting: Speedy BeePrint distribution: Milli ButterworthElectronic distribution: Jacque MarshallPhotography: Carlye Calvin, Liesel Brunson

Unless otherwise noted all images are copyrighted by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research / NationalCenter for Atmospheric Research / National Science Foundation.

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Edited by Bob Henson, [email protected]

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Eclipse a success!

http://www.ucar.edu/communications/staffnotes/9803/eclipse.html[4/19/2013 10:51:08 AM]

March 1998 EXTRA!

The NSF/NCAR C-130 takes off from HowardAir Force Base en route to document the 26February eclipse. (Photo courtesy Air ForcePublic Affairs, 24th Wing, Howard Air ForceBase, Panama.)


Eclipse a success!

Updated Monday 3/2, 10:00 a.m. MST

"Things went extremely well," reports Bruce Lites from the Caribbean island of Curaçao, where yesterday's solareclipse was documented just after 1:00 p.m. PST by a team from the High Altitude Observatory.

"All of our equipment seemed to work very well. Welooked at the images, and they seem to be really good.It's just a quick look--we haven't done any analysis yet.We've actually made a short movie of the data from thehigh-resolution polar plume imager, and it looksextremely good--no problems."

Skies were mostly clear as the eclipse began, with onlya few afternoon cumulus over the hilly island.Conveniently, "the clouds decreased as the eclipseproceeded," says Bruce. As the sun was graduallyobscured, the reduced heating caused the clouds todissipate, and "by eclipse time there were no clouds inthe sky whatsoever."

More good news came from Howard Air Force Basenear Panama City. That's where the NSF/NCAR C-130was based with HAO experiments on board. The teamcaught 4:40 minutes of totality while flying over theDarien province of Panama, just inside the Colombiaborder. At Howard, "there was cloud cover--everybodywanted their money back, so to speak," reports CaptainMike Murk, chief of public affairs for the 24th AF Wing at Howard. However, the C-130 was west-southwest ofPanama City--a great place to observe the eclipse, says Phil Judge, who greeted the flight crew as they returned toHoward AFB. According to Phil:

I saw the pilots in the cockpit but did not want to see a thumbs-down so kept quiet. A few seconds laterPaul Le Hardy (RAF) stepped out and, like a kid who knew something and was bursting to tell someoneelse (but wanted to remain cool), gave a thumbs-up with a grin.

These kinds of experiments are very risky---we got some luck, but, by God, those guys deserved it! I wasthere for all but one training flight and witnessed all the work that went in. The guys had to overcomenagging difficulties every day. The NCAR pilots and technicians on the C-130 were faultless, taking onchallenges and finding solutions with the fervor of excited kids (the C-130 is a big toy), but tempered withthe maturity that comes from a lot of combined experience.

It was fun listening to the pilots describe what they saw during the eclipse. They did not really know whatto expect and every one of the folks in the cockpit was thrilled to see the corona and the two planets soclose to the sun. They all agreed that seeing the moon's shadow overtake them was an amazing sight.

http://www.ucar.edu/communications/staffnotes/9803/index.html





Eclipse a success!

http://www.ucar.edu/communications/staffnotes/9803/eclipse.html[4/19/2013 10:51:08 AM]

The results of Phil's experiment--to examine lines of ionized silicon theorized to be visible from the sun's corona (seethe main eclipse feature in this issue of Staff Notes Monthly)--will have to await further analysis. For now, anyway,says Phil, "It's nothing short of a major triumph."

Rain, rain, go away

The week's only rain occurred this morning, according to HAO's David Elmore at Curaçao. "There were two rainshowers, one before we got up, which caused a panic when people sleeping out on the porch started getting wet, ran in,and said, 'Hey, we've gotta cover the spar.' " However, "the last cloud I saw was about 40 minutes before totality."

Here's the initial report filed to HAO this afternoon from Curaçao by Steve Tomczyk:

I am happy to report that sky conditions were good and we were successful in observing the solareclipse....totality was cloudless although hazy. All instruments operated nominally and tracking was good.We will attempt to download an eclipse picture to the HAO web site as soon as possible.

The Curaçao team left to Boulder on Sunday, 1 March. In the meantime, they were packing and "frolicking," saysDavid. "It's possible to dive off of the [six-meter-high] cliff here in front of our house, but in order to get back out ofthe ocean, you've got to swim a kilometer or so north or south."

Other links of interest

The March issue of Staff Notes Monthly, now on line, has full coverage of the experiment and its planning, includingcolor photos of preparations in Boulder.

The High Altitude Observatory planned to post imagery as soon as possible after the eclipse on their eclipse homepage.

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has produced a great one-stop-shopping site for general information about thiseclipse, including maps, timetables, and links pointing to live Webcasts. Note: This site was extremely busy Thursdayafternoon and may be difficult to access.

On 11 February, UCAR Communications issued a news release about NCAR's eclipse expedition.

In this issue...Other issues of Staff Notes Monthly

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http://www.hao.ucar.edu/public/research/mlso/eclipse98.html



http://planets.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/TSE1998/TSE1998.html

http://www.ucar.edu/communications/newsreleases/1998/eclips98.html









http://www.ucar.edu/communications/staffnotes/9803/caribbean.html[4/19/2013 10:51:50 AM]

March 1998


On to the Caribbean: All eyes on theeclipse

As Staff Notes Monthly was going to press, scientists from NCAR's High Altitude Observatory and several otherresearch institutes were preparing to aim new detectors at the sun's corona during the 26 February solar eclipse,searching for structures they've never observed before. The eclipse was expected to be one of the most heavily studiedin recent history, as scientists make observations from a ground station on the Caribbean island of Curaçao, a researchaircraft flying out of Panama, and the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) satellite operated by NASA.

FLASH! The eclipse experiment was a success. Checkthe SN Extra! in this issue for more details on how itwent. There's more below on the planning of eachexperiment.

These folks clearly know how to observe an eclipse. In the toprow (left to right) are Greg Card, Steve Tomczyk, Bruce Lites,and Kim Streander. At bottom are David Elmore and AliceLecinski. The HAO team went to Curaçao with the telescopeat right, which sports two new instruments: a very largeformat camera (the topmost square) for measuring coronalelectron density and a low-noise camera (the lower-leftinstrument) for observing plumes at the sun's poles. (Photo byCarlye Calvin.)

Data from this expedition--which is inspired by new theories and new technology--could eventually lead to betterprediction of the coronal mass ejections that launch solar storms, the magnetic disturbances that play havoc withcommunications and electric power grids here on earth.








Porthole in the sky

Last fall, HAO solar physicist Phil Judge predicted that a line of ionized silicon in the infrared region, close to fourmicrons, should be detectable as a faint but distinct line in the spectrum of the sun's corona, or outer atmosphere.Before he set off for the Caribbean, Phil observed that "if this line can be detected, it may prove to be the mostsensitive indicator of coronal magnetic field strengths available to researchers." During the eclipse, a team led byformer NCAR and HAO director Bob MacQueen (now at Rhodes College) was set to be on board the NSF/NCAR C-130 Hercules aircraft, hunting for the ionized silicon and several other spectral lines that Phil also predicted. Heplanned to accompany the team and serve as backup for the researchers on the C-130.

Top: the heart of the passenger cabin on theNSF/NCAR C-130 was emptied to make room foran HAO eclipse experiment over the Caribbean on26 February. Above: a 16-inch hole was cut in theaircraft's roof, allowing the instrument spar to pointdirectly at the sun--or the moon, as shown in thistest performed in Boulder. (Photos by Carlye Calvinand Phil Judge.)

"Nobody has actually measured the strength of the magnetic field under average coronal conditions, because it's soweak. That's why we have to go into the far infrared to get any signature at all of the magnetic field there," Philexplained. Because of the faint signal, exacting observations must be made with minimal interference from the earth'satmosphere. That's why the detection instruments were mounted on the C-130, which can fly above most of theabsorption introduced by water vapor in the earth's atmosphere.



Down to the wireAny eclipse is dramatic, but highcorporate drama beyond UCAR madethe planning phase of this expeditionunusually rocky for HAO. For instance,the observatory had planned to use aninfrared camera being built from circuitboards supplied by a subcontractedlaboratory. However, that lab's experton electronics left the company inmidstream to go into business forhimself, leaving the camera in limbo.According to Kim Streander, HAOhopes to take the optics constructed atNCAR for the ill-fated camera and usethem with one of the IR cameras nowon the C-130 on the next eclipseexpedition (Europe, August 1999). Thevery large format camera deployed atCuraçao had a similar tale of woe.

To hunt for the spectral line, Jeff Kuhn (National Solar Observatory and Michigan State University) and Haosheng Lin(NSO) designed an instrument package for the C-130. A 16-inch (0.4-meter) hole in the aircraft's roof allows theinstrument spar designed by Ingrid Mann (Max Planck Institute for Aeronomy, Germany) to point directly at the sun.(See photos.) MacQueen, Kuhn, Lin, and Mann planned to ascend to 18,000 feet (5,500 meters) in the unpressurizedcabin to track the eclipse.

Alice Lecinski adjusts POISE '98 (polarimeterinstrument for solar eclipse '98), the very largeformat camera used by Tim Brown for planetfinding and called into service for this year's eclipse.

Several instruments on the SOHO satellite gathered information about the state of the corona and the magnetic fields inthe photosphere--the lower layer of the sun's gaseous surface--before and after the eclipse. Combining the SOHO datawith the aircraft observations will help piece together a better picture of the sun's magnetic structure as a whole.

A theoretician, Phil has been excited about the possibility of detectingthe predicted line. Detection would build the case for constructing ameasuring device called a coronal magnetograph for future deploymentin space or on the ground. The kinds of problems Phil and hiscolleagues could then address include how coronal fields evolve duringthe solar cycle and what launches solar flares and coronal massejections (the cause of "space weather"). "This is a first step," Philexplained. "Until we can measure the magnetic field, we won't reallyknow what's going on in the corona."

A new infrared camera, or photometer, made its debut on the C-130.The camera's infrared array detector, made by Rockwell Internationaland employed in missile guidance systems during the 1991 PersianGulf war, was recently declassified for peacetime use. MacQueen andKuhn have enlisted the instrument in their search for interplanetarydust structures. "The dust from the whole solar system should beaccumulating around the sun and forming dust rings, like Saturn,"explained Kuhn. Invisible to sensors so far, the dust particles--if they'rethere--will be heated to a few thousand degrees, which is hot enough toemit infrared light. The glare of the sun obscures such infraredemissions, so an eclipse is a rare opportunity to look for the dust withthis new technology. "Whether we find dust rings or not, thephotometer will tell us more about the sun's magnetic fields," saidKuhn.



Large-scale layoffs at Kodak causeddelays in the loan authorization of aunique camera originally planned foruse within a telescope. In its place, theHAO instrumentation group borroweda camera used by HAO's Tim Brown inhis planet-finding work. They thenscrambled to put together the newcamera/telescope and its computerinterface in a scant month beforedeparting for Curaçao. •BH

On the ground

On the northern tip of Curaçao, an NCAR team led by Steve Tomczykplanned three experiments. The first involved a very large format(2,048 x 2,048 pixels) electron detector based on video technology andcalled a charge-coupled device, or CCD, camera. Previously deployedby NCAR researchers to hunt for new planets, the camera was broughton this expedition to measure the electron density of the corona. Steveexpected the images from the new camera to be of higher quality andeasier to calibrate than those obtained with the Newkirk camera onprior eclipse expeditions (see sidebar).

The second ground-based experiment was designed to observe the sun's polar plumes--fingerlike structures that radiateupward from the poles. "We're going to see if they wiggle around, which could be a sign of magnetic waves in thepolar plumes," Steve said. Like the coronal magnetic fields themselves, these waves--known as Alfvén waves--havenever been observed, although scientists have postulated their existence for many years. The instrument constructed atHAO for this experiment is a very high speed, low-noise CCD camera. It takes pictures in the red end of the visible-light spectrum. The possibility of recording the Alfvén waves was "a long shot," according to HAO's Bruce Lites, butworth the small investment.

In the third experiment (in cooperation with Don Hassler of Southwest Research Institute), the team planned tomeasure the white light of the corona above a magnetically active region, at fairly high resolution. "We'll be lookingfor very fine structures that outline the magnetic fields in the active region," said Steve. This experiment involved aneight-inch Celestron telescope and a third, midsized CCD camera. •Zhenya Gallon and Carol Rasmussen

Who needs an eclipse, anyway?The corona, or outer atmosphere of the sun, is a million times dimmer than the solar disk.Scientists can observe the corona at any time using a coronagraph--an instrument that blacksout the disk--but sunlight scattered by the earth's atmosphere masks the very faint coronallight. A real eclipse gives much better results, because the moon blocks sunlight before itreaches the earth's atmosphere and is scattered. It also allows scientists to look at the lowerlayers of the corona, much closer to the sun's photosphere than is possible usingcoronagraphs.

Solar physicists can't send probes too close to their subject because its heat would melt theirinstruments. But the structure of the magnetic fields has been theorized since the late 1800s.These fields, while weak, are sufficiently strong that they underlie and organize everythingthat happens in the corona. Because ions and electrons in the highly ionized coronal plasmacannot cross the lines of magnetic force, the shape of the plasma indicates where the linesare. But since the corona itself is a very thin soup of plasma, its magnetic fields are equallymeager. •CR

Farewell to an NCAR landmark



The Newkirk white light coronal camera was the workhorse of HAO eclipse expeditions from1966 through 1994. With this eclipse, it's finally been put out to pasture.

The camera was designed and built here by Gordon Newkirk and Lee Lacey of HAO. Its roadlog would be the envy of many globetrotters; it visited six continents and three Pacific islandsto photograph the solar corona in visible (white) light. Since the late 1980s, it has lived in thesecond-floor lobby of the Mesa Lab between expeditions.

"It's past time for the retirement," said Kim Streander (HAO). The camera "has earned itsplace as a museum piece," he added. Only a lack of time kept HAO's instrumentation teamfrom building (or finding) a replacement camera for the 1994 Chile eclipse. Technologypassed the Newkirk by some years ago, with newer equipment--such as the large-formatcamera that was taken to Curaçao--offering digital, higher-resolution images that can becalibrated more easily. Further, some of the Newkirk's optical components are degradingbecause of their age.

Individual parts that are still valuable, such as the camera's lens, may eventually take on anew life by being recycled into future instruments. And like many another retiree, the Newkirkcamera won't really be leaving NCAR. It will remain in the lobby, giving visitors a chance tosee both a real scientific instrument--with all its well-earned dents and scratches--and apiece of NCAR history. "It truly was a fine instrument," says Kim. •CR


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Prepared for the Web by Jacque Marshall








Random Profile: Ben Felzer

http://www.ucar.edu/communications/staffnotes/9803/profile.html[4/19/2013 10:52:26 AM]

March 1998



Every other month, this series spotlights a stochastically chosen staffmember.

Current position:

Postdoctoral fellow in CGD, serving as the climate modelingcoordinator (under supervisor Starley Thompson) for his supportingprogram, Paleoclimates from Arctic Lakes and Estuaries (PALE)."It's an NSF-funded program with an emphasis on the North Atlanticland areas and Beringia [the geologic term for the Alaska-Siberialand mass, once connected by a land bridge]. The primary emphasishas been on climate since the last glacial maximum, about 21,000years ago."

Number of different disciplines in which he holds degrees:

Four. Ben, a native of the Philadelphia area, earned his bachelor's inphysics and astronomy at Swarthmore College, where he observedand researched stellar phenomena. After Swarthmore, Ben found that"coinciding with my personal interest in the outdoors was a desire todo work more related to the earth's environment." Moving toBoulder, Ben earned a master's in geology at the University ofColorado with a thesis in reflectance spectroscopy, "the basis for remote sensing." He then switched to climatemodeling for his doctorate at Brown University. "That was a nice blend. The paleoclimate part of my workcomes from my geology background, but climate modeling allowed me to look at the big picture instead of asingle core sample on a single field site, which is what the majority of geologists do." Ben came to NCAR in1995.

Current model of choice:

ARCSym, a version of Filippo Giorgi's regional climate model developed for the Arctic by CU's Amanda Lynch.Ben is working on high-resolution simulations of the climate around 6,000 years ago, "particularly aroundGreenland, and Baffin and Ellesmere Islands. They have a lot of mountains and coastline that can't be capturedin a general circulation model. The paths of storms and their precipitation really depend on the topography."

Why summer isn't the same up north as it was in 4,000 B.C.:

"The main thing that's different is the orbital insolation [the solar radiation reaching various parts of the globe],mainly because of changes in the earth's precession and obliquity." The earth now comes closest to the sun in thedead of northern winter, around 3 January, but due to precession (wobbling) of the earth about its axis, that datecycles through the calendar every 22,000 years. Around 6,000 years ago, the closest approach (perihelion) wasnear the end of September. That made the influence of the northern summer sun measurably stronger thantoday's, according to Ben. Moreover, the earth's axial tilt (now 23.44 degrees) was about half a degree greater.The increased obliquity added further to the summer sun's effects.

Biggest pet peeve:








"As computers have gotten advanced and the models have gotten more complicated, I've been spending moreand more time on debugging and data assimilation and less time on science."

Recent career thread of interest:

Teaching. "I've been mentoring a SOARS student [Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric Research andScience] and conducting college entrance interviews [for Swarthmore and Brown]. I do enjoy explaining mywork to other people."

Most politically incorrect viewpoint:

The redeeming value of politics. "I really admire people who are doing their best to make this world a betterplace. In spite of the common perception of politicians, they are in the best position to bring about the mostchange in the world."

Highest current office:

President of the Colorado chapter of the Mosaic Outdoor Mountain Club, a national hiking/adventuring group.

Vacation of choice:

A multiday backcountry camping trip. "Last year I went on three trips, two in Utah and one in Yellowstone.They were all on the order of four days. Backpacking is very difficult, and one thing I enjoy is getting farenough into the wilderness so you're out of the realm of day hikers. But what I most enjoy is day hiking--nothaving a backpack along."

Typical day on the backcountry trail:

Ten miles of hiking with a 55-pound backpack.

Seeds of environmentalism:

"I suppose it started with our first family trip to a national park [Yosemite and Yellowstone in the early 1980s].Then I developed an interest on my own. It's an important part of my life."

Favorite music:

"I'm really into folk rock and classic rock. My favorite group is CCR [Creedence Clearwater Revival]. This yearI saw John Fogerty in concert singing CCR songs for the first time in my life. A close second to CCR is BobDylan, and the Byrds were the seminal folk-rock group. I think what I like in folk music is that there's meaningbehind the words--they're about something."

Last movie he saw:

" 'Titanic'--me and everybody else."

Favorite cult film:

"Dark Star."

Favorite film of all time:

" '2001 [A Space Odyssey]' has to be on that list. Of course, there's 'Star Wars,' but everybody likes 'Star Wars.'"•




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A SHEBA photo gallery--brought to you by IDC

http://www.ucar.edu/communications/staffnotes/9803/IDC.html[4/19/2013 10:52:38 AM]

March 1998


A SHEBA photo gallery--brought to youby IDC

Last fall, members of the Atmospheric Technology Division and UCAR's Joint Office of Science Support trekked tothe Arctic to set up instrumentation and networking for the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean (SHEBA) project.Below are some of the images they brought back. The print version of the pictures are provided here was provided incolor with assistance from the NCAR Imaging and Design Center and its new high-speed, high-quality color copier.

See below for more details on the February ice realignments at the SHEBA base camp.•

Four little Flux-PAMs all in a row: Aboard individual transport sleds, the portable automated mesonet units(white containers in foreground) head out for their October deployment, flanked by SHEBA's two Canadianships. (All photos courtesy of ATD unless otherwise noted.)

ATD's Kurt Knudson braves the rime to work onone of the Flux-PAMs.








Boreal beauty: A sundog adds some light to the wan Arctic sky.

Home away from home for the SHEBA team, the DesGroseilliers shimmers in this nighttime view from basecamp. (Photo courtesy of Marty Mulhern, NOAA.)

A miniature portrait of the Arctic's water-and-sea-ice mélange presents itself from the deck of the DesGrosseilliers. (Photo by Jim Moore.)

A radiometer attached to one of the Flux-PAMs looms larger than life. (Photo by Jim Moore.)

On the Web

SHEBA home page

JOSS/SHEBA field catalog

Index of /sheba/images

NCAR/ATD - Projects 97 - SHEBA

Images from Des Groseilliers

Imaging and Design Center home page

http://sheba.apl.washington.edu/

http://sheba.apl.washington.edu/

http://www.joss.ucar.edu/sheba/catalog

http://www.joss.ucar.edu/sheba/catalog

http://www.joss.ucar.edu/sheba/images/

http://www.joss.ucar.edu/sheba/images/

http://www.atd.ucar.edu/dir_off/projects/1997/SHEBA.html

http://www.atd.ucar.edu/dir_off/projects/1997/SHEBA.html

http://sheba.apl.washington.edu/shipimages/images.html



http://www.dir.ucar.edu/iss/idc




An unexpected icebreaker at the SHEBA party

The science is solid, but the base camp for the SHEBA project is on thin ice--literally. The NSF-sponsored project isdesigned to monitor a year's worth of growing and melting of the sea ice near the center of the Beaufort gyre. Thegyre, several hundred miles beyond the northern coast of Alaska and Canada, contains some of the Arctic's oldest,most compact sea ice. After only four months, it's become clear that something unusual is happening--perhaps a long-term shift toward a different sea-ice regime. The crew had its hands full keeping the base camp intact during Februaryas sections of the ice broke up and realigned, putting the squeeze on one of NCAR's portable automated mesonet(PAM) stations.

The SHEBA base camp--separated into three floesby ice breakups in February--is pictured here inOctober as seen from the nearby Des Grosseilliers .(Photo by Lia Pennington.)

Two Canadian ships went to the middle of the Beaufort gyre last October to establish a base camp. The Louis St.Laurant departed while the Des Grosseilliers remained, to be frozen into the ice pack for a year of measurement andanalysis. Supply flights from Prudhoe Bay every few weeks have been shuttling equipment and fresh food and rotatingthe staff, who work at the base camp next to the Des Grosseilliers and sleep aboard the ship. Since an ATD/JOSS teamhelped with set-up in October, several NCAR and UCAR staff have visited the site, including ATD's Steve Semmer inearly January and Tony Delany and Ned Chamberlain (also from ATD) in late February.

Surprises from the initial SHEBA data gathered in October are outlined in a paper recently published on the Web.Salinity measurements in the upper 100 meters (330 feet) of the water column imply a net summertime influx of about2 meters of fresh water. In contrast, only 0.8 meters of freshwater input were deduced in the same region in a 1975sea-ice project.

"We were struck [in October] by the lack of thick ice," write the authors, led by Miles McPhee (McPhee ResearchCompany). "Where we expected the mean thickness to be between 2 and 3 meters, we were hard-pressed to find floesmore than 1.5 meters thick." Changes in local precipitation, river runoff, and even warming elsewhere in the Arcticbetween 1975 and 1997 appear unlikely to have triggered these changes. Scientists are thus exploring the idea thatchanges in atmospheric circulation might have stepped up a positive feedback between ice melt and albedo toaccelerate the usual seasonal melting.

With the Des Grosseilliers in position through the fall of 1998, "the SHEBA project is well poised to investigate if andhow the ice pack will reestablish equilibrium. The possibility that the ice is thinning rapidly lends a sense of urgency toour measurements over the next melt season."

http://sheba.apl.washington.edu/whatshot/mcphee.pdf

http://sheba.apl.washington.edu/whatshot/mcphee.pdf



A more tangible urgency reached the camp this past month. On 29 January, a crack formed through the central camparea. Initially a few inches wide, by 4 February it was more than four feet across and growing. All but one of the powerlines from ship to camp were severed by the movements, and the camp buildings were dispersed on three separatefloes. Power has since been restored to most buildings, and the camp is being reconfigured.

Meanwhile, a shifting ice ridge put the crunch on one of the four Flux-PAM stations on 12 February. The PAM's tripodand radiometers were damaged by the moving mass of ice, but the data system and most of the sensors wereunharmed, notes Flux-PAM manager Tom Horst (ATD). The hapless station had already incurred some cable damageearlier in the project, thanks to a visit from a local polar bear. On the bright side, the sun came back in February forthe first time since early November. •BH

New convenience for your color-copying dollar at IDCThis two-page Staff Notes Monthly insert was printed in-house on the Imaging and DesignCenter's new Canon CLC 1000 color copier (pictured at right with imaging specialist PamHale and designer Mike Shibao). The machine is a fast, easy, and cost-effective way tobrighten up documents and viewgraphs, says imaging coordinator Collen Ertle. "Thismachine is fully networked," notes Colleen; this allows it to print directly from the World WideWeb. It's also equipped to work directly from various Macintosh word-processing andpresentation software, such as WordPerfect and PowerPoint. PC capability arriving in March.The 1998 IDC calendar, featuring a spectacular Carlye Calvin photo of flying-saucer-typewave clouds, was printed on the CLC 1000. The in-house team of IDC designers--includingCarlye, Mike, and the newest member, Penny Sadler--is ready to bring your documents fromdesign to print stage. Color-copy prices start at $1.20 per copy for NCAR accounts and $1.49for UCAR (due to varying overhead rates) and drop to as low as 55 cents per copy withquantity. Transparencies start at $2.10 (NCAR) and $2.29 (UCAR), with quick turnaroundtime, typically the same day. For details on how IDC can help you, check with Colleen or Pamat ext. 1168 for printing and Carlye, Mike, or Penny at ext. 1186 for design. "No job is toosmall or too big," Colleen emphasizes. "Please call us for an estimate and keep your job inhouse for fast turnaround, excellent quality, and personalized service!" See the IDC Webpage.•


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UCAR-DU-Boulder project: E-mission accomplished

http://www.ucar.edu/communications/staffnotes/9803/emissions.html[4/19/2013 10:53:28 AM]

March 1998


UCAR-DU-Boulder project: E-missionaccomplished

The atmospheric output of 670 vehicles was sampled on 26 and 27 January at the Mesa and Foothills Labs,respectively, as part of a collaboration with the University of Denver and the city of Boulder. DU's Gary Bishopbrought the roadside emissions sampler created by colleague Don Stedman and used it to evaluate ML- and FL-boundvehicles during the commute hours of 7:00 to 10:00 a.m. Samples were taken two-thirds of the way up the mesa roadand on Mitchell Lane near FL. (See the December-January issue of Staff Notes Monthly for more details on thesampling procedures.)

DU's Gary Bishopat work on the mesaroad (below) and inhis Winnebago/lab(left). (Photos byCarlye Calvin.)

Monday morning at the mesa, Bishop got usable readings on 280 vehicles. He then identified 17 vehicles with carbonmonoxide emissions measuring 2.5% or more (of total weight, minus water vapor and extra air) to qualify for a "poor"rating and a $25 rebate coupon toward emissions-related repairs. Bishop found several vehicles in that groupmeasuring 4% or higher. The average CO level for all vehicles climbing the hill on Monday morning (includingvisitors, school buses, and service vehicles) was 0.6%. True to prior research, the 6% of vehicles in the poor categorywere contributing about 50% of the CO pollution on the mesa road.

Tuesday at Foothills, Bishop gathered 390 usable readings and picked out 15 vehicles (3.8% of the total) in the "poor"category. The overall CO average for Foothills commuters was 0.58%.








All the NCAR shuttle vans were in the "good" category, as were the service vehicles visiting the two sites. Somevintage cars did better than some late models, but in general, emissions quality "scales with [vehicle] age, and agescales with salary," according to Bishop. The comparison to data collected at Interstate 25 in Denver (see table) showsmany similarities to the Boulder data, says Bishop. "One would expect the UCAR/NCAR data sets to show slightlyhigher emissions because they contain some vehicles which were in a cold-start mode." Vehicles that haven't beendriven at least a mile since being started will typically produce higher-than-normal CO emissions.

The weather cooperated with the project, providing cool morning temperatures around the freezing mark. WhileMonday had some gusts, winds were relatively mild on both days. (High winds, snow, or severe cold render the on-the-fly testing invalid.)

Staffing the information table at ML over the lunch hour were Bishop, Ron Ruth (ATD), Pat Harris (FSS), JulieHerman from the city of Boulder's Office of Environmental Affairs, and Hetty Versteege from the Boulder EnergyConservation Center. On Tuesday at FL, Bishop and Ron were joined by Leonard Sitongia (HAO) and KimberlyBruckner of BECC.

At the information tables, Bishop used a detector with its top removed to explain how the measurements are taken.Staff asked questions and tried to remember their license plate numbers to see if they were on the "baddies" list. Therewere plenty of cheers and sighs of relief from those not on the list. Several people whose vehicles made the list weresurprised, since they had passed the state's emissions test recently. This gave Bishop the opportunity to explain thehigher standards he used and the benefits of frequent testing for vehicles hovering around the "poor" level. •ZG andBH

As of late February, a few vouchers had yet to be claimed. Check with your site receptionist (ML or FL) or goto UCAR/DU/Boulder Emissions Project to see if your vehicle qualifies.

The results

Location Mesa FoothillsDenver, 6th/I-25

(1/97)

Number of vehicles 289 393 46,120

Mean % CO 0.69 0.59 0.51

Median % CO 0.2 0.15 0.1

Percent of fleet with less than 1% CO 83% 88% 87%

Percent of CO emissions contributed by the dirtiest10% of fleet

62% 67% 67%

Average % CO emissions of dirtiest 10% of fleet 4.4% 4.1% 3.4%


UCARNCAR

http://visitx.vsp.ucar.edu/emissions/voucher.htm

http://visitx.vsp.ucar.edu/emissions/voucher.htm








UOP





Science Briefing

http://www.ucar.edu/communications/staffnotes/9803/scibrief.html[4/19/2013 10:53:49 AM]

Harry van Loon


March 1998 Science Briefing

From AAAS: The van Loon-Labitzke correlations pass muster downunder

The sun's 11-year solar cycle may be driving periodic changes in the earth's lower stratosphere from pole to pole,according to a new analysis by NCAR's Harry van Loon and Karin Labitzke of the Free University of Berlin (FUB).The findings were presented on 14 February at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancementof Science (AAAS) in Philadelphia.

The two scientists had previously related a 10- to 12-year oscillation in the stratosphere of theNorthern Hemisphere to four 11-year solar cycles, beginning in 1958. Now, with the help ofthe vast data reanalysis conducted by NCAR and the National Centers for EnvironmentalPrediction, Harry and Labitzke have revealed a mirror image of the solar-stratospherecorrelations in the Southern Hemisphere, spanning three solar cycles from 1968 to 1996.

Harry and Labitzke used the flux in the 10.7-centimeter radio waveband, an objectivelyobserved quantity highly correlated with the 11-year cycle. They compared these radio datawith FUB's daily analyses of the stratosphere. The results show a strong correlation betweenthe solar cycle and the 10- to 12-year oscillation of two quantities in the lower stratosphere:mean temperatures (particularly during each hemisphere's summer) and constant pressureheights above sea level.

The new findings, say Harry, "increase our confidence that the solar-stratospheric relationship is more than a statisticalcoincidence." For many years scientists have tried to find an earthly link to the sun's 11-year cycle. Previous attemptshave turned up humorous correspondences to the number of Republicans in the House of Representatives and thelength of women's skirts. Until Harry and Labitzke's work, even serious scientific stabs at the problem eventuallyproved false. A solid link takes on added significance now as scientists search for a clear sun-earth connection forcomputer models used to predict climate change.

"The role of the sun in climate change is still an unsolved problem," says Harry. "Any relationship between changes insolar output and what happens here on earth is important for understanding long-term climate." The sun's output hasvaried about 0.1% over one solar cycle during the past several decades. Over centuries, however, larger variations mayoccur.

Also from AAAS: New insight on the sun's output

Until now, there's been a lot of uncertainty about the way the sun's radiation varies over time. HAO scientist Peter Foxand colleagues are using precise observations, theoretical atomic physics, and computer modeling to get the bestrepresentation so far of the total radiative output of the sun (including the ultraviolet, visible light, and infraredwavelengths that reach the earth)."This is a step towards quantifying what the entire sun is doing, which will give us a betterunderstanding of the sun's influence on earth's climate," says Peter. He presented the findings ofhis research (with HAO's Oran White, HAO consultant Juan Fontenla of US West, and Eugene






Science Briefing

http://www.ucar.edu/communications/staffnotes/9803/scibrief.html[4/19/2013 10:53:49 AM]

Peter Fox

Avrett of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory) on 14 February at AAAS.

To represent more accurately the physical processes of the entire surface of the sun, the NCARteam is taking a detailed look at how individual features, like sunspots, change the amounts ofradiation in several different wavelengths. The team uses observations from the precision solarphotometric telescope (PSPT), combined with computer modeling that incorporates priorobservations and solar physics theory. The PSPT is operated by HAO at its Mauna Loa SolarObservatory in Hawaii as part of NSF's Radiative Input from the Sun to the Earth (SunRISE)program.

"Tree rings and ice cores tell us a little about variations in the sun over centuries. But we have only the 11-yearsunspot record for the last 300 years to link directly to today's sun, and we don't have direct measurements of theradiation before the 1970s," Peter explains. The new information will

help scientists understand the effects of solar variability on the chemistry of the upper atmosphere, including theozone layer

provide more accurate data for climate models on the sun's infrared radiation

allow for the most accurate estimates to date of solar radiation in the green and yellow bands of the visible lightspectrum, which are now believed to affect ocean circulation.


UCARNCARUOP










Buzbee to retire in '98

http://www.ucar.edu/communications/staffnotes/9803/buzbee.html[4/19/2013 10:54:04 AM]

March 1998


Buzbee to retire in '98

After 11 years at the helm of the Scientific Computing Division, Bill Buzbee recently announced his intent to retire atthe end of this year. In a memo to divisional staff, Buzbee said his tenure as SCD director would end no later than 28September and his regular NCAR position would end on 31 December. Thereafter, Bill will maintain connections withNCAR as a senior research associate for at least two years, with an office in SCD through at least 1999.

"1998 is an opportune time to bring a new director into SCD," wrote Bill. "The SX-4 [supercomputer] procurement isbehind us, we are well along with the transition to highly parallel systems, and the FY99 budget looks promising." Billnoted that he had pondered retiring in 1998 for at least two years, starting before the protracted supercomputer sagabegan (see the September 1997 issue of Staff Notes Monthly.) He added that the early retirement was at his owninitiative.

Bill, currently the longest-tenured NCAR division director, came to Boulder in 1987 after 25 years at the Los AlamosNational Laboratory. At Los Alamos, he held a variety of managerial and technical positions, including deputy leaderof the lab's computing and communications division. Bill called his 11 years at NCAR "the high-water mark of mycareer" and a period of "steady accomplishment for SCD. However," he added, "eleven years is a long time."

NCAR director Bob Serafin tells Staff Notes Monthly, "It has been a personal pleasure to work with Bill over theyears. We have developed a close professional working relationship plus a real friendship, both of which I cherish andonly one of which I will lose." •BH


UCARNCARUOP















New Hires

http://www.ucar.edu/communications/staffnotes/9803/newhires.html[4/19/2013 10:54:17 AM]


March 1998 New Hires

front row (left to right)Robert Beasley, aircraft mechanic I with ATD. Jeffco,ext. 1035.Sheila Thomas, administrative assistant with CGD.ML room 202, ext. 1322.Kathleen Rice, engineering aid with FSS. ML room55, ext. 8532.Elise Pendall, postdoctoral researcher I with VSP.NOAA, 303-492-5792.Jason Romero, student assistant II with COMET. FL3room 1051, ext. 8355.

back row (left to right)Michael Newchurch, visitor with ACD. ML room 367,ext. 1422.Cain Marion, food service generalist with FLcafeteria. FL2 room 1072, ext. 8545.Thierry Emonet, postdoctoral researcher I with HAO.FL2 room 3016, ext. 1565.Brad Sandor, postdoctoral researcher II with ACD.ML room 380B, ext. 1449.Michael Forbes, network engineer I with SCD. MLroom 31H, ext. 1299.Jeremy Hackney, associate scientist with HAO. FL2room 3083, ext. 1590.






New Hires

http://www.ucar.edu/communications/staffnotes/9803/newhires.html[4/19/2013 10:54:17 AM]

(left to right)Shannon Aguilar, administrative assistant with FSS.FL4 lobby, ext. 8620.Scot Colburn, network engineer I with SCD. ML room31F, ext. 1845.Donald Kolinski, associate scientist with HAO. FL2room 3069, ext. 1548.

Other New Hires

Christos Michalopoulos, program specialist with JOSS. OSS, 202-395-7600.Daniel Riemer, visitor with ACD. ML room 490A, ext. 1885.Jack Calvert, senior research associate with ACD. ML room 376A, ext. 1435.

Departures

Norman Archer, 9 JanuaryDonald Cline, 19 JanuaryDavid Galloway, 20 JanuaryPaul Ginoux, 31 JanuaryPatria Lanfranchi, 16 JanuaryJulia Lee-Taylor, 31 DecemberStephen Madrid, 8 JanuaryDaniel Maes, 22 JanuaryMomcilo Markus, 30 January

Deborah Martin, 15 JanuaryLaura Morreale, 19 DecemberMartin Muller, 31 JanuaryRobert Niece, 12 JanuaryConnie Nyffeler, 16 JanuaryAnton Seimon, 12 JanuaryOskar Steiner, 16 JanuaryStephanie Tiller, 12 JanuaryWilma Travnicek, 23 January


UCARNCARUOPEdited by Bob Henson, [email protected]








march 1998 - university corporation for atmospheric research

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