Earth Scientists from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center will present their research at the 80th Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) to be held Jan. 9-14 at the Long Beach (Calif.) Convention Center. Listed below are some of the discussions that are open to the news media. All poster sessions will be held in Ballroom B, second level of the Convention Center. For further information you may contact the AMS newsroom at 562-628-8200 or 562-628-8201.
Electronic Theater 2000 – Visions of Earth and Space – See the latest spectacular animations of the La Niña hurricanes: Floyd, Georges, Mitch, Bonnie and others from GOES and TRMM satellites and GOES 3-D stereo animations of Oklahoma City and Salt Lake City tornadic thunderstorms. See raging dust storms in Africa and huge smoke plumes from raging fires in Mexico. See how HDTV will revolutionize the way we communicate scientific results. E-theater is a visual presentation of Earth science data sets and visualizations using a portable system of computers and projectors which allow scalable presentations to be viewed on large screens, including IMAX-sized screens. For more info, see the web site at: http://rsd.gsfc.nasa.gov/rsd/ETheater/ . Daily presentations will be held in Exhibit Hall B.
The Earth Observatory: NASA's New Web Environment for Learning About Earth- Learn more about global climatic and environmental change at NASA's new "Earth Observatory" web site. The Earth Observatory presents, in lay terms, stories, images, and animations that illustrate the complexities of Earth system science, as well as NASA's use of satellites and remote sensing data to study our home planet. The Earth Observatory is a communication tool that takes advantage of new information technologies, while using popular writers and data visualizers to help bridge the gap between NASA's Earth science community and the general public. Steve Graham will discuss the web site available at http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov in a poster presentation on Sunday, Jan. 9, at 5 p.m. as part of the Ninth Symposium on Education.
Increasing CO2 Coupled with Other Anthropogenic Perturbations: Effects on Ozone and Other Trace Gases - A modeling study yields insights on how CO2 and other atmospheric gases will influence the recovery of the Earth's ozone layer. Joan Rosenfield will present her findings on Monday, Jan. 10, 4 p.m. as part of the 11th Conference on the Middle Atmosphere.
Soil Dust Modeling: Feedbacks of Dust and Climate - The impact of airborne dust on regional temperatures, atmospheric circulation, and ocean temperature are investigated to determine their role in changing the strength of dust storms. Ina Tegen will present her findings on Wednesday, Jan. 12, 8 a.m. as part of the 11th Symposium on Global Change Studies.
Land-Atmosphere Interactions: Successes, Problems, and Prospects - Although significant advances have been made on how land surfaces and plant cover influence local rainfall, more work is needed on global climate models before they can produce accurate simulations of land-atmosphere interactions. Yogesh C. Sud will present his findings on Wednesday, Jan. 12, 1:30 p.m. as part of the 11th Symposium on Global Change Studies.
Soil Moisture Studies - Soil moisture anomalies dissipate over spans of weeks to months. Characterizing the geographical and seasonal variations in these timescales can have important practical benefit; significant soil moisture "memory" allows long-lead forecasts of soil moisture, which have been found in recent studies to be essential for useful long-lead forecasts of precipitation in many regions. Dr. Randy Koster will present his results on Wednesday, Jan. 12 at 3:45 p.m. as part of the 11th Symposium on Global Change Studies.
A Global Precipitation Perspective on Persistent Extratropical Flow Anomalies - Just as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation affects broad areas of the globe, there are anomaly patterns based in mid-latitudes that change the weather in large areas of the Northern Hemisphere. This poster shows how the accompanying changes in the storm tracks rearrange the precipitation patterns, using two cutting-edge global precipitation data sets that the authors recently developed. This analysis has the advantage of relating the known precipitation effects over land to the total pattern over land and ocean. George J. Huffman, Robert F. Adler and David T. Bolvin will present their research in a poster session on Thursday, Jan. 13, 10 a.m.–12 p.m., Poster JP3.2, as part if the 10th Satellite Conference.
Comparisons of Satellite and Rain-Gauge Rainfall Estimates - The accuracy of satellite methods of estimating rainfall is often tested by comparing the satellite maps to local rain-gauge measurements. A model for rainfall statistics was developed and its parameters fit to radar data from a field experiment conducted near the equator in the eastern Atlantic Oceans. Thomas Bell will present his paper as part of a poster session at Thursday, Jan. 13, 10 a.m., Poster JP 3.6, as part of the 10th Satellite Meteorology and Oceanography Conference.
Regional Climate Simulation of the Anomalous U.S. Climate Events with a Variable Resolution Stretched Grid GCM - A new approach to modeling regional impacts of climate change produces accurate simulations of the 1993 U.S. floods and 1988 drought. Michael Fox-Rabinovitz will present his findings on Thursday, Jan. 13, 10:45 a. m, as part of the 11th Symposium on Global Change Studies.
Incorporating TRMM and Other High-Quality Estimates into the One-Degree Daily (1DD) Global Precipitation Product -This poster describes plans and first steps for producing the next-generation maps of precipitation over the entire globe at the finest scales yet attempted with observational data (1° latitude by 1° longitude, or approximately 100x100 km near the equator; every 3 hours). Such a data set is critical for studies of the Earth's hydrology, including weather and climate forecast models, flood/drought analyses, and trends in global rainfall. As well, the approach sets the stage for practical use of NASA's planned Global Precipitation Mission (GPM), which will provide three-hourly high-quality microwave-based precipitation estimates from a constellation of eight low-orbit satellites continuously calibrated by a TRMM follow-on satellite. George J. Huffman, Robert F. Adler and David T. Bolvin will present their research in a poster session on Thursday, Jan. 13, 5-7 p.m., Poster P2.4, as part of the 15th Hydrology Conference.