1

Air Cleanser

ESRL-led team measures the 

variability of the atmosphere’s 

self-cleaning capacity

ESRL Quarterly

News from NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory Winter 2011

Inside

Director’s Corner 2

By the Numbers 2

Students Film Scientists 3

ESRL in Cancun 4

Koch to Lead NSSL 4

Atmospheric Boundaries 5

ESRL@SC10 5

AMS Experiment 7

Now Boarding: Weather 8

News in Brief 10

Publications and Honors 11

An international, ESRL-led research team 

took a significant step forward in understanding the atmosphere’s ability to cleanse 

itself of many air pollutants and some other 

gases. The issue has been controversial for 

many years, with some studies suggesting 

the self-cleaning power of the atmosphere 

is fragile and sensitive to environmental 

changes, while others suggest greater stability. And what researchers are finding is that 

the atmosphere’s self-cleaning capacity is 

rather stable.

A new analysis published in Science in January shows that global levels of the hydroxyl 

radical, a critical player in atmospheric chemistry, do not vary much from year to year. 

Levels of hydroxyl, which help clear the atmosphere of many hazardous air pollutants 

and some important greenhouse gases – but 

not carbon dioxide – dip and rise by only a 

few percent every year; not by up to 25 percent, as was once estimated.

“The new hydroxyl measurements give researchers a broad view of the ‘oxidizing’ or 

self-cleaning capacity of the atmosphere,” 

said ESRL chemist Stephen Montzka (Global 

Monitoring Division), the study’s lead author.

Racing down a ski slope or snowshoeing 

across a ridge, it is not obvious that the snow 

covering the ground isn’t just a product of 

the weather – it also influences the weather. 

A white blanket of snow can simultaneously 

trap heat in the ground and reflect solar radiation back into the atmosphere or out to space, 

much like a mirror reflects visible light. 

“When you change the amount of snow, you 

change how much heat flows between the 

atmosphere and ground,” said Mike Alexander 

Night Lights

ESRL researchers find small but 

significant effect of nighttime 

city lighting on air pollution

Every night, the cities of the Los Angeles Basin 

throw a dome of light into the dark sky, cast 

by millions of street lamps and other outdoor 

lights. That glow is 10,000 times dimmer than 

sunlight, but still powerful enough to influence 

chemistry affecting air pollution, ESRL scientists 

discovered. 

In a press conference and poster session at the 

American Geophysical Union annual fall meeting, Harald Stark (Chemical Sciences Division, 

CSD) and colleagues presented measurements 

Snow and Warming

Northern Hemisphere could 

warm further in response to 

lost snow 

Weekly flask samples taken at remote sites, such as 

Mauna Loa, Hawaii, shown, enabled a new analysis 

of the key atmospheric cleanser hydroxyl. Pictured is 

Aidan Colton, NOAA. Photo by James Elkins, ESRL.

see page 6 see page 9

see page 6

Los Angeles at night. Flikr creative commons.
2

Director’s Corner

By the Numbers

The Day vs. LA

What is the Role of NOAA’s Research Laboratories? Last week I attended the Annual 

Meeting of the American Meteorological Society. In the last 30 years I have only missed one 

of these meetings, so it is a chance to renew 

longtime friendships and to catch up on the 

progress of our profession. The Seattle meeting did not disappoint and the contributions 

of ESRL were much in evidence. Our work 

included interesting papers on understanding 

the climate system, the exciting results we are 

getting in model assimilation, and the leading 

edge of global and regional models. I went to 

a talk by Stan Benjamin on the High Resolution 

Rapid Refresh, and the excitement about this 

new model slated for operations was palpable.

The dinner for the retiring Director of the Pacific Marine Environment Laboratory (PMEL), 

Dr. Eddie N. Bernard, was a particularly enjoyable celebration. The speakers, each with their 

own interesting stories, recounted the amazing accomplishments of PMEL during Eddie’s 

tenure. The equatorial array of moored buoys, 

starting with the TAO array in the Pacific, and 

now fully extending into the Atlantic and 

Indian Oceans, have been the foundation of 

improvements in our understanding of the 

ocean’s role in the global climate system. This 

array was made possible by the buoy-building 

prowess of PMEL, and by the ability of the lab 

to implement and sustain major infrastructure. 

A similar story was told of the leadership of 

Dr. Bernard in the fielding of revolutionary 

new technology to detect tsunamis. Other accomplishments of PMEL cover the gamut from 

discovery of undersea volcanoes and thermal 

vents to the rapidly changing Arctic. Every story told during dinner reinforced the reasonsto-be for NOAA’s research labs – which foster a 

combination of professionals and unique infrastructure related to NOAA’s core mission.

As I attended the AMS sessions, I thought 

about the equivalent infrastructure and people that ESRL brings to NOAA’s mission. The 

Chemical Sciences Division has shown how a 

combination of scientists and other technical 

people can use assets such as NOAA’s P3 airplanes to understand the immensely complex 

chemistry of the atmosphere. The latest demonstration of these capabilities was the role 

that this group played in understanding the air 

chemistry over the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. 

The Global Monitoring Division’s global network of people and infrastructure was rightly 

recognized at the Mauna Loa 50th celebration 

as a global treasure. 

This year’s Revelle Medal given to Pieter Tans 

by the American Geophysical Union is a testimony to the important science that he has 

done, but I’m sure Pieter would agree that it 

was due to the far flung observational assets 

as well as the advanced laboratories that a 

NOAA lab can command. The Global Systems 

Division’s leadership in computing has made 

possible a 20 percent improvement in tropical cyclone track accuracy, a result that was 

expected to take five years. Furthermore, the 

next generation of computing, use of Graphic 

Processor Units for geophysical models, has 

GSD at the forefront. 

The Physical Sciences Division has ESRL’s most 

diverse set of infrastructure, including its 

boundary layers and aircraft observing tools, 

its role in the network of Arctic observatories, 

and its important role in the operational test 

beds. PSD has played a leading role in the 

use of data to better understand weather and 

climate, and in the new role that NOAA will be 

playing in providing climate services.

The above examples illustrate the role that 

NOAA’s research laboratories fill. NOAA’s mission is significantly different from any other 

U.S. organization, public or private. If NOAA 

needs to understand the chemistry of some 

remote area, e.g., the stratosphere over the 

Antarctic, it must have the infrastructure to 

observe it, and the scientific and engineering 

talent to analyze and understand the story 

the data tell. In another of many possible 

examples, advancements in the complexities 

of a full spectrum of real-time atmospheric 

and oceanic data handling are unique to our 

discipline. NOAA’s research laboratories, each 

with a critical mass of scientists, engineers, and 

technical people who spend decades working 

with the unique infrastructure associated with 

a particular component of its mission, are the 

foundation of NOAA’s recognized leadership 

in oceanic and atmospheric science. At the 

AMS meeting, I was reminded of this often as I 

watched our science on display.

Nighttime lights in the Los 

Angeles Basin shine 10,000 

times less intensely than the 

Sun, but 25 times more than 

the full moon. That’s bright 

enough to trigger some 

unexpected chemistry. See 

“Night Lights” on page 1. 

—Alexander MacDonald

10,000
3

What do you wear in Antarctica?

Does taking a tree core hurt the tree?

What is a laser, anyway?

Several dozen middle school students from 

Longmont’s Trail Ridge Middle School peppered 

ESRL and other Boulder-area scientists with questions during hours of interviews last fall.

From those interviews and time in the field with 

scientists, student film companies stitched together short films, a few minutes long, which will 

be shown in a gala premier February 12, at the 

University of Colorado’s ATLAS Institute (Alliance 

for Technology, Learning and Society).

“This project was first and foremost about connecting diverse kids with science and scientists 

in a fun way,” said ESRL outreach specialist Carol 

Knight (Director’s Office), who was awarded a 

NOAA Preserve America grant last spring for the 

video program. “We did that.”

Earth Explorers was funded by NOAA, and implemented in collaboration with the Boulder History 

Museum, Trail Ridge Middle School, the National 

Center for Atmospheric Research, the National 

Ecological Observatory Network, and ATLAS.

The questions the students asked and the angles 

they chose for their movies reflect diverse and 

sometimes quirky interests. 

Students were fascinated with Mongolian chemist Munhk Baasandorj, for example, who works in 

ESRL’s Chemical Sciences Division. Her descriptions of family members living halfway across the 

world in Ulaanbaatar made the cut. So did a clip 

of the students playing with vapor from liquid 

nitrogen Baasandorj uses to cool her equipment. 

(An explanation about how she uses lasers to 

study atmospheric chemistry didn’t make it in.)

Some student teams injected themselves into 

their films, even mugging for the camera; others 

focused exclusively on their subject. Most teams 

spent a lot of time figuring out how to identify 

themselves: Fluffy Space Monkeys and Superview Productions, for example, and UFF (Unidentified Flying Films).

“We knew to anticipate the unanticipated stuff,” 

Knight said, laughing at some of the names. “The 

point was for them to have fun while learning 

something.” 

The students themselves – from economically 

and culturally diverse backgrounds – were effusive about the program.

“We worked with Bruce Bauer. He studies ancient 

climates,” said Emily, an 8th grade student at Trail 

Ridge, whose team interviewed the NOAA paleoclimate expert. 

“He told us about how he gets climate information, from tree cores, ice cores...” her team member, LaJessie, added.

“And coral cores. The coral cores were cool!” Emily 

said.

LaJessie, also in 8th grade, said she’s been interested in science for ages, but always imagined 

pursuing medical science. “This changed my perception,” she said of the Earth Explorers program. 

“I’m more open to other science fields.”

The students, their mentors and teachers spent 

dozens of hours on the project. October through 

December, the students met every school day for 

30 minutes before classes started with Trail Ridge 

science teacher and MESA coordinator Liz Sims. 

MESA, Math Engineering Science Achievement, 

is a program of the St. Vrain Valley School District, 

and it focuses on encouraging student interest 

and continued education in science. Earth Explorers staff, complemented by Sims’ and other 

Trail Ridge teachers’ expertise, met for an hour 

every Tuesday afternoon, and spent five fall Saturdays on video editing.

Jenn Glaser, who created and directed the Earth 

Explorers program, and Carolyn Wiley, director of 

video education, and other Trail Ridge teachers 

also worked with the students on interviewing, 

telling stories through video, and the architecture of a good story.

“We learned about plot, rising action, conclusions...” said 7th grader Cade, who worked with 

a team featuring retired NOAA satellite engineer 

Lorne Matheson. 

“We had a little trouble with our conclusion... 

so we ended up asking people what the world 

would be like if there were no satellites,” Cade 

said. 

“We wouldn’t know what Earth looks like,” said 

teammate Justin, an 8th grader. “We wouldn’t be 

able to predict the weather without them.” 

“Or have TV, or phones,” Cade added. 

One of the program’s strengths, Sims and Glaser 

said, was that it drew on the students’ unique 

strengths and interests. 

“Some kids were interested in the interviewing, 

animation, making their own music with Garage 

Band (a computer program)...” Sims said. 

“One kid kind of checked out during the scientist 

interviews, but he became obsessed with Garage 

Band, and very good at it,” Glaser said. “The most 

important thing was that they all felt empowered 

and proud, They took real ownership in their 

films.”

There will be no red carpet or Oscar-style designer gowns at the upcoming gala, said one 

student, with just a touch of disappointment. “It’s 

business casual,” she said. “That means professional, I guess.”

More: http://www.colorado.edu/atlas/earthexplorers/

Trail Ridge Earth Explorers test filming techniques. Photo 

by Jenn Glaser.

Young Students Film Scientists 

February gala to feature NOAA-funded Earth Explorers videos Caught on film 

“The work I get to do benefits everybody, the whole country,” marveled 

ESRL’s Tom LeFebrve (Global Systems 

Division). “I write computer software 

that helps forecasters do a better job 

of forecasting and helps them warn the 

public.” 

“I love the work I do for NOAA,” said 

ESRL’s Brian Vasel (Global Monitoring 

Division). “I think it’s very important 

and relevant to society... I couldn’t 

imagine doing anything else.” 
4

ESRL’s Russ Schnell and A.R. Ravishankara were 

among a few dozen U.S. scientists chosen to 

speak publically during international climate 

negotiations in Cancun, Mexico this fall. The 

two gave independent talks at the U.S. State 

Department-sponsored “U.S. Center” during 

negotiations of the 16th Conference of Parties 

(COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, in December. 

Ravishankara, Director of ESRL’s Chemical Sciences Division, discussed the intersection of air 

quality and climate change and win-win strategies to address both. Schnell, Deputy Director 

of ESRL’s Global Monitoring Division, spoke 

about the changing atmosphere and the importance of tracking greenhouse gases.

David Herring, Communications Director for 

NOAA’s Climate Program Office, said the two 

ESRL scientists did an excellent job describing 

how science can guide and inform international decision making. 

“Anytime you can get someone talking directly 

with a scientist who is good at communicating, well, that’s the best you can hope for,” said 

Herring, who helped organize programs at the 

U.S. Center. “The whole world doesn’t usually 

have access to world-class scientists like Russ 

and Ravi – but in this case they did. There they 

were on stage, speaking to the world about 

very important science, and they couldn’t have 

done any better.” 

The audience at the U.S. Center included 

members of the press, policy makers, staff 

from negotiating countries, non-government 

organization representatives, other researchers, and thousands more people who watched 

events online.

Ravishankara, Director of ESRL’s Chemical Sciences Division, spoke on a panel with NASA 

colleague Hanwant Singh; the two scientists 

highlighted knowledge gained during air 

quality field campaigns conducted over 

megacities in the last 20 years, including 

Mexico City and Los Angeles. Those and 

other studies have revealed how human activities can sometimes contribute to both air 

quality problems and climate change—and 

therefore how policies to deal with one can 

also help with the other. 

Although Ravishankara has served since 2007 

as co-chair of the scientific assessment panel 

of the Montreal Protocol, an international 

agreement to protect the ozone layer, this was 

his first participation in COP, he said. “I felt it 

was important to help show how science can 

identify win-win opportunities,” in which policies to deal with air quality also help mitigate 

climate change, and vice versa. Reducing emissions of soot (from inefficient fuel combustion) 

to protect human health, for example, may 

also mitigate the climate warming effects of 

the dark particles. 

Schnell, Deputy Director of ESRL’s Global 

Monitoring Division, spoke about steadily increasing amounts of carbon dioxide and other 

greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere, and 

the importance of international, cooperative 

programs to track and understand those gases. 

“Even if the negotiators weren’t going to come 

to any major agreement, the information exchange at the centers was terrific,” Schnell said. 

“There was so much good data flowing around 

... It’s important for the politicians to realize 

how many people are involved and concerned 

about climate.”

Herring agreed. “The U.S. Center represents 

the way in which the State Department communicates and projects an image and voice 

about the United States to the international 

community,” he said. With scientist panels and 

an interactive touch table computer on which 

visitors could explore U.S. climate-related 

activities, the U.S. delegation showed that 

“we’re at the table, contributing,” Herring said. 

“The story we told was that we’re committed 

to helping with international negotiations, to 

playing an active role in knowledge gathering, 

sharing data, tools, techniques...all to help 

guide and inform adaptation and mitigation 

decision making. Our story was heavily laced 

with science but in a way non-scientists could 

easily understand.”

More: http://www.connectsolutions.com/

cop16/

ESRL in Cancun 

Ravishankara, Schnell give key state-of-the science presentations

4

Russ Schnell in Cancun. Photo by David Herring, NOAA .

Steven Koch to Lead NSSL

Director of ESRL’s Global Systems Division will move to National Severe Storms Laboratory

From Craig Mclean, Acting Assistant Administrator for Oceanic and Atmospheric Research:

“I’m pleased to announce that we have selected Dr. Steven Koch as Director of the National 

Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, OK. 

Steve will begin his NSSL duties on April 24. 

Steve will lead a world-renowned laboratory 

with a research focus in weather radar, severe 

weather, hydrological models for water forecasting and management, and improving the 

way forecasters use weather models.

Steve began his career at NOAA in 2000 as 

Chief of the Forecast Research Division at the 

then-Forecast Systems Laboratory. The lab was 

merged into the Earth System Research Laboratory in 2006, and Steve became the acting director of the Global Systems Division the same 

year; the following year, he was named director. 

Steve’s early work history includes teaching 

meteorology at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, and conducting research as a 

meteorologist at NASA Goddard Space Flight 

Center in Greenbelt, MD. 

He earned his PhD from the University of Oklahoma in 1979, and earned his Master’s and 

bachelor’s degrees in meteorology from the 

University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis., in 1974 

and 1972 respectively. 

Please join me in congratulating Steve.

I also want to thank NSSL Deputy Director 

Kevin Kelleher for his work as acting NSSL 

Director since Jeff Kimpel retired last year, and 

Kurt Hondl, for his work as acting NSSL Deputy 

Director for Kevin.”
5

ESRL@SC10 

ESRL innovations, job fair at 

Supercomputing conference

Understanding Atmospheric Boundaries

International “DynVar” workshop focuses on the climate-relevant connections between the 

troposphere and stratosphere

Atmospheric researchers haven’t always 

crossed boundaries fluidly. There were those 

who focused on the troposphere, the layer of 

air down near Earth’s surface, where most of 

our weather phenomena occur and which has 

been warming. And those whose sights were 

set higher, in the stratosphere, where ozone 

depletion has been among the main events in 

recent decades. 

Increasingly, however, scientists understand 

that the connections between the troposphere 

and stratosphere are critical for understanding 

past climate changes, for forecasting seasonal 

climate and for projecting the future.

About 70 researchers from around the world 

gathered at NOAA’s Earth System Research 

Laboratory in Boulder, CO in early November, for the second Dynamics and Variability 

(DynVar) of the Stratosphere-Troposphere 

System. The workshop, which concentrated 

on modeling, was organized by ESRL’s Judith 

Perlwitz (also with the Cooperative Institute for 

Research in Environmental Sciences) and colleagues from the United States, Germany, and 

the UK. 

Researchers presented initial results or described experiments planned to clarify the relationship of the stratosphere to storm tracks, 

sea ice extent and circulation patterns such as 

El Niño-Southern Oscillation and North Atlantic Oscillation.

“We want to focus on the impact of the twoway stratosphere-troposphere coupling on 

mean climate, variability, and change,” Elisa 

Manzini (Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, 

Hamburg) said during an introduction to the 

workshop, which lasted three days.

ESRL’s Susan Solomon gave a keynote address 

suggesting that the audience members should 

look into the stratosphere. “I recommend investing yourself in stratospheric processes and 

their roles in climate,” Solomon said. “This is 

an amazing time to be working on the stratosphere.” 

Solomon drew upon some of her own recent 

research, which demonstrated that stratospheric changes in water vapor can help explain recent temperature changes at Earth’s 

surface.

Several speakers discussed now well-known 

work showing that the seasonal loss of stratospheric ozone in the Antarctic has amplified 

certain wind patterns, keeping the interior of 

the continent cold. In the future, ozone recovery, models show, will likely amplify Antarctic 

warming caused by the increase of greenhouse gases. 

And many speakers looked to the future, describing planned modeling experiments to extract the roles of the stratosphere on climate. 

Seasonal Forecast Models and Earth System 

Models are beginning to go “high-top,” meaning they stretch high enough in altitude to account for stratospheric dynamics.

DynVar participants agreed that careful comparisons of “high-top” and comparable “lowtop” models will be essential for determining 

whether including stratospheric processes will 

improve climate forecasts, from seasonal to 

decadal time scales. 

“If you want to predict regional rainfall 

changes you need extended models” said 

Makoto Deushi, who discussed “The role of 

stratospheric ozone on the medium-range 

weather forecast.” Deuishi suggested that the 

DynVar group gathered in Boulder should lay 

plans for a careful, multi-model comparison of 

high-top vs. low-top model results available 

through the Coupled Model Intercomparison 

Project (CMIP5). CMIP5 data include the results of climate models run in support of the 

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 

(IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report, expected in 

2013-2014.

The DynVAR 2 workshop was sponsored by 

NOAA’s Modeling, Analysis, Prediction and Projection (MAPP) Program, Stratospheric Processes and their Role in Climate (a core program of 

the World Climate Research Program), and the 

European integrating project COMBINE (Comprehensive Modelling of the Earth System for 

Better Climate Prediction and Projection). 

More: http://www.sparcdynvar.org/

NOAA researchers were involved in several 

technical presentations at SC10 this year, 

hosted a booth, and also participated in the 

job fair. 

Researchers discussed Graphics Processing 

Units and how to use the processors – 

designed to improve video games – in weather 

and climate modeling. They highlighted the 

NOAA Global Interoperability Project, and 

unveiled N-NEW, a next-generation, secure 

network to serve the weather and climate 

research community. 

This year’s conference drew more than 12,000 

attendees from across the country and 

internationally. Among the conference-goers 

were many students who swarmed the exhibit 

hall, handing out their resumes in search of 

internships and employment opportunities. 

ESRl’s Rhonda Lange (right) during the SC10 job fair. Photo 

by Will von Dauster, ESRL .
6

“Now we know that the atmosphere’s ability 

to rid itself of many pollutants is generally well 

buffered or stable,” said Montzka. “This fundamental property of the atmosphere was one 

we hadn’t been able to confirm before.”

His co-authors include Maarten Krol (University of Utrecht and Wageningen University in 

the Netherlands); Ed Dlugokencky and Bradley 

Hall (ESRL GMD); Patrick Jöckel (Max-PlanckInstitute for Chemistry in Mainz, Germany, 

and the Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre, 

Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany); and Jos Lelieveld 

(Max-Planck and the Cyprus Institute in Nicosia, Cyprus). 

The new finding adds confidence to projections of future air pollutant loads. The hydroxyl 

radical, comprised of one oxygen atom and 

one hydrogen atom, is formed and broken 

down so quickly in the atmosphere that it has 

been extremely difficult to measure on global 

scales.

“In the daytime, hydroxyl’s lifetime is about 

one second and it is present at exceedingly 

low concentrations,” said Montzka. “Once created, it doesn’t take long to find something to 

react with.”

The radical is central to the chemistry of the 

atmosphere. It is involved in the formation and 

breakdown of surface-level ozone, a lung- and 

crop-damaging pollutant. It also reacts with 

and destroys the powerful greenhouse gas 

methane and air pollutants including hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide. 

However, hydroxyl radicals do not remove 

carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide or chlorofluorocarbons.

To estimate variability in global hydroxyl levels 

– and thus the cleansing capacity of the atmosphere – researchers turned to studying longer-lived chemicals that react with hydroxyl.

The industrial chemical methyl chloroform, 

for example, is destroyed in the atmosphere 

primarily by hydroxyl radicals. By comparing 

levels of methyl chloroform emitted into the 

atmosphere with levels measured in the atmosphere, researchers can estimate the concentration of hydroxyl and how it varies from year 

to year.

This technique produced estimates of hydroxyl 

that swung wildly in the 1980s and 1990s. 

Researchers struggled to understand whether 

the ups and downs were due to errors in emissions estimates for methyl chloroform, for 

example, or to real swings in hydroxyl levels. 

The swings would be of concern: Large fluctuations in hydroxyl radicals would mean the 

atmosphere’s self-cleaning ability was very 

sensitive to human-caused or natural changes 

in the atmosphere.

To complicate matters, when scientists tried to 

measure the concentration of hydroxyl radical 

levels compared to other gases, such as methane, they were seeing only small variations 

from year to year. The same small fluctuation 

was occurring when scientists ran the standard 

global chemistry models.

An international agreement helped resolve 

the issue. In response to the Montreal Protocol 

– the international agreement to phase out 

chemicals that are destroying the Earth’s protective stratospheric ozone layer – production 

of methyl chloroform all but stopped in the 

mid-1990s. As a result, emissions of this potent 

ozone-depleting gas dropped precipitously.

Without the confounding effect of any appreciable methyl chloroform emissions, a more 

precise picture of hydroxyl variability emerged 

based on the observed decay of remaining 

methyl chloroform. The scientists studied hydroxyl radicals both by making measurements 

of methyl chloroform from NOAA’s international cooperative air sampling program and 

also by modeling results with state-of-the-art 

models.

The group’s findings improve confidence in 

projecting the future of Earth’s atmosphere.

“Say we wanted to know how much we’d 

need to reduce human-derived emissions of 

methane to cut its climate influence by half,” 

Montzka said. “That would require an understanding of hydroxyl and its variability. Since 

the new results suggest that large hydroxyl 

radical changes are unlikely, such projections 

become more reliable.”

Montzka and Lelieveld participated in a NOAA 

teleconference with journalists, the day the paper came out online. Stories appeared in many 

outlets, from AOL News and Discovery News to 

the New York Times and Dow Jones.

...from page 1: self-cleaning atmosphere

... from page 1: Night lights and pollution 

made during several nighttime flights in California last summer, part of the CalNex field 

campaign in California, to study the nexus of 

air quality and climate change. 

“We showed that city lights diminish the nighttime cleansing of the atmosphere,” Stark said, 

“and that could have an influence on what 

happens the next day,” in terms of air pollution.

Stark’s coauthors are Steve Brown, William 

Dubé, Nicholas Wagner, Thomas Ryerson, Illana 

Pollack, and David Parrish, all of CSD. 

In a typical air quality field campaign, scientists 

make masses of measurements during the day, 

when sunlight triggers interesting chemistry. 

Several of CSD’s recent field experiments have 

looked at new dimensions of the air quality 

issue by studying nighttime chemistry. CalNex 

involved several nighttime flights, although 

Stark wasn’t originally planning to participate. 

At Brown’s urging, Stark decided to pull a few 

all-nighters, re-calibrating a key instrument – 

designed to measure sunlight during the day 

– to pick up the faint intensity of city lights at 

night. 

He and his colleagues also used controlled 

ground-based measurements and chemical 

models to further understand the chemistry 

taking place in the Los Angeles (LA) Basin. 

“We measured light intensities 10,000 times 

dimmer than the Sun...but 25 times brighter 

than the full moon,” Stark said. His team also 

found evidence of the breakdown of nitrate 

radicals (NO3

). Nitrate typically helps cleanse 

the nighttime atmosphere by breaking down 

certain air pollutants. 

Sunlight quickly destroys NO3

, which is consequently at extremely low concentrations 

during the day. Stark and his colleagues determined that the nighttime glow of the LA Basin 

was intense enough to do some damage, reducing the nighttime cleansing activity of NO3

by as much as 7 percent. 

That, in turn, could leave more pollutants in 

the air overnight, the team calculated – as 

much as 5 percent more nitrogen dioxide, NO2

, 

in particular. NO2 is a key ingredient in the daytime formation of ozone, a regulated pollutant 

that can harm people’s lungs as well as crops 

and ecosystems. 

“Many cities are really close to their regulatory 

limits for ozone... so even a small effect like 

this could be important for those regulations,” 

Stark said.

Many media outlets covered the story following the AGU press conference, from the BBC to 

Nature and the Economist.
7

AMS Experiment 

ESRL researcher, colleagues set up equipment to measure human impact on meeting environment

Peggy LeMone, president of the American 

Meteorological Society (AMS), had an inspiration for this year’s annual conference. Since the 

theme was about communicating climate, she 

wanted an informal, real-time experiment run 

during the conference, to demonstrate how 

people affect the environment.

At the most basic level, people modify immediate surroundings simply by body heat and 

breathing. At another level, our buildings have 

great impact: to keep conditions comfortable 

indoors, most buildings must get rid of excess 

heat through HVAC (Heating, Ventilating, and 

Air Conditioning) systems. Collectively, buildings help make cities warmer than rural areas. 

LeMone asked meteorologists Dan Wolfe of 

ESRL’s Physical Sciences Division and Collin Daly 

of Campbell Scientific, both of them experts in 

creating and deploying meteorological instruments, to develop a monitoring system to measure room conditions and changes during AMS. 

“We’ve used similar monitoring systems for 

research experiments on land, ships and aircraft to study boundary layer and climate processes,” said Wolfe. Components for the indoor 

analysis system were provided by Vaisala and 

LICOR, integrated by Campbell Scientific, and 

tested by Wolfe and Daly.

LeMone also wanted to engage students attending the conference by involving them 

in the study. About 10 students volunteered, 

learning from Wolfe and Daly how to assemble 

equipment and monitor data. 

Two identical systems measured temperature, 

relative humidity, and CO2

 data at different 

locations throughout the convention center. 

Data were transmitted by cell phone in realtime to Campbell Scientific, and made available on the company’s website and via smart 

phone; all conference attendees had access. 

The system was first tested at the AMS exhibit 

during WeatherFest, an interactive science fair 

open to the public. “Students working in the 

booth enthusiastically explained to visitors 

how our system operated and our objective,” 

said Wolfe.

The primary monitoring location was at the 

Presidential Forum, with about 1,400 participants. Calculations before the event showed 

the potential for significant increases in temperature and CO2

 readings, not factoring in 

the HVAC. To make things more interesting, 

the HVAC system was discreetly turned off for 

25 minutes during the Forum. This was long 

enough to see a change in the data signal, 

without a major impact on people’s comfort. 

At the request of LeMone, Professor David 

Sailor of Portland State University gave a talk 

the next day at a Town Hall meeting on the 

“Impact of Human Occupancy at the 2011 AMS 

Annual Convention.” Sailor didn’t have much 

time to analyze the data before his talk, but as 

expected, CO2

 and temperature levels fluctuated as occupancy changed. When the HVAC 

was shut off, the temperature and CO2 level 

rose more rapidly – with CO2 reaching nearly 

1100 ppm (ambient atmospheric levels average about 390 ppm). 

“Neither CO2

 nor water vapor nor temperature rose as much as we thought it would,” 

said Sailor, “because the room was still in 

‘communication’ with other parts of the building and created suction.” The room wasn’t 

completely sealed off, allowing air to rush in 

through open doors and adjacent spaces, decreasing the expected impact.

At the end of the Presidential Forum, session 

surveys were handed out that included questions about room acoustics and temperature. 

More than 500 surveys were returned and are 

in the process of being collated and reviewed. 

Sailor said that thus far, there is a trend suggesting that the conference rooms tend to be 

too cool, which could mean wasted energy 

and money.

Sailor will attend a different conference at the 

same venue in the near future, and may revisit 

the experiment. In the coming months, he 

hopes to do a detailed analysis of the data and 

perhaps publish the results in the Bulletin of 

the American Meteorological Society.

Many conference attendees who Wolfe spoke 

with thought the experiment was a great idea. 

“We were able to accomplish more than initially anticipated, because of the efforts of all 

those involved,” said Wolfe.

—Barb DeLuisi

AMS WeatherFest. AMS photo.
8

Domestic air traffic delays 

cost the U.S. economy 

about $41 billion per year, 

according to the Congressional Joint Economic 

Committee... Two-thirds of 

commercial aviation delays 

could be prevented with 

better weather information, the FAA estimates.

Managing commercial air traffic is difficult 

enough without having to worry about 

weather. To keep increasing numbers of airplanes away from one another and on track, 

most air traffic controllers and managers rely 

on technologies, some of which are significantly less powerful 

than their own smart 

phones, said ESRL’s 

Lynn Sherretz (Global 

Systems Division, 

GSD). 

Add weather to the 

system, and air traffic management 

becomes an even 

greater challenge. If a 

thunderstorm threatens, for example, air 

traffic managers usually stop using computerized tools that 

normally help them 

efficiently line airplanes up for landing. 

“That system would 

produce solutions 

that could put planes 

right into storms,” 

Sherretz said. “This is 

an example of why 

weather needs to be integrated into these 

tools.”

So Sherretz and colleagues throughout GSD 

are helping to develop and test weatherrelated concepts for the Next Generation Air 

Transportation System (NextGen). NextGen is 

an executive and Congressionally mandated 

effort to significantly improve efficiency and 

safety in the skies by 2025, when air traffic is 

expected to at least double . ESRL’s work is 

in collaboration with many other organizations and federal agencies, from NASA and 

the National Center for Atmospheric Research 

to NOAA’s National Weather Service, the U.S. 

Department of Transportation, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln 

Laboratory.

GSD’s role

GSD’s responsibilities within NextGen revolve 

around weather information research and 

development, said Sherretz, the division’s 

NextGen program manager. This includes 

developing and testing concepts for producing, displaying, and verifying meteorological 

observations and forecasts, and tools for 

standardizing and quickly sharing such data 

through Internet technologies.

The overall goal, he said, is to deliver timely 

and accurate weather information, whenever 

and wherever needed, to those managing 

the U.S. airspace, to improve efficiency and 

absorb predicted increases in traffic. More 

reliable or consistent forecasts, for example, 

might prevent an airline from unnecessarily 

loading airplanes with enough extra fuel to 

get to an alternative destination—a costly 

precaution that’s mandated if visibility at the 

destination terminal is predicted to 

be poor.

Right now, weather information is 

widely distributed, 

not standardized 

for accessibility, 

often not detailed 

enough to be useful, and sometimes 

even contradictory. In part, that’s 

because various 

weather products 

were developed 

for different users 

(e.g., public and 

aviation operations), or because 

regulations have 

led to diverse 

weather products 

that are not always 

consistent.

“At any given time, several different organizations may be all putting out information on 

the same weather event,” said GSD’s Darien 

Davis, NOAA’s Research and Development 

Coordinator for NexGen. “There are warning 

products, meteorological impact statements, 

the collaborative convective forecast... ” 

Davis said. “And guess what: What comes out 

of one office isn’t always the same as what 

comes out of another. So that leaves folks in 

aviation wondering what to believe.”

That lack of consistency is a major problem 

for air traffic managers, who must often act 

upon the most conservative forecasts—the 

ones most likely to cause delays.

A single, authoritative source

A major part of the NextGen weather effort, therefore, is to produce what has been 

termed the “Single Authoritative Source,” or 

SAS, Davis and Sherretz said. The SAS is envisioned as the single best forecast at any given 

place and time for any given aviation operation. A policy has already been established 

that the Federal Aviation Administration must 

use the SAS; other aviation operators may use 

it if they choose.

This could mean, for example, the best forecast for enroute airspace, complete with 

statistical information about the likelihood of 

certain events, say icing or hail formation. Or 

it might be real-time information about turbulence, relayed by aircraft in the sky.

Either way, observations and forecasts must 

be conveyed along networks in accessible 

formats, so they can be quickly ingested by 

many different systems, including decision 

support tools used in air traffic management. 

Those data will also find a home in a virtual 

repository that includes access tools—the socalled “4-D Weather Cube” (three dimensions 

of space plus time). 

The NWS plans to release a request for proposals, for companies interested in building 

the Cube (also known as the Weather Information Database), Sherretz said. The contractor will be responsible for the hardware and 

software involved in data services and management, and with the NWS, GSD will work 

closely with the contractor, testing architecture, speed, accuracy, and other components. 

Early testing and data

Weather data and predictions are so critical 

to aviation operations that some of NextGen’s 

first tasks deal with weather data exchange. 

A key initial goal is for NOAA and FAA to 

exchange meteorological observations and 

forecasts using standard data services and 

standard product formats. 

Last fall, an experiment run from the FAA’s 

William J. Hughes Technical Center (WJHTC) in 

Atlantic City, NJ, showed early success. NOAA 

and the FAA ran a “capability evaluation,” 

demonstrating they could share meteorological data in standard formats along secured 

networks. 

GSD researchers are also working on verification systems, to understand the skill of various types of forecasts and tools, including 

the value added by human forecasters. Understanding skill and accuracy will be critical 

for helping NextGen managers decide what 

forecast models, data, and data assimilation 

systems should be part of the future aviation 

weather system.

“GSD researchers are excited about contributing advanced weather-related capabilities to 

enhance the efficiency of tomorrow’s national 

airspace system,” Sherretz said. 

Last year, a series of severe winter storms walloped the Eastern Seaboard, paralyzing air 

travel in the region, Davis said. 

“Those storms were very well predicted, and 

many airports even closed down ahead of 

time,” she said “That’s because we were all 

spot on and we were all consistent... That’s 

how it should work, but it’s not always the 

case.” NextGen, she and her colleagues said, 

should make such successes increasingly 

common.

Now Boarding...Weather!

ESRL scientists seek to improve aviation efficiency by developing highly accurate and timely weather 

information for integration into air traffic management operations 
9

...from page 1: snow affects climate

of ESRL’s Physical Sciences Division.

With a warming climate threatening to reduce 

snow cover, Alexander and colleagues from 

the National Center for Atmospheric Research 

wanted to find out how the various effects of 

snow cover might affect Earth’s atmosphere.

The researchers started by extracting snow 

cover information from a fully coupled climate 

model (the Community Climate System Model 

CCSM3) that included changes in greenhouse 

gases. They pulled data from two periods: one 

at the end of the 20th century (1980-1999 

“control”), and the other at the end of the 21st 

century (2080-2099 “perturbation.”) 

Then, the team ran a land-atmosphere model 

using the two very different snow cover patterns that emerged (there was more snow in all 

seasons in the “control” than the “perturbation” ).

“We used our computer as a lab,” said Alexander, “so that we could isolate what happens to 

the land and the atmosphere when only the 

snow changes.”

He and his colleagues found that Eurasia 

and North America warmed by 1-3°C in the 

21st century due to less snow cover, which 

increased the amount of solar radiation absorbed by the Earth’s surface. The largest 

changes occurred in the fall and spring when 

there is more direct sunlight and the ground 

heats more rapidly where the snow cover decreases. 

In a complementary study that focused on 

the effects of shrinking sea ice, surface temperature changed by as much as 10°C, but 

only in a narrow band ringing the Arctic Circle. 

This study showed that snow cover may have 

a wider impact, extending over most of the 

Northern Hemisphere continents. 

The warming due to the loss of snow was not 

confined to the surface, either. The temperature structure, or stability of the atmosphere, 

influences how much heat reaches up into 

the atmosphere. The temperature structure 

is more stable in the fall than in the spring, so 

warming extends further into the atmosphere 

during May than in November. 

Snow cover can also influence atmospheric 

circulation, including the strength and position of highs and lows, said Alexander. The 

circulation changes due to snow cover were 

fairly modest, but tended to involve lower 

pressure above areas of lost snow cover. 

Findings were published in the Journal of Climate on December 2, 2010, and highlighted 

by Nature in October 2010.

—Barb DeLuisi

There was a chill in the air the last day of November; a reminder that severe winter weather 

and all of its perils are just around the corner. 

But it’s a comfort to know that some of the 

brightest minds in weather forecasting research 

and technology gathered in Boulder, CO with 

the goal of making better forecasts to make air 

traffic run more smoothly, even in the face of increasing numbers of flights. More than 100 participants from government agencies, the private 

sector, and academia spent two and a half days 

discussing the research necessary to reach that 

goal, targeting the area of 2-6-hr convection.

The meeting—coordinated and hosted by organizers from NASA, NOAA, NCAR, and the FAA—

addressed critical issues in numerical weather 

prediction, from observational needs, testbeds, 

and demonstrations to forecasting of convection, ceiling and visibility, turbulence, in-flight 

icing, volcanic ash, and other factors. 

Darien Davis of ESRL’s Global Systems Division, 

GSD, worked with her colleagues to put together a comprehensive agenda that included 

several presentations from GSD. John Murray, 

NASA’s lead coordinator for the conference, said 

meeting participants were focused on the 4-D 

Weather Cube, a virtual database of weather 

observations and forecasts that will serve the 

reinvented U.S. air traffic management system 

envisioned by NextGen. “This meeting, he said, 

should help us from a science standpoint to 

address the path forward for aviation weather 

in the NextGen 4-D data cube with a strong appreciation for the end user in mind.”

Workshop participants from government, business, and academia talked about what research 

is needed to fill gaps in understanding and 

bridge research and operations. Dan Hartung, 

for example, from CIMSS/SSEC (a NOAA/Univeristy of Madison cooperative institute) develops 

satellite algorithms with a convection focus. “It’s 

in my interest to see which pieces are still unaddressed that operational forecasters would like 

to see developed and implemented,” Hartung 

said. “Through meetings like this we can assure 

that there isn’t too much overlapping of redundant research conducted.” He will personally apply the knowledge gained from this meeting by 

adding and or shifting focus as he refines and 

optimizes algorithms.

Companies such as Northrup Grumman and 

Vaisala, Inc. sent representatives because their 

research and systems support the aviation community or serve various weather models. They 

came to investigate the scientific community’s 

longer-term plans and how those will integrate 

into NextGen. 

Murray and other organizers anticipate that 

the next meeting, planned for the week of November 14, 2011, will be driven by user needs 

and the science related to those needs. Next 

year’s meeting could include demonstrations 

of “tabletop scenarios”. Operational forecasters 

might, for example, present a realistic scenario; 

a severe weather event that could disrupt air 

traffic. From there, researchers could move it 

into the science that would support the forecasters’ needs and inform developers how best 

to use their science.

More: http://esrl.noaa.gov/gsd/research/events/

nov2010/ 

—Annie Reiser

Building the NextGen 4-D Data Cube

The second annual Interagency Weather Research Review and Coordination Meeting 

Interagency Weather Research Review and Coordination Meeting. Photo by Annie Reiser.
10

More news, 

publications, and 

honors from NOAA’s 

Earth System 

Research Laboratory

Melting permafrost, crumbling ground. CIRES photo.

Atmospheric Rivers by UAS

ESRL researchers and colleagues at NASA 

and other institutions are using unmanned 

aircraft to study “rivers in the sky” during the 

Winter Storms and Pacific Atmospheric Rivers, or WISPAR, field campaign that began 

February 11. The focus of the research is to 

improve our understanding of how atmospheric rivers form and behave, and to evaluate the operational use of unmanned aircraft 

for investigating these phenomena. Atmospheric rivers are narrow regions in the atmosphere that transport large amounts of water 

vapor across the Pacific and other regions. 

More: http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2011/20110210_atmosphericrivers.html

Achievement

Ozone Assessment Out

The ozone layer – the thin atmospheric 

band that protects living things on Earth 

from the Sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays – 

faces potential new challenges even as it 

continues to repair from earlier damage, according to a new Ozone Assessment released 

in January. The WMO and the UN produce 

the international science assessment every 

four years; A.R. Ravishankara, (CSD Director) 

serves as co-chair, and many other ESRL 

staff are deeply involved. More: http://www.

unep.ch/ozone/Assessment_Panels/SAP/

Scientific_Assessment_2010/index.shtml 

Permafrost’s Warm Future 

One- to two-thirds of Earth’s permafrost 

will disappear by 2200, unleashing vast 

quantities of carbon into the atmosphere, 

says a Tellus study by researchers at the CIRES 

National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), 

with ESRL co-author Lori Bruhwiler (Global 

Monitoring Division).

“The amount of carbon released is equivalent to half the amount of carbon that has 

been released into the atmosphere since the 

dawn of the industrial age,” said NSIDC scientist Kevin Schaefer. “That is a lot of carbon.”

More: http://cires.colorado.edu/

NACHTT at Night

ESRL scientists and colleagues from Boulder and across the country are gathering at 

NOAA’s tall tower in Erie, CO for a monthlong study of the chemistry of the wintertime atmosphere, which they hope will shed 

light on some scientific mysteries. 

The central question they will tackle: 

Exactly why and how does a compound usually associated with the atmosphere near 

oceans – nitryl chloride – also form during 

the winter nighttime in land-locked regions 

such as the foothills of the Rocky Mountains?

The questions are important to answer 

because of the implications for both climate 

and air quality. Nitryl chloride breaks apart 

quickly as the Sun rises to release chlorine 

atoms, which can affect greenhouse gases 

and contribute to smog formation.

“Nighttime formation of nitryl chloride is 

a gateway to forming more highly reactive 

chlorine atoms,” says Steve Brown, the scientist at ESRL who is leading the study in Erie. 

“It changes the atmosphere’s starting point 

for the next day.”

Brown and colleagues first observed the 

phenomenon three years ago while testing 

instruments in Boulder in preparation for an 

experiment in the Arctic. More on NACHTT 

(Nitrogen, Aerosol Composition, and Halogens on a Tall Tower): http://esrl.noaa.gov/

csd/tropchem/2011NACHTT/

New Tool

The NOAA machine shop, open for use 

by all staff associated with the Boulder 

Department of Commerce campus, has a 

new computer-controlled milling machine. 

The machine is a multi-axis, 30”x16” Fadal 

CNC milling center. More information: Kevin 

Knott, 303-497-6268, kevin.d.knott@noaa.

gov.

News in Brief

Science Games Summit

ESRL’s Erick Hackathorn (Global Systems 

Division) co-organized NOAA’s “Games and 

Simulation Summit” in Silver Spring, Md. in 

January. Representatives from 10 federal 

agencies, universities and science centers 

met to discuss the value and future of using 

games and simulations to foster understanding. A full story, from the NOAA Ocean Service, is here: http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/

news/weeklynews/jan11/games-summit.

html

A simulated oil rig. In one game designed to teach 

about NOAA, players try to prevent an oil spill. NOAA 

image.
11

Reanalysis Published

From the hurricane that smashed into 

New York in 1938 to the impact of the 

Krakatoa eruption of 1883, the late 19th 

and 20th centuries are rich with examples 

of extreme weather. Now an international 

team of climatologists have created a comprehensive reanalysis of all global weather 

events from 1871 to the present day, and 

from Earth’s surface to the jet stream level.

The 20th Century Reanalysis Project, outlined in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal 

Meteorological Society, not only allows 

researchers to understand the long-term 

impact of extreme weather, but provides 

key historical comparisons for our own 

changing climate.

“Producing this huge data set required 

an international effort to collate historical 

observations and recordings from sources 

as diverse as 19th century sea captains, 

turn of the century explorers and medical 

doctors, all pieced together using some of 

the world’s most powerful supercomputers 

at the US Department Energy’s National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center 

in California and the Oak Ridge Leadership 

Computing Facility in Tennessee,” said lead 

author Gil Compo, from ESRL’s Physical Sciences Division. 

More from the publisher: http://www.wiley.

com/WileyCDA/PressRelease/pressReleaseId-90037.html

Published 

ESRL’s peer-reviewed publications are 

available in a searchable database:

http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/search/pubs/

Division publication pages:

GMD: www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/publications/

PSD: www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/pubs/

CSD: www.esrl.noaa.gov/csd/pubs/

GSD: www.esrl.noaa.gov/gsd/publications/

Honors

Pieter Tans 

Jim Churnside (CSD) won the 2011 

George W. Goddard award from SPIE, the 

international society for optics and photonics. Churnside was lauded for “creativity 

and leadership in developing and advancing the airborne fish lidar technique, and 

for wide-ranging contributions to optical propagation in the atmosphere and 

ocean.” 

Bill Cushman (GMD) was named the 

NOAA Research Employee of the Year, for 

personal and professional excellence. The 

award is granted to an individual or team 

who has demonstrated the preeminence 

of NOAA Research with “initiative, commitment, effort, and competence.”

Upcoming in Boulder:

• April 22: CIRES Rendezvous 

science symposium, 

Millennium Harvest House 

Hotel

• May 17-18: Global 

Monitoring Annual 

Conference, David Skaggs 

Research Center

Sean Davis (CSD) co-authored a paper 

that won a 2010 Alan Berman Research 

Publication Award from the Naval Research 

Laboratories. The paper, “Directly Measured 

Heating Rates of a Tropical Subvisible Cirrus 

Cloud,” was published in the Journal of Geophysical Research last year. 

Russell Schnell (GMD) was awarded a 

NOAA Distinguished Career Award, one 

of the highest honors that can be granted 

by the NOAA Administrator. Schnell was 

recognized “for exemplary vision and 

leadership of the laboratory and baseline 

observatory network throughout nineteen 

years of service to NOAA.” 

Bill Cushman

Renewable Support

ESRL’s Betsy Weatherhead (Global Systems Division) and Melinda Marquis (Director’s Office) are helping NOAA provide the 

data, knowledge and technology for accelerating renewable energy development.

Weatherhead co-chaired a panel at the 

December American Geophysical Union 

meeting. Marquis led a town hall meeting 

at the January American Meteorological 

Society Meeting. 

Feature: http://www.research.noaa.gov/ 

Reaching Teachers

ESRL’s Debra Daily-Fisher (Chemical 

Sciences Division) led NOAA’s outreach 

effort during the 2010 Colorado Science 

Conference, an annual professional development event of the Colorado Association 

of Science Teachers (CAST). About 800 

teachers attended the conference, and that 

included educators from every level—kindergarten through university, said Theresa 

Hemming, the Exhibits Chair of the Colorado Science Conference. Daily-Fisher and 

other ESRL outreach specialists handed out 

classroom materials for teachers, referred 

them to NOAA education websites, and answered questions. More NOAA educational 

resources: http://esrl.noaa.gov/outreach/

education.html and http://www.education.noaa.gov/

Susan Solomon (CSD) was selected to 

give one of two inaugural Kavli Foundation lectures, part of the foundation’s new 

“Innovations in Chemistry” program. Solomon will deliver her lecture in August, at 

the ACS meeting in Denver.

Pieter Tans (GMD) was awarded the 

Roger Revelle Medal at the 2010 fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union 

(AGU) in San Francisco. AGU recognized 

Tans for his work “expanding our understanding of the global carbon cycle and 

raising awareness for climate change.” 
12

Earth System Research Laboratory

325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80305

http://www.esrl.noaa.gov

ESRL Quarterly Editor: Katy Human, katy.g.human@noaa.gov

Photographer: Will von Dauster

Other Contributors: Barb DeLuisi, Chris Ennis, Jana Goldman, Linda Joy, Carol Knight, 

Jane Palmer, Annie Reiser, Lynn Sherretz

www.esrl.noaa.gov/news/quarterly 

ESRL Leadership

Alexander MacDonald, Director

John Schneider, Deputy Director for Research

Donald Mock, Deputy Director for Administration

A.R. Ravishankara, Chemical Sciences Division Director

James Butler, Global Monitoring Division Director

Steven Koch, Global Systems Division Director

William Neff, Physical Sciences Division Director

At NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory, we observe, understand, and predict the Earth system through 

research that advances NOAA’s environmental information and services, from minutes to millennia on global to local 

scales. ESRL’s partners are the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. 

Students from Trail Ridge Middle School in Longmont visit the National Center for Atmospheric Research as part of a NOAA-funded 

“Earth Explorers” program. Student “film companies” created short features about Boulder scientists, including a few from ESRL. More on page 3.

Photo by Jenn Glaser