News Briefs

Comings and goings

Pankaij Agrawal (CIMMS) will work with NSSL scientists studying algorithms used to analyze lightning mapping data. He is a first year graduate student.

Linda Foster has joined NSSL as a new Administrative Service Assistant.

Kristin Kuhlman (CIMMS) will be working with Conrad Ziegler, Jerry Straka (OU), Ted Mansell, and Don MacGorman on the storm electrification model. She is working toward her master's degree at OU.

Tracy Reinke is the new CIMMS Financial Associate and is managing all funding related to CIMMS activities at all NOAA units.

International visitors

Dr. Pao-Liang Chang from Taiwan will be working with NSSL to help refine QPE-SUMS so that it is better suited for tropical environment. He has experience with the automated detection and estimation of rainfall rates associated with typhoons.

Dr. Nikolai Dotzek from Germany will be visiting for three months working with Bob Rabin using QPE-SUMS as a framework for their research. His previous work focused on the variability of vertical profiles of reflectivity from a modeling perspective.

Clair Thomas is doing an internship through the University of France working with Bob Rabin and V. Lakshmanan on radar filtering.

John Freddy Mejia from Medellin, Colombia is working on PACS-SONET related activities this summer with Mike Douglas. He has a M.S. in Water Resources from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (Medellin).

National Severe Weather Workshop

Severe weather experts from around the U.S. gathered in Norman, OK, to discuss their latest research and forecasting techniques during the National Severe Weather Workshop held March 1-3, 2002.

Last year the workshop was an overwhelming success, attracting more than 200 attendees from 20 different states. During the 2002 workshop, severe weather experts from across the nation presented the latest techniques for severe weather preparedness and response. Speakers included National Weather Service leadership, broadcast meteorologists and emergency managers, as well as forecasters and researchers from NWS offices and the NOAA Weather Partners in Norman.

The workshop was designed for emergency managers, storm spotters and other weather enthusiasts and was sponsored by NOAA, SPC, the Central Oklahoma Chapter of the AMS/National Weather Association and the Oklahoma Emergency Managers Association. The workshop will be held next year from March 2-4, 2003.

AUITI (Acronyms Used In This Issue)

CIMMS - Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies
FAA - Federal Aviation Administration
GOES - Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite
NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
NSF - National Science Foundation
NSSL- National Severe Storms Laboratory
NWS - National Weather Service
OU - University of Oklahoma
QPE-SUMS - Quantitative Precipitation Estimation Using Multiple Sensors
REU - Research Experience for Undergraduates
SPC - Storm Prediction Center
SMART-R- Shared Mobile Atmospheric Research and Teaching Radar
WSR-88D - Weather Surveillance Radar - 88 Doppler, same as NEXRAD