News Briefs

Comings and goings

Michael Buban (CIMMS) is working with Conrad Ziegler to analyze multiple mobile ground-based Doppler radar and in-situ data obtained during the IHOP field phase this past May and June. He is working towards his master's degree at the University of Oklahoma (OU).

Melissa Bukovsky will be working with Jack Kain on convective parameterization as she pursues her master's degree at OU.

Kevin Manross is a new CIMMS Research Associate working with the Severe Weather Warning and Applications Technology Transfer Group - NWS group within the Warning Research and Development Division.

Nusrat Yussouf (CIMMS) is working for Forecast Research and Development / Models and Assimilation Team as a Research Associate on the NOAA New England Forecasting Pilot Program: High Resolution Temperature and Air Quality.

Janelle Janish (CIMMS) has moved to Houston. Janelle's research led to improved severe weather detection algorithms and applications for the WSR-88D.

International Visitors

Three visitors from Paraguay, two from Bolivia and two from Peru are working to prepare a document that describes aspects of the weather and climate of the Chaco and Altiplano regions of South America as part of a USAID funded activity.

Dr. Milton Speer, from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, is visiting NSSL via a National Research Council (NRC) postdoctoral appointment. For the next several months he will be working with Dave Stensrud on ensemble forecasting applications to heavy rainfall events.

Awards and honors

NSSL's John Daugherty was made a Fellow of the National Association of Environmental Professionals (NAEP) at the end of June. This was the third Fellow award in the 27-year history of the NAEP.

Zhongqi Jing (CIMMS) was the NOAA Team Member of the Month in September. His research and work were a crucial contribution to the ORPG (Open System Radar Products Generator) Project. Jing's team was responsible for establishing the software architecture and design of the ORPG to replace a component of the WSR- 88D system designed in the mid-1980's.

Kevin Scharfenberg, a former graduate student and now full time employee as a CIMMS Research Associate was awarded "Outstanding student poster presentation" at the Severe Local Storms Conference for his poster entitled "Polarimetric radar observations of a downburst-producing thunderstorms during STEPS."

Valerie McCoy (CIMMS) received Honorable Mention for her student poster presentation entitled "Using a GIS to Compare the May 3, 1999 Oklahoma City Tornado Damage Path to WSR-88D Signatures."

NSSL sponsors European Conference on Severe Storms

NSSL was an official sponsor of the third annual European Conference on Severe Storms (ECSS), held from August 26-30 in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Eight scientists from NSSL/CIMMS spoke at the conference. Three scientists from NSSL/CIMMS conducted a workshop the week before the conference for operational forecasters on eastern European convective weather.