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NCAR Summer Colloquium
"Atmospheric Remote Sensing Using the Global Positioning System (GPS)"
Field Trip Participants: Japan and Taiwan, July 3-14, 2004
Last Updated: June 15th, 2004
Student Participants
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Jennifer Abernethy
My name is Jennifer Abernethy. I am a PhD student in Computer Science at the University of Colorado at Boulder. For the past year I have worked as a research assistant under Dr. Liz Bradley,Dr. Ken Anderson, and Dr. Marek Zreda (U.Arizona) on iCronus, an intelligent cosmogenic nuclide dating toolkit. I also work at NCAR as a student assistant, part-time during the school year and full-time during the summers. At NCAR, I assist in the development of the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) mesoscale model. My interests include mesoscale modeling, data assimilation and grid computing.
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Erick Adame
Hello! My name is Erick Adame. I am finishing my senior year at Oneonta State College located in beautiful central New York State. In just a few short months I'll finally have my B.S. in Meteorology with a minor in Mathematics. For the past two summers I have been a protégé in the Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric Research and Science (SOARS®) program. I have the great privilege of working on research this summer with the COSMIC project. I am anxious to further my understanding of the many advantages remote sensing may have in improving operational forecasts. My main interests are explosive cyclogenesis events off the east coast of the United States as well as tropical cyclones.
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Kelly Amundsen
I am currently a graduate student at the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio where I work with the Polar Meteorology Group of the Byrd Polar Research Center. My primary research interests are mesoscale dynamics and remote sensing. I received my undergraduate degree last spring from OSU in Atmospheric Sciences.
I began my undergraduate college experience as a music history major at a conservatory of music in Cleveland, Ohio, the city in which I was born and raised. I made a good decision in changing focus to the sciences, but music remains one of my primary off-time indulgences. To that list of favorite indulgences I must add reading, knitting, and eating chocolate.
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Michael Duda
Hello, my name is Michael Duda. Currently, I am working to complete my MS
and BS in computer science at the University of Colorado as part of a
concurrent degree program. My thesis work is on the use of flows in
undirected graphs to optimally solve a class of scheduling problems.
However, I am employed as a student assistant in the Mesoscale and
Microscale Meteorology Division at NCAR where I do software engineering
work primarily related to mesoscale weather prediction. One of the
projects that I am involved with is the Antarctic Mesoscale Prediction
System, which is concerned with forecasting over the Antarctic region. As
observations are sparse over the Antarctic continent, we have a strong
interest in new sources for observations, such as RO soundings. Aside from
weather prediction, I am interested in graph algorithms and numerical
optimization. I look forward to meeting you all in June!
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Wallace Hogsett
I grew up in Dallas, Texas, and completed my undergraduate degree in
meteorology (2003) at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. I am currently in College Park, Maryland, pursuing a PhD in
meteorology while learning how to numerically model
tropical cyclones and understand the energetics of such storms. For my
entire life, I have been intrigued by the severe
weather phenomena (supercells, tropical cyclones, etc.) that do so much
damage to life and property, yet remain elusive forecast goals. Storm
chasing (not much anymore, now that I live in Maryland), running, tennis,
fishing, hunting, traveling, friends, and family take up any time
that is not spent studying the weather.
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Brent Laabs
Hi everyone. I'm Brent Laabs, a student at the University of California,
Davis. I'm currently finishing up my undergraduate work in atmospheric
science and I will be starting my graduate studies at Davis in January. As
a lifelong resident of California, I am interested in improving forecasts
through data assimilation, especially over oceans. I plan to use the WRF
model to investigate COSMIC data on the mesoscale, hopefully leading to
improved forecasts in coastal regions. I've travelled extensively in the
Western United States, and I enjoy camping in national parks. The trip to
Asia will give me a great chance to add to my map collection, and I'm
looking forward to meeting you all.
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Ronald Mastaler
I was born and grew up in Brattleboro, Vermont, but moved to Arizona to
study astronomy, because it was less expensive to study at the University
of Arizona (UA) as an out-of-state student, than in Vermont as in-state.
After several study trips to the USSR, I completed a bachelors degree in
Mathematics and Russian language at the UA. I spent a year in the Peace
Corps in Malaysia as a mathematics teacher, then returned to the UA to get
an M.A. in Russian language and literature. Not wanting to leave Tucson
to work for the CIA (the only work for Russian majors at the time), I got
a computer programming job at the Lunar and Planetary Lab (at the UA),
where I worked for 10 years in various capacities. During this time, I
started to learn to fly gliders, which is how my existing interest in
meteorology started to grow. Skipping to the nineties, I decided to
regain my Russian knowledge and worked variously as a group leader for
study trips to Russia, a Russian language coach for one movie, and a
Russian interpreter for arms control inspections under the INF and START
treaties. After three years of continuous work in this latter career (and
several shorter-term trips to Russia), I had sufficient funds to return to
the university and study atmospheric sciences. After about a year of
remedial (mainly physics and atmospheric courses) study, I was accepted
into the masters program at the UA. I received my M.S. in 2002. After a
5-month work-trip in Russia, to replenish my funds, I returned to work at
the UA with Rob Kursinski.
[BTW, the photo is near the former Checkpoint Charlie, between the former
East and West Berlin.]
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Dione Rossiter
Hi! My name is Dione Rossiter but you can call me Dee. I have just one more semester at the University of California Berkeley and am majoring in Atmospheric Science. I am a second year protégé for the Significant Opportunities for Atmospheric Research and Science (SOARS) program at UCAR. This is also my second summer working for UCAR/COSMIC under the direction of Bill Kuo, Christian Rocken, and Bill Schreiner. Last year my research was entitled "Comparison between GPS radio occultation and radiosonde sounding data." I am looking forward to further developing my understanding in GPS remote sensing through my research project this summer, the colloquium, and the field trip to Japan and Taiwan. Can't wait to meet you all!
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Andy Snyder
Hi! My name is Andy Snyder and I will begin my second year of the Master's program at Purdue University this fall. I received my Bachelor's degree in atmospheric science from Purdue in May 2002. While I've always been fascinated with the practical utilization of satellite observations in studying weather, my interests in GPS meteorology were heightened after taking a satellite remote sensing course last spring. I am currently working on a NASA-funded project with my advisor, Jennifer Haase, and we will be using GPS integrated water vapor (IWV) data in a statistical comparison with MODIS precipitable water vapor (PWV) measurements from Terra and Aqua. Our ultimate goal is to estimate the accuracy of MODIS data so that we may assimilate both PWV and eventually Level-1 measurements into the WRF model, in hopes of improving forecasts of precipitation and storm intensification. We are currently working on a case study of Hurricane Lili, but we also hope to carry out studies of other tropical and extratropical storms that have affected coastal regions of North America. MODIS data are particularly useful in regions such as the Gulf Coast and Pacific Northwest where information regarding PWV over oceans is sparse. I look forward to meeting all of you this summer. See you soon!
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Mei Xu
Hi, my name is Mei Xu and you can call me May. I am currently a Project Scientist I at the Research Applications Program of NCAR. Previously I studied Physics in college, and Meteorology in graduate school. I graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a M.S. and Ph.D. My research interests include radar data assimilation, mesoscale modeling, and ensemble forecasting. I am looking forward to learning more about GPS remote sensing and exploring the feasibility of applying the observations in mesoscale data assimilation systems.
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Staff Participants
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Bill Kuo
Hi, My name is Bill Kuo. I graduated from the National Taiwan University in 1976, got my M.S. degree from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in 1979, and received my Ph.D. from the Pennsylvania State University in 1983. I have been working at NCAR/UCAR since then. I am a senior scientist at NCAR, serving as the Head of the Mesoscale Prediction Group of the Microscale and Mesoscale Meteorology Division. Our group, which consist of ~20 staff, is responsible for the development and research applications of the MM5 model and the WRF model. I am also the Director of the COSMIC (Constellation Observing Systems for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate) Project at UCAR. The goal of COSMIC is to launch a constellation of six satellites, which will collect approximately 2,500 GPS radio occultation soundings per day, uniformly distributed around the globe. This is an exciting project, as we believe COSMIC will have a significant impact on operational weather prediction, climate analysis, and ionospheric research. My research interests include: Mei-yu (Chinese words for "plum rain") fronts, hurricanes, extratropical cyclones, mesoscale convective systems, mesoscale numerical weather prediction, and assimilation of remote sensing observations. In 1987, I served as the US Project Director for the Taiwan Area Mesoscale Experiment. In that experiment, we brought NOAA research aircraft and NCAR Doppler radar to Taiwan to study the Mei-yu front and mesoscale convective systems. Since then, I have developed many collaborative research projects with scientists in Taiwan, China, and Korea.
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Christian Rocken
Christan Rocken is chief scientist for UCAR's COSMIC (Constellation Observing
System for Meteorology Ionsophere and Climate) program and directs the
ground based GPS meteorology research activities at UCAR. He is one of the
pioneers that first applied high accuracy GPS data to atmospheric sensing
from the ground, and was a co-investigator of the GPS/MET radio occultation
proof-of-concept mission. He conducted his undergraduate studies
at the University of Cologne , Germany and came to the US as a Fulbright scholar
to later receive his PhD in geophysics from the University of Colorado. Today Dr. Rocken
is working on many aspects of the COSMIC mission with emphasis on
the real-time COSMIC data analysis system. He conducts
research on new ground based application of GPS atmospheric sensing, and serves
as President of GPS Solutions, a small consulting firm in Boulder, Colorado.
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Kim Prinzi-Kimbro
Hello. My name is Kim Prinzi Kimbro and I am the COSMIC Administrative Assistant. I graduated from Colorado State University in 1991 with a B.S. in Business Administration/Human Resources. I have been with the exciting UCAR/COSMIC Program for 2 years and with a DOE national lab (hiring summer students and postdocs) for 8 years prior to that. Even though I do not have a science background, I thoroughly enjoy working with my scientists in a research institution atmosphere. I am thrilled at the opportunity to help coordinate this special colloquium field trip and promote international collaboration among the students. I enjoy spending my time away from UCAR with my husband and two children skiing and hiking in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. |
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Scott Briggs
Hi, my name is Scott Briggs. I have been an administrative assistant in the Advanced Study Program (ASP) at NCAR for two years. I graduated from Denver Technical College with an Associates Degree in Information Systems Programming in 2000. I maintain the web pages for ASP and several other groups affiliated with NCAR. I spend my leisure time with my wife and three children, camping, hiking and geocaching. I look forward to the opportunity of photographing and videotaping the group as we travel to Japan and Taiwan. |
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Ted Iwabuchi
Hi, my name is Ted Iwabuchi. I am a visiting scientific researcher of the COSMIC program under the support from JSPS (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science). I received my Ph.D. from the graduate university for advanced studies (National Astronomical Observatory in Japan) in 1999 and I am currently working on the JSPS-funded research theme with scientists of the ground based GPS research group in the COSMIC program.
Japanese GEONET, (GPS Earth Observation Network) which consists of 1,200 GPS permanent stations is one of the largest GPS network of the world. The network is suffering from the scattering of the estimated coordinate, especially in summer wet monsoon season. We believe it comes from water vapor distributions and variations which cannot be explained by climatological (static) model used in the GPS analysis. So, I am now developing the GEONET analysis system by using 'dynamic' atmospheric model based on the WRF model simulation. I hope all of the geophysicists and GPS users will be happy with the benefit from the system. I also have interest in the GEONET data assimilation into the high-resolution models because the orographic effect is one of the major factors which control mesoscale phenomena in Japan.
I am looking forward to meeting you and to introducing GEONET and its meteorological application. Also, I hope to introduce Japanese interesting culture in the field trip. |
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Annabel Liu
Hi there... I am Annabel Liu, or you can call me 'Wen-Ting' as my parents do because it is my real Chinese name! I work for Acer Inc. in Taiwan and Acer is ranked among world's top five branded PC and laptop providers. I serve as the Program Manager of Acer's in participation of the COSMIC Program; Acer provides the Flight Computer and Mission Interface Unit hardware for COSMIC. I have had the pleasure working with quite a few UCAR folks because of COSMIC. I am pleased to serve as the local coordinator for the Taiwan portion of your field trip. I received my Master's in Speech Communication from Central Missouri State University. I enjoy travel and like to make new friends. I have been to most major cities in the States, Canada, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, France, Italy, and Germany. I hope to make you feel like home when you come to visit my part of the world in the near future. Asia may seem very different from the States. So be prepared for some culture shock! If possible, try to practice eating with chopsticks... but then again, we can always get you forks and knives if chopsticks do not work out for you!! As UCAR Taiwan local representative here, I like to welcome you all and you may send me emails in advance to let me know if you have any special requests for the trip or any questions about Taiwan. My email is a_liu@acer.com.tw (please note UCAR in the subject so I know you are from the group.) Thank you!
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