National Newsletter for the Cooperative Programs for the Advancement of Earth System Science

IN THIS ISSUE  Hello from Hanne Congratulations NOAA Climate & Global Change Alumnus Expansion of our NOAA Global Ocean Monitoring & Observation (GOMO) Staff Diving Deep into Ocean Exploration Growing the Climate Change Science Community New Staff Open Sky and Your Publications Who Is CPAESS?

March 2021 This is our newsletter so if you have a cool picture, a suggestion, or a question, please send it! PLEASE SEND US YOUR NEWS! We want to hear about your work and any interesting developments!

Hello from Hanne Hello Everyone!   I hope this finds you and those dear to you healthy and content. I am very proud of all of the fine research and work that has been ongoing in spite of the unique circumstances that COVID has brought. I truly appreciate your continued efforts and remain hopeful that the end of the pandemic is in sight, although it’s not quite here yet.   As you know we have remained very busy and are currently adding people to our team both in the Boulder office and across the country in our many partner offices. A warm welcome to all of our new co-workers.   Thanks to all of you who responded to UCAR’s quarterly Pulse survey. The results from this were largely very positive and you can look at them more in-depth here. You will need your CIT login and password to view them, which is the same as your Workday login and password. Another Pulse survey will come out in the April/May timeframe. I would like to encourage all of you to continue to respond to future Pulse surveys.   In addition to the Pulse survey, every 4 years UCAR puts out a Culture Survey to assess the broader culture of our organization. To help you get a greater feel for this survey and to answer any of your questions, UCAR’s Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, I have arranged for two CPAESS-specific meetings – one for our Boulder staff, and one for our staff across the country. The meeting for Boulder staff will take place on March 11, and the meeting for our staff across the country will take place on March 16. David Allen, CPAESS Program Specialist located in NOAA Global Ocean Monitoring and Observation (GOMO) Division, has contributed to the development of the survey to specifically represent non-Boulder staff. David, Kendra Greb - who is the chair of our CPAESS Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee - and I met recently to discuss how to engage our non-Boulder staff in the development of our next CPAESS DEI Implementation Plan that will be based on the results of the 2021 Culture survey. The Culture Survey itself will be coming out on March 22, 2021.   In our newsletter below, you will find some examples of the great work that is done across the CPAESS Program. I hope that you will enjoy hearing more from some of your colleagues and the work they are doing.   Soon we will be in spring and I wish for you each some of the freshness and hope that comes with the season. My sincere thanks to each of you for all that you do.

Congratulations NOAA Climate & Global Change Alumnus!

CPAESS has long partnered with NOAA on its Climate and Global Change postdoctoral fellowship program. The overarching purpose of the program is to help create and train the next generation of leading researchers needed for climate studies. The program focuses on observing, understanding, modeling, and predicting climate variability and change on seasonal and longer time scales. This includes the documentation and analysis of past, current, or possible future climate variability and change as well as the study of the underlying physical, chemical, and biological processes. Over the past 30 years, the fellowship program has hosted 238 NOAA Climate and Global Change Fellows and has developed an outstanding reputation of attracting the best and the brightest PhDs in the sciences relevant to the NOAA Climate Program Office. Appointed fellows are hosted with mentoring scientists at U.S. universities and research institutions to work in an area of mutual interest. This program’s excellent reputation is once again made manifest in the new honor given to an alumnus from our 6th class to Gavin Schmidt. A hearty congratulations to Gavin for his appointment to the Biden Administration as the Senior Climate Advisor until a permanent appointment can be made. Gavin is currently the director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS).

Gavin was in the NOAA Climate and Global Change class from 1996 - 1998. We are in the midst of choosing our 31st class now. The intent of the NOAA Climate & Global Change fellowship is to grow the future leaders for global climate science. We cannot think of a better example. Congratulations Gavin!  To find out more about Gavin please go here, and to find out more about the NOAA Climate and Global Change program please go here.

Expansion of our NOAA Global Ocean Monitoring & Observation (GOMO) Staff

CPAESS proudly partners with numerous federal agencies providing them critical scientific staff who work across the globe engaging in research reflective of the breadth and depth of Earth system science. We have recently added two new scientists working with NOAA’s Global Ocean Monitoring and Observation (GOMO) division under the supervision of Dr. Kathy Tedesco. They are Cheyenne Stienbarger and Ann-Christine Zinkann and have both had experience working with NOAA as Knauss Fellows last year. Cheyenne will divide her time between two important GOMO activities: The Ocean-Weather Observing Project and The Tropical Pacific Observing System (TPOS 2020) Project. Her other effort will be in support of Ocean-Weather Observing, including extreme events, based partly on recommendations from the Extreme Events Ocean Observations (EEOO) workshop. This will require engagement with the ocean and weather communities including relevant GOMO programs, the OAR Ocean and Weather Portfolios, and across line offices such as the National Weather Service and the National Ocean Service. Cheyenne will act as a bridge to help the diverse groups work together to improve aspects of forecasting such as intensity forecasting and lead time for hurricanes. Any ongoing improvements could go a long way in saving lives. Last hurricane season we had 30 named hurricanes.

The Tropical Pacific Observing System (TPOS 2020) Project is an international effort to enhance and redesign the observations of the tropical Pacific. While this observing system has been around for almost 30 years, the goal of the TPOS 2020 Project was to continue improving this system, particularly the ENSO (El Nino-Southern Oscillation) observations whose activity has global implications in forecasting. Cheyenne will serve as the GOMO Program Manager for TPOS and support the project as it moves from the design phase to the implementation phase. Even though Cheyenne grew up in the land-locked state of Missouri, her love of animals led her to ocean sciences. As an undergraduate, she was able to expand her academic biological education to marine wildlife with a field course in the Florida Keys. This shifted her gaze seaward, and as a graduate student, she studied marine biology at the University of North Carolina in Wilmington. While there, Hurricane Florence hit Wilmington and destroyed their science building on campus. “So now the fact that I am working with people who actually do hurricane forecasting - I just think that it is such a cool full-circle moment.” After graduate school, Cheyenne became a Knauss Fellow working with NOAA and we are now lucky to have her as a new addition to our team. Our other new CPAESS employee at GOMO is Ann, who will divide her time among the All-Atlantic Observing System (AtlantOS); the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS), the Observations Coordination Group (OCG); and the U.N. Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (U.N. Decade) work. She grew up in Germany, rather than a coastal country, yet managed to find her way into arctic research for her university studies and has since expanded her reach even further. With the All-Atlantic Ocean Observing System (AtlantOS) program work, Ann will support U.S. engagement within GOMO to support cooperation, alignment of interests, and the implementation of efforts. The purpose of this international body, composed of the Atlantic facing countries, is to unite their ocean work, and help leverage their varied research and activities to assist each other and create new partnerships.

She also supports the GOMO Director and the Global Ocean Observing System Observations Coordination Group Chair to implement the 2021-2025 OceanOPS Strategic Plan. Here Ann will expand outreach and help with best practices on such things as how to optimally utilize data and continue to actively engage with the capacity development group. Lastly, she will have a specific focus on international U.N. Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development efforts. Ann’s work will ensure that scientific efforts are holistic in their pursuit and execution, bridging societal needs with research. CPAESS is proud and delighted to have you both Cheyenne and Ann onboard. We appreciate your efforts to protect and help predict the movement of our world’s oceans.

Diving Deep into Ocean Exploration

CPAESS has been a proud partner of NOAA’s, managing the Okeanos Explorer-In-Training program since 2009. Over 120 students have participated in this unique opportunity which equips students with skills to meet the current and future demands of the ocean exploration workforce, providing meaningful experiential learning opportunities that support NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration and Research (OER) mission, and inspiring ocean literacy for the next generation.  Using the latest tools and technology, OER explores previously unknown areas of our deep oceans, making discoveries of scientific, economic, and cultural value. Through live video streams, online coverage, training opportunities, and real-time events, OER allows scientists, resource managers, students, members of the general public, and others to actively experience ocean exploration. These opportunities expand available expertise, cultivate the next generation of ocean explorers, and engage the public in exploration activities. From such exploration, OER makes available the collected data needed to understand our oceans so we can maintain ocean health, sustainably manage our marine resources, accelerate our national economy, and build an appreciation of the value and importance of the oceans in our everyday lives.

The Explorer-In-Training program features two internship options: 10-week, summertime opportunities, or 2 to 4-week expedition-based opportunities. The 10-week internships give students an experiential opportunity to develop and improve their skills and knowledge through long-term projects supported by OER mentors. The 2 to 4-week expedition-based internships will involve providing support for specific OER-expeditions, giving students the chance to contribute to mission efforts while gaining tangible skills that benefit their future pursuits. For 2021, only the 10-week Summer internships are available for application.   Typically, the 2 - 4 week expeditions occur on the NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer—the nation’s only federal vessel dedicated strictly to ocean exploration. The ship is equipped with advanced tools that support the systematic exploration of unknown ocean regions. High-resolution sonars, deep-water remotely operated vehicles, and telepresence technology are used to collect baseline information in unexplored areas. Due to COVID, applications for Okeanos expeditions will not be accepted this year. However, several themes have been developed for the 2021 10-week summer internships including: Exploration Education, Media, & Science Communication (10-week Summer internship): OER strives to improve ocean literacy for learners of all ages through educational programs. To achieve our mission of community-driven exploration, we employ a suite of communication strategies and media tools that bring our discoveries to the public. Interns will work on cross-disciplinary projects to gain experience in scientific communication, ocean education programming, and media use.  Expedition Operations & Coordination (10-week Summer internship): At the forefront of OER’s activities are expeditions to explore previously unvisited areas of the oceans. To accomplish this, we develop mission plans that provide a suite of services needed to virtually take scientists and managers to high-priority, yet otherwise inaccessible, areas of the ocean aided by remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). Explorers-in-Training will gain tangible skills in operational project management, software tools to support planning and execution, and knowledge of ocean exploration data resources.   Ocean Exploration Science & Technology (10-week Summer internship): Exploration often leads to discoveries that highlight areas, features, resources, and/or processes that are new to ocean science and need further study. To accomplish these discoveries, OER promotes the innovative use of existing technologies while investing in new technologies that will help to better understand deep-water areas and more effectively target future research efforts.

Standing watch: Explorers-in-Training Laura Almodovar, Victoria Dickey, and Kelsey Lane standing mapping watch at the University of New Hampshire Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping (CCOM)/Joint Hydrographic Center. Image courtesy of CCOM.   To learn more about applying to be an Explorer-In-Training please go here and to see more about the program’s past work, here. CPAESS received a record 357 applications for this summer’s NOAA Ocean Exploration and Research Explorer-in-Training Program.

Growing the Climate Change Science Community

The Cooperative Programs for the Advancement of Earth System Science (CPAESS) manages the NOAA Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Program on behalf of the NOAA Climate Program Office. The overarching purpose of the program is to help create and train the next generation of leading researchers needed for climate studies. The program focuses on observing, understanding, modeling, and predicting climate variability and change on seasonal and longer time scales.   In order to create a greater sense of community, foster new relationships, share research, and provide networking opportunities among current fellows, alumni, and senior scientists, CPAESS holds a Summer Institute every two years. Due to COVID this year’s institute has been postponed. However, the excellent work of these scientists continues. To facilitate ongoing scientific sharing and community building, CPAESS has begun monthly meetings for fellows, alumni, and NOAA scientists.

The first of these NOAA C&GC Virtual Seminar & Networking Series meetings was held on January 27th, 2021. Melissa Breeden (NOAA/CSL), a current fellow from the 29th class presented on "The spring transition of the North Pacific jet and its impact on stratosphere-to-troposphere mass transport over western North America." Following her, 30th class fellow Xiaomeng Jin (UC Berkeley) presented on her research concerning "Emissions and chemical evolution of trace gases from wildfires.” Lastly, NOAA’s Dr. Joshua (Shuka) Schwarz spoke on "FIREX-AQ: A melting pot for science.” It was an information-packed session enabling all present to get a taste of some of the current research underway. It also provided the scientists an opportunity to see some of their new colleagues. CPAESS’ hope is to continue fostering this climate community, whose work is becoming increasingly important to our world.   Our second meeting was held on February 24, 2021 with Casey Wall (University of Washington), Sebastian Milinski (Max Planck Institute), and Yi Ming (NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory). Casey presented on the "Southern Ocean Cloud-phase Feedback Interred from Observations.” He kindly summed up this work by saying “As Earth's climate warms up due to greenhouse-gas emissions, clouds can change in ways that act to amplify or dampen the warming. One potentially powerful but highly uncertain mechanism involves a conversion of ice cloud to liquid cloud in a warming atmosphere. We developed a framework to quantify the importance of this mechanism using satellite observations.”

Following Casey, Sebastian Milinski who is a new fellow being hosted by NCAR’s Climate and Global Dynamics (CGD) Division presented "Will we cross 1.5 °C / 2 °C? A new framework for quantifying and constraining uncertainties in future temperature projections." It was a very informative talk referencing the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) temperature projections, goals, and likelihoods through the lens of a climate modeler.   We were delighted to have Dr. Yi Ming from NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) and Princeton University join us as our guest speaker. With his background in regional hydroclimate variability and change, climate dynamics, and atmospheric physics/modeling he was able to give the fellows some insight into his work at GFDL and possible avenues for their future.   These networking meetings are a wonderful opportunity for fellows, current and past, to share the excellent research they are engaged in, learn from current NOAA professionals, and get to know each other a bit more. We are inspired by everyone’s engagement and look forward to future presentations. A special thank you to Kendra Greb and Heidi Allen for facilitating and managing these networking sessions. For more information about the NOAA Climate and Global Change Fellowship please explore here.

Welcome to CPAESS

CPAESS is pleased to welcome these new employees. We are delighted to have you on board. Isabel McCoy, Postdoctoral Fellow, NOAA Climate and Global Change (C&GC) Postdoctoral Fellowship Program Chad Weisshaar, Software Engineer/Programmer, United States Geological Survey (USGS) Marc Bessho, Sr. Logistics Analyst, United States Geological Survey (USGS) Heather Koch, Administrator, CPAESS Michael Acquafredda, Postdoctoral Researcher, NOAA Ocean Acidification Program (OAP) Cheyenne Stienbarger, Program Specialist, Global Ocean Monitoring and Observing (GOMO) Ann-Christine Zinkann, Program Specialist, Global Ocean Monitoring and Observing (GOMO) Christopher Ridener, Associate Scientist, NOAA Integrated Dissemination Program (IDP) Lynne Hodge, Associate Scientist, NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center 

Isabel McCoy

Cheyenne Stienbarger

Ann Zinkann

Open Sky and Your Publications

Part of your employment expectations is listing your publications in OpenSky on the UCAR/NCAR website. Please make sure you list all your publications there. If you haven't yet, you can list them now and catch up. The purpose of this digital archive is to provide free and open access to the scientific output and other intellectual resources created at NCAR/UCAR for the advancement of the atmospheric and related sciences. In the Acknowledgements section scientists note the agency and grant number that supported their research. Please go to our CPAESS "For Staff" Information page and click on the Citing Language and Information tab. Your CIT login is the same as your WorkDay login info. If you have any questions please let us know. Thanks very much!

Recent Publications Chintzoglou, Georgios, Bart De Pontieu, Juan Martínez-Sykora, Viggo Hansteen, Jaime de la Cruz Rodríguez, Mikolaj Szydlarski, Shahin Jafarzadeh, Sven Wedemeyer, Timothy S. Bastian, Alberto Sainz Dalda, 2021: ALMA and IRIS observations of the solar chromosphere. II. Structure and dynamics of chromospheric plages. The Astrophysical Journal, OpenSky. Chintzoglou, Georgios, Bart De Pontieu, Juan Martínez-Sykora, Viggo Hansteen, Jaime Cruz de la Rodríguez, Mikolaj Szydlarski, Shahin Jafarzadeh, Sven Wedemeyer, Timothy S. Bastian, Alberto Sainz Dalda, 2021: ALMA and IRIS observations of the solar chromosphere. I. An on-disk type II spicule. The Astrophysical Journal, OpenSky. Pincus, Robert, Stefan A. Buehler, Manfred Brath, Cyril Crevoisier, Omar Jamil, K. Franklin Evans, James Manners, Raymond L. Menzel, Eli J. Mlawer, David Paynter, Rick L. Pernak, Yoann Tellier, 2020: Benchmark calculations of radiative forcing by greenhouse gases. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, OpenSky. Palmerio, Erika, C.O. Lee, I.G. Richardson, N.V. Nitta, M.L. Mays, J.S. Halekas, C. Zeitlin, J.G. Luhmann, S. Xu, 2020: Tracking a CME and SIR to Earth and Mars during the deep minimum of Solar Cycle 24. OpenSky. Lu, Feiyu, Matthew J. Harrison, Anthony Rosati, Thomas L. Delworth, Xiaosong Yang, William F. Cooke, Liwei Jia, Colleen McHugh, Nathaniel C. Johnson, Mitchell Bushuk, Yongfei Zhang, Alistair Adcroft, 2020: GFDL's SPEAR seasonal prediction system: Initialization and Ocean Tendency Adjustment (OTA) for coupled model predictions. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, OpenSky. Wang, Boyi, Terry Liu, Yukitoshi Nishimura, Hui Zhang, Michael Hartinger, Xueling Shi, Qianli Ma, Vassilis Angelopoulos, Harald U. Frey, 2020: Global propagation of magnetospheric Pc5 ULF waves driven by foreshock transients. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, OpenSky. Thapa, Uday Kuwar, S. St. George, V. Trouet, 2020: Poleward excursions by the Himalayan subtropical jet over the past four centuries. Geophysical Research Letters, OpenSky. Wang, Chih‐Ping, Xueyi Wang, Terry Z. Liu, Yu Lin, 2020: Evolution of a foreshock bubble in the midtail foreshock and impact on the magnetopause: 3‐D global hybrid simulation. Geophysical Research Letters, OpenSky. Kang, Sarah M., Shang-Ping Xie, Yechul Shin, Hanjun Kim, Yen-Ting Hwang, Malte F. Stuecker, Baoqiang Xiang, Matt Hawcroft, 2020: Walker circulation response to extratropical radiative forcing. Science Advances, OpenSky. Barnes, Will, Mark Cheung, Monica Bobra, Paul Boerner, Georgios Chintzoglou, Drew Leonard, Stuart Mumford, Nicholas Padmanabhan, Albert Shih, Nina Shirman, David Stansby, Paul Wright, 2020: aiapy: A Python package for analyzing solar EUV image data from AIA. Journal of Open Source Software, OpenSky. Liu, Terry Z., Chih‐Ping Wang, Boyi Wang, Xueyi Wang, Hui Zhang, Yu Lin, Vassilis Angelopoulos, 2020: ARTEMIS observations of foreshock transients in the midtail foreshock. Geophysical Research Letters, OpenSky. Dunne, J. P., L. W. Horowitz, A. J. Adcroft, P. Ginoux, I. M. Held, J. G. John, J. P. Krasting, S. Malyshev, V. Naik, F. Paulot, E. Shevliakova, C. A. Stock, N. Zadeh, V. Balaji, C. Blanton, K. A. Dunne, C. Dupuis, J. Durachta, R. Dussin, P. P. G. Gauthier, S. M. Griffies, H. Guo, R. W. Hallberg, M. Harrison, J. He, W. Hurlin, C. McHugh, Raymond Menzel, P. C. D. Milly, S. Nikonov, D. J. Paynter, J. Ploshay, A. Radhakrishnan, K. Rand, B. G. Reichl, T. Robinson, D. M. Schwarzkopf, L. T. Sentman, S. Underwood, H. Vahlenkamp, M. Winton, A. T. Wittenberg, B. Wyman, Y. Zeng, M. Zhao, 2020: The GFDL Earth System Model Version 4.1 (GFDL‐ESM 4.1): Overall coupled model description and simulation characteristics. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, OpenSky. Breeden, Melissa L., Ryan Clare, Jonathan E. Martin, Ankur R. Desai, 2020: Diagnosing the influence of a receding snow boundary on simulated midlatitude cyclones using piecewise potential vorticity inversion. Monthly Weather Review, OpenSky. Hurwitz, Margaret M., S. Baxter, B. Brown, J. Carman, J. Dale, C. Draper, F. Horsfall, M. Hughes, J. Gerth, S. Kapnick, Carrie Olheiser, M. Olsen, C. Stachelski, M. Vincent, R. S. Webb, J. Zdrojewski, 2020: Six priorities for investment in snow research and product development. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, OpenSky. Qian, Yitian, Pang‐Chi Hsu, Hiroyuki Murakami, Baoqiang Xiang, Lijun You, 2020: A Hybrid Dynamical‐Statistical Model for Advancing Subseasonal Tropical Cyclone Prediction Over the Western North Pacific. Geophysical Research Letters, OpenSky.

Who Is CPAESS?

Even people employed by CPAESS ask about the breadth and depth of the programs and opportunities we provide. Here is a super brief primer. CPAESS is a part of the UCAR/NCAR family. Specifically, we are within UCAR’s Community Programs (UCP). CPAESS is the largest of UCAR's Community Programs. CPAESS’ provides early career opportunities including employment at federal labs across the nation. We also host multi-agency programs and have partnerships with federal agencies –take a peek to get an idea of some of them listed here. CPAESS provides postdoctoral and educational programs. Lastly, we convene scientific communities to help promulgate scientific information and foster collaboration across the earth system science community. Here is a list of our upcoming events. CPAESS has approximately 125 employees, over 100 of which are spread across the United States as seen on the map below. If you go here you can click on a location and you'll see staff grouped by program work. Many of our co-workers are in federal labs. Our staff's skill sets are impressively diverse. We appreciate you and your talents being a part of the CPAESS family.

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