Stith to Speak at Atm Sci Seminar
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences
Contact: Karen Ryba/Phone: 701-777-4761
September 3, 2008
Stith to Present at Atmospheric Sciences Seminar
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“New Challenges for Atmospheric Scientists: Studying Poorly Understood Phenomenon Over Scales Relevant to Our Climate”
(Grand Forks, North Dakota): Dr. Jeff Stith, Research Aviation Facility, National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), will present a seminar on “New Challenges for Atmospheric Scientists: Studying Poorly Understood Phenomenon Over Scales Relevant to Our Climate” on Thursday, September 11 at 3:00 pm in Streibel Hall, Room 106.
This seminar is free and open to the public. Faculty, staff and students are encouraged to attend.
Abstract: The long-range transport of dust and anthropogenic aerosols from Asia across the Pacific Ocean into North America is one of the most widespread and major pollution phenomenons on the planet. This plume passes through Pacific Ocean extratropical cyclonic storms. The effect of this mixed dust-pollution plume on Pacific cloud systems is an outstanding problem for understanding climate change and has not been adequately explored.
The Pacific Dust Experiment (PACDEX) was a pilot study using quasi-Lagrangian sampling of this East Asian-Pacific-North American dust and pollution plume with the NSF/NCAR G-V research aircraft to follow the plume as it interacted with maritime Pacific storms. The aircraft was instrumented for measuring cloud active aerosols, selected trace gases, and several instruments for measuring detailed cloud microphysics. Detailed chemical transport modeling was also used to guide the research flights, which took place in April and May of 2007. A brief description of PACDEX will be provided followed by early results and observations from the field study.
About Atmospheric Sciences: In addition to the Ph.D. program, the Department of Atmospheric Sciences offers a Bachelor of Science, a Master of Science, and an undergraduate minor program in Atmospheric Sciences. Research areas of interest include atmospheric chemistry, surface transportation meteorology, radar meteorology, climate analysis, cloud physics, radiation, ground- and satellite-based remote sensing, aviation meteorology, hydrometeorology, mesoscale meteorology, data assimilation, numerical weather prediction, and weather modification. The Atmospheric Sciences department has played a major role in research for a number of Federal and state agencies, including the DOE, NASA, NDARB, FHWA, USDA, and DOD.
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