Women's History Month at NOAA was celebrated by panelists sharing their personal work and family challenges with about 40 NOAA women at all professional levels. Both panelists and audience talked about the courage, hurdles, educational, and professional experiences that have helped shape their lives.


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Alfreda Carter-Comeger, NESDIS (left), and Maureen Chiarizia, NOAA Research (right), spearheaded the event. Panelists (from second to left) were Marcia Weaks and Dolores Miller, NESDIS;
Sondra Young-Wick and Sue Perotta, NWS;
Mary Glackin, NESDIS; and Marie Colton, NOAA Research.

RUDE and ALBATROSS 1V have two new NOAA Corps officers at the helm. Lieutenant Commander Andy Beaver is now commanding officer of the RUDE. Commander Mike Abbott is on ALBATROSS 1V.

Felix Kogan demonstrated the application of drought products from NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) in a publication of the World Meteorological Association. The publication was featured at a UN Convention in Bonn, Germany. Titled, Contribution of Remote Sensing to Drought Early Warning, Dr. Kogan detailed applications for early detection, environmental impact, new ways of drought visualization, and technology transfer.

A Dance of Sea and Sky, a look at the sea's role in weather and climate, spotlights the work of NOAA's Office of Global Programs. Produced by The Education Channel, a part of Baltimore, Maryland's school system, with help from John Kermond, the video is streamed on the Office of Global Program's site. It was a hit at the recent National Science Teachers' Association where over 7,500 copies were a hot item at NOAA's booth.
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View the streaming video by clicking here (you must have the
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About 20 NOAA employees joined 12,000 science teachers at the convention, where NOAA organizers Joyce Gross, Bob Hansen and Pete Allen helped plug NOAA's one-stop education Web site. NWS staff in St. Louis opened their facilities for tours. NOAA posters, severe weather and flood safety brochures, Owlie Skywarn and coloring books also filled many thousands of tote bags.

Joe Sullivan demonstrates "Tornado Machine" he brought to convention. Built of a few pipes, wooden platforms, a water pan, and small fan, the machine produces a miniature tornado. Warm water, melted dry ice and the fan create a small vortex. Many teachers drew diagrams for future classroom projects. Joe is a warning coordination meteorologist with NWS's Central Region.

Thomas Delworth, of NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, is on the international scientific team that published a study in Nature using the past as a guide to future climate change. Assembling climate change projections from climate modeling centers in the U.S., England and Germany, the team compared model simulations to observations over the past 50 years. This technique resulted in scaling factors used to modify projections of climate change over the next 50 years. It also produced an estimate of the uncertainty in such projections, a goal of the study. Scientists expect that the global mean temperature will be 2 to 4.5 degrees F warmer in 2036 - 2046 as compared to pre-industrial conditions.

Kicking off a series of four constituent breakfast briefings, NOAA Research’s David Evans and Ants Leetma discussed climate change with senior staff from the World Wildlife Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, Environment and Energy Institute, and Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment, among several others. Caren Madsen, also of NOAA Research, set up the meetings. Additional briefings will look at air quality, aquaculture and ocean exploration.