| NOAA
offices around the country held events commemorating Earth
Day last month. Here are photos from some of them:
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In
Ann Arbor, Mich., NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental
Research Laboratory unveiled an award from the Department
of Energy's "You Have the Power" program honoring
the lab for its 100 percent use of biodiesel, and agriproduct
hydraulic fluids and other lubricants on the Huron Explorer,
a boat used for research and other work at the Thunder
Bay National Marine Sanctuary in Alpena, Mich. The aroma
of the fuel was likened to french fries by one observer.
Displaying the award were Stephen Brandt,
GLERL director and NOAA Research acting deputy assistant
administrator; Dennis Donahue, director
of GLERL’s Ship Operations Center; and Cynthia
Sellinger, GLERL deputy director. |
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| In
Glasgow, Mont., NWS information technology officer Jeff
Zeltwanger and warning coordination meteorologist
Tanja Fransen (shown with students)
showed students on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation
a tornado machine, a radiometer that spun when a light
was put on it, a Galileo thermometer, a glass barometer
filled with water, and video of Hurricane Katrina, as
part of a "Things That Move" Earth Day celebration. |
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| The
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s More Fish
campaign got a strong start in Atlanta as NOAA deputy
assistant secretary Tim Keeney discusses
fishing and the importance of fish habitat with honky-tonkin’
country music star Travis Tritt (right,
but you knew that). |
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| More
than 50 NOAA volunteers were lead by Vice Admiral Lautenbacher
in the annual tidal wetland restoration at historic Fort McHenry
in Baltimore’s inner harbor last month. This was the
seventh consecutive year that NOAA employees, their friends
and family members have helped in the clean-up and restoration
effort.
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Volunteers
made short work of maintained the Fort McHenry walking
trail by installing coconut-fiber coir logs to prevent
erosion and then spreading and leveling gravel to
it.
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Employee and Team Member of the Month
for April
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| Employee of the Month
Steve
Ansari
NESDIS
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Team Member of the Month
Vasily
Titov
NOAA Research
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NOAA’s
Employee and Team Member of the Month for May are NESDIS’s
Steve Ansari, and NOAA Research’s
Vasily Titov.
Steve
Ansari is the lead GIS science programmer for the
National Climatic Data Center weather radar data management
program. He has developed important GIS tools that
are used not only by the NCDC but by the National
Transportation Safety Board, NASA researchers, FEMA,
commercial vendors, and national and international
universities. Aside from his critical projects at
NCDC, Steve volunteered to assist in the Hurricane
Katrina relief efforts, and worked with a ten-member
team to generate GIS products that described the locations
of and information about medical teams, points of
aid distribution, shelter populations, location of
federal personnel, transportation networks, power
lines and more.
Vasily
Titov has been the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory's
senior tsunami modeler since 1997. He and other researchers
at PMEL have been developing a NOAA operational tsunami
forecast capability in the Pacific that utilizes available
real time data from seismic stations, tsunami measuring
buoys, and coastal water level gauges. Upon learning
of the devastating Indonesian earthquake on Christmas
night, Vasily immediately set to work to produce a
simulation of the resulting tsunami, anticipating
a need to provide quickly concise and easy to understand
information on this catastrophic event. His animation
showed the global impact of the devastating tsunami
in a sophisticated but easily understood format that
has been used widely by media outlets worldwide.
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New
Texas Reserve Dedicated
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Nearly
200 people, including federal, state and local officials,
local property owners, and businessmen celebrated the designation
of the nation’s 27th estuarine research reserve in Port
Aransas, Tex., earlier this month. The designation ceremony
for the Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve
included the signing of the ceremonial designation certificate.
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At
the designation ceremony were (bottom row, left to right)
NOAA administrator Lautenbacher;
University of Texas President William Powers;
John H. Dunnigan, assistant
administrator for NOAA’s National Ocean Service;
(top row, left to right) Rep. Solomon Ortiz,
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison,
and Paul Montagna, manager
of the new reserve. |
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Wise
Old Owls Meet on Capitol Hill
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| Florida
Keys National Marine Sanctuary superintendent Billy
Causey stares down a great horned owl from
the Philadelphia Zoo at the annual American Zoo and
Aquarium Association reception for coastal managers
earlier on Capitol Hill as the zoo’s Ron
Fricke looks on. The owl, and other animals
from AZA member zoos, were brought to the Hill by wildlife
expert Jack Hanna. |
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San
Diego’s Day at the Docks
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| NOAA
Fisheries employees from the San Diego area joined forces
to participate in the 27th annual Day at the Docks, the west
coast’s largest public celebration of sportfishing last
month. Employees showed adults and children how to fish, including
proper catch and release techniques, fielded questions, listened
to constituents’ comments, passed out literature and
offered marine life posters to teachers.
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Manning
the NOAA Fisheries booth at Day at the Docks were (left
to right) Rosemary Troian,
Craig Heberer, and Marty Golden,
Pacific Regional Fisheries Coordinator. |
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Cleveland’s
Slider Throws NWS a Curve
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| Gary
Garnet, warning coordination meteorologist for
NWS’s Cleveland forecast office, joined forces with
the Cleveland Indians and WKYC-TV in preparing a Weather Education
Day on May 2 prior to Indians playing the Chicago White Sox
at Jacobs Field. Gary also got to throw out the first pitch,
to the chagrin of “Slider,” the Indians team mascot,
who later showed off his (her?) mastery of the “lightening
safety position.” The Indians won, 7-1, and did not
have to use Slider as a pinch hitter.
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| Gary
Garnet, warning coordination meteorologist
for NWS’s Cleveland forecast office, here practicing
before a game, explained weather safety to the crowd
at the Cleveland Indians’ Jacobs Field earlier
this month, aided by Slider, the Indians mascot, who
was either showing the lightening safety position, or
doubled over in agony at the Indians’ relief pitching
this season. |
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