Team Member of Month
Cited for Tsunami Center Design

Despite the unlikely title of Indefinite Delivery Order Contractor, William Singleton has delivered a superior product that, as he puts it, “speaks to the environment” in Palmer, Alaska.

Under contract to the NOAA/Central Administrative Support Center via Burns & McDonnell Engineering, Bill captured NOAA’s January Team Member of the Month award for his work as project leader in designing a 6,700 sq. ft. West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Center for the National Weather Service. NOAA staff calls his final design product “seamless.”

The Air Force thinks highly of Bill's work too. As an Air Force Reservist, LTC Singleton is about to become a Colonel.

Employee of Month
Tracks Path of Pollution

Ask James Jordan what he does and he says he’s an electronics engineer. Ask his colleagues at NOAA Research what he does and they “Jim’s exceptional level of commitment has advanced new observational technology and anticipated new observational needs which directly affect the prediction of weather, climate and air quality.”

Jim’s engineering leadership and technological innovation have earned him the year’s first Employee of the Month award. At NOAA Research’s Environmental Technology Laboratory in Boulder, Jim is described as finding “simple but elegant solutions to engineering problems.”

To collect initial data demonstrating the value of one innovation, he collaborated with Scripps Institute of Oceanography to deploy a wind-profiler prototype on a buoy anchored off Southern California’s coast.

As new instruments are designed and deployed to remote, inaccessible areas, Jim’s benchmark simplicity will be key to reliable yet ongoing and unattended operation.

Photo courtesy of UN

NOAA Corps' Captain MacFarland Addresses UN General Assembly

Links Better Maritime Information to Safety and Economy

As the National Hydrographer, NOAA Corps Captain David MacFarland addressed the United National General Assembly last month, thanking that body for granting "observer status" to the International Hydrographic Organization. Speaking on behalf of the organization, an intergovernmental group dedicated to supporting safe navigation and protecting the marine environment, Captain MacFarland said that granting observer status at the UN will allow the International Hydrographic Organization to significantly boost discussion about safe navigation and cooperative effort among all UN member states.

"It was incredibly exciting to speak at the UN," he said. "Perhaps the most exciting part was that as I was returning to my seat after delivering my remarks I turned around to see that I was being followed by maybe 12 ambassadors and delegates -- all eager to know more about joining the International Hydrographic Organization. They could see the value, the lifesaving aspects and economic potential, of nautical charts. They could see the tie between better maritime information and a more prosperous and sustainable economy."

Captain MacFarland heads the National Ocean Service’s Office of Coast Survey, filling the traditional position of National Hydrographer, the U.S. delegate to the International Hydrographic Organization. The Office of Coast Survey is responsible for the nautical charting and mapping of America’s waters, from certain inland waters and rivers to ports and the deep oceans. In line with promoting safe navigation, the office is charged with safeguarding life, property and the environment in tandem with bolstering economic growth.

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Weather Team All Set
For First-Ever Olympics Partnership

By Marilu Trainor
NOAA National Weather Service Public Affairs Officer

Gearing up for Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Winter Games, NWS forecasters eye potential avalanche slide areas in Provo Canyon.

More than one million spectators, thousands of athletes, officials and local residents will converge on Utah’s Wasatch Front mountains and the greater Salt Lake City area for 2002 Winter Olympics events in February. Keeping the population aware of rapidly changing weather conditions is a challenge that falls to a team of weather forecasters from the National Weather Service, the private sector and academic community.

“Weather typically affects the Olympic Winter Games in some way, whether it is snow, fog, wind, air quality, warm temperature, rain, or avalanches,” said Vickie Nadolski, director, NOAA’s National Weather Service Western Region, headquartered in Salt Lake City. Vickie and her team of meteorologists are getting ready to support the XIX Olympic Winter Games from February 8 - 24 and the VII Paralympic Winter Games, March 7 - 16 in her home state.


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