COOPERATIVE INSTITUTE for RESEARCH in ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES University of Colorado at Boulder UCB 216 Boulder, CO 80309-0216
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CELEB ra TING 0 OF ENVI R ONMENT A L RESE arc H years 4 COOPERATIVE INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH ANNU A L REPO R T IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES University of Colorado at Boulder i 00 2 8 COOPERATIVE INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES University of Colorado at Boulder UCB 216 Boulder, CO 80309-0216 Phone: 303-492-1143 Fax: 303-492-1149 email: [email protected] http://cires.colorado.edu ANNU A L REPO R T ST A FF Suzanne van Drunick, Coordinator Jennifer Gunther, Designer Katy Human, Editor COVE R PHOTO Pat and Rosemarie Keough part of traveling photographic exhibit Antarctica—Passion and Obsession Sponsored by CIRES in celebration of 40th Anniversary ii From the Director 2 Executive Summary and Research Highlights 4 The Institute Year in Review 12 Contributions to NOAA’s Strategic Vision 13 Administration and Funding 16 Creating a Dynamic Research Environment 21 CIRES People and Projects 26 Faculty Fellows Research 27 Scientific Centers 58 Education and Outreach 68 Visiting Fellows 70 Innovative Research Projects 73 Graduate Student Research Fellowships 83 Diversity and Undergraduate Research Programs 85 Theme Reports 86 Measures of Achievement: Calendar Year 2007 146 Publications by the Numbers 147 Refereed publications 148 Non-refereed Publications 172 Refereed Journals in which CIRES Scientists Published 179 Honors and Awards 181 Service 185 Appendices 188 Governance and Management 189 Personnel Demographics 193 Acronyms and Abbreviations 194 CIRES Annual Report 2008 1 From the Director 2 CIRES Annual Report 2008 am very proud to present the new CIRES annual report for fiscal year 2008. It has been another exciting year with numerous accomplishments, Iawards, and continued growth in our research staff and budget. The CIRES annual budget surpassed $50 million, with a 15 percent increase in financial support from the University of Colorado at Boulder, a 9 percent increase from contracts and grants, and a 5 percent increase from the cooperative agreement with NOAA. CIRES continues to be a world leader in environmental sciences, committed to identifying and pursuing innovative research in Earth system science, and to fostering public awareness of this research. The outcomes and findings of our research are important in forming policies that are crucial for future generations. CIRES scientists and faculty published 435 peer-reviewed papers during the 2007 calendar year. The honors and awards received by CIRES researchers and staff are also numerous. Most prominent is the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, awarded to former Vice President Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Several CIRES scientists contributed substantially to the work of the IPCC that earned this distinguished award. Other significant honors included Fellow appointments to the American Geophysical Union, American Meteorological Society, Acoustical Society of America, Geological Society of America, and the Royal Geographical Society, London. The CIRES Members’ Council held its third annual research symposium on April 2, 2008. This one-day symposium featured presentations from the six CIRES divisions and the Education and Outreach Program. More than 80 scientific posters were presented, which included the research of CIRES’ Visiting Fellows. Outstanding Performance Awards and other scientific achievement awards were presented by the Director to researchers and staff. In partnership with NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL), a new ESRL-CIRES Graduate Student Research Fellowship was created. This competitive award, which includes full tuition, a stipend, and other benefits, will allow graduate students to earn a master’s or doctoral degree at the University of Colorado at Boulder and simultaneously conduct research with world-renowned scientists at ESRL. We welcome three new center directors, including Dr. Waleed Abdalati, Director of the CIRES Center for the Study of Earth from Space, and Dr. William Travis, Director of the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research, who are both new CIRES Fellows. Dr. Prashant Sardeshmukh, from ESRL’s Physical Sciences Division and a CIRES Fellow since 2006, is the new Director of CIRES’ Climate Diagnostics Center. Further, we welcome three new CIRES Fellows— Dr. Lisa Dilling, Dr. Joost de Gouw, and Dr. Tingjun Zhang—who have been elected by the Council of Fellows for two-year terms. The annual report is a collaborative effort of a number of people in CIRES—researchers as well as administrative staff—and they all deserve credit for what you will find on the following pages. In particular, I would like to acknowledge the work of Assistant Director Dr. Suzanne van Drunick, who was instrumental in coordinating this effort. Enjoy your reading! CIRES Annual Report 2008 3 Executive Summary and Research Highlights CIRES: Science in Service to Society 4 CIRES Annual Report 2008 NASA n 2008, the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) proudly celebrated its 40th anniversary. CIRES, at the University of Colorado at Boulder, is the oldest and largest of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Cooperative IInstitutes. CIRES is guided by a cooperative agreement (Agreement) between the university and NOAA. The Institute’s collaborative research is organized and aligned with NOAA’s research by six scientific themes identified in the Agreement. The following summary highlights many of the past year’s activities and research accomplishments, and demonstrates how CIRES has grown during the past four decades to become a world leader in Earth system science. From July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008 (FY08), CIRES supported 173 Research Scientists, 211 Associate Scientists, 35 Visiting Scientists, five postdoctoral researchers, 32 administrative staff, 127 graduate students, and 54 undergraduate students. In total, CIRES supported 637 scientists, administrative staff, and students, with an overall extramural research budget of $47,550,000 (7 percent more than FY07). Including university faculty support, CIRES’ total budget is more than $51,000,000, with NOAA funds accounting for about $24,700,000 (48 percent). New additions to CIRES members include directors for two of CIRES’ Centers, and a faculty search is now underway for a third—a new director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center. Dr. Waleed Abdalati will be the new Director of the Center for the Study of Earth from Space beginning July 1, 2008. Previously, he was the head of NASA’s Cryospheric Sciences Branch at the Goddard Space Flight Center, where he led research efforts on high-latitude glaciers and ice sheets using satellite and airborne instruments. He also served as Program Scientist for NASA’s Ice Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite. Dr. Abdalati has received numerous NASA awards, including the NASA Exceptional Service Medal in 2004. Dr. William Travis will become the new Director of the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research beginning September 25, 2008. Dr. Travis is tenured in the university’s Department of Geography, where he teaches graduate courses in natural hazards, land use, and human ecology. His research focuses on social response to climate change and extreme events, and on coupled social and natural systems, with an emphasis on the American West. Prior to joining CIRES, Dr. Travis directed the university’s Institute for Behavioral Science’s Natural Hazards Research and Applications Information Center. He received the Orton Family Foundation Fellowship to New Geographies of the American West: Land support work on his recently published book, Use and Changing Patterns of Place . CIRES’ Climate Diagnostic Center also has a new director, effective September 1, 2008— Dr. Prashant Sardeshmukh, Senior Research Scientist and CIRES Fellow since 2006. Dr. Sardeshmukh conducts research in NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) to diagnose, model, and predict large-scale weather and climate variations, on time scales of days to millennia. His current focus is on how rising ocean temperatures affect land temperature changes. CIRES also welcomes Dr. Lisa Dilling, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, to the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research. Dr. Dilling’s research interests include the use of scientific knowledge in decision making, climate change science policy, carbon management and governance, human dimensions of the carbon cycle, and scales in decision making and scientific research. Prior to accepting the faculty position at the Policy Center, Dr. Dilling was a CIRES Visiting Fellow, an NCAR Visiting Scientist, and Manager of NOAA’s Office of Global Programs’ Carbon Cycle Program. Another junior faculty search for the Policy Center will begin in Fall 2008. The CIRES Council of Fellows elected Dr. Dilling as a new Fellow, and also elected Dr. Joost de Gouw, a Senior Research Scientist in ESRL’s Chemical Sciences Division, who studies volatile organic compounds, and Dr. Tingjun Zhang, Senior Research Scientist and permafrost expert at CIRES’ National Snow and Ice Data Center. CIRES is very pleased to continue support of its established programs, which this past year included six Visiting Postdoctoral and Sabbatical Fellows, seven CIRES Graduate Student Research Fellowships, seven Innovative Research Program proposals, and five Distinguished Lecturers. New this year are two programs intended to increase collaboration with ESRL. First is the ESRL-CIRES Graduate Research Fellowship, created to recruit exceptional, prospective, CIRES graduate students