John McCarthy and James W. Wilson Field Observing Facility National Center for Atmospheric Research2 Boulder, Colo. 80307 The Joint Airport Weather Studies t.t^fX " Department of Geophysical Sciences Project Chicago, 111. 60637

Abstract aircraft performance will be studied, and a number of detection and warning systems will be tested in an active The Joint Airport Weather Studies (JAWS) Project will investigate thunderstorm wind shear environment. JAWS facilities will the microburst event, having 2-10 km spatial and 2-10 min tempo- include three NCAR Doppler radars (two 5 cm and one 10 ral scales, at Denver's Stapleton International Airport during the cm), the Portable Automated (PAM), two research summer of 1982. JAWS applications and technology transfer objec- aircraft, three rawinsonde units, and a lightning detection tives include: broadening the data base; providing data for real-time detection of thunderstorm hazards for dissemination to the public system. and avaiation communities; examining aircraft performance in wind JAWS has many applications and technology transfer shear; providing a real-time test for display software; identifying objectives that are related to NOAA's Prototype Regional which scales of atmospheric motion are pertinent to applied objec- Observing and Forecasting Service (PROFS); to the tives; providing a test of optimal Doppler radar placement suitable for metropolitan and airport terminal coverage; and describing in NOAA, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Depart- more detail the microburst hazard. ment of Defense (DOD) Next Generation Doppler Radar Program (NEXRAD); and NASA's Office of Aviation Safety Technology (OAST) Program. Consequently, a close working relationship will exist among JAWS, PROFS, 1. Introduction NEXRAD, and OAST. These applied programs will benefit by: Broadening the general weather hazard data base; The Joint Airport Weather Studies (JAWS) Project is a providing data appropriate for real-time detection and warn- joint research and technology transfer effort of the National ing of thunderstorm hazards for dissemination to the public Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the Univer- and the aviation community; examining aircraft perfor- sity of Chicago. The project began on 1 October 1981 and mance characteristics in wind shear conditions; providing a will continue for three years. The principal focus of JAWS suitable real-time test bed for display software development; will be on the convective microburst event, a small region of providing additional means to identify which scales of atmo- intense downflow and associated outflow that occurs in the spheric motion are pertinent to applied objectives; providing convective boundry layer, usually, but not always, associated an excellent test of optimal Doppler radar placement suit- with thunderstorms. The microburst has a spatial and able for metropolitan and airport terminal coverage; and temporal scale of 1 to 4 km and 2 to 20 min, respectively, and giving a more detailed perspective on the microburst has proved to be a major factor in a number of aircraft hazard. accidents, as reported in Fujita and Caracena (1977), In the sections to follow, a scientific background to the McCarthy et al. (1979, 1980), and Fujita (1980). microburst will be presented, followed by a more detailed JAWS will conduct research on the fine-scale structure of description of the objectives of JAWS. thunderstorm kinematics in the vicinity of Denver's Staple- ton International Airport during the summer of 1982. The effect of thunderstorm-produced, low-level wind shear on 2. The microburst

All convective clouds contain updrafts and downdrafts. In "A version of this paper appears in the Preprints of the Confer- cumulus congestus clouds, sailplane (Paluch, 1979) observa- ence on Radar Meterology, American Meterological Society, 30 tions indicate that small, strong downdrafts are common. It November-3 December 1981, Boston, Mass. Information concern- is likely that these downdrafts are caused by the penetrative ing the Joint Airport Weather Studies Project (JAWS) can be mixing mechanism proposed by Squires (1958). This mecha- obtained from one of the following: Dr. John McCarthy, JAWS Project Office, National Center for Atmospheric Research, P.O. nism assumes dry environmental air is entrained near cloud Box 3000, Boulder, Colo. 80307 (Phone: (303) 497-0651 or FTS tops and mixed with the cloud air, producing sufficient 322-7651); Dr. T. Theodore Fujita, JAWS Project Office, Dept. of evaporative cooling to generate downdrafts that penetrate Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago, 5734 S. Ellis Ave., several kilometers into the cloud. Downdrafts also are Chicago, 111. 60637 (Phone: (312) 753-8639). initiated and existing ones enhanced by precipitation drag 2NCAR is sponsored by the National Science Foundation. 0003-0007/82/010015-08$06.00 (Clark and List, 1971), and evaporative cooling from rain © 1982 American Meterological Society falling in dry air (Kamburova and Ludlam, 1966).

Bulletin American Meterological Society 15

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Observations of high plains or desert convective storms mechanisms of microbursts to encourage model modifica- suggest that dry sub-cloud air is particularly important in tions, so that might be simulated. generating and maintaining strong downdrafts through the The best documented microburst cases to date occurred evaporative cooling process. Although extensive evidence is during the Northern Illinois Meteorlogical Research On lacking, even rather benign-appearing clouds in these Downbursts (NIMROD), which took place near Chicago for regions may produce intense, small scale downdrafts and 45 days in the spring of 1978. In NIMROD, an accurate a corresponding outflow. Lemon and Doswell (1979) have priori estimate of the number of microbursts in and around proposed that downdrafts on the rear flank of severe thun- the network was impossible for lack of data; consequently, derstorms originate at a height of 7 to 10 km. They further Doppler radar baselines of 60 km were chosen in order to propose that downdrafts are dynamically forced by the increase the probability of an observable event. At the nonhydrostatic component of the vertical pressure gradient conclusion of the operations, as many as 10 microbursts, five like those formed on the upwind side of tall buildings in gust fronts, and two supercells were documented. The basic strong winds. Klemp and Wilhelmson (1978) have simulated difficulty encountered was attributable to the ground clutter this process in their three-dimensional numerical model. and the curvature of the earth, which obstructed the detec- Most downdrafts do not reach the ground, since just the tion of the low-level winds at distances in excess of 30 km. right balance of entrainment and evaporation of liquid water Thus, near-ground velocities could only be detected by one must take place to keep pace with adiabatic warming. radar. No dual or triple Doppler measurements of micro- However, when they do reach ground, they spread horizon- bursts at low levels were obtained. Nonetheless, some micro- tally. The stronger the downdraft penetrating the boundary bursts were depicted by single Doppler radar, permitting layer, the stronger the resulting outward burst of horizontal estimations of important characteristics of the low-level winds. Fujita (1978) has defined those downdrafts that wind shear. induce near-surface horizontal maximum winds exceeding The best microburst case, which passed by the Yorkville, 18 m/s (40 m/h) as "downbursts." He further defines a 111. (YKV) NCAR 5 cm Doppler radar on 29 May 1978, having a damage path less than 5 km as a allowed a continuous data acquisition from 15 to 3 km "microburst." When a downdraft reaching the ground distance. The leading edge of the microburst, after passing continues as an expanding outflow, extending over more near the Doppler radar, turned gradually into a weak gust than a few kilometers, a gust front is formed. Thus, a front, which reached O'Hare International Airport one hour microburst can evolve into a gust front. Gust fronts can later. The peak-gust speed, 31 m/s at YKV, decreased to 20 originate from either one or numerous cloud-scale or meso- m/s after travelling 20 km, and to 10 m/s near O'Hare. The scale downdrafts that Zipser (1977) has shown to be present estimated lifetime of the microburst with its peak-gust speed with some squall lines. in excess of 30 m/s was 10 min. The rainfall rate during the Multiple Doppler radar analysis of the JAWS data will peak-gust time at YKV was 30 mm/h (0.02 in/min). Since provide, for the first time, high-resolution data on downdraft no multiple Doppler radar observation of low-level outflow profiles from cloud top to ground, and on the lifetime and was possible because of the obstruction and earth curvature scale of wind shear events given in Table 1. problems discussed earlier, divergence and vertical motion It is unknown what special physical mechanisms cause estimates were obtained as follows: downdrafts to reach downburst intensity; it also is unknown It was assumed that the horizontal airflow of a microburst if these stronger downdrafts have a different origin. Basing is a cylindrically symmetric radial outflow phenomenon his considerations on scale, Emanuel (1981) proposes that superimposed upon the translational velocity. Figure 1 pre- downbursts are caused by penetrative downdraft mecha- sents the geometry of measuring the Doppler velocity Kof a nisms (Squires, 1958). He also states that because of the microburst characterized by the translational velocity C0 small scale of the downburst, current numerical thunder- and the radial velocity u. By using angles 6, 0O, and 0, and storm models are incapable (e.g., Schlesinger, 1978; Klemp .ranges r and R in the figure, we express Doppler velocity by and Wilhelmson, 1978; Clark, 1979) of simulating the downbursts. However, he believes that these models should V= u cos(6 + 0) + C0 cos(0O + 0). (1) be capable of explicitly resolving penetrative downdrafts if Selection of the cases with small 6 and 60 along with r < R0 the model spatial resolution were greatly increased. A goal permits reduction of this equation to of JAWS will be to provide modelers with sufficient four- dimensional detail and insight into dynamical forcing V = u cos 6 + C0 (2)

TABLE 1. Horizontal scale, lifetime, and maximum wind speed of wind-shear disturbances associated with convective storms. Average dimension of the mesoscale is 10 to 100 km, and that of the misoscale (my-so), 0.1 to 1 km, according to Fujita (1979). Artificially dividing the dimension between the meso- and misoscales is 4 km.

Horizontal dimensions Wind-shear Maximum disturbances (in km) (scale) Lifetime wind speed

Gust front 10-100 Mesoscale 1-10 h 40 m/s Downburst 4-10 Mesoscale 10-60 min 50 m/s Microburst 1-4 Misoscale 2-20 min 60 m/s

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FIG. 1. Divergence computation based on single-Doppler veloci- ties of a microburst which is approaching a Doppler radar, where V is Doppler-measured velocity, u is radial outflow velocity, and C0 is translational velocity of approaching microburst. FIG. 2. A vertical cross section through the 29 May 1978 microburst, showing isotachs of horizontal wind-speeds. The height of the maximum wind is estimated to be 50 m or lower. Arrows are resulting in the solution of ground-relative velocities in the plane, which is stretched vertically (from Fujita (1980)).

u = (V - C0)/cos 0. (3) Divergence inside the microburst is computed as cally illustrates the critical nature of such a microburst on u du Div u = — + — (4) aircraft operations. Such phenomena are addressed from a r dr critical aircraft performance perspective in McCarthy et al. Two terms on the right side of this equation obtained from (1979, 1980) and by Turkel and Frost (1980). Eq. (3) are In response to these preliminary findings regarding micro- bursts, and in an effort to address a number of problems u_ V- C0 _ V- Cp related to effects of microbursts, as well as to a host of (5) r r cos 0 r0 ancillary problems, the JAWS Project has emerged. du 1 dV dV (6) dr cos 0 dr dr 0 3. The JAWS Project where r0 = r cos 0 is the distance from the microburst center to the velocity element projected onto the Doppler radar- We have established a major project dedicated to a thorough microburst center line. By estimating C0, the translational velocity, we compute divergence values from

-C0 ^ dV Div u = (7) r0 dr0' Using divergence values derived in the above manner and the mass continuity equation, we then obtained vertical velocities. Figure 2 presents isotachs of horizontal wind speeds and vertical velocities for the NIMROD microburst case, computed from Eq. (7) as it is applicable to the travelling radial outflow of the microburst, which is not necessarily axi-symmetric in the earth fixed frame of refer- ence.3 While these analyses closely resemble the actual flow, these results should be considered as conceptual findings. FIG. 3. A vertical-time cross section showing isotachs of horizontal wind speed through a downburst observed by an NCAR JAWS should provide high-resolution horizontal wind Doppler radar near O'Hare airport on 7 June 1978. Included is a fields that will allow for the removal of these assumptions, hypothetical penetration through the maximum-wind core along 3° and greatly improve the validity of microburst analyses. glide slopes. The headwind shear (headwind increase with time) is The maximum horizontal wind speed of 31 m/s represents experienced during the approach to the core, while the tailwind shear (headwind decrease or tailwind increase with time) is encoun- an extreme wind shear situation for an aircraft on immediate tered while flying away from the core. A strong tailwind shear approach to, or departure from, an airport. Figure 3 graphi- results in a loss of airspeed, which endangers both landing and takeoff operations. It should be noted that a surface wind station (PAM 7) failed to measure high winds until three minutes after the 3 Single Doppler computations for Fig. 2 were made with 0O = 2°, passage of the maximum wind, less than 300 m above the station. 0 - 3°, and 0 = 1°. From Fujita (1980).

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Block diagram of JAWS Project objectives and observing facilities.

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FIG. 5. Map illustrating JAWS Project facilities situated in the vicinity of Denver's Stapleton International Airport.

examination of fine-scale, low-level kinematics and A list of the observing facilities to be used also is shown. dynamics associated with convective storms. JAWS is a Figure 5 is an illustration of the JAWS observing facilities collaborative effort between the University of Chicago and distributed around Stapleton International Airport. NCAR. A block diagram of the JAWS Project is presented The program is managed jointly by Theodore Fujita of the as Fig. 4. A brief inspection of the project structure indicates Satellite and Mesometeorology Research Project of the a division of the effort into three areas: basic studies of University of Chicago, and John McCarthy and James low-level convective storm winds, aircraft performance in Wilson of the Field Observing Facility of NCAR; each wind shear conditions, and wind shear detection and warning institution has established and staffed a JAWS office. The techniques. Note that many of the detection and warning JAWS Project will cover a three-year-period, with the field systems will be part of the overalj observation system. A phase being conducted between 15 May and 15 August secondary but important part of the JAWS project is 1982. We shall operate the experiment in the vicinity of labelled as ancillary studies, which represents the involve- Stapleton International Airport at Denver, Colo. There are ment of several other groups with JAWS-related objectives. several reasons for choosing Denver; most importantly,

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TABLE 2. Number of thunderstorm days per month for several selected stations in the United States, based on data for the period 1960-69.

Colorado Oklahoma Month Denver Springs Miami City Chicago Wash., D.C. Tucson

April 2 3 5 6 3 3 1 May 6 10 8 10 6 5 1 June 9 12 12 11 8 6 1 July 12 18 14 7 6 8 15 Aug. 10 15 17 7 7 6 15 Sept. 4 7 9 5 4 3 7 TOTAL 43 65 65 46 34 31 40

Denver has a high frequency of thunderstorms and, we descend from higher levels? Some meteorologists believe, a high frequency of microburst-producing storms. believe that the source height of the descending air This is likely the result of the dry environment, and thus high must be middle to low levels, while others propose a potential for evaporational cooling to enhance downdrafts. long-distance descent from near the cloud top to the Table 2 shows that Denver has a frequency of thunderstorms ground. equivalent to Oklahoma City, and that Colorado Springs, 3) What physical mechanisms are responsible for gener- Colo. (110 km south of Denver), has a frequency equal to ating microbursts? What is the relative importance of that of Miami. In fact, the Palmer Divide area between the following: Penetrative downdraft, precipitation Denver and Colorado Springs may have one of the highest drag, below-cloud evaporative cooling, dimension of frequencies of thunderstorms in the country. From over 100 the precipitation region, obstacle flow, pressure forces, h of Doppler radar observations during the summer of 1980, and environmental stability? we have observed that these storms frequently produce gust 4) Is there a relationship between overshooting tops, fronts and microbursts. subsequent downdrafts, sinking tops, and microbursts? The Denver location also is attractive because of the If so, what are the relationships among these phenom- installation of the Low-Level Wind Shear Alert System ena? (LLWSAS) at Stapleton, and the presence of NOAA Wave 5) Can we distinguish downburst-inducing thunder- Propagation Laboratory's vertically pointing 1 GHz Doppler storms from other types, based on radar and/or satel- wind profiler expected to be in operation in FY 1981. In lite measurements? addition, the Boulder Atmospheric Observatory's (BAO) instrumented tall tower east of Boulder is well within the multiple Doppler radar array, and will be available for use in b. Applications JAWS. NOAA's PROFS program located in the Denver A broad complement of applied problems are being vicinity will provide JAWS with substantial data on the addressed in JAWS. We are interested not only in basic mesoscale, and, in turn, PROFS will benefit from availabil- definition of microburst phenomena, but also in their ity of the JAWS data sets for use in evaluating its forecast- specific effects on aircraft performance, and how they can ing techniques. Finally, costs will be minimized in Denver by adequately be detected. The following are a few of the virtue of the proximity of the observing facilities. applications-oriented questions: a. Basic scientific objectives 1) Can we numerically model aircraft performance in such a way as to consider accurately the time- The core of the JAWS Project emphasizes fundamental dependent, often periodic nature (see Fig. 3) of the scientific studies of the thunderstorm, with particular atten- microburst? Aeronautical engineering models have tion to the surface and planetary boundary layer. A major long been used in addressing step function gust inputs, objective is to explore quantitatively the nature of the but they do not take into account the small scale microburst. It is hard to believe, however, that the compli- fluctuations of longitudinal, latitudinal, and vertical cated mechanism that initiates microbursts can be under- gusts occurring in the microbursts. Such performance stood without knowing the mesoscale environment in which characterizations will be addressed using numerical they form, develop, and die. The basic questions related to models; manned flight simulators; and instrumented such scale interactions are: meteorological research aircraft operating in the JAWS Project, as well as the performance of civil 1) Since most thunderstorms are associated with moder- airliners within the data collection volume of JAWS. ate to strong downdrafts during their mature to dissi- 2) How do existing and planned low-level wind shear pating stages, why do only a fraction of them induce detection and warning systems fare in a uniform downbursts or microbursts? thunderstorm wind shear environment? The six 2) Is there a typical source region for the downburst? Do systems listed in Fig. 4 will be tested in JAWS, downbursts, which are larger than microbursts, resulting in an objective evaluation of their capability.

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In this regard, several new technologies associated all combine to miss the smaller and short-lived microburst with pulsed microwave. Doppler will be and to accentuate large scale features such as gust fronts, further developed and evaluated. major updraft-downdraft couplets, and mesocyclones. Mesoscale thunderstorm research has been left with a Several applications of the JAWS Project are somewhat scientific void that the JAWS Project will attempt to fill. indirectly associated with JAWS. In Fig. 4, we have identi- There must be a thorough investigation of small scale fied these as ancillary studies. A close association with thunderstorm events that, as it turns out, constitute a serious NOAA's PROFS Program Office constitutes a serendipi- threat to aircraft in the terminal environment. The JAWS tous relationship. PROFS will be using the NCAR CP-2 10 Project has designed an observation network that is suffi- cm Doppler radar for a full year in Denver, to demonstrate ciently dense to define the x, y, z, and t scales of the the detection, assimilation, and warning of weather hazards microburst-type events, to understand their life cycles, and in a test-of-concept of mesoscale technology as applied to the to identify the physical bases of the origin and evolution of short-range forecast or "nowcast." JAWS will jointly use downdrafts, and how they relate to the development of CP-2 during the summer of 1982 and will profit from the microbursts and gust fronts. Additionally, we shall examine mesoscale descriptive context provided by PROFS, while the relationship of microburst and other boundary-layer PROFS will gain from JAWS radar technique development wind shear events to the larger thunderstorm scale studied in previous experiments. and detailed specific hazard definition. The NOAA/FAA/Air Force NEXRAD Program will gain from JAWS in two significant areas. By examining the placement of three Doppler radars at three different ranges from an airport terminal/urban area setting, the appropriate Acknowledgments. Many persons have been vital to the success- trade-offs for NEXRAD radar placement will be examined. ful development of the JAWS Project. Much of the groundwork was For example, will national radar network placement be laid at a series of workshops entitled Workshop on Meteorological sufficient, or will additional airport/urban Doppler radars and Environmental Inputs to Aviation Systems, sponsored by be required? Secondly, quantitative techniques for weather NASA, FAA, and NOAA, held annually at the University of Tennessee Space Institute, Tullahoma, Tenn. Walter Frost of UTSI hazard definitions will be developed further in the JAWS and Dennis Camp of NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Hunts- Project, after Wilson et al. (1980) and Wilson and Wilk ville, have led these discussions, and were instrumental to the (1981), thus aiding the software development objectives of development of the JAWS Project. Dr. Ron Taylor of NSF, Robert NEXRAD. Roche and Frank Coons of FAA, Dick Tobiason of NASA, and Ron While we cite only a few of the applications and technol- Alberty and Jack Hinkelman of NOAA are acknowledged for support. Ms. Phyllis O'Rourke is acknowledged for editing the ogy transfer objectives of JAWS, we see the project as being manuscript. Ms. Billie Wheat and Ms. Maggie Miller are acknowl- a complete basic and applied attack on a fundamental edged for typing. meteorological problem, most worthy of pure science and mission agency support.

References 4. Conclusions Clark, T. L., 1979: Numerical simulations with a three-dimensional This study will concentrate on scales of motion that have cloud model: Lateral boundary condition experiments and multi- received little attention in previous experiments. The micro- cellular severe storm simulations. J. Atmos. Sci., 36, 2191-2215. burst-type wind shear event occurs on space and time scales , and R. List, 1971: Dynamics of a falling particle zone. J. ranging from 1 to 3 km and 2 to 20 min, respectively. Atmos. Sci., 28, 718-727. Emanuel, K. A., 1981: A similarity theory for unsaturated down- Essentially, all thunderstorm-oriented mesoscale experi- draft within clouds. J. Atmos. Sci., 38, 1541-1557. ments have deployed their multiple Doppler radar arrays Fujita, T. T., 1978: Manual of downburst identification for project with spacings too large to observe adequately these impor- NIMROD, SMRP Res. Pap. 156, University of Chicago, 111., 104 tant scales. The SESAME 1979 experiment concentrated on pp. storm-scale and large scale processes ranging in excess of 5 , 1979: Objectives, operation, and results of Project NIMROD. km. The Convective Storms Division of NCAR (and its Preprints, 11th Conference on Severe Local Storms (Kansas predecessor—the National Hail Research Experiment) City), AMS, Boston, pp. 259-266. occasionally looked at smaller scales than SESAME 1979, , 1980: Downbursts and microbursts—an aviation hazard. but concentrated on prethunderstorm precipitation develop- Preprints, 19th Conference on Radar Meteorology (Miami ment. This continued to be the case in the 1981 Cooperative Beach) AMS, Boston, 637-644. , and F. Caracena, 1977: An analysis of three weather-related Convective Precipitation Experiment (CCOPE) at Miles aircraft accidents. Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 58, 1164-1181. City, Mont. The NIMROD experiment in 1978, planned at Kamburova, P. L., and F. H. Ludlam, 1966: Rainfall evaporation in the onset to concentrate on smaller scales, used Doppler thunderstorm downdrafts. Quart. J. Roy. Meteorol. Soc., 92, radar spacing suitable for storm scale studies, and thus could 510-518. not provide multiple Doppler analyses that addressed the Klemp, J. B., and R. B. Wilhelmson, 1978: Simulations of right and microburst. Large separations between radars, slow scan- left moving storms through storm splitting. J. Atmos. Sci., 35, ning procedures, and failure to observe close to the ground, 1097-1110.

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Lemon, L. R., and C. A. Doswell III, 1979: Severe thunderstorm Squires, P., 1958: Penetrative downdraughts in cumuli. Tellus X, 3, evolution and mesocyclone structure as related to tornado genesis. 381-389. Mon. Wea. Rev., 107, 1184-1197. Turkel, B. S., and W. Frost, 1980: Pilot-aircraft system response to McCarthy, J., E. F. Blick, and R. R. Bensch, 1979: Jet transport wind shear. NASA Contractor Report CR-3342, NASA, Wash- performance in thunderstorm wind shear conditions. NASA CR- ington, D.C. 3207, NASA, Washington, D.C. Wilson, J., R. Carbone, H. Baynton, and R. Serafin, 1980: Opera- , W. Frost, B. Turkel, R. J. Doviak, D. W. Camp, E. F. Blick, tional application of meteorological Doppler radar. Bull. Am. and K. L. Elmore, 1980: An airport wind shear detection arid Meteorol. Soc., ttl, 1154-1168. warning system using Doppler radar. Preprints, 19th Conference Wilson, J. W., and Kenneth E. Wilk, 1981: Nowcasting applications on Radar Meteorology, (Miami Beach) AMS, Boston, pp. 135— of Doppler radar. Proceedings of the International Commission of 142. Cloud Physics Symposium entitled "NOWCASTING: Meso- Paluch, I. R., 1979: The entrainment in Colorado cumuli. J. Atmos. scale Observations and Short Range Prediction," Hamburg, Sci., 36, 2462-2478. Germany, 25-28 August 1981, pp. 123-134. Schlesinger, R. E., 1978: A three-dimensional numerical model of Zipser, E. J., 1977: Mesoscale and convective-scale downdrafts as an isolated thunderstorm: Part I. Comparative experiments for distinct components of squall-line structure. Mon. Wea. Rev., variable ambient wind shear. J. Atmos. Sci., 35, 690-713. 105, 1568-1587.

announcements (continued from page 14)

Science and Technology Political Action Committee broad scale is in the national interest. If we do not speak out, who will? If not now, when?" A former Congressman and scientist recently wrote that: "There is The Advisory Board of SCITEC-PAC includes distinguished no major group in the U.S. so ignored, ridiculed, misunderstood or individuals from governments, teaching, and research: Robert C. underestimated in our legislative bodies as the scientists of our Anderson, Vice-President for Research, University of Georgia; country." David H. Cohen, President, Society for Neurosciences; Hugh A group of scientists and engineers, who previously served as Fudenberg, Chairman, Dept. of Basic and Clinical Immunology, Science Fellows in the Congress or in the State Department, is trying Medical University of South Carolina; George Gamota, Director, to change this image. They have formed the Science and Technology Institute of Science and Technology Policy, University of Michigan Political Action Committee (SCITEC-PAC). The Chairman of the (formerly the Director of Research for the Dept. of Defense); Nor- founding group, Donald Stein of Clark University, stated, "It is man Geshwirid, Putnam Professor of Neurology, Harvard Univer- critical that the community of scientists and engineers, regardless of sity; Donald McCurdy, President, National Science Teachers their specific disciplines, develop the political strength to influence Association; Gilbert Omenn, University of Washington, Seattle public policy. If we don't, we will have to stand by and watch the (formerly the Associate Director of the Office of Science and Tech- funds for education, training, and research decline to dangerously nology Policy); and Adlai Stevenson III, former Senator from Illi- low levels." nois and Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Science SCITEC-PAC is a non-partisan organization concerned with the Research and Technology. support of science in its broadest sense, from the role of the Federal For further information, contact SCITEC-PAC, Rockvilie Court Government in funding science and engineering research and teach- House Station, P.O. Box 351, Rockvilie, Md. 20850 (tel: 301-424- ing to the development of tax laws for encouraging business invest- 0002). ment in education and research. Stein explained, "Our group decided to organize as a PAC rather than as a lobby because of the differences in goals. Lobbyists try to influence officials on specific issues by presenting information to New booklet on career workshops for women in them, while PACs hiake campaign contributions of money, time, science and effort to candidates that share similar goals and aspiratioris. An extra advantage of having a PAC for all sciences is the added clout it A 53-page booklet, Ideas for Developing and Conducting a Women provides the many scholarly and professional societies. Because of in Science Career Workshop, has been published to assist those their tax-exempt status, organizations such as the A A AS, American wishing to provide career advice to prospective women scientists and Chemical Society, and National Academy of Sciences cannot sup- engineers. Topics covered include managing and financing the work- port political candidates." shop, recruiting presenters and participants, generating publicity, collecting resource materials, holding the workshop, conducting the The response during the initial stages of SClTEC-PACs organiz- evaluation, and developing on-going and new activities. This book- ing activities has been very encouraging. Stein commented, "There let also includes samples of brochures and evaluation forms, a list of are some scientists and engineers who feel political action by our resource materials, a list of directors of NSF-supported workshops, community is somehow inappropriate or undignified. At some and lists of committees concerned with women and minority point, the scientific community will have to accept what other inter- scientists. est groups have learned long ago — that our system of government assumes that different groups will organize to make their interests The booklet is available without charge from the Women in known to Congress and the President. Given the current economic Science Program, Directorate for Science and Engineering Educa- situation, the question is not IF the scientific and engineering com- tion, National Science Foundation, Washington, D.C., 20550. Each munity will organize but whether it will organize NOW or wait until request should be accompanied by a mailing label. it has lost even more battles to the budget ax. Politicians must be reminded that support of American science and technology on a (icontinued on page 28)

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