Autumn 2007 Atmospheric Circulation Newsletter of the University of Atmospheric Sciences Department

In Search of Soot in Steve Domonkos: in the Russian Arctic The Magician of the Machine Shop by Tom Grenfell accelerated snow melting and by Dale Durran and Sarah Doherty greater warming. The soot content of the snow modu- One thing in lates the melt rate and length the UW Atmo- of the melt season. Soot is spheric Sciences especially effective because: D e p a r t m e n t (1) it is one of the blackest that has hardly natural substances; (2) the changed in 37 peak of soot fallout occurs in years is the en- the spring and coincides with thusiasm and tal- onset of snowmelt; (3) melt- ent that Steven ing spring snow has lower in- herent albedo and larger grain Domonkos brings size than cold snow enhanc- to the design and ing the influence of the soot; construction of and (4) soot may concentrate systems for use Steve Domonkos in scientific -re Transportation in Vorkuta. A light Russian army tank. at the surface during melt more effectively decreasing search or classroom demonstrations. Steve Black carbon particles, or soot, produced the albedo. joined the UW in 1970, took partial retire- by biomass and fossil fuel combustion are In 1983/84 Tony Clarke and Kevin ment in 2002, and is still continuing to work distributed throughout the atmosphere. Noone, then in Civil Engineering, carried half time as a Research Engineer. Steve These particles can travel thousands of out a survey over the western Arctic to was been nominated twice for the UW miles allowing the soot to reach the most observe levels of the soot particles in the Distinguished Staff award. The number of remote parts of the Arctic where they can snowpack. The resulting paper (Clarke nominations campus-wide greatly exceeds be deposited on the surface, scavenged and Noone, Atmos. Environment, 19, #12, the number of awards, so since Steve is not by snow or rainfall. Soot particles in the 2045–2053, 1985) received wide recogni- known to have heroically saved anyone snowpack make the snow darker, acting to tion and raised questions about the role of from a fiery death, he did not receive the decrease the albedo most strongly at visible contaminants in the radiative energy bal- award. and near ultraviolet wavelengths where ice ance of snow-covered areas of the world. Nevertheless, the comments many con- is most transparent. As an example, 25 I was involved in the project as a volun- tributed to his nomination materials helps teer to collect snow. Since that time Steve parts-per-billion of soot can reduce the total fill out the picture of Steve’s unique- ser reflectance of the snow pack by about 2%. Warren and I have maintained a continuing vices. As Bonnie Light, Physicist with the This cannot be distinguished by eye but has interest in soot and its effects on the optical significant implications for the regional cli- properties of snow. We obtained additional Applied Physics Laboratory and former mate. According to Hansen and Nazarenko samples at various locations on the Antarc- graduate student, expressed: “Steve is more (Proceedings of the National Academy of tic Plateau and in the Arctic as opportuni- than a machinist. He is a problem-solver. Sciences, 101, 423–428, 2004), the effect ties arose on other field projects, but we He will often look over my plan for how of soot in snow on the earth’s energy bud- never carried out a systematic wide-area to construct something, think about it, dig get may be one-quarter as large as that due survey similar in scope to the Clarke and back into his vast experience, suggest a bet- to the increase of greenhouse gases since Noone study. ter way to do it, help me visualize this new pre-industrial times. A major gap in the 1983/84 survey was approach, and know immediately how to Snow is particularly important because the area across northern Russia, spanning build it. This is a skill set that is uncommon 11 time zones—almost half of the Arctic. the annual snowpack acts to amplify cli- and hugely valuable…. He is incredibly mate change. If the climate cools, the snow In the 80s this region was not accessible to flexible. This is enormously helpful when can cover a larger area, hiding dark under- US scientists. Further it has become ap- lying surfaces, reflecting more sunlight, parent from our work to date that the soot doing research-grade machining. Steve un- and promoting further cooling. If the cli- levels we have been finding are sufficiently derstands the quirks of research and works mate warms, the winter snow pack melts low that there are a variety of serious prob- really well within this framework. He pret- earlier, exposing darker underlying sur- lems with using satellite remote sensing to ty much is always willing to find a way to faces that absorb more sunlight leading to (Continued on page ) (Continued on page )

1 Department of Atmospheric Sciences Chair’s Column mer students have made significant contri- climate), Tom Ackerman (radiation, remote Dennis Hart- butions to the Holton Endowed Graduate sensing) and Dargan Frierson (atmospheric mann completed Fund. Peter Hobbs also bequeathed to the general circulation) are an impressive co- his term as chair at department his share of the royalties gen- hort who are well poised to continue the the end of June, af- erated by the new second edition of the UW’s tradition of leadership in the atmo- ter which I became Wallace and Hobbs classic Atmospheric spheric sciences. the 9th chairman Science, an Introductory Survey. We also lost two beloved academic fac- of the UW Atmo- Finally, I am very excited to announce ulty and one emeritus professor during the spheric Sciences that a new endowed lectureship was estab- last five years, whereas during the previ- Department. I am lished this spring in memory of Peter Hobbs ous 15 years no faculty, active or emeritus, honored to serve as by his wife Sylvia and their three sons, passed away. Dennis provided a steady chair of this depart- Stephen, Julian and Rowland (see Peter V. hand at the helm in our time of grief. ment with its excellent record of research, Hobbs Memorial Endowed Lectureship in Under Dennis’ leadership, we have seen teaching and service. I, together with the Experimental Meteorology, p. 5). a modest increase in enrollment in our rest of the faculty, congratulate and thank Let me close by thanking all those who undergraduate major, a major expansion Dennis for his five years of distinguished have made contributions to the department in the number of students served in our service. Some of the highlights from Den- (see Donor Recognition, p. 7), and also by undergraduate classes for non-majors, and nis’ tenure as chair are reviewed in Fea- thanking those who have sent updates about continued success in recruiting excellent tured Professor: Dennis Hartmann on p. 2. their activities (see Alumni News, p. 8). I graduate students. The department has Upon becoming chair, there were lots of urge all alums to send us news about their maintained it’s extensive program of little surprises, like the need to get moving activities to share in the 2008 edition of At- cutting-edge research despite the loss of on this issue of Atmospheric Circulation. mospheric Circulation. two active distinguished faculty. Fortunately Dennis had left me with a team Best wishes, Dennis also greatly expanded on the ef- of outstanding and highly capable people Dale Durran fort begun by Jim Holton to stay in better in the main office. Debra Wolf has played contact with our alumni though receptions a particularly major role in creating this is- Featured Professor: at the AMS Annual Meetings, and of course sue. Dennis Hartmann by editing editions two through six (2002– Those who have read the Chair’s Col- 2006) of this newsletter. The need to at- umn in previous editions of Atmospheric tract charitable contributions to strengthen Circulation will know it often mentions the department added a new dimension to the reality that state budgets for higher the tasks faced by the chairman, and Den- education do not provide the level of sup- nis tackled this with notable success as dis- port that they did in the past. In addition, cussed more fully in the Chair’s Column although our level of research funding has (see page 2). grown slightly, these funds can no longer Dennis is eager to get back to his re- directly support the facilities and adminis- search on clouds and climate change, and trative functions they could in the past. As on the low-frequency variability of the at- a consequence we have become increas- mosphere. He is particularly excited about ingly reliant on donations from our alumni the suite of new satellite observations just and friends to support special events, dis- becoming available that will give an un- tinguished lecturers, scholarships, and fel- precedented picture of cloud structure and lowships. distribution. In addition, he looks forward During Dennis’ tenure we received sev- Professor Dennis Hartmann to completing a long overdue revision of eral major gifts from those in an excellent Prof. Dennis Hartmann is returning to his textbook Global Physical Climatology. position to understand the situation: name- civilian life after serving for five years as Although Dennis has stepped down ly our emeritus and current faculty and chairman of the Atmospheric Sciences from the chairmanship, he will continue to their spouses. Bob Fleagle established an Department. It may be that no chair since remain very active in his service to the de- endowment for a Visiting Faculty Fellow- Phil Church was confronted with so many partment by overseeing our graduate pro- ship in Atmospheric Sciences Policy (see challenges during his tenure. During Den- gram as Graduate Program Coordinator Inaugural Fleagle Lectures, p. 3). In addi- nis’ 5-year stint as chair roughly the same during the 2007–2008 Academic Year. tion, Bob Fleagle, Joost Businger, Conway number of academic faculty were hired as and Jan Leovy, Richard and Joan Reed, Jim during the previous 15 years. These six Holton’s spouse Margaret, and an anony- faculty: Joel Thornton (atmospheric chem- mous donor all established endowed funds istry), Rob Wood (cloud microphysics), for student support, which were matched Becky Alexander (atmospheric chemistry, by the college. Many of Jim Holton’s for- paleoclimate), Cecilia Bitz (high latitude

2 Atmospheric Circulation

was entitled “Frontal Wave Development Even with this problem, he always did his New Faculty over the Southern Ocean.” job superbly, whether fixing something that We are excited to welcome two new Jerôme has studied boundary layer winds broke during a flight, or when he ran the faculty to our department this year: Dargan over the oceans using satellite scatterome- whole aircraft computer system as Flight Frierson and Jerôme Patoux. ter data. He has also been very active teach- Engineer.” Dargan Frierson joins our faculty as an ing to elementary and In addition to supporting our research, assistant professor. Dargan received his middle school science teachers and in de- Steve has made similar outstanding con- B.S. in Mathematics and Physics (with veloping curricula for such courses. Jerôme tributions to the educational mission of the recently taught our non-majors “weather’’ department by enthusiastically and skillful- course with excellent results. ly creating devices for classroom demon- strations. Out of necessity, the request for a new classroom demonstration arises as a sudden idea while one is thinking about next week’s lecture. This means that Steve has little time to bring a sometimes half-formed idea to fruition, but he repeatedly turned these ideas into inspirations by crafting an elegant teaching tool. Sometimes these are very simple devices; but they have ranged up to a very complex machine for illustrat- ing the Coriolis force, which was ultimately the focus of an article in the Bulletin of the Assistant Professor Dargan Frierson American Meteorological Society. Steve’s Continued on page  minors in English and Italian) from North Research Professor Jerôme Patoux Carolina State University and proceeded Inaugural Fleagle Lecture to Princeton for graduate school. He com- Domonkos, cont. from page  Last May, Dr. Robert Watson gave the pleted his dissertation, entitled “Studies of first lectures in the Fleagle Visiting Fac- the General Circulation of the Atmosphere make something work.” ulty Fellowship in Atmospheric Sciences with a Simplified Moist General Circula- Sarah Doherty, Research Engineer and Policy. Dr. Watson has served as the Chief tion Model’’ in 2005 under the guidance of former graduate student, notes, “I have Scientist and Director for Environmentally Issac Held, and then spent two years as a twice worked with Steve to build systems and Socially Sustainable Development for postdoc at the University of Chicago work- for aircraft deployment. In both cases, the World Bank since 1997. In addition to ing with Ray Pierrehumbert under support the aircraft engineers were extremely im- his lectures Dr. Watson met formally and from a UCAR VSP Climate and Global pressed with his work. This past spring we informally with many graduate students Change Postdoctoral Fellowship. had to build a new and complex package and faculty. Both the students and the fac- Dargan’s research has focused on the for a NOAA aircraft under a prohibitive- roles played by moisture and latent heat ly short timeline. Steve not only got the ulty found his visit extremely stimulating, release on the dynamics of the general cir- job done, but when the lead NOAA air- and according to Dr. Watson, the feeling culation. Much of his work is motivated craft engineer saw the package he asked, was mutual. by a desire to understand how our planet’s “Who DID this???”, then pulled over his In his lectures Dr. Watson stressed that dynamics may change with global warm- colleagues to inspect and admire Steve’s the science of global warming is robust and ing. Dargan is looking forward to teaching work. This came from engineers that have it is not realistic to expect the problem to at both the graduate and undergraduate lev- worked for years on military and research simply go away. He argued that the future els. aircraft. They literally asked me for his is in our hands: we can limit changes Jerôme Patoux joins our faculty as a re- name, and could not believe what a single in the Earth’s climate, but the changes search assistant professor. Jerôme received guy working in a machine shop had pulled in policies, practices and technologies an engineering degree from the Ecole Cen- off in a few short months.” required are substantial and not currently trale de Lille, followed by an M.S. in Envi- Art Rangno, former Research Scien- underway. Powerpoint presentations ronmental Engineering from the University tist, recalls, “Steve Domonkos came to the of Dr. Watson’s lectures, “The science, of Texas at Austin and a D.E.A. in Meteo- Cloud and Aerosol Research (CAR) Group economics, equity and politics of global rology and Oceanography from the Univer- in the early 1980s as a crew member on our warming” and “Living beyond our means: sité Paul Sabatier in Toulouse, France. In research aircraft…. He was tough and did natural assests and human well-being” may 2003 he completed a Ph.D. in Atmospheric his job even though he had problems with be downloaded from our website at www. Sciences from our department under the air sickness and was forced to take anti- atmos.washington.edu/events/Fleagle_ guidance of Bob Brown; his dissertation air sickness drugs over a period of years. Lectures/Fleagle_Lectures.html.

3 Department of Atmospheric Sciences Soot in Snow, cont. from page  fly by commercial aircraft to each of the cities and fill the gap. So two years ago, Steve was obtain local transportation visiting Vladimir Radionov, a colleague out into the countryside and head of the Department of Meteorol- several tens of kilometers ogy at the Arctic and Antarctic Research away to avoid the influence Institute (AARI) in St. Petersburg, and they of local sources. Each lo- initiated plans to include Russian sites in a cation is in the tundra zone basin-wide field project over the next two north of the boreal forests to three years. Russia was planning to sup- (taiga) and located on ma- port a strong International Polar Year (IPY) jor rivers flowing north program, and we saw a unique opportunity to the Arctic Ocean. The developing to cooperate with the Russians climate is similar to north- to get data from this critical area. Again ern and the people Steve Hudson and Valery posing in front of the Bronto, we teamed up with Tony Clarke and were similarly friendly. Many near Khatanga. successful in obtaining funding from NSF of them had never seen an for a new project under the auspices of IPY; American and were very curious about our year to cover the eastern sector, and we however, there was a lot more fun in store project. Unfortunately my abilities at Rus- hope that the cooperation we managed will for us. sian were limited to surviving, so Michael be contagious and open opportunities for To carry out a project in Russia, we had and Valery often had to explain things for similar research in the future. Meanwhile, to submit a proposal to and obtain formal us. if you find yourself in St. Petersburg, be permission from the Russian Hydrometeo- One particularly interesting aspect of our sure to visit the Arctic and Antarctic Mu- rological Service for Environmental Moni- experiment was the local transportation. seum at 24 Marata Street. toring (Roshydromet). We also had to have At northern sites in Alaska and Canada, permission from the local authorities at we were able to rent or borrow snow mo- each location, all of which are in the north- biles with ease and drive ourselves out into In Memoriam ern border zone, a politically sensitive area. the wilds. In Russia this wasn’t possible. Edward LaChapelle, Professor Emeri- Vladimir spent most of last winter writing Not only were snow mobiles uncommon tus of Atmospheric Sciences and Earth & letters and contacting the proper people. and unreliable, the authorities didn’t want Space Sciences, passed away on February Fortunately he was able to enlist the aid of to have us roaming around by ourselves. 1, 2007. Professor LaChapelle was skiing Victor Boyarsky, director of the Russian Fortunately, Valery was able to provide at Monarch Mountain in when he creative solutions that served the purpose. State Arctic and Antarctic Museum, a sea- suffered a heart attack. He was 80. soned polar explorer and an expert on polar In Vorkuta, for example, we drove out in logistics. Between them, they were able a light Russian army tank with the armar- to get the permissions we needed and get ment removed that had been taken over by the project set up. So in late March, Steve the Russian Geological Survey for field Hudson and I flew to St. Petersburg on the use. first leg of the journey to join the rest of the In Khatanga, we had a more modern field team (Dr. Michael Lamakin and Mr. conveyance, a Bronto. This is a modern Valery Ippolitov). jeep-like vehicle with giant tires for cross The areas we were to visit this year were country travel. One of my career ambitions in the vicinity of Nar’yan Mar, Vorkuta, has been to drive north along a Siberian Dikson, and Khatanga covering the west- river, as the Russian truckers do to deliver ern part of the country. Our strategy was to local products to the coast for shipment to the rest of the country, and in the Bronto I finally go to do it. After a grueling six weeks Ed LaChapelle is holding one of the on the road, we returned to St. stainless steel rings they put into the Blue Petersburg, wrote up our proj- Glacier back in 1963. ect report for Новости МПГ (Photo: Dennis Hartmann, 2006) (IPY News Bulletin), had a small celebration for the suc- Prof. LaChapelle authored The ABC cess of our project and headed of Safety, as well as authoring home. Upon reflection, the and co-authoring several other books. He most remarkable aspect of the developed a beacon to locate buried skiers experiment was that we man- and helped found the Northwest Weather aged to carry out the field pro- and Avalanche Center in Seattle. He was gram essentially as planned. a pioneer in the field of avalanche forecast- Our Russian hosts put in a ing and research in . large amount of effort and LaChapelle travelled extensively to do managed to circumvent all the research on glaciers and snowfall in Alaska, obstacles. Steve Warren and , and the Blue Glacier on Mount Locations we visited this spring are circled. I plan to return to Russia next Olympus in Washington.

4 Atmospheric Circulation Peter V. Hobbs Memorial Endowed Lectureship in Experimental Meteorology Peter Hobbs felt strongly that the ad- and synoptic-scale structures, the micro- were a Senior Alexander von Humboldt vancement of science must be nurtured physical constitution and the development Award for research in Germany (1984), through the open exchange of ideas. He of precipitation in clouds in widely separat- Fellow of the American Geophysical Union was deeply involved in experimental mete- ed locations in middle latitudes, the tropics (1993), College orology, conducting research ranging from and the Arctic. His Research Group flew of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Recognition the microscale, through the mesoscale, up through smoke from burning oil wells in Award (1994), The Sackler Distinguished to the global scale, and including both the Kuwait after the Gulf War and from burn- Lecturer in Planetary and Space Sciences, physics and chemistry of the atmosphere. ing jungle vegetation in the Amazon River Tel Aviv University, Israel, (2000), Guin- The common threads in his work were the Basin and in Africa, and through ash spew- ness Book of Records for measurement of ubiquitous roles played by aerosols, clouds ing from volcanoes such as Mount St. Hel- the largest raindrop (shared) (1994) and the and precipitation in the atmosphere. Be- ens in Washington and Redoubt in Alaska. United Arab Emirates Prize for Excellence fore his death, Peter laid plans for a lecture- Peter Hobbs also researched the dispersion in Weather Modification (shared with Art ship to foster the open exchange of ideas and chemical changes in aerosols emitted amongst scientists working on a wide range from ships. To conduct his research, Hobbs Rangno) (2005). of problems connected by these threads. used three airplanes, beginning with a As a youth Peter Hobbs was a boxing World War II-vintage Douglas B-23 previ- and swimming champion and an avid ath- ously owned by Howard Hughes, which is lete, and he never lost his interest in physi- now housed at the McCord Air Museum in cal fitness, jogging almost daily around Tacoma. He also used a Convair C-131A campus with departmental colleagues. and later a Convair 580 (dubbed “Husky Another passion for Peter was music in all One”). forms but, in particular, he enjoyed opera. During his career, Peter Hobbs authored Peter Hobbs died from pancreatic cancer more than 350 peer-reviewed papers and on July 25, 2005. over 200 conference reports, served as an The gift to establish this endowed lec- editor of four major scientific journals, was tureship was made in loving memory of Pe- an editor of three books, and the author of ter by his wife, Sylvia, and their three sons four books: Ice Physics (Oxford University Stephen, Julian and Rowland. The first Pe- Press, 1974), Atmospheric Science: An In- ter Hobbs Memorial Lecture should occur troductory Survey, co-authored with J. M. next spring. Wallace (Academic Press, 1977), Basic Peter V. Hobbs Physical Chemistry for the Atmospheric Sci- Domonkos, cont. from page  ences (Cambridge University Press, 1995, Peter Hobbs was born in London, Eng- capabilities, resourcefulness, and friendly land on May 31, 1936. While attending 2000), and Introduction to Atmospheric can-do attitude stimulate us to constantly secondary school he had shown an interest Chemistry (Cambridge University Press, think of how we can improve the tools we in meteorology and built his own weather 2000) and the 2nd edition of Atmospheric station. After leaving school he spent a Science: An Introductory Survey with J. use in our teaching. mandatory two years in the Royal Air Force M. Wallace (Elsevier, 2006). He served on In addition to his exceptional ability doing meteorological work before study- numerous national and international com- to think creatively and build high qual- ing at the Imperial College of Science and mittees concerned with the planning and ity instruments, Steve is resourceful, and Technology, University of London, where implementation of major programs in cloud thankfully in these days of tight budgets, he earned a B.Sc. in Physics and a Ph.D. physics and weather modification and was economical. Steve makes copious use of in Cloud Physics, studying under Professor president of the International Commission University Surplus, and he keeps left over B.J. Mason. After graduating in 1963 Peter on Clouds and Precipitation between 1984 supplies from a project around for future was offered a position in the Atmospheric and 1992. Along with teaching, doing re- use—which he is able to in fact do because Sciences Department of the University of search and writing, Peter Hobbs had 29 “Steve is the best organized person I have Washington, Seattle, where he became a students who gained Ph.D.s and 34 who ever met; someone who can find anything Professor of Atmospheric Sciences and the received Master’s degrees under his super- from a critical photo of his work to an odd- Director of the Cloud and Aerosol Research vision. sized nut and bolt.” [Art Rangno]. In this Group (CARG) . Peter Hobbs received many honors dur- way, Steve has saved research grants and Peter Hobbs began his research by study- ing his lifetime including awards from the the department innumerable dollars by opt- ing the formation of ice-crystal populations American Meteorological Society: Editor’s ing for a simple, elegant, “reuse/recycle” in supercooled clouds at 8,000 feet on Mt. Award (1970), Fellow of the Society (1982), approach to each project. We are not quite Olympus, Washington. He did some of the the Jule G. Charney Award (1984) for his sure what we will do if Steve ever com- research on cloud physics, cloud and aero- first studies of the effects of industrial pol- pletely retires. lution on the atmosphere and some of the sol chemistry and meso-scale meteorology, earliest research on acid rain, participating and an honorary membership (2006). Oth- in several large projects to study the meso- er honors and awards Peter Hobbs received

5 Department of Atmospheric Sciences

Bryce Land Congratulations to Ryan McKinsey (AFROTC) Scholarships and Kevin Placido Graduates Stewart Renz (AFROTC) Awards Doctor of Philosophy Ryan Roberts (AFROTC) NCAR ASP Post-doctoral Fellowship: Charles Smeltzer Brian Ancell, The Nature of Adjoint Sensitivity Michael Warner Ryan Torn with Respect to Model Parameters and its Matthew White Use in Adaptive Data Assimilation (Mass) NOAA Climate and Global Change Kathleen Crahan, The Thermodynamic and Undergraduate and Faculty Postdoctoral Fellowship: Kinetic Impacts of Organics on Marine Larissa Back Aerosols (Hegg) Research Robert Elleman, Aerosol Size Distribution Department of Energy Graduate Modeling for the Pacific Northwest The following undergraduate students and fac- (Covert/Mass) ulty members worked together during the past Research Environmental Fellow: Camille Li, A General Circulation Modeling year: Emily Fischer Perspective on Abrupt Climate Change Alfredo Arroyo/Joel Thornton: Development During Glacial Times (Battisti) of a 1-D Forest Canopy Chemistry Model AMS Summer Policy Colloquium Qing Liang, The Thermodynamic and Kinetic Katherine Condit/Theodore Anderson: Down­ Participant: Impacts of Organics on Marine Aerosols loading and organizing data from a lidar sat- Rei Ueyama (Jaeglé) ellite (the ICEsat mission) for global analy- Brian Magi, Optical Properties and Radiative sis of aerosol/cloud properties Forcing of Southern African Biomass NASA ESS Grad Student Fellow: Burning Aerosols (Hobbs/Fu) Bonnie Brown/Greg Hakim: Analysis of radio- Reddy Yatavelli William Roberts, An Investigation into the sonde profiles of arctic vortex cores Causes for the Reduction in the Variability Kathryn Boyd/Greg Hakim: Forecast error sta- PCC Fellows: tistics from an ensemble Kalman filter of the El Niño Southern Oscillation in the Kelly McCusker and Eric Sofen Early Holocene in a Global Climate Model Brett Carlson/Dennis Hartmann: The wave- (Battisti) number-frequency spectrum of heat trans- AMS Fellow: Ken Takahashi, Processes Controlling the port across high latitudes Mean Tropical Pacific Precipitation Pattern Michael Soltow/Robert Wood: Website de- Kristen Rasmussen (Battisti) sign for laboratory-based teaching in the Ryan Torn, Using Ensemble Data Assimilation Phi Beta Kappa Initiate: Atmospheric Sciences for Predictability and Dynamics (Hakim) Bonnie Brown Christopher Woods, The Study of Snow David Weir/Robert Wood: Satellite and ship Particles in Pacific Northwest Winter observation of microphysical properties Reed Scholarship Recipients: Precipitation: Observations and Mesoscale over the SE Pacific ocean Modeling (Hobbs/Stoelinga) Michael Warner/Cliff Mass: Westerly Wind Bonnie Brown, Michael Goss, Surges through the Strait of Juan de Fuca David Weir Master of Science Phil Church Award: James Booth, Investigating the Role of Welcome to New Graduate Kathryn Boyd Mesoscale Variability, Using a Passive Students for 2007–2008 Tracer in an Eddy Resolving Model of the The Phil Church Award is given to the Elizabeth Barnes, University of North Atlantic Ocean (Kamenkovich) graduating senior in the Department of Steven Cavallo, Life Cycles of Tropopause Minnesota–Minneapolis Polar Vortices (Hakim) Edward Blanchard-Wrigglesworth, Atmospheric Sciences with the most out- Lucas Harris, The Effect of Directional Wind University of Cambridge, UK standing record of scholarship, leadership Shear and Evolving Synoptic-Scale Flow on Stuart Evans, Haverford College and service. Professor Phil Church was the Vortex Shedding (Durran) Mario Lopez, Convective Cloud Distribution in Sara Harrold, University of founder and first Chair of the Department a Cloud Resolving Model (Hartmann) Colorado–Boulder of Atmospheric Sciences. Patrick Zahn, An MM5-based Regional Yen-Ting Hwang, National Taiwan Climate Model for the Pacific Northwest University Atmospheric Sciences Achievement (Mass) Kelly McCusker, Providence College Awards: Kristen Rasmussen, University of Miami Kathryn Boyd Brett Carlson Bachelor of Science Eric Sofen, Bowdoin University Thomas Dinneen Matthew Jeglum Amor Alcobendas (AFROTC) Michael Warner, University of Bryce Land Ryan Roberts Alfredo Arroyo Washington Michael Warner Kathryn Boyd Reid Wolcott, University of Washington Brett Carlson The Atmospheric Sciences Achievement Katherine Condit Award is given to graduating seniors in the Thomas Dinneen Kyle Durch (AFROTC) Department of Atmospheric Sciences who Jannel Emery (AFROTC) have achieved a GPA of 3.25 or higher in William Foster Atmospheric Sciences courses. Nicholas Irving Matthew Jeglum

6 Atmospheric Circulation Donor Recognition The Department of Atmospheric Sciences gratefully acknowledges the donors who have generously supported us during the past fiscal year July 1, 2006 through June 30, 2007.

Thomas & Linda Dean & Shervin Edward E. Hindman Gyu-Ho Lim & Steven & Barbara Ackerman Churchill Peter V. Hobbs Ae‑Sook Suh Rutledge Allegra & Roger Todd C. Dankers Sylvia H. Hobbs & William H. Lipscomb Bentley & Elizabeth Andersen Paul A. Davis Family David B. Mechem Sayler Anonymous Clara Deser James & Alma Steven L. Mullen Jennifer Sims & Ethan Robert G. Baughman Jean M. Dewart Holcomb, Jr. Peter & Wendy Mullen Patashnik Robert S. Berkovitz Timothy A. Dietrich Joshua & Sandra Gretchen Mullendore Catherine A. Smith Harold Bernard, Dale Durran & Janice Holland & Gregory Hui Su Jr. & Christina Tervonen Margaret P. Holton Ostermeier Ronald & Mary Hilland-Bernard Frederick & Taeko Charlotte J. Hopper James R. Murphy Surface Michael & Diana Eckel Huang H. Hsu Frederick & Judith Robert M. Thompson, Biggerstaff Mickey & Jeanne Roy L. Jenne Murray Jr. Cecilia M. Bitz Eisenberg Richard & LaVonne John & Ann Thompson Thomas R. Newbauer Thomas and Carol Charles & Mary Johnson James E. Tillman Borda Elderkin John & Vivian Frank & Irene Norman & Barbara Mark D. Borges Brad S. Ferrier Karamanian Nishimoto Wagner Lance & Helen Bosart Judith Gray Michael & Kristina Janice Obuchowski & Richard & Jean Weick Mr. & Mrs. S. Edward Thomas Grenfell & Katsaros Albert Halprin James A. Weinman Boselly III Sue Schauss Stephen A. Klein Rajul Pandya & Amy Michael Winton & Richard & Suzanne Eric P. Grimit Kevin & Sheri Kodama Alter-Pandya Gretel LaVieri Brintzenhofe Gregory & Lynne Dennis Lamb Clayton A. Paulson Debra Wolf Charles & Mary Brock Hakim & Patricia Leonhard Pfister Jin Y. Yu Joost Businger & Halstead & Lynne Skrentny-Lamb Richard and Joan Reed Xiaoli Zhu & Juan Marianne Kooiman Harrison Margaret Le Mone & Robert & Britt Reeves Liang David Butterfield & Dennis & Lorraine Peter Gilman Steven E. Rolfe Xun Zhu & Wei Liu Janice DeCosmo Hartmann Conway B. Leovy Thomas E. Rosmond Giving to the Department of Atmospheric Sciences Please consider supporting the activities of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences. Your gift strengthens the core of the UW through recruitment and retention of world-class students and faculty. Your support of undergraduate and graduate students helps to cre- ate the next generation of scientific leaders. Help us to ensure that the department continues to be a leader in weather, climate andquality. Yes, I want to support the Department of Atmospheric Sciences! I have enclosed $______to support Friends of Atmospheric Sciences Fund Atmospheric Sciences Endowed Scholarship Fund Atmospheric Sciences Graduation Education Fund Visa Mastercard American Express Card Number ______Expiration Date (mm/yyyy) ______Signature______Name (First, Last) ______Address______City, State, Zip ______Home Phone No.______Work Phone No. ______This is a matching gift (Enclose matching form) This is a joint gift Your gift is tax-deductible as specified in IRS regulations. Pursuant to RCW 19.09, the University of Washington is registered as a charitable organization with the Secretary of State, state of Washington. To make your gift online, log onto www.supportuw.washington.edu. To make your gift by phone, please call 1-877-UW-GIFTS (1-877-894-4387). Please send your check, payable to the “University of Washington” to: Debra Wolf, Assistant to the Chair Department of Atmospheric Sciences University of Washington, Box 351640 Seattle, Washington 98195-1640

7 Department of Atmospheric Sciences Susan Solomon to Give Course Antarctic ozone hole.” Most recently, she Assist. Prof. Joel Thornton received a served as co-chair of the Working Group 1 Camille and Henry Dreyfus Environmental Spring Quarter of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Chemistry Postdoctoral Fellowship Award. We are very excited that Dr. Susan Change (IPCC). Prof. Thomas Ackerman became Direc- Solomon will spend spring quarter 2008 tor of the Joint Institute for the Study of the in residence at UW, where she will give Alumni and Department News Atmosphere and Ocean (JISAO). a seminar course “Science and Policy of Prof. Christopher Bretherton became Di- Ozone Depletion and Climate Change.’’ The UW Atmospheric Sciences Alumni rector of the Program on Climate Change. As the title suggests this course will be de- Reunion Reception will be held in New Or- The James R. Holton Endowed Gradu- voted to the two major environmental-sci- leans in conjunction with the AMS Annual ate Support Fund was established with gifts ence issues of the 20th century that have Meeting (Jan. 20–24). Watch our home from his family and friends. most captured the attention of the public, page for updates on date and time. Prof. Robert Houze was the Thompson policymakers, and industry. Alumnus Ed Rappaport has been made Lecturer for the Advanced Study Program Dr. Solomon, who needs no introduction interim director of the National Hurricane of the National Center for Atmospheric Re- to most of our readers, is a research scien- Center. search for 2007. tist at the NOAA Earth System Research Eric Maloney (Ph.D. 2002) will move Prof. Steve Warren was awarded private Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado. Her sci- from Oregon State University to Colorado funding through the Clean Air Task Force entific papers have provided not only key State University where he will become an for his work on soot in snow and its role in measurements but also theoretical under- associate professor in the Atmospheric Sci- climate change. standing regarding ozone destruction, espe- ences Department. Assist. Prof. Rob Wood is lead PI for the cially the role of surface chemistry. In 1986 Ka Ming William Lau (Ph.D. 1977) was upcoming VAMOS Ocean Cloud Atmo- and 1987, she served as the Head Project elected a Fellow of the American Geophys- sphere Land Study (VOCALS) Regional Scientist of the National Ozone Expedi- ical Union. Experiment. tion at McMurdo Station, Antarctica and Becky Alexander and Dave Suess be- Shirley Joaquin retired at the end of Feb- made some of the first measurements there came parents with the birth of their daugh- ruary after working for the department for that pointed towards chlorofluorocarbons ter Dayna on January 22. 15 years. as the cause of the ozone hole. She has Jerome Patoux and Caroline Planque Igor Kamenkovich has left the depart- received numerous awards and prizes, in- became parents with the birth of their son ment for a position as Associate Profes- cluding the National Medal of Science, the Gaspard on July 20. sor at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and ’ highest scientific honor, for Professors David Battisti and Dale Dur- Atmospheric Sciences at the University of “key insights in explaining the cause of the ran were elected Fellows of the American Miami. We wish him great success. Meteorological Society.

Contact Us Department of Atmospheric Sciences University of Washington Box 351640 Seattle, Washington 98195-1640 Phone (206) 543-4250 Fax (206) 543-0308 http://www.atmos.washington.edu

Dale R. Durran, Chair Debra Wolf, Editor

Atmospheric Circulation is published annually for alumni, friends, and members of the University of Washington Department of Atmospheric Sciences. This is the seventh issue.

Please send alumni news, comments, questions, corrections and address updates to [email protected] or call (206) 543-4250.

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