Awards and Honors

2008

Winner: Outstanding Publication Award:

Britt Stephens: “Weak Northern and Strong Tropical Land Carbon Uptake from Vertical Profiles of Atmospheric CO2”

Winner: Science and Technology Advancement Award

Gary New and Julie Harris (CISL); Steven Haynes, Dave Patterson, Dave Maddy, Brian McMillan, John Adamson, Matt Monahan, Dave Heckel, Gordon Kinn, John Harkness, Sandra Sundquist, Leonard Cooper, Bruce Kovalski, and Keith White (Physical Plant Services); Peter Chamberlain (Business Services); and Bart Woodiel (EOL) for designing, implementing, and commissioning significant new ML infrastructure as part of the Bluefire Facilities Infrastructure Team.

Nominees:

Education and Outreach Award

Kate Young and Tim Lim: During the past five years, Kate and Tim have made extraordinary contributions to K-12, college, and general public science education using EOL's weather balloon radiosonde system. They have traveled the U.S. and around the world to launch weather balloons in 23 events, introducing people to the structure of our atmosphere, while showing what the radiosonde system is, how it works, and why we need it. These events attracted over 1700 people. They motivated K-12 students, especially girls, toward careers in science; they supported college instrumentation courses, and they educated the general public about weather and climate research.

Technology Development Award

Dirk Richter, Petter Weibring, James Walega, and Alan Fried: Development of an Advanced Infrared Laser Airborne Spectrometer for Trace Gas Measurements Employing Difference Frequency Generation Technology.

2007

Nominees:  Education and Outreach

Gordon Farquharson and Tom Brimeyer (both RSF) for promoting and implementing the EOL Summer Engineering Internship Program for undergraduate students. This effort, which provides high-level, hands-on engineering and educational opportunities, was restructured under Gordon and Tom’s leadership to recruit more diverse students, increase attention to mentorship and professional exposure to EOL staff, and solicit well-defined engineering projects from within EOL.

Nominees:  Scientific and Technical Advancement Award

Dick Friesen (EOL/RAF), Carla Hassler (formerly of EOL), Mike Spowart (EOL/RAF), Gordon Maclean (EOL/CDS), Grant Gray (formerly EOL/RAF), John Wasinger (EOL/CDS), Chris Webster (EOL/CDS), Gary Granger (EOL/CDS), Charlie Martin (EOL/CDS), Chris Burghart (EOL/CDS), Susan Stringer (EOL/CDS), Kurt Zrubek (EOL/RAF), John Cowan (EOL/RAF), Bill Irwin (EOL/RAF), George Nicoll (formerly EOL), Allen Schanot (EOL/RAF), David Rogers (EOL/RAF), Jorgen Jensen (EOL/RAF), Pavel Romashkin (EOL/RAF), Jack Fox (EOL/DFS), Steve Rauenbuehler (EOL/DFS), Mark Lord (EOL/RAF), Henry Boynton (EOL/RAF), Ed Ringleman (EOL/RAF), Bob Olson (EOL/RAF), Bob Maxson (EOL/RAF), Brent Kidd (EOL/RAF), Bob Beasley (EOL/RAF), Kip Eagan (EOL/RAF), and Gerry Albright (EOL/AD) for the acquisition, modification, and initial instrumentation of the HIAPER aircraft. As a result of this team’s efforts, NCAR has a facility that will serve the atmospheric science and geoscience communities for decades, enabling fundamental research in many areas.

Co-nominees included Krista Laursen (CISL/AD), Jennifer Oxelson (UOP/Unidata), and Teresa Campos (ESSL/ACD).

2006

Winner:  Mentoring Award

William "Al" Cooper. From 1996-2005, Al was director of the Advanced Study Program (ASP), where he mentored a long stream of postdoctoral fellows who are still deeply indebted to him. Al is a master at helping graduate students orchestrate smooth transitions to mature scientists. Al was also the driving force behind the creation of NCAR’s Thompson Lecture Series and the Junior Faculty Forum on Future Scientific Directions.

Nominees:  Scientific and Technical Advancement Award

Dick Friesen, Pat Munson, Geoff Cheeseman, Jennifer Oxelson, Carla Hassler (all in the former HIAPER Project Office), Mike Spowart, Gordon Maclean, Grant Gray, John Wasinger, Chris Webster, Gary Granger, Charlie Martin, Chris Burghart, Susan Stringer, Kurt Zrubek, John Cowan, Bill Irwin, George Nicoll, Allen Schanot, David Rogers, Jorgen Jensen, Pavel Romashkin, Jack Fox, Steve Rauenbuehler, Mark Lord, Henry Boynton, Ed Ringleman, Bob Olson, Bob Maxson, Brent Kidd, Bob Beasley, Kip Eagan, and Gerry Albright (all in EOL)for the acquisition, modification, and initial instrumentation of HIAPER.  The team designed and installed the basic infrastructure needed to support research projects, and its efforts have produced a platform that should serve the atmospheric sciences community for decades.

Co-nominee included Krista Laursen (CISL).

Nominees:  Scientific and Technical Advancement Award

Shane Mayor, Bruce Morley, and Scott Spuler for designing, building, and implementing a building protection system for the Pentagon. This system detects hazardous substances released into the atmosphere and forecasts their transport and dispersion. The group made a number of significant scientific and technical advances in the process.

Co-nominees included Jason Knievel (ESSL/MMM), Jenny Sun (ESSL/MMM), Dave Albo (RAL/WSAP), Ben Balsley, Kirk Clawson, Jeff Copeland (RAL/NSAP), Larry Cornman (RAL/AAP), Rod Frehlich (RAL/AAP), David Hahn (RAL/NSAP), Yubao Liu (RAL/NSAP), Niles Oien (RAL/WSAP), Michael Raines (RAL/NSAP), Bob Sharman (RAL/AAP), Rong Sheu, Scott Swerdlin (RAL/NSAP), Tom Warner (RAL/NSAP), and Stephen Dowdy (RAL), , and Jeff Weil (CU/CIRES).

Nominees:  Outstanding Publication Award

Junhong Wang and Harold L. Cole for Junhong Wang, Harold L. Cole, David J. Carlson, Erik R. Miller, Kathryn Beierle, Ari Paukkunen and Tapani K. Laine, 2002: Corrections of humidity measurement errors from the Vaisala RS80 radiosonde – Application to TOGA COARE data. Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 19, 981-1002.

Co-nominees and co-authors included David J. Carlson, Erik R. Miller, Kathryn Beierle, Ari Paukkunen and Tapani K. Laine.

Nominees:  Education and Outreach

Alan Fried, Dirk Richter, and Jim Walega for developing a meaningful Web-based and freely accessible curriculum that bridges the divide between current science research and high school science content, while also promoting greater opportunities for photonics curricula in high school classrooms.

Co-nominees included Randy Albrandt, Brenton Burnett, and Jason Christiansen.

2005

Winner:  Administrative Achievement

Geoff Cheeseman for professional excellence and innovativeness demonstrated during the acquisition of the HIAPER aircraft.  The HIAPER project, NCAR’s largest acquisition ever, presented a unique and constantly varying spectrum of challenges.  The Community’s and NCAR’s dream of obtaining a high-performance research jet rested not only on the technical skill of the HIAPER team members, it also relied heavily on the administrative support provided by these two key administrative staff.  As the nomination states,  “Geoff and Pat provided a solid core of fiscal and contractual support to the HIAPER Project Office (HPO) and the entire HIAPER team throughout the lifetime of the HPO from 2002 to 2005.”

Co winner included Pat Munson (UCAR F&A).

Nominees:  Scientific and Technical Advancement

Krista Laursen, Pat Munson, Geoff Cheeseman, Jennifer Oxelson, and Carla Hassler (all in the former HIAPER Project Office) and Mike Spowart, Gordon Maclean, Grant Gray, John Wasinger, Chris Webster, Gary Granger, Charlie Martin, Chris Burghart, Susan Stringer, Kurt Zrubek, John Cowan, Bill Irwin, George Nicoll, Allen Schanot, David Rogers, Jorgen Jensen, Pavel Romashkin, Jack Fox, Steve Rauenbuehler, Mark Lord, Henry Boynton, Ed Ringleman, Bob Olson, Bob Maxson, Brent Kidd, Bob Beasley, Kip Eagan, and Gerry Albright (all in EOL) for the acquisition, modification, and initial instrumentation of the High-performance Instrumented Airborne Platform for Environmental Research aircraft (HIAPER). The team designed and installed the basic infrastructure needed to support research projects, and its efforts have produced an aircraft that should serve the atmospheric sciences community for decades.

Nominees:  Outstanding Publication Award

Junhong Wang, Harold Cole, and Kathryn Beierle (all in EOL), and David Carlson and Erik Miller (both formerly in EOL), for the article, "Corrections of Humidity Measurement Errors from the Vaisala RS80 Radiosonde--Application to TOGA COARE Data" (published in 2002 in Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 19 , 981-1002).

This paper, focusing on the diagnosis and correction of humidity errors in operational radiosonde data sets, has had a profound impact on operational weather prediction and efforts to understand climate change, and it has improved the accuracy of both the global observing system and the climatic record.

Co-nominees and co-authors included Ari Paukkhunen and Tapani Laine of Vaisala.

2004

Winner:  Outstanding Publication

Thomas Horst for work on two articles, “HATS: Field observations to obtain spatially filtered turbulence fields from crosswind arrays of sonic anemometers in the atmospheric surface layer” (published in 2004 in Journal of Atmospheric Science, 41, 1566–1581) and “Structure of subfilter-scale fluxes in the atmospheric surface layer with application to large-eddy simulation modeling” (published in 2003 in Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 482, 101–139). The team carried out the Horizontal Array Turbulence Study in 2000 to obtain a data set to investigate how well parameterizations of small-scale (sub-filter scale, or SFS) turbulence processes used in large-eddy simulation models replicate observations in the planetary boundary layer. These two papers, which document the success of the 2000 field deployment, show the application and limitations of current SFS models, and point to the need for new SFS models to bridge the gap between ensemble-averaged turbulence and classical SFS parameterizations.

Co-winners and co-authors include , Don Lenschow, Chin-Hoh Moeng, and Peter Sullivan (all of ESSL/MMM) and J. Kleissl, C Meneveau, and M.B. Parlange (Johns Hopkins University) and J.C. Weil (CU/CIRES).

Winner:  Mentoring

Jim Wilson (EOL and RAL) for providing meaningful mentorship to a broad range of people, from junior and senior scientists, administrators, and engineers to various levels of students. Jim transcends cultural, gender, job classification, divisional, institutional, and national boundaries to identify and encourage the special talents of others.

Nominee:  Outstanding Publication

Wen-Chau Lee, who co-authored “Tropical cyclone kinematic structure retrieved from single Doppler radar observations," appearing in three parts: "Part 1: Interpretation of Doppler velocity patterns and the GBVTD technique” (published in 1999 in Monthly Weather Review, 127, 2419–2439); “Part II: The GBVTD-simplex center finding algorithm (published in 2000 in Monthly Weather Review, 128, 1925–1936); and “Part III: Evolution and structure of Typhoon Alex (1987)” (published in 2000 in Monthly Weather Review, 128, 3892–4001). This series of papers develops and tests techniques to obtain estimates of the structure of tropical cyclones from single Doppler radar systems. The papers introduce a suite of single-Doppler radar algorithms, termed the “ground-based velocity track display” (GBVTD) technique, that can objectively determine the tropical cyclone circulation center and retrieve its three-dimensional inner core kinematic structures from a volume of data collected by a coastal Doppler radar.

Co-nominees and co-authors included J-D. Jou (National Taiwan University), Frank Marks (NOAA/Hurricane Research Division), P.-L. Chang (Central Weather Bureau/Taiwan), and S.-M. Deng (Institute for Information Industry/Taiwan).

Nominees:  Scientific and Technical Advancement

Shane Mayor, Scott Spuler, Bruce Morley, Eric Loew, Tim Rucker, Charlie Martin, Jack Fox, Steve Rauenbuehler, and Karl Schwenz for the development of the Raman-shifted Eye-safe Aerosol Lidar (REAL). During two years of development, the team has applied novel techniques and overcome formidable obstacles to produce an eye-safe design and relatively high laser power per pulse that provides a flexibility unique in lidar systems.

2003

Winner:  Administration

Peggy Taylor for her professional excellence associated with field deployment logistics for four ATD field programs, all of which proved exceptionally challenging.  The four programs were the 1999 Large Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia/ Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (LBA/TRMM) project in Ji Parana, Brazil; the Mesoscale Alpine Project (MAP) in Virgiate, Italy, and Innsbruck, Austria; the Improvement of Microphysical Parameterization Through Observational Verification Experiment (IMPROVE I) project in Westport, Washington, and the IMPROVE II project near Sweethome, Oregon.

Winner:  Scientific and Technical Accomplishment

Jerry Dryer, James Ellis, Ken Harris, Walt Hodshon, Ed Mores, Steve Palmer, Steve Rauenbuehler, Jose Rivas, Karl Schwenz, and Bart Woodiel for executing three separate, exceptionally complex and urgent projects during the last three years. The projects are the Passing Efficiency for the Low Turbulence Inlet (PELTI) Experiment and the University of Denver Low Turbulence Inlet (DULTI) Development, the International H2O Project (IHOP 2002), and development of an innovative antenna designed for a new mobile rapid scan radar.

Co-winners included David Allen, Jeff Bobka, and Clarke Chambellan (HAO). 

Nominee:  Outstanding Publication

David Parsons for his work on three papers with various coauthors (Françoise Guichard of the Centre National Recherches Météorologiques, Météo-France, and CNRS; Jean-Luc Redelsperger of the Centre National Recherches Météorologiques; and Kunio Yoneyama of the Japan Marine Science and Technology Center): 1) Yoneyama, K., and D. B. Parsons, 1999, “A Proposed Mechanism for the Intrusion of Dry Air into the Tropical Western Pacific Region,” J. Atmos. Sci. 56, 1524–1546; 2) Parsons, D., K. Yoneyama, and J.-L. Redelsperger, 2000, “The Evolution of the Tropical Western Pacific Atmosphere-Ocean System Following the Arrival of a Dry Instrusion,” Q. J. Roy. Meteor Soc., 126, 517–548; and 3) J.-L. Redelsperger, D. B. Parsons, and F. Guichard, 2002, “Recovery Processes and Factors Limiting Cloud-Top Height Following the Arrival of a Dry Intrusion Observed During TOGA COARE,” J. of the Atmos. Sci., 59, 2438–2457. The three papers explore the basic structure of the atmosphere over the tropical western Pacific and its relationship to clouds and rainfall.

Nominee:  Outstanding Publication

Guifu Zhang, Ed Brandes, and J. Vivekanandan for two papers: 1) Zhang, G., J. Vivekaandan, and E. Brandes, 2001, “A Method for Estimating Rain Rate and Drop Size Distribution from Polarimetric Radar Measurements,” IEEE Transactions of Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 39:4, 830–841; and 2) Brandes, E., G. Zhang, and J. Vivekanandan, 2003, “An Evaluation of a Drop Distribution-Based Polarimetric Radar Rainfall Estimator,” J. Applied Met., 42, 652–660. These papers describe a new technique for retrieval of cloud microphysical parameters from dual-polarization radar measurements.

Nominees:  Education and Outreach

Brigitte Baeuerle, Kate Beierle, Ned Chamberlain, Mike Daniels, Tony Delany, Don Ferraro, Terry Hock, Tim Lim, Renee Ray, Steve Semmer, Mike Spowart, Scott Spuler, and Lou Verstraete for successfully engaging the majority of ATD’s lead engineers to serve as mentors for 15 engineering students from 10 U.S. universities.

2002

Nominees:  Outstanding Publication

Stephen Cohn for three papers: “A fuzzy logic method for improved moment estimation from Doppler spectra” (J. Atmos. Oceanic Technol., 15, 1287-1305), “The NIMA method for improved moment estimation from Doppler spectra” (J. Atmos. Oceanic Technol., 19, 274-295), and “Radial velocity and wind measurement with NIMA-NWCA: Comparisons with human estimation and aircraft measurements” (J. Appl. Meteor., 40, 704-719). The papers describe new analysis techniques that represent a groundbreaking step in solving radar data quality problems.

Co-nominees included Larry Cornman, Corinne Morse, and Kent Goodrich (RAL).

Nominees:  Scientific and Technical Accomplishment

Mike Spowart, Eric Loew, Jack Fox, Jeff Keeler, Mark Lord, Tammy Weckwerth, Frank Pratte, and Grant Gray. The team outfitted the Naval Research Laboratory P3 aircraft with the ELDORA radar and other instrumentation for NSF-supported field projects.

2001

Nominees:  Outstanding Publication

Scott Ellis and Richard Oye "Cloud microphysics retrieval using S-band dual polarization radar measurements," Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 80, 381-388.

Co-nominees included Jothiram Vivekanandan (RAP), D.S. Zrnic and A.V. Ryzhkov (National Severe Storms Laboratory), and J. Straka (University of Oklahoma).

Nominees:  Education and Outreach

Stephen Cohn and William Brown for advancing undergraduate and graduate education in instrumentation and observational analysis, increasing student participation in all phases of NCAR field studies.

Nominees:  Scientific and Technical Accomplishment

Hal Cole, Junhong Wang, Erik Miller, and Katy Beierle for identifying the cause and extent of dry bias in Vaisala sonde products and for developing physically based correction algorithms that can substantially improve radiosonde data from field experiments and historical datasets. (More than 50% of radiosonde stations worldwide use sondes and other equipment manufactured by Vaisala.)

Co-nominee included Ari Paukkunen (Vaisala).

2000

Winners:  Scientific and Technical Accomplishment

Jon Lutz, Brian Lewis, Michl Howard, Paul Johnson, Mitch Randall, Eric Loew, Bob Rilling, Dick Oye, Mike Strong, Al Phinney, Joe Vinson, and Bart Woodiel for development of the S-Pol weather radar, which combines the highest-quality radar measurements, high portability at low cost, and an unprecedented number of real-time products. Before S-Pol, only two S-band polarimetric radars were available to the research community, both of them costly to deploy. S-Pol's easy portability has allowed it to serve seven field projects on three continents in the last four years. The radar's improved precipitation measurements allow 15 different types of rain, snow, and ice to be identified in real time and distinguished from birds, insects, and other nonmeteorological signals.

Nominee:  Outstanding Publication

Tammy Weckwerth as first author of a series of three papers: "Thermodynamic variability within the convective boundary layer due to horizontal convective rolls," Monthly Weather Review (MWR) 124, 769–784; "Horizontal convective rolls: determining the environmental conditions supporting their existence and characteristics," MWR 125, 505–526; and "An observational study of horizontal convective rolls," MWR 127, 2160–2179. Due partially to a lack of observations, previous studies had disagreed on the magnitude of two variables important for creating convective rolls: the amount of sensible heat from the surface and the amount of vertical wind shear. These papers address the problem through a radar- based identification scheme, computer modeling, and a comprehensive data set acquired through a unique mix of platforms. Among other things, the results show that convective rolls are the first mode of organized convection in the boundary layer and that radiosondes launched outside the updraft portion of a convective roll may underestimate the risk of thunderstorm development.

Nominee:  Education and Outreach

Steve Cohn for his exceptional efforts to advance graduate and undergraduate education through the use of observing systems and data in a series of field projects. Many students have little or no opportunity to become familiar with atmospheric instruments. Through lectures, informal coaching, and demonstrations, Steve gave graduate and undergraduate students extensive exposure to the Integrated Sounding System during its deployment at field projects in Nevada and Michigan.  Steve has also played a key role in other education initiatives, including a set of education modules that use meteorology to introduce elementary students to science and math concepts.

1999

Nominee:  Outstanding Publication

James Wilson, "Thunderstorm Initiation, Organization, and Lifetime Associated with Florida Boundary Layer Convergence Lines," Monthly Weather Review 125, 1508-25. Using 32 days of data from the Convection and Precipitaton/Electrification (CaPE) field project in Florida, this paper shows how the areaÐs longer-lived multicellular storms¦those more likely to cause serious damage¦are sustained. Analysis shows that the formation and duration of these storms is related to the vertical wind shear and storm motion relative to two recurring boundaries, the East Coast Sea Breeze Front and the West Coast Front. By calculating the boundary-relative cell motion, forecasters can use these findings to improve storm forecasts, including those issued by automated systems. This represents a fundamental advance in short-term storm forecasting, with the findings already being applied in New Mexico, Alabama, Virginia, and Australia.

Co-nominee included Daniel Megenhardt (RAL).

1998

Winners: Technology Advancement

Terry Hock, Hal Cole, Dean Lauritsen, Ken Norris, Ned Chamberlain, Errol Korn, and Chip Owens and Jim Franklin, and Alan Goldstein for development of the Global Positioning System (GPS) dropsonde system.

Co-nominee included Jeff Smith (NOAA)

Nominees:  Technical Support

Tom Bettge, Bruce Briegleb, Lawrence Buja, Gokhan Danabasoglu, Brian Kauffman, Nancy Norton, Jim Rosinski, and Mariana Vertenstein (ESSL/CGD) for development of NCAR's climate system model. This group of associate scientists and software engineers have been involved with the CSM from its beginning over five years ago. They have overcome formidable technical and scientific problems in bringing the CSM to its current status as a keystone of global climate models. Each of the CSM's components was developed independently. Software had to be developed to interpolate across grids while conserving important quantities. Most crucial was the unique creation of the flux coupler, which links the component models and allows experiments to be performed on all parts or only on selected parts of the CSM, as scientists see fit.

1997

Winner:  Technical Support

Norm Zrubek for 30 years of dedication and technical excellence in aeronautical engineering at NCAR's Research Aviation Facility.  Norm has been the principal aeronautical engineer for all nine aircraft operated by RAF since 1967. In this critical role, Norm has assured the structural safety of each of the NSF/NCAR aircraft and the hundreds of payloads they have carried. His creative problem-solving skills and broad experience have made Norm an unparalleled expert in aircraft modification for scientific research. His elegantly simple solutions have included the use of cabin pressure to propel dropsondes through a launch tube and the use of surplus C-130 external fuel tanks as interchangeable, under-the-wing instrumentation pods. Norm often plays a central role in instrument development throughout NCAR as well as in the university community.

Nominees:  Technology Advancement

Ned Chamberlain, Hal Cole, Terry Hock, Errol Korn, Dean Lauritsen, Ken Norris, and James (Chip) Owens for development of the Global Positioning System dropsonde. The new system takes advantage of GPS technology to produce unprecedented accuracy in wind, temperature, pressure, and humidity profiles. It was built to allow deployment from NOAA's new Gulfstream-IV high-altitude jet at speeds up to 800 kilometers (500 miles) per hour into temperatures as low as -50 degrees C (-58 degrees F). To make this possible, the NCAR team designed an innovative square-cone parachute and completely updated the sonde's electronics system. Along with their technical achievements, the team forged a partnership with NOAA and the German Aerospace Research Establishment to support the new sonde. The GPS dropsondes were used this year to sample Hurricanes Erika and Guillermo, where they provided the first-ever vertical wind profiles from an intense hurricane eyewall.

1996

Winners: Technology Advancement

Mitch Randall, Eric Loew, and Joe Vinson, for development of the PC integrated radar acquisition (PIRAQ) board and the VMEBus integrated acquisition (VIRAQ) board.  These systems allow signals from weather radars, wind profilers, and Doppler lidars to be received and processed in a personal computer (PIRAQ) or a VMEBus chassis (VIRAQ). Despite the extreme complexity of the PIRAQ and VIRAQ circuitry, development went smoothly and quickly due to the design team's detailed understanding of analog, digital, and new design technologies.The compact nature of PIRAQ has enabled it to process data from the nose-cone radar of the NCAR/NSF Electra aircraft and from the portable Doppler on Wheels radar.

Winner:  Education

Jack Fox and Jim Holt, for their contribution to the Student Nitric Oxide Explorer (SNOE) initiative

Jack and Jim provided extensive assistance to University of Colorado students designing a small, low-cost scientific spacecraft. They taught the students fundamentals of computer-aided machining and guided them through the process, from the first test part to the completed spacecraft structure. Jack shared his extensive experience in aircraft design and materials, and Jim guided the students through the computer-aided machining and taught the basics of optimal tool paths for parts of varying size and complexity. Through the efforts of Jack and Jim, seven students gained exposure to NCAR and to the instrument machining process.

Nominee:  Technical Support

Brigitte Baeuerle for producing a Web-based on-line tour of ATD. To help guide visitors from NSF during their review of ATD, Brigitte produced a virtual tour that involved 70 electronic pages and more than 100 images. Starting from a disorganized mass of material, Brigitte coordinated photography and maintained a consistent appearance and content level of the many pages to produce a seamless, coherent, and effective on-line tour. Since the panel meeting, the Web-based tour has been used in house for virtually every group visiting ATD; it is also being used extensively by people at NSF and elsewhere beyond UCAR.

Nominee:  Technical Support

Dick Oye and Sherrie Fredrick  for development of the Solo package for display and editing of remote sensing data. Over the last several years, Solo has become a standard tool for users of ATD's remote sensing data sets, greatly increasing their accessibility and value. The package now includes multiplatform display capability, complete editing tools, and an extensive set of translators. Solo's ability to handle airborne data is unmatched elsewhere. Through their determination and hard work as principal Solo engineers, Dick and Sherrie have produced a wide-ranging and versatile tool now being used in 54 institutions.

1995

Winners:  Technology Advancement

Chuck Frush, Peter Hildebrand, Wen-Chau Lee, Eric Loew, Richard Neitzel, Rick Parsons, Mitch Randall, and Craig Walther, for development of the Electra Doppler Radar (ELDORA).  The high-resolution airborne radar has been the most ambitious instrument development effort ever undertaken at NCAR, and in last summer's Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment it proved itself a resounding success, obtaining unprecedented images of tornadoes on the U.S. southern plains.

Nominees:  Outstanding Publication

Alexander Praskovsky and Steven Oncley for four papers: "Measurements of the Kolmogorov constant and intermittency exponent at very high Reynolds numbers," Physics of Fluids 6 (1994), 2886-2888; "Probability density distribution of velocity differences at very high Reynolds numbers," Physical Review Letters 73(25) (1994), 3399-3402; "Correlators of velocity differences and energy dissipation at very high Reynolds numbers," Europhysics Letters 28 (1994), 635-640; and "Some integral range correlators in fully developed turbulence," Physical Review E 51(6) (1995), R5197-R5199. The papers describe the analysis of the authors' unique laboratory and field observations to examine the nature of fully developed turbulence. They offer an important advance in using data from a 1990 field experiment and from the world's largest wind tunnel to shed light on fundamental issues in modern turbulence theory, with results presented in a dimensionless form that permits them to be used in different applications.

Nominee:  Education

Joe VanAndel for his work in establishing a computer network at Centennial Middle School. The network allowed students at Centennial to be the first in the world to publish a student newspaper on the Internet. Joe also worked with University of Colorado technical staff to set up the Web browsers Lynx and Mosaic on the Boulder Valley School District-wide network. Joe is now working with CU to develop technical standards that will allow other schools to publish newspapers electronically.

Nominee:  Technical Support

Erik Miller for management, postprocessing, and documentation of the extensive data set obtained during the Tropical Ocean and Global Atmosphere program's Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment (TOGA/COARE). "Erik undertook this work with a holistic approach, seeking and accepting responsibilities for all factors affecting the final data quality and utility." The data set is now being analyzed by researchers around the world.