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  • Author or Editor: JOHN HENDERSON x
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John K. Creilson
,
Margaret R. Pippin
,
Bryana L. Henderson
,
Irene H. Ladd
,
Jack Fishman
,
Dana Votápková
, and
Ilona Krpcová

Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) is a worldwide, hands-on, primary and secondary school-based education and science program, which is developed to give students a chance to perform real science by making measurements, analyzing data, and participating in research through collaboration with scientists. As part of the GLOBE Surface Ozone Protocol, and with the assistance of the TEREZA Association in the Czech Republic, schools in the Czech Republic have been making and reporting daily measurements of surface ozone and surface meteorological data since 2001. Using a hand-held ozone monitor developed for GLOBE, students at several Czech schools have generated multiyear data records of surface ozone from 2001 to 2005. Analysis of the data shows that surface ozone levels were anomalously high during the summer of 2003 relative to other summers. These findings are consistent with the measurements of the European Environment Agency, which highlight the summer of 2003 as having exceptionally long-lasting and spatially extensive episodes of high surface ozone, especially during the first half of August. Further analysis of the summers prevailing meteorology shows not only that it was one of the hottest on record, a finding also seen in the student data, but the conditions for production of ozone were ideal. Findings such as these increase student, teacher, and scientist confidence in the utility of the GLOBE data for engaging budding scientists in the collection, analysis, and eventual interpretation of the data for inquiry-based education.

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Dale Barker
,
Xiang-Yu Huang
,
Zhiquan Liu
,
Tom Auligné
,
Xin Zhang
,
Steven Rugg
,
Raji Ajjaji
,
Al Bourgeois
,
John Bray
,
Yongsheng Chen
,
Meral Demirtas
,
Yong-Run Guo
,
Tom Henderson
,
Wei Huang
,
Hui-Chuan Lin
,
John Michalakes
,
Syed Rizvi
, and
Xiaoyan Zhang

Data assimilation is the process by which observations are combined with short-range NWP model output to produce an analysis of the state of the atmosphere at a specified time. Since its inception in the late 1990s, the multiagency Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model effort has had a strong data assimilation component, dedicating two working groups to the subject. This article documents the history of the WRF data assimilation effort, and discusses the challenges associated with balancing academic, research, and operational data assimilation requirements in the context of the WRF effort to date. The WRF Model's Community Variational/Ensemble Data Assimilation System (WRFDA) has evolved over the past 10 years, and has resulted in over 30 refereed publications to date, as well as implementation in a wide range of real-time and operational NWP systems. This paper provides an overview of the scientific capabilities of WRFDA, and together with results from sample operation implementations at the U.S. Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA) and United Arab Emirates (UAE) Air Force and Air Defense Meteorological Department.

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Sarah J. Doherty
,
Stephan Bojinski
,
Ann Henderson-Sellers
,
Kevin Noone
,
David Goodrich
,
Nathaniel L. Bindoff
,
John A. Church
,
Kathy A. Hibbard
,
Thomas R. Karl
,
Lucka Kajfez-Bogataj
,
Amanda H. Lynch
,
David E. Parker
,
I. Colin Prentice
,
Venkatachalam Ramaswamy
,
Roger W. Saunders
,
Mark Stafford Smith
,
Konrad Steffen
,
Thomas F. Stocker
,
Peter W. Thorne
,
Kevin E. Trenberth
,
Michel M. Verstraete
, and
Francis W. Zwiers

The Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that global warming is “unequivocal” and that most of the observed increase since the mid-twentieth century is very likely due to the increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations, with discernible human influences on ocean warming, continental-average temperatures, temperature extremes, wind patterns, and other physical and biological indicators, impacting both socioeconomic and ecological systems. It is now clear that we are committed to some level of global climate change, and it is imperative that this be considered when planning future climate research and observational strategies. The Global Climate Observing System program (GCOS), the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), and the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) therefore initiated a process to summarize the lessons learned through AR4 Working Groups I and II and to identify a set of high-priority modeling and observational needs. Two classes of recommendations emerged. First is the need to improve climate models, observational and climate monitoring systems, and our understanding of key processes. Second, the framework for climate research and observations must be extended to document impacts and to guide adaptation and mitigation efforts. Research and observational strategies specifically aimed at improving our ability to predict and understand impacts, adaptive capacity, and societal and ecosystem vulnerabilities will serve both purposes and are the subject of the specific recommendations made in this paper.

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