User:NASA URC BCCSO/Nasa urc

The mission of the '''Beltsville Center for Climate System Observation http://bccso.org/) is to lead a transformation in atmospheric research and education by inspiring traditionally underrepresented groups:

Howard University maintains a ranking by the Carnegie Institute as a Doctoral/Research-Extensive institution. It has accredited PhD - granting programs in Atmospheric Sciences, Chemistry, Physics and Astronomy, and Mechanical Engineering as well as in numerous other STEM and non-STEM areas.

The Howard University Program in Atmospheric Sciences (HUPAS) is an accredited advanced degree-granting program offering the Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in atmospheric sciences. HUPAS is a national leader among peer institutions in the production of well trained atmospheric scientists. HUPAS faculty are recognized experts in:

•	Numerical studies of tropical cyclogenesis in the eastern Atlantic Ocean

•	Chemical modeling and air quality data assimilation

•	Characterization of water vapor, wind, aerosol variability

•	Characterization of the impacts and microphysical evolution of aerosols

The Beltsville Center for Climate System Observation (a NASA University Research Center) and NOAA Center for Atmospheric Science and are two major research centers at Howard that are affiliated with HUPAS that provide much of the research support for students and faculty.

BELTSVILLE CENTER FOR CLIMATE SYSTEM OBSERVATION (BCCSO) at Howard University consists of a multidisciplinary group of our faculty in close partnership with NASA/GSFC Earth Sciences Division, two academic institutions (Penn State University and State University of New York at Albany), and government laboratories and private sector partners. BCCSO’s mission is to:

	Engage in basic research with the view that the resulting knowledge will improve weather, climate, and air quality prediction through intensive and long-term atmospheric field observations.

	Train science and academic leaders (minority PhDs) with emphasis on understanding atmospheric processes through the use of state-of-the-art atmospheric observing systems and analytical methods.

	Contribute to national and international climate research programs and networks designed to investigate the causes of climate and regional environmental change through reference observations of key state variables.

As shown in the diagram below, BCCSO’s research foci are designed to respond to NASA Science Mission Directorate science questions.

Program Overview

Create Leaders Educate the Next Generation of Scientistshttp://bccso.org/ Establish a World Class Atmospheric Research Facility The http://bccso.org/ consists of a multidisciplinary group of Howard University faculty in close partnership with NASA/GSFC Earth Sciences Division, other academic institutions and government laboratories and private sector partners. The overall mission of this new NASA University Research Center (URC) is to:

Engage in basic research with the view that the resulting knowledge will improve weather, climate, and air quality prediction through intensive and long-term atmospheric field observations

Train science and academic leaders (minority Ph.D.s) with emphasis on understanding atmospheric processes through the use of state-of-the-art atmospheric observing systems and analytical methods

Inspire and engage K-12 and undergraduate students through sustainable outreach programs

Contribute to national and international climate research programs and networks designed to investigate the causes of climate and regional environmental change through reference observations of key state variables Producing scientific leaders and experts requires an advance graduate program that engages students in research on the vanguard of the discipline. To that end, Howard University has assembled a cadre of talented faculty who are already making significant contributions, for example, in their leadership of international field experiments in West Africa to study the genesis of tropical storms. They have fostered productive research collaborations with NASA scientists. The Water Vapor Variability Satellite/Sondes (WAVES) field experiment that was conducted at the Howard University Beltsville Campus between 2006 and 2008 is one such example. WAVES accomplished important science for NASA in terms of AURA and AIRS ground validation (as evidenced by the resulting publications) while engaging numerous graduate and undergraduate students.

Academic Program

The Beltsville Center for Climate System Observation provides financial support for qualified An Undergraduate Academic Scholarship may include the following:

'''Tuition waives for spring and fall academic semesters Stipend Paid Student Fee Conference Travel & Fees Tuition waver for Spring and Fall academic semesters: $16,075 Stipend: $13,000.00 Student Fees: $402.50 Cost of required travel to attend conferences: Free Total: $29,477.50 '''

Undergraduate Research Interns

http://bccso.org/supports undergraduate students during each summer and academic year for research experience in NASA related science. This summer experience pairs undergraduate students with http://bccso.org/ scientists including NASA collaborators. Students receive stipend, travel, provision for room, board, and a meal plan. Students produce a report and presentation at the end of the summer about their experiences. Qualified students are allowed to continue their research throughout the academic year.

NASA’s summer interns are involved in hands-on research activity at the Beltsville Research Center and NASA GSFC. BCCSO hosts GoHFAS (Goddard Space Flight Center/Howard University Fellowship in Atmospheric Science) students at HUBC.

GoHFAS is a highly successful undergraduate enrichment program open to students at any university in the country. Students conduct research at GSFC with a NASA mentor during the summer and continue that work through the academic year. BCCSO partners with GoHFAS as a pipeline for graduate students and to optimize NASA’s investment in undergraduate training.

Research Groups The groups currently involved in research at the Beltsville Center for Climate System Observation are summarized below. Surface Flux Measurements Sensible and latent heat fluxes play important roles in the surface-atmosphere exchanges in the boundary layer. While sensible heat is the energy released to heat up the lower atmosphere, latent heat ensures the vertical transport of moisture. There are several approaches to estimate sensible and latent heat fluxes (e.g., Bowen Ratio Energy Balance, flux-gradient, etc.), but one of the widely used is the eddy-covariance technique. At the Howard University Beltsville site, a 31-m flux tower is equipped with an eddy-covariance system deployed at 28 m to estimate turbulent fluxes. Due to the highly heterogeneous nature of site, the following questions will be addressed:

What are the environmental controls on turbulent fluxes over the site? Are the expansion of urbanization and landuse modification impacting local weather and climate? Can current mesoscale models adequately simulate small-scale processes associated with the surface heterogeneity? Radiation Radiation measurements provide accurate long-term surface irradiance measurements at 1-minute resolution over a heterogeneous landscape to provide satellite validation, and the understanding of cloud effect. The facility also incorporates the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Programs, Quality Control and Shortwave Flux Analysis algorithms developed by Dr. Charles N. Long for detecting, and fitting clear-sky shortwave functions.

Ozone Profiling The Baltimore/Washington corridor is a major population center on the East Coast that is consistently in violation of air quality standards for excessive ground-level ozone. In the summer of 2004, Beltsville, Maryland was selected as a new site within this corridor to participate in the INTEX Ozonesonde Network Study (IONS), a consortium of sounding sites measuring continental ozone transport in North America. As part of the study, students from Howard University and the University of Maryland, College Park were trained to prepare,launch, and interpret data from ozonesonde balloons. Howard University Beltsville Research Site serves as a pilot site for the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) initiative to improve local and national air quality forecasts and develop better control strategies for high ozone events in the Baltimore/Washington region. Rainfall Measurements Howard University Beltsville rainfall project is the bases for the study of rainfall pattern to be conduct in senegal by a group of researcher from NASA, Howard University, University of North Dakota,and Senegal. This research study is to help proofthat TRMM satellite PR was equally good as surface measuerment for rainfall determination. As a result of this, four rain-gauges have been step up at Howard University Site, beltsville, to collect rainfall data from four different setup of rain-gauges.

Lidar Measurements A Raman lidar system that is designed to make both daytime and nighttime measurements of atmospheric water vapor and aerosols; the lidar uses narrow bandpass filters to measure:

the Rayleigh/Mie and pure rotational Raman signals at 354.7±0.13 nm, the Raman scattered photons from nitrogen molecules at 386.7±0.13 nm, and the Raman scattered photons from water vapor molecules at 407.5±0.13 nm The primary purpose of the lidar is to characterize temporal and vertical distributions of water vapor and dynamics processes in the boundary layer for evaluation of mesoscale models. The Lidar is also used to measure cirrus cloud optical depths. Collaboration consists of researchers from the Department of Physics and the Program in Atmospheric Sciences at Howard University, the Laboratory for Atmospheres at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and The NOAA-Center for Atmospheres at Howard. HURL is designed to make both daytime and nighttime measurements of atmospheric water vapor, aerosols and cirrus cloud optical depths in order to to characterize temporal and vertical distributions of water vapor and dynamics processes in the boundary layer for evaluation of mesoscale models.

Graduate Academic Program

Producing scientific leaders and experts requires an advanced graduate program that engages students in research on the vanguard of the discipline. To that end, Howard University has assembled a cadre of talented faculty who are already making significant contributions, for example, in their leadership of international field experiments in West Africa to study the genesis of tropical storms.

They have fostered productive research collaborations with NASA scientists. The Water Vapor Variability Satellite/Sondes (WAVES) field experiment that was conducted at the Howard University Beltsville Campus between 2006 and 2008 is one such example. WAVES accomplished important science for NASA in terms of AURA and AIRS ground validation (as evidenced by the resulting publications) while engaging numerous graduate and undergraduate students.

The mission of the Beltsville Center for Climate System Observation (BCCSO) is to lead a transformation in atmospheric research and education by inspiring traditionally underrepresented groups. Our goal is to:

Create Science and Academic Leaders Educate the Next Generation of Scientists Conduct Research to Improve Weather, Climate, and Air Quality Prediction

Principal Investigators

Dr. Everette Joseph Dr. Everette Joseph serves as Director and Principal Investigator of the URC. Dr. Joseph is an Associate Professor of Physics and serves on the graduate faculty of the HUPAS. He has numerous years of experience as a Principal Investigator on major NASA grants in the past 10 years. Administratively, he has served for six year as the Deputy Director of the NOAA Center for Atmospheric Sciences. Dr. Joseph is lead scientist for research currently being conducted at the Beltsville laboratory. Additionally, Dr. Joseph is well respected in the atmospheric science community as is evidence by his professional service at the national and international levels. For example, he serves on national elected committees for URC and advisory committees for NOAA and NASA. Dr. Joseph has more than 15 publications in the last five years in this area of research. The Center Director will focus URC activities so that they respond to the training and development needs and capacities of participating graduate and undergraduate programs associated with the URC. Dr. Demetrius Venable Dr. Demetrius Venable serves as the Deputy Director of the URC. The Deputy Director will represent the Director on an as-needs basic. Dr. Venable is a Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Graduate Program in Atmospheric Sciences. He is an experienced administrator who served as the director for the previously funded URC and is a lead research scientist for the Beltsville Research Facility. Co-Investigators Drs. Belay Demoz, Vernon Morris, and William Stockwell serve as co-PIs in the Center. Their areas of contribution are in the fields of atmospheric aerosol studies and monitoring climate variability using water vapor and temperature measurements. Dr. Marcus Alfred provides leadership on the K-12 component of the URC’s academic enrichment program for the youngest scientists. Other co-investigators include: Dr. Jui-Yuan Chiu (University of Maryland Baltimore County), Dr. Jose Fuentes (Penn State University), Dr. Qilong Min (State University of New York, University at Albany), Dr. Anne Thompson (Penn State University) and Dr. David Whiteman (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center).

http://bccso.org/