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SN Monthly 11-94

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UCAR > Communications > Staff Notes > November 1994 Search

In this issueWB-57FA former Air Force high-altitude jet begins a new life in NCAR's research fleet.Celebration of a Renaissance ManThe Joachim Kuettner Symposium honors a scientific leader and his 60 years of accomplishments.Science BriefingArctic and Antarctic ozone, postponement of the GPS-MET launch, a new look at the South Asian monsoon, andprogress on GEWEX.Site UnseenWhere do the organization's smoothest operators hang out?New Hires and Departures

About this publication

Staff Notes Monthly is published by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, P.O. Box 3000, Boulder,Colorado 80307-3000. UCAR operates the National Center for Atmospheric Research, UCAR Office of Programs, andWalter Orr Roberts Institute with support from the National Science Foundation and other sponsors.

ProductionWriter/editor: Bob HensonDesign: Mike ShibaoPrinting: NCAR Copy CenterPrint distribution: Milli ButterworthElectronic distribution: David Flores

UCAR CommunicationUCAR North (3300 Mitchell Lane), Suite 330Phone: 303-497-8605Fax: 303-497-8610E-mail: [email protected]

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SN Monthly 11-94

http://www.ucar.edu/communications/staffnotes/9411/[4/18/2013 10:49:34 AM]

In this issue...Other issues of Staff Notes Monthly

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Edited by Bob Henson, [email protected] revised: Wed Mar 29 12:20:53 MST 2000

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WB-57F

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Air Force High-Altitude Jet Begins a New Life inNCAR's Research Fleet

The broad-winged WB-57 makes its first landing at Jeffco. (Photos by Bob Bumpas.)

Atmospheric chemists, dynamicists, and meteorologists at NCAR and at UCAR member universities will be able tosoar to new heights now that the WB-57F fan jet has joined the Atmospheric Technology Division's Research AviationFacility (RAF). The twin jet will round out the fleet owned by NSF and operated by NCAR. NOAA's AeronomyLaboratory has also contributed significant support to the development of this unique research platform for studyingthe upper troposphere and stratosphere.

Representing a swords-into-plowshares conversion following the end of the cold war, the former Air Forcereconnaissance plane arrived at its new Jeffco home on 21 October, flown by chief of operations Jim Ragni. His wife,RAF mission scientist Cindy Twohy, was also on board. A severe windstorm struck the WB-57's former base inTucson, Arizona, just before the plane's original delivery date of 13 October, necessitating a reschedule.

During the next eight months, the WB-57F will be refitted with instruments specifically designed to probe the uppertroposphere and lower stratosphere. This will mark the first time the NSF-sponsored research community has routineaccess to an aircraft that can fly from sea level to an altitude of 20 kilometers. Early missions proposed for the aircraftinclude local, regional, and global-scale experiments designed to study such topics as ozone depletion, water-vaporand air- pollution transport in and out of the stratosphere, and interactions between clouds and the earth's climate.

Click here for photo of Cindy Twohy disembarking after the Tucson-to-Broomfield trip.

"The biggest advantage of the WB-57F," explains Cindy, "is that it can perform experiments between 12 and 18kilometers--a region that is not adequately covered by other research aircraft. There are lots of interesting atmosphericchemistry and climate questions that haven't been answered because scientists haven't had a platform that could flylong experiments at these altitudes with a mission specialist and heavy equipment on board." Examples of suchresearch questions:





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What is the influence on global climate of tropical cirrus clouds?

What is the role of polar stratospheric clouds with regard to ozone depletion?

What is the effect of aircraft contrails in the stratosphere?

How are chemical compounds transported from the lower atmosphere into and out of the stratosphere?

What percentage of stratospheric aerosol particles is caused by natural sources (such as volcanic eruptions) andwhat percentage is due to anthropogenic sources?

Originally built as a high-altitude espionage aircraft for the U.S. Air Force, the WB- 57F was designed to carry into thestratosphere photo-reconnaissance and nuclear- sampling payloads too large for the well-known but smaller U-2 spyplane. The new NCAR arrival was retired from the Air Force and converted into a scientific research platform to meetNASA specifications. It provided a top-of-the- atmosphere view of the earth for remote-sensing instrumentdevelopment and testing.

While flying the aircraft, the crew must wear pressure suits when mission requirements dictate profiles above 15kilometers; oxygen masks are needed at lower altitudes. The aircraft is equipped with parachutes and rocket-poweredejection seats for both crew members. Flights can be up to seven hours, in contrast to the NSF's recently retiredSabreliner jet, which allowed for a mission duration of only three hours.

The WB-57F presents an unusual appearance to the observer. At a gross weight of 28,600 kilograms, it is in the sameweight class as many business jets, but the twin- engine jet has a comparatively broad wing span of 37.7 meters--wider than most airport runways and slightly longer than the distance covered by the first flight of the Wright brothers.--Joan Vandiver Frisch, Media Relations

Noteworthy

Click here for photo of Jim Ragni.

NCAR's latest research aircraft will be in the capable hands of Jim Ragni, an Air Force veteran with some 8,000 hoursof flight time. Luckily for NCAR, Jim flew a WB-57F (then designated the RB-57F) on a variety of air-forcereconnaissance missions worldwide. Now, 21 years later, Jim and a NASA pilot based in Houston are the only pilotscurrently flying the two remaining WB-57Fs out of the original 21 built. Jim's experience includes 100 combatmissions over North Vietnam in the F4 Phantom jet, for which he earned two Distinguished Flying Crosses and elevenAir Medals. With a B.S. in economics and a master's degree in international relations, Jim also served with the StateDepartment as the U.S. air attache in Nigeria from 1973 to 1975, logging some time in the Soviet-built MIG with theNigerian air force.


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WB-57F


photo of Cindy Twohy disembarking after the Tucson-to-Broomfield trip

photo of Jim Ragni.

Kuettner Symposium

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Celebration of a Renaissance Man: The JoachimKuettner Symposium

As UCAR president Rick Anthes (left) looks on, SCD documentation production coordinator Christine Guzy (right)presents Joach Kuettner with a scrapbook of memorabilia that she assembled from friends and colleagues worldwide.Joach hired Christine to work on the Monsoon Experiment (MONEX) in 1978. (Photo by Bob Bumpas.)

Webster's defines a Renaissance man as "a man having varied interests and expertise in several areas." Those whocame from near and far to celebrate the 85th birthday of UCAR scientist Joach Kuettner at the Joachim P. KuettnerSymposium (18-19 October) bear witness that the definition fits this man for all seasons to a T. Joach's presentactivities with NCAR and UCAR are only the latest chapter in a one-of-a-kind career that spans over 60 years.

Born in what was then the German city of Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland), Joach--pronounced "yahk"--was the son ofHermann KŸttner, a well-known surgeon, and Johanna, an accomplished violinist. According to Joach, his mother wasone of the first German women to attend a university and his father, a professor at the University of Breslau, was thefirst physician to use x-rays in medicine. Joach's father became internationally known when, as head of several RedCross missions, he used x-rays for operations involving bullets and broken bones during such turn-of-the-centurymilitary conflicts as the Greek-Turkish war, the Boxer Rebellion in China, and the Boer War in South Africa.

When Joach began university studies at age 17, he took with him his father's love of nature and his mother's love ofmusic. Although Joach was attracted to medicine, music, and a range of sciences, he finally decided to study law andeconomics. He was the youngest person to obtain the doctorate at the University of Breslau, graduating in 1931 at thetender age of 21.

Meteorology wins out

Serving as a judge's assistant in small-town German courts while learning to be a glider pilot, Joach found himself





Kuettner Symposium


looking wistfully out of the courtroom window at cumulus clouds and realized that his real interest lay in meteorology.Although Joach had been one of the best in his high school class at mathematics, he realized he had to renew what hehad learned, which he did by isolating himself on a small island in the North Sea for three months. From there, hewent to Finland to study meteorology and teach at a new gliding school. There, he became acquainted with severalfamous meteorologists. Because of his high regard for Paul Raethjen, a theoretical physicist considered far ahead of histime, Joach chose to earn his second doctorate--this one in meteorology--at the University of Hamburg.

Joach chose the newly discovered phenomenon of lee waves for his dissertation topic. To explore it, he organized atotally unfunded field project using 25 gliders (previously assembled for a competition) equipped with altitude andtemperature recorders. Joach's work proved that the lee updrafts were not due to a lee vortex or a displaced slopeupdraft, but instead to a wave phenomenon. His doctorate, completed in 1939, contained the first detailed descriptionof lee waves and a hypothesis based on hydrostatic theory.

Before Joach could begin his career as a research meteorologist, World War II intervened. In the Luftwaffe (theGerman air force), Joach received intense training in flying single- and multi-engine aircraft, hoping that he would beassigned to weather reconnaissance rather than combat. His wish was not granted, however, and he ended up flight-testing various aircraft, among them the Gigant, which was then the world's largest airplane. When, during a test ofthis aircraft, it broke apart at eight kilometers, Joach bailed out-- managing to open his parachute only 200 metersabove ground.

After the war, Joach spent three years at the meteorological observatory at the summit of the Zugspitze, at 2,963 metersthe highest point in the Bavarian Alps. There he determined the polarity of the electric field during frequentsummertime lightning strikes and developed a theory of charge generation in thunderstorms. Joach also healed his soulfrom the horrors of the war by studying and writing about the flight of birds.

California, Mt. Washington, and NASA

Joach was visited on the Zugspitze by Wolfgang Klemperer, a well-known aerodynamicist and glider pilot who hademigrated from Germany to the United States. Klemperer suggested that Joach participate in a research project onmountain waves with the University of California and the Southern California Soaring Association. Emigrating to theStates, Joach joined the U.S. Air Force/Cambridge Laboratories and its Sierra Wave Project, which studied mountainwaves with instrumented gliders and powered aircraft. The project successfully documented the mesoscale structureand propagation characteristics of lee waves; it also allowed Joach to combine his keen interest in meteorology'sunanswered questions, skills as a project field director, and love of soaring. He set two world altitude records of11,500 meters for two- seater gliders and 13,000 meters for single-seaters (the latter still a German record).

Soon afterward, Joach became the scientific director of New Hampshire's Mt. Washington Observatory, researchingprecipitation processes and atmospheric electricity. But his work at Mt. Washington was interrupted in 1958 by aneven greater challenge. Wernher von Braun, the German rocket pioneer, invited Joach to Huntsville, Alabama, todevelop and direct the first spaceflight project to carry a human.

Joach and his team put together a proposal for the first suborbital flight, which eventually became the Mercury project.Some 2000 reporters witnessed the successful launch of Alan Shepard in his space capsule at Cape Canaveral, Florida,on 5 May 1961. In Joach's words, "Everything went perfectly." Soon afterward, President Kennedy agreed to supportflying a human to the moon, Congress accepted it, and voila--the Apollo project was born.

As head of Apollo's systems integration, Joach worked closely with the project astronauts, especially Frank Borman.But once the design stage of Apollo was completed, it became clear in Joach's eyes that it would pose a monumentalmanagement problem. "There were 40,000 contractors and a budget of $20 billion," he recalls. "This sort of work hadlittle appeal for me, and I told von Braun that I was thinking of leaving to go back to being a scientist." Joach nextserved as chief space scientist with the National Environmental Satellite Center, part of the Environmental SciencesServices Administration, headed by Bob White (later to become president of UCAR).

The World According to GARP

Kuettner Symposium


The seeds for Joach's first international project leadership post were sown in 1969 when Joach directed the field phaseof the Barbados Oceanographic Meteorological Experiment (BOMEX), a large U.S.-Canadian project to study air-seainteraction in the subtropical Atlantic. While in Barbados, Joach and colleagues were visited by the famed Norwegianexplorer Thor Heyerdahl, who arrived from Morocco aboard his Egyptian reed boat, Ra.

By the early 1970s, plans were afoot for the largest-ever meteorological field experiment, the Global AtmosphericResearch Program (GARP). Joach joined the World Meteorological Organization and was appointed internationaldirector of the GARP Atlantic Tropical Experiment (GATE), which he designed with Norman Rider of the UnitedKingdom, Igor Sitnikov of the former Soviet Union, and the help of other leading scientists. GATE's purpose was toinvestigate the global atmosphere's heat engine over the tropical Atlantic Ocean and adjacent land masses of WestAfrica and South America. Launched in 1974, GATE involved several thousand participants from 75 countries, 39ships, and 13 research aircraft. Twenty years later, research is still going on based on the GATE data, which are nowregarded as a classic set of data on the tropical atmosphere and oceans.

Joach's next field program was the Monsoon Experiment (MONEX), which studied the large summer and wintermonsoons over the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea, respectively. (In the latter, bursts of cold air from Siberiaand China penetrate far south towards the equator and Australia.) Headquarters for the Winter MONEX was at KualaLumpur, Malaysia, while summer operations were based first in Az Zahran (Dhahran), Saudi Arabia; Bombay, India;and Calcutta, India.

The last of the GARP field programs was a return to one of Joach's first passions. The Alpine Experiment (ALPEX),operating in March and April 1982, studied mountain-induced development of lee cyclones over the MediterraneanSea with equipment that included the NCAR-operated Electra aircraft.

Today and Tomorrow

The early 1990s have taken Joach back to the tropics. He was briefly acting director of the Tropical Ocean and GlobalAtmosphere Program's Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment (TOGA COARE). Immediately afterward,in 1992, he jointly directed the Central Pacific Experiment with V. Ramanathan (Scripps Institution of Oceanography).CEPEX investigated the "thermostat hypothesis" that tries to explain why the world's tropical sea- surface temperaturesnever exceed 31 degrees C. Presently Joach is involved in planning the Mesoscale Alpine Project (MAP) involving 12European countries (Joach predicts the United States will eventually participate). The goal of MAP is to investigate theinfluence of orography on mesoscale weather events on a smaller scale than ALPEX.

Since the late 1980s, Joach has collaborated with Bob Grossman (University of Colorado) and Terry Clark (Mesoscaleand Microscale Meteorology Division) in the Convection Wave Experiment, using the NCAR-operated Sabreliner andKing Air and NASA's Electra aircraft. "Glider pilots had discovered that cumulus clouds cause wave updrafts on theiroutside by acting as obstacles in moderate wind shear," says Joach. "Similar to mountain waves, they can extend up tothe tropopause, and you can soar and climb in these waves with a glider." Recently Terry, Joach, and a Germancolleague have simulated these cumulus waves numerically, finding that the clouds form the initial waves but thewaves then feed back into the cumulus clouds and determine their spacing.

"I've been with Joach on field experiments for the past 25 years, beginning with BOMEX in 1969," says Grossman. "Ifone were to describe Joach succinctly, one would have to use the adjectives 'focused', 'curious', and 'expansive'. Myrelationship with him can't be put into a single quote because he's been a friend, mentor, and occasionally even astudent of mine. He treats me like family."

Another colleague, E. B. (Gus) Emanuel, is head of the NOAA Environmental Technology Laboratory's Office ofPrograms and currently assigned to UCAR's TOGA COARE International Project Office. Emanuel collaboratedclosely with Joach during field programs in Switzerland, India, Malaysia, and Senegal as well as in TOGA COARE."Joach never has a negative thing to say and always makes you feel what you are doing is worthwhile," says Emanuel."I have the greatest respect for him."

These sentiments echoed throughout the symposium in comments from other friends and colleagues. Happy 85thbirthday, Joach, from all of us who have had the privilege of knowing you.

Kuettner Symposium


--Joan Vandiver Frisch, Media Relations

Events from Joach's youth and professional career were largely excerpted from "The Bulletin Interviews," Bulletin ofthe World Meteorological Organization (October 1989).

Noteworthy

One of Joach's glider flights in Germany during the 1930s gave him more than he bargained for. To research how highgliders might be able to soar, Joach decided to ride a huge wave cloud in a small open glider. Joach knew he had toend the experiment when oxygen deprivation went to work: he began seeing two suns, could not feel his feet anymore,and noticed that his fingernails had turned blue (the temperature was around -45 degrees C). Joach made his escape byflying alongside the wave cloud, eventually landing at a Polish village far from his departure point. A check of thethermobarograph attached to the wing of the glider revealed that Joach had reached around 7,000 meters--a worldrecord, though not officially submitted as such.

This summary of the Kuettner Symposium program lists the various participants and how their lives intertwined withJoach's.


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Kuettner program

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Highlights of the SymposiumAt the symposium honoring Joach Kuettner, a number of guests paid tribute to the distinguished scientist, pilot, andkey figure in some of the worldÕs largest atmospheric-science field programs over the past 35 years. The symposiumwas organized by Karyn Sawyer (Joint International Climate Projects/Planning Office) with help from JICP/PO'sChuck Perry and Deborah Bernard. Below are the speakers, topics, and the role each speaker has played in JoachÕsvaried and illustrious career. Click here for a photo of Karyn and Joach at the symposium.

Jay Fein, Pam Stephens, and Richard Greenfield, NSFGreenfield participated in the winter MONEX; Fein joined the summer MONEX and CEPEX, and both Fein andStephens were involved in ALPEX and CEPEX. Fein moderated the second day of the symposium.

Ruby Krishnamurti"Turbulence in Ocean and Atmosphere"A participant with Joach in GATE and MONEX, Krishnamurti is an oceanographer with Florida StateUniversity/Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Institute.

T.N. Krishnamurti "Monsoons--El Nino"Professor of meteorology at Florida State University, Krishnamurti was the chief atmospheric scientist for MONEX.

Alvaro de Orleans-Borbon"Sport Flying and Atmospheric Sciences"Orleans-Borbon, a cousin of the current King Juan Carlos of Spain and vice president of the International GlidingCommission, joined Joach for a motorized glider experiment in the Himalayas in 1985.

J. Shukla"Sub-Sahara Drought: Natural Variability or Irreversible Climate Change?"Shukla, who directs the Institute of Global Environment and Society in Calverton, Maryland, participated in thesummer MONEX.

V. Ramanathan"The Greenhouse and Super Greenhouse Effect and Cirrus Thermostat"Director of the Center for Clouds, Chemistry and Climate at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Ramanathan waschief scientist for CEPEX.

Manfred Reinhardt"Observation of Contrails: Yesterday and Today"Former director of the German Institute for Atmospheric Research, Reinhardt is currently the president of theInternational Scientific and Technical Organization for Gliding, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany. He participated inALPEX.

Joanne Simpson"Long-Time Interaction between Two Cumulus Addicts"Simpson, chief scientist for meteorology at NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, worked with Joach on GATE,MONEX, and many other field projects.

Igor Sitnikov"Interest in Tropical Meteorology in Russia and Some of the Latest Results"Sitnikov, head of Russia's tropical dynamics laboratory, cowrote the GATE experiment design with Joach and English





Kuettner program

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scientist Norman Rider.

Bernard Vonnegut"Thunderstorm Electrification: Present Views"A distinguished professor emeritus at the State University of New York at Albany, Vonnegut first encountered Joachin 1950 when he began studying thunderstorms and found JoachÕs articles. They have exchanged views and ideasever since.

Peter Webster"Global Scale: Hydrological Processes and Circulation"Director of the Program in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at CUÐBoulder, Webster was the chief atmosphericscientist for the TOGA-COARE field experiment. He moderated the symposium's first day.

Ed Zipser"Memories of GATE"Head of the Department of Meteorology at Texas A&M University and a long-time NCAR scientist, Zipser was thechief scientist for U.S. participation in GATE.


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photo of Karyn and Joach at the symposium.








Science Briefing

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Science BriefingBill Mankin, Mike Coffey, and Jim Hannigan (Atmospheric Chemistry Division) are shuttling to and from theArctic this month as part of a multinational study aimed at ozone depletion in middle and high latitudes. The SecondEuropean Stratospheric Arctic and Midlatitude Experiment (SESAME) is designed to build on the first such project,held in 1991-92. That study did much to quantify chemical ozone loss within the stratospheric polar vortex. SESAMEhopes to extend the success beyond the vortex to midlatitudes, where some ozone loss has been documented in recentyears but the causes (mixing of midlatitude and polar air, local chemical processing, or both) are not yet pinned down.Chlorine and nitrogen partitioning--the strong gradients between low and high levels of each--will be under particularscrutiny. SESAME also will look at the dynamics linking the midlatitude and polar parts of the lower stratosphere inthe Northern Hemisphere. Mike and Bill are based in Sondrestromfjord (Kangerlussuaq), Greenland, just north of theArctic Circle, for two-week stints each. They are measuring the infrared transmission spectrum of the atmosphere,from which they derive the amounts of a dozen trace gases involved in stratospheric chemistry.On the other side of the globe, Bill traveled to New Zealand last month to attend a meeting of the Steering Committeeof the Network for Detection of Stratospheric Change. He took the opportunity to visit the Airborne SouthernHemisphere Ozone Experiment, whose attention was focused on the cycle of ozone depletion now concluding aboveAntarctica. This austral spring brought stratospheric ozone lows that didn't quite match last year's all-time record forlowest ozone. However, the overall amount of depletion--as judged by the extent, depth, and duration of the "hole"--appears to have been as large as ever, according to Bill.

Investigators waiting with bated breath for the launch of a new experimental earth observing system will have to wait awhile longer. The nominal launch date for the MicroLab-1 satellite, bearing the Global Positioning Satellitemeteorological experiment (GPS/MET), has been pushed to 18 January 1995. "Launch dates are fickle critters,subject to many factors," says Mike Exner, program manager for GPS/MET with UCAR's University NAVSTARConsortium. "The GPS/MET payload and the MicroLab-1 are essentially ready. However, other factors, in this caselaunch vehicle readiness, also affect schedules. Weather and range scheduling can also affect timing. Thus, it is quitedifficult to predict the exact date of a launch." Exner's group is using the delay as an opportunity: some of the dataprocessing software and algorithms that had been planned for development after the expected launch are now beingdeveloped in advance. If GPS/MET lives up to expectations, it will be able to provide frequent temperature and/orwater vapor profiles throughout the earth's atmosphere.

The annual South Asian summer monsoon, provider of life-sustaining rainfall for India and nearby regions, is not auniform phenomenon. It varies substantially from year to year--running weakest, on average, in summers that followheavy winter snowfall in the mountains of Nepal and Tibet. In the 14 October issue of Science, Jerry Meehl arguesthat South Asian snowfall and monsoon patterns are tied to a third party: the tropical biennial oscillation(TBO) that is an integral part of El Nino and tropical air-sea interaction.Jerry (Climate and Global Dynamics Division) analyzed a 50-year integration from a global coarse-grid, coupledocean-atmosphere climate model developed at NCAR. The strongest monsoons in the model were preceded byanomalously high winter temperatures over South Asia, often associated with reduced snowfall. Actual data for the1987-88 period, spanning one weak and one strong monsoon, back up the large-scale model findings with an unusuallystrong region of high pressure centered over Asia in the winter of 1988. Air-sea interaction in the tropics, associatedwith the TBO, results in sea-surface temperature variations and anomalous heat release from thunderstorms over thewestern Pacific warm pool (an area strongly tied to El Nino). These act in combination with similar heat releases fromthunderstorms over equatorial east Africa to drive the large-scale circulation. The resulting midlatitude patterns favorhigh pressure and low snowfall over Asia the winter before a strong Asian summer monsoon. Low pressure and highsnowfall over Asia the following winter, associated with fluctuations in tropical sea-surface temperatures and shifts inthunderstorm activity involved with the TBO, then lead to a weaker summer monsoon. Thus, the two-year oscillationcomes about from a combination of processes involving air-sea interaction, tropical thunderstorm activity, large-scalemidlatitude circulation, Asian snowfall, and Indian monsoon rainfall.





Science Briefing

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Rainfall and its role in the global hydrologic cycle is at the center of a multiyear study which gathered its forcesat NCAR's Mesa Lab earlier this month. The UCAR Office of Field Project Support hosted a review session,modeling workshop, and science panel 1-4 November for the GEWEX (Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment)Continental-scale International Project, or GCIP. The modeling workshop was held in tandem with the InternationalSatellite Land-Surface Climatology Project (ISLSCP) to address the coupling of surface and atmosphere on scalesfrom the single-column to the global. The GCIP science review featured a packed slate of 17 presentations over tenhours; topics included hydrologic modeling algorithms, the prediction of soil moisture and long-range temperature,and moisture budgets. The science panel included reports and posters on GEWEX and related projects. Organizersreport that the meetings provided a good overview of ongoing collaborations involving GEWEX and ISLSCP.


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Site Unseen

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SITE UNSEEN: The Home of NCAR's SmoothOperators

NCAR's voices to the world: Marlene Brown, Judy Green, and Dolores Boyd. (Photo by Curt Zukosky.)

In this new column, Staff Notes takes you where few staff have gone before, those out-of-the-way corners where thegears of our institution turn. This month we visit the telephone operators' area, located at the foot of the stairwell justsouth of the Mesa Lab lobby.

"We don't predict the weather. We study it." Judy Green gives this succinct explanation of NCAR's mission like a pro,as well she should. It is the standard answer to one of the most common questions encountered by NCAR's threetelephone operators.

Judy (oft confused with Judy Brown, Bob Serafin's secretary) is the senior member of the operator crew, with her 16years of experience here. However, the entire group has plenty of experience handling with tact, finesse, and goodcheer the hundreds of calls that pour into NCAR daily.

Each workday, Judy--our only full-time operator--is joined by either Dolores Boyd or Marlene Brown, who share theother full-time position. (Long-time operator Marguerite Adkisson died in August.) Dolores works Mondays andTuesdays, Marlene on Thursdays and Fridays, and the two alternate on Wednesdays. It's a congenial arrangement,giving them both time for life beyond the switchboard. Not that their NCAR life is a chore: all three women insist theylike their work. "It's so relaxed. I enjoy talking to all of the different people," says Judy, a native of Cheyenne,Wyoming. Dolores, who has been with the group off and on since 1976, is an expatriate Texan, and Marlene grew upin Arvada and Longmont, moving from Finance to join the group earlier this year.

The operators' lair is a windowless, semicircular, paneled room, with the women facing a counter that runs into thecenter of the room. For years, this room held the cord-based switchboard on which the operators inserted and removedplugs, answering each and every call and routing it through to its respective line. Only in 1984 was this comparativelyancient technology replaced by ROLM, the current switching mechanism that permits PhoneMail and other niceties (or





Site Unseen


aggravations, depending on your perspective).

While on the job, Judy, Dolores, and Marlene each can get up to 10 calls at one time. Typically, they juggle 5 to 10calls a minute while performing other duties; on a given day, they may each greet anywhere from 200 to 600 callers.The most frequently sought folks, according to Judy: Mickey Glantz, Bob Serafin, Rick Anthes, and HumanResources, in no particular order. Mickey, head of the Environmental and Societal Impacts Group, gets many callsbecause his internationally networked group corresponds with colleagues around the globe. Judy says the end of thecold war has made our life easier in at least one way: "It was difficult trying to connect to Russia before we could dialdirect." These days, UCAR incurs $15,000 or so in long-distance charges each month.

Most callers know what or whom they need, but Judy notes that there are plenty of others who would throw the usuallyunflappable Patty Prompter into a tizzy. "People call when they have a new barometer and want to know how to set it.Lots of people call during windstorms. People ask for extended forecasts for outdoor wedding receptions." On thedarker side, "One time a caller threatened a scientist and his family." A more common circumstance: people often callNCAR when they need NOAA, or vice versa. The operators keep a NOAA directory handy for just such cases. (Incase you've ever wondered, UCAR holds all of the 497-1000 and -8000 exchanges and has most of the -2000s onreserve. The -3000 through -6000 numbers belong to NOAA.)

If there's one thing people in-house can do to make the operators' job easier, it's skipping initials and nicknames."When you leave your name with someone for a return call, please don't ask them to call 'Jim' or 'Pat' or 'Liz' at 497-1000," pleads Judy. "Either leave your full name and 497-1000 or your first name and extension. Otherwise we won'tknow which Jim or Pat or Liz is being called." Along with using the printed white, yellow, and blue pages of theUCAR directory, staff who are on line can avail themselves of the electronic directory that provides phone numbersand e-mail addresses; it's found inside Gopher or by telnet at ncar.ucar.edu, with the login "email."

The operators' sunny dispositions bring lots of reciprocal friendliness. "Walt Roberts would call us just to say hi andask how we were doing," recalls Judy. "Mickey Glantz sends us goodies and postcards from all over the world." Anystaff who want to see the operators in action are welcome to drop by their space. Expect equal helpings ofinterruptions and smiles. --BH

Noteworthy

The woman behind the women at NCAR's switchboard is Teresa Shibao, the electrician responsible for keeping ourphone system in working order. "I worked myself into this position; we used contractors before," says Teresa. Shekeeps in close contact with SCD when wiring for office renovations, such as the recent work at the Mesa Lab's easttowers, since multiple data streams share the same communications plate and wiring channels. PhoneMail, introducedseveral years ago, is the biggest change during Teresa's tenure. "The secretaries I know love it," says Teresa, "and it'swonderful for me, since I rove all over the place." Merging technologies are on the horizon, Teresa believes: "Fromyour computer you'll be able to answer PhoneMail, send faxes, and do conference calls with sound and pictures." Still,Teresa adds, "Phones will never go away. People like to talk to each other." Even cyber- savvy kids, she feels, will

Site Unseen


always want some "real-time conversation."


UCAR | NCAR | UOP









New Hires

http://www.ucar.edu/communications/staffnotes/9411/newhires.html[4/18/2013 11:00:38 AM]


New Hires and Departures

(left to right, bottom row)Cathleen Halvorson, general staff with Food Services. FL2 cafeteria, ext. 8545.Cydney Perrone, asssistant with Human Resources. FL2 room 1014, ext. 8710.Lara Ziady, administrative secretary with the Roberts Institute. FL3 room 1056, ext. 2104.(left to right, top row)Fred Woodley, network technician III with SCD. Room to be determined, ext 1808.Stephen Morgan, financial assistant with JCP/PO. UN room 100, ext. 8689.Edward Kennelly, postdoctoral researcher with HAO. FL2 room 3070, ext. 1564.





New Hires


(left to right)Denise Fay-Dombrowski, staff architect with the Occupancy Pool. FL2 room 1036, ext. 8537.Kenneth Keelan, student assistant II with HAO. FL2 room 3040, ext. 1513.Elizabeth Gold, administrative secretary with UCAR. FB lobby, ext. 1673.Stephen Drake, software engineer II with COMET. FL2 room 1038, ext. 8356.Charles Perry, secretary with JICP/PO. UN room 100 ext. 8683.Madelynn McCowan, food services and utility worker with the Occupancy Pool. ML kitchen, ext. 1146.

Other New Hires

Shardut Agrawala, sector analyst with the Joint International Climate Projects/Planning Office. IPCC TechnicalSupport Unit, Washington, D.C.,, 202-651-8264.Michael Jones, student assistant III with HAO. FL2 room 3099A, ext. 8321.Richard Wellborn, aircraft mechanic/crew chief with ATD. Room and ext. to be determined.

Departures

Robert Bowie, 14 OctoberJohn Downing, 1 OctoberWayne Green, 28 OctoberScott Herod, 31 AugustKatherine Holcomb, 28 OctoberDavid Keith, 3 OctoberGabriel Vazquez, 27 SeptemberRobert Weingruber, 21 October


UCAR | NCAR | UOP







New Hires




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