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UCAR Staff Notes

http://www.ucar.edu/communications/staffnotes/0505/[5/3/2013 10:28:45 AM]

It's Springtime and bunnysightings are common

around the Mesa, CG, andFoothills campuses.

(Photo by Carlye Calvin.)

Playing it safe

SaSS works to ensurethe safety of theUCAR/NCAR staff. That’sno easy task whennatural hazards andoverseas criminals posepotential threats. More >

Spring Fling '05 Aliens, animated vegetables, and 1980s rockers took to the stage in thisyear's Spring Fling, as staffers set aside their everyday work clothes andgot decked out for the lip sync competition. More >

SERE news: Diana Josephson and Linda Mearns take on new positions Diana Josephson took the helm of the Societal-Environmental Researchand Education Laboratory (SERE) on April 1, while in other SERE news,Linda Mearns has been named director of the Institute for the Study ofSociety and Environment (ISSE). More >

UCAR casual pool fills in when needed It’s been three years since HR put together a pool of part-time workerswho departments and programs can tap for occasional administrativework.Casual pool staffer, Lisa Goodrich, highlights the perfect situation.

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UCAR Staff Notes


More >

Unidata prototype:Steering models in the right direction A chat between Steve Chiswell and Ben Dominico at a conference lastJanuary resulted in a promising new prototype from Unidata. More>

Delphi questionMoving office furniture. More>

Spring is producing more wildlife sightings on the mesa. CGD’s Jim Hacksnapped this photo of a red fox by the Mesa Lab in April. He writes: “JimHurrell [CGD] and I have been seeing this fox almost every eveningaround 6 p.m. for the past two to three weeks. It has become very bold,walking up and down the paths whether there are people around or not.”

UCAR Staff Notes


Red foxes, which weigh about 10 pounds, mostly eat rodents, rabbits, andbirds. One of four fox species in Colorado, they live in forests in themountains and in riparian woodlands and wetlands on the plains.

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Playing it safe - Staff Notes

http://www.ucar.edu/communications/staffnotes/0505/playsafe.html[5/3/2013 10:29:20 AM]

Steve Sadler. (Photo by Carlye Calvin.)

May 2005

Playing it safe

SaSS works to ensure the safety ofthe UCAR/NCAR staff. That’s no easytask when natural hazards andoverseas criminals pose potentialthreats.

How do you make sure that researchersusing ropes to climb trees in central Africawon’t encounter dangerous snakes?

That’s the kind of problem the UCAR Safetyand Site Services office takes on all thetime. As staffers travel the world, from theforbidding ice fields of Antarctica topolitically volatile regions of the Middle East,SaSS is charged with keeping them out ofharm’s way. The office also monitors safetyproceducres and emergency contingencyplans for UCAR and NCAR’s offices and labsin Boulder and elsewhere.

“I get paid to worry,” says SaSS directorSteve Sadler, an industrial hygieneengineer. “It’s a never-ending job.”

The organization has a strong record when it comes to keeping staffers safe during fieldprojects in remote places. Since the September 11 terrorist attacks, SaSS also hasstepped up efforts to secure the Mesa Lab and other buildings. That’s no easy job,given the collaborative focus of the organization.

“Our culture is so open that we want to open all doors all the time,” Steve explains.

Steve works closely on safety issues with two other SaSS staffers: Liz Kriete, the officeadministrator; and Milenda Powers, who oversees health, environmental, and safetyservices. The office also collaborates with Ron Wicker of Allied-Barton, Inc., thecontractor that provides security services for UCAR facilities, as well as withadministrators across the organization.

Dangerous places

Researching climate means going to places that are distant and potentially dangerous,and where little atmospheric data have been collected. That’s why NCAR scientists liketo do research in places like remote Pacific islands and Antarctica. Another priority forUCAR and NCAR—transferring technology to less-developed countries—means that









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The 1992-93 Tropical Ocean and Global Atmosphere Program's CoupledOcean-Atmosphere Response Experiment (TOGA COARE), with anoperations center in the Solomon Islands, was among the many fieldprojects that have involved UCAR safety personnel. Coordinatorscontended with issues ranging from emergency evacuations to malaria.

staffers sometimes travel to violence-prone cities.

One of SaSS’s most interesting assignments was putting together a safety plan for apossible project by RAP (now RAL) in Bogota, Colombia—known as the kidnappingcapital of the world. Steve got a first-hand look at interesting and sometimesinconsistent security arrangements, such as a hotel that employed armed guards forprotection, but also had an open and unguarded kitchen door off an alley.

After meeting with U.S. embassy personnel, Colombian government officials, and privatesecurity experts, Steve and a RAP team concluded that staffers generally could worksafely in the city. But they drew up a list of precautions: travel in pairs, book a flightthat arrives in daylight, use prearranged transportation instead of hailing down taxis onthe street, stay in a hotel recommended by the U.S. embassy, and don’t walk around inunguarded areas.

Working with Karyn Sawyerand her staff in JOSS, Stevehas toured hospitals indeveloping countries todetermine whether theyprovide appropriate medicalcare in case a staffer getssick or injured. If the healthcare facilities seeminadequate, his next step isto figure out an emergencyevacuation plan—no easytask if the project is in aremote area, such as theAmazon rain forest.

In some cases, UCAR has setup its own field clinic, hiringdoctors and nurses to makesure staffers don’t contractmalaria and other diseases.At other times, theorganization has had to make

sure staffers weren’t spreading communicable diseases once they returned to Boulder.During the 2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, Steve and his staffhelped find an infectious disease expert to examine staffers returning from Beijing andother areas where SARS cases had been reported. One of Steve’s more unusual tasks was providing safety advice to staffers who wereusing ropes to climb trees during a field project in the Central African Republic toquantify chemical emissions from leaves. Oil from the hands of climbers attractedsnakes overnight. His recommendation: pull down the ropes every night and set themup again the next day to keep snakes off them.

“I’m kind of the canary,” Steve says of these scouting missions. “If I come back alivethey can send in more important people.” He commends Karyn for her concern aboutsafety. “She makes our jobs much easier and projects much safer,” he says.

Karyn gives high praise to Steve and the SaSS group as experts on safety issues.“Steve also brings a great deal of humor and good cheer to something that can beviewed as onerous,” she says.

Closer to home

Field projects aside, Steve and his SaSS colleagues keep an eye on the organization’sbuildings in Boulder and elsewhere. Since the Mesa Lab is a government building and amajor Boulder landmark, Steve has some concerns about a possible terrorist attack—although he emphasizes that iconic structures in other parts of the country are more



Key Telephone numbers

Here are four important safety numbersfor all staffers:

Any emergency: ext. 1911For the latest information on aUCAR closure or a major event like a fire: ext.1100For escort service to your vehicle:ext. 1139The main Safety and Site Service(SaSS) number: ext. 8550

likely targets.

Security precautions include round-the-clock video surveillance and regular officerpatrols. Visitors are required to sign in.Steve, who meets regularly with the FBIfor briefings, stresses that an attack onthe Mesa Lab is highly unlikely and there’sno need to close the building to the public.

One simple security tool is a set of dice.Allied-Barton officers roll dice to determinewhich way they should walk on theirrounds. This ensures their rounds arerandom. “It takes the human predictabilityout of our patterns,”Steve explains.

Then there are natural hazards. Staffershave become accustomed to Milenda sending out e-mails about sightings of potentiallyaggressive wildlife on the mesa, including bears, mountain lions, and rattlesnakes.

UCAR and NCAR have contingency plans in case of some major disaster, such as aflood or fire. Steve, who has a police scanner in his office, meets regularly withadministrators across the organization to develop “what if” scenarios. The scenarios canget complicated, given that the organization is spread out over three campuses inBoulder, and staffers also work at Jeffco, as well as in Washington, D.C., and atHawaii’s Mauna Loa Solar Observatory.

Still, Steve is confident that the organization is prepared to deal with a crisis in theunlikely event that one materializes. “Compared to most of the corporations in theworld, we’re at a good point,” he says.

• by David Hosansky

Staying safe

Travel. Staffers must contact SaSS if they plan to travel to apotentially dangerous area. The office maintains a list of traveladvisories and hazards.

Chemicals. SaSS should be notified immediately in the event of atoxic chemical spill. Staffers should not attempt to clean up thechemical.

Safety equipment. At-risk staffers may obtain standard safetyequipment at no charge from SaSS. The equipment includes safetyglasses, computer glasses, safety shoes, ear muffs and plugs, first-aid kits and supplies, fire extinguishers, and respirators.

Accident investigations. SaSS should be notified in the event ofan accident at a facility or field site.

Training. Staffers may take safety-related courses through SaSSon such topics as first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation,safety in confined spaces, respiratory protection, fire extinguisheruse, hazard communication, emergency response, prevention offalls, electrical and mechanical safety, and back-injury prevention.

Hazardous waste. SaSS is responsible for collecting, packaging,and making arrangements for the proper disposal of all hazardous

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wastes, including batteries.

Ergonomic evaluations. SaSS will provide a one-on-oneconsultation with a staff member on how to work on a computerwhile avoiding the risk of carpal tunnel syndrome and otherinjuries.

Also in this issue...

Playing it Safe

Spring Fling '05

SERE news

UCAR casuals

Taking the LEAD

Delphi question

Just One Look

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Spring Fling '05 - Staff Notes

http://www.ucar.edu/communications/staffnotes/0505/fling.html[5/3/2013 10:30:12 AM]

May 2005

Spring Fling ’05!

Amazons, aliens, and animated vegetables took to the stage in this year’s Spring Fling,as staffers set aside their everyday work clothes and got decked out for a 1980s-themed lip sync competition. The May 6 event at the Mesa Lab, featuring food, music,and a chalk-drawing contest for kids, drew several hundred staffers and familymembers. (See all the videos.)

Five groups entered the lip sync contest, wowing the crowd with rousing music andcunning impersonations of iconic scientists and weather models. Master of ceremoniesLucille Ciambrone (VSP) introduced each act and provided comedy betweenperformances.

“I was very happy with this year's Spring Fling,” says Mark Mulholland of the EmployeeActivities Committee, which sponsored the event. “All five lip sync acts were highquality, which made picking the winner especially difficult.”

COMET kicked off the festivities with Cole Porter’s “Experiment.” Wendy Abshire (left),Vickie Johnson, and others portrayed some of the greatest scientists of the ages. Thescientists, alas, grew testy, and their experiments were punctuated by an explodingflask, smashed glasses, and a fistfight. The act won the coveted Miami Vice award.(See the video.)

















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Next up, RAL performed Robert Palmer’s “Addicted to Love,” tweaking the original lyricsto more closely represent UCAR/NCAR sensibilities. As the performers contended withsuch issues as in-flight icing, short-term forecasts, and the Weather Research andForecasting model, Carl Drews sang, “Gonna have to face it, you're addicted toweather.” (Click here for the complete lyrics.) He was accompanied by (left to right)Deidre Brucker, Tressa Fowler, Carol Park, Lacey Holland, Arnaud Dumont, and others.The act won first place. “There are only a few words that rhyme with weather and Ithink we used all of them,” reports Carl, who penned the lyrics to “Addicted toWeather” with Anne-Marie Tarrant. (See the video.)

CGD then performed an alternative ending to Star Wars, featuring Dani Coleman Bundyas Yoda, Taotao Qian as Mon Mothma, and Nan Rosenbloom as Chewbacca, along withEO’s Tim Barnes as Darth Vader. The act featured dazzling swordplay and dancing tothe Kenny Loggins song, “Footloose.” The group won the coveted “Big Adventure”award. (See the video.)

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Next, HAO took the stage with a vegetarian-friendly version of “The Jolly Green Giant,”by The Kingsmen. Tom Bogdan played a fetching Amazon, while Amy Knack portrayedcelery and Hanli Liu played broccoli. The group won the coveted “Day at the Beach”award. (See the video.)

Finally, Jennifer Strange (left), Belinda Goody, Karla Edwards and others in F&Aperformed a medley of 1980s favorites, including Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock ’N Roll”and Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.” The group won the coveted “BetterThan the Real Thing” award. (See the video.)

The five judges—Andrea Hahmann, Tammy Kepple, Mark Mulholland, Sonja Stevenson,and Dennis Ward—had their work cut out for them. “All the teams had greatperformances,” Dennis recalls. “I was proud of my fellow judges—we managed to make

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some tough decisions.”

After the lip sync, partygoers then enjoyed a barbecue dinner, courtesy of EventServices, and listened to live music by the Sweat Brothers Band. The root beer floatsand Sno-Cones proved particularly popular as desserts.


Addicted to Weatherby Carl Drews and Anne-Marie Tarrant(apologies to Robert Palmer)

Your lights are on, but you're not homeYour mind is not your ownYour heart sweats, your body shakesAnother storm is what it takes

You can't sleep, you can't eatThere's no doubt, you're in deepYour throat is tight, you can't breatheAnother storm is all you need

Whoa, you like to think you're feelin' light as a feather, oh YeahIt's closer to the truth to say you're not gettin' better,Gonna have to face it, you're addicted to weather

You see the signs, but you can't readYou're runnin' at a different speedYour data streams in double timeAnother storm and you'll be fine, a one track mind

You can't be savedVorticity's what ya craveConvective weather's exciting for youThrow in some turbulence too

Whoa, you like to think you're feelin' light as a feather, oh YeahIt's closer to the truth to say you're not gettin' better,Gonna have to face it, you're addicted to weather

Might as well face it, you're addicted to weatherMight as well face it, you're addicted to weatherMight as well face it, you're addicted to weatherMight as well face it, you're addicted to weatherMight as well face it, you're addicted to weather

Guitar solo (once around)

MM5 - JViz;It's a habit - that's what it is.Weather station - set up at home;Tim Killeen - he's on the speed-dial phone!

Whoa, you like to think that you're feelin' light as a feather, oh YeahIt's closer to the truth to say you're not gettin' better,Gonna have to face it, you're addicted to weather

Might as well face it, you're addicted to weatherMight as well face it, you're addicted to weather





Might as well face it, you're addicted to weatherMight as well face it, you're addicted to weatherMight as well face it, you're addicted to weather

On the Web

Spring Fling Photo AlbumSpring Fling Videos


Playing it safe

Spring Fling '05

SERE news

UCAR casuals

Taking the LEAD

Delphi question

Just One Look



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Diana Josephson and Linda Mearns take on new positions - Staff Notes

http://www.ucar.edu/communications/staffnotes/0505/sere.html[5/3/2013 11:11:14 AM]

Diana Josephson. (Photos by Carlye Calvin.)

May 2005

SERE news:Diana Josephson and Linda Mearns take on new positions

Diana Josephson took the helm of the Societal-Environmental Research and Education Laboratory(SERE) on April 1. She succeeds interim SEREdirector Tom Bogdan.

Diana, who has considerable government andprivate sector experience, says she’s been “doing alot of listening” since coming on board. She’smeeting with staffers in SERE as well as peopleelsewhere in NCAR and in the community to weighdirections for the new lab and determine how itcan best collaborate with other NCAR labs.

In other SERE news, Linda Mearns has beennamed director of the Institute for the Study ofSociety and Environment (ISSE).

SERE, founded in 2004 as part of the NCARreorganization, incorporates ISSE and theAdvanced Study Program (ASP).

A diversity of experience

Diana, who joined NCAR’s Advisory Council in2003, was most recently the senior vice presidentof the advocacy group, Environmental Defense.Before that, she was one of four principal deputyassistant secretaries in the U.S. Navy, serving asthe number-two person for worldwide navalinstallations and environmental issues. She had been NOAA’s chief operating officer inthe mid-1990s, where she oversaw the procurement of$4 billion in satellites and the modernization of the National Weather Service. She alsoworked on the commercialization of Titan satellites for Martin Marietta in the late1980s.

Diana began her career as a lawyer, specializing in urban issues. She was serving asthe executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of the National Capital Areain the 1970s when NOAA approached her about a job as deputy assistant administratorfor policy and planning. At the time, she didn’t even know what NOAA stood for. But itsounded like an interesting opportunity, and she quickly researched the agency andlanded the job—the first of three positions she would hold at the agency.

“I made a major career shift and found I was good at my new job, and I enjoyed it,”





























Linda Mearns.

she says. Diana says she works to “see the connections between disparate things” andbring ideas from conception to execution.

She is used to being a pioneer of sorts. “I’ve generally been the first woman inwhatever job I’ve had,” she says.

The SERE position will enable Diana to build on her skills, both in terms of managing ascientific group and explaining climate research to policy makers and business leaders.

She believes that a nonscientist can bring animportant perspective. “You ask simple questionsand that often startles people who are down in thedetails,” she says. “It can be very useful.”

Linda Mearns

Linda Mearns, the first woman scientist to head anNCAR division, has followed a much different careerpath than Diana.

Linda's first taste of NCAR was as a researchscientist from 1982-83, an experience that inspiredher to return in 1985 as an ASP graduate student tocomplete a cooperative thesis with the department ofgeography at the University of California, LosAngeles. After another ASP stint, this time as apostdoc, she worked in CGD until 1997, when shemoved to ESIG (now ISSE).

Linda is a highly respected researcher in severalareas, including crop-climate interactions, climatechange scenario formation, and climate changeimpacts on agricultural ecosystems. One of hercurrent projects is leading an international team ofscientists who are using an ensemble of global andregional climate models to simulate how North

American climate will change by the middle of this century. She has participated in eachof the assessments by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and she leadsNCAR’s initiative for the assessment of weather and climate impacts.

Linda succeeds Bob Harriss, who will remain at ISSE as a senior scientist focusing on avariety of projects dealing with the societal impacts of environmental change.

• by David Hosansky and Bob Henson


Playing it Safe

Spring Fling '05

SERE news

UCAR casuals

Taking the LEAD

Delphi question

Just One Look


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UCAR casual pool fills in when needed - Staff Notes

http://www.ucar.edu/communications/staffnotes/0505/goodrich.html[5/3/2013 11:11:45 AM]

Lisa Goodrich. (Photo by Carlye Calvin.)

May 2005

UCAR casual pool fills in when needed

Lisa Goodrich is a dancer who performs andteaches, and she helps run a Boulder-basedaerial dance company known as FrequentFlyers Productions. But that kind of workdoesn’t pay well.

So she’s carved out the perfect situation:working occasional hours in the UCAR casualpool. Lately she’s been assigned to RAL,where she pours over radar plots to spotdiscrepancies between ground and airborneobservations.

“It’s worked out great. This is a way to paythe bills but not commit to full-time work,”Lisa says. “It’s a good environment, and Ireally enjoy working with the people here.”

It’s been three years since HR put togethera pool of part-time workers whodepartments and programs can tap foroccasional administrative work. NancyWade, employment administrator in HR,came up with the idea as an alternative tousing temp agencies. The program offerstwo big advantages to the organization:UCAR managers save money because they don’t have to pay fees to a temp agency,and the UCAR casuals gain familiarity with organizational procedures and norms as theywork with various groups.

The casual pool is intended for times when an employee is out on vacation or leave, orwhen someone is needed to help with a special project. Managers should still call tempagencies for last minute or short-term assignments, Nancy stresses.

“This gives us a pool of people who are trained in UCAR policies and procedures,”Nancy explains. “They can come in and hit the ground running.”

Nancy has recruited the casuals at job fairs and through an ad on HR’s careeropportunities Web site. Casual pool employees are hired through a competitive process,which includes an interview and reference checks.

As with all new hires, they learn about UCAR byattending new employee orientation. They’re alsoeligible for career development classes on such





























“They can come in and hitthe ground running.”

—Nancy Wade

subjects as Microsoft PowerPoint, Excel, and Access ifthose classes help them improve their skills for acurrent assignment.

The casuals are paid on a three-tiered scale,depending on whether they do work comparable to an

administrative assistant I (such as filing and reception), II (arranging travel orextensive typing), or III (working with complex spreadsheets or editing). These casualemployees do not receive UCAR benefits and may work no more than 1,000 hours in acalendar year.

High marks

Lisa says she prefers the casual pool to working for temp agencies. “Working tempjobs, you never know what you’re walking into,” she says. “And the environment here ismore humane than in the corporate world.”

UCAR managers give the pool high marks. “It’s a marvelous thing,” says Scott Briggs,an administrative assistant in ASP. Scott turned to one of the casuals last year tovideotape a colloquium, and he has also used casuals for basic office tasks such asfilling envelopes. “I feel much more comfortable talking to Nancy and having her findsomebody than calling a temp agency,” he says. “An agency is less familiar with ourneeds, and they don’t seem to know if they can have anybody right away.”

The program has been so successful that UCAR started a second casual pool for EventServices, using the workers to help in the cafeterias and at receptions. “It’s workedvery effectively for us,” says Mari Bradley, director of Event Services. “We’re trainingthe casuals in our system, so when they come in for the job it’s not like throwing in anew person every time.”

She tries to maintain a pool of about 16 people. Most are in school or have other jobs,and they’re looking for a little extra money. In a few cases, however, the casuals arehoping to get a foot in the door and eventually land a permanent job here.

“I like NCAR and being with a scientific group of people,” says Norina Arabshian-Hunter,one of the casuals who is looking for full-time work.

Nancy is thinking about launching a third pool for technical services, such as computerprogrammers and systems administrators.

“In our budget times, this has been helpful to the organization,” she says. “The key isfinding people who truly want to work sporadically or on an as-needed basis and thenbalancing the scheduling and availability between the casual pool employees and thosewho need someone to do the work.”



Playing it Safe

Spring Fling '05

SERE news

UCAR casuals

Taking the LEAD

Delphi question

Just One Look













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Unidata prototype: Steering models in the right direction - Staff Notes

http://www.ucar.edu/communications/staffnotes/0505/prototype.html[5/3/2013 11:12:00 AM]

A chat between Steve Chiswell (left) and BenDomenico at a conference last January resulted in apromising new prototype from UNIDATA. (Photo byCarlye Calvin.)

May 2005

Unidata prototype: Steering models in the right direction

Sometimes a casual interaction at aconference can shape the course of researchfor months to come. That’s what happenedto software engineer Steve “Chiz” Chiswell(Unidata) at the annual meeting of theAmerican Meteorological Society in SanDiego last January.

Unidata is a major partner in LEAD (LinkedEnvironments for Atmospheric Discovery).This NSF-funded project is building aninterconnected, distributed system to helpuniversities and other users work morefluidly with observations and forecastmodels. Seven universities are joiningUnidata on the five-year LEAD effort.

After an AMS talk on LEAD by KelvinDroegemeier (University of Oklahoma),Unidata deputy director Ben Domenicostrolled over to the Unidata booth. There,he found online displays centered onColorado’s uneventful weather, rather thanthe spectacular floods then unfolding inCalifornia. Before heading to another talk,Ben asked Steve if he could configure a quick prototype for LEAD that would steer itself—in essence, detect weather features of interest in the upcoming forecast and thenfocus on those features at higher resolution with movable grids.

“Chiz said, ‘Sure, I can do that in an afternoon,’” Ben recalls.

It took a little bit longer, but Steve quickly produced a striking preview of what LEADcould produce. On itsown, the new prototype successfully predicted and followed a damaging ice stormacross the Southeast in late January (see graphic).

Thinking nationally, modeling locally

Nested observing and modeling systems, which place a sharper grid inside a larger,lower-resolution one, have been around for years. Starting in the mid-1990s, Unidatabegan offering a “floater” system so that universities with limited Internet access couldobtain high-resolution satellite and radar data for a specific region of weather interest, rather than





























“The idea is that our dataand forecast systemsshould be responding to theweather ”

—Ben Domenico

for the entire country. The areas were chosen each day by students at MillersvilleUniversity.

“This was a way of allowing universities to get imageryfocused on interesting weather and not have to obtainor pay for all of the data,” says Steve. However, headds, “Most universities now have the bandwidth toreceive those data. The whole paradigm that wedeveloped 12 years ago needs some revamping.”

Once it’s approved by the Unidata Users Committee,the newly automated system created by Steve should

relieve Millersville of having to select each day’s target area manually.

While not formally part of LEAD yet, this work is in line with the project’s statedmission: building a new framework that can be used in “accessing, preparing,assimilating, predicting, managing, mining/analyzing, and displaying a broad array ofmeteorological and related information, independent of format and physical location.”

One of LEAD’s many tasks is to make it easier for modeling systems to assimilate datafrom local sources. For example, mesoscale networks can include more than 100surface weather stations across a single state. Many of these networks are proprietary,designed to serve utilities and other firms for a charge. Such data aren’t routinelyincorporated into models produced by the National Weather Service. But local modelinggroups might be able to arrange to use the data, says Ben, if the right setup were inplace to make them useful.

Staffers in LEAD also intend to develop a modular set of connectivity components,including grid technology, that will allow users to link various models and data sourcesmore easily. Unidata’s prototype shows how the pieces could fit together.

Unidata plans to update those pieces as LEAD evolves. Software engineer Jeff Weber isupbeat about the possibilities. In theory, he says, “you’d be able to use local modelingexpertise and then stitch these local high-resolution runs into a national mosaic,” muchlike the national radar mosaics familiar to TV weather watchers. “That’d be a prettyexciting product.”

• by Bob Henson

The graphic below shows two different, but overlapping, forecasts of the precipitation that led to amajor ice storm across the Southeast on Jan. 28-29. The outlook from the National Weather Service'sEta model is illustrated by contour lines. Unidata's Early LEAD Prototype identified the area of peakforecast interest (the gray rectangle) and produed a more detailed forecast (shown by shading) thatautomatically tracked the storm during the same period. (Illustration courtesy Unidata.)

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LEADUnidata's Early LEAD Prototype


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http://my.unidata.ucar.edu/content/projects/THREDDS/DataPublications/EarlyLEAD/EarlyLEAD.htm








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Delphi questions - Staff Notes

http://www.ucar.edu/communications/staffnotes/0505/delphi.html[5/3/2013 11:12:17 AM]

May 2005

Questions and suggestions from the staff to management may besubmitted in confidence to the Delphi Coordinators Teresa Rivas andNancy Wade. They should be submitted in written form, preferablyvia interoffice mail in a sealed envelope marked confidential. Theymust be signed. Detailed procedures for submitting questions aregiven in the UCAR Policies and Procedures Manual, section 4-1-2,

and on the Delphi Web site. Staff Notes Monthly publishes questions and answers ofgeneral interest to staff, and the Delphi Web site has a log of all questions submittedsince 1995.

Delphi Question #533 (received April 4): Does the organization have a policyregarding an employee’s responsibilities during an office relocation? During a recentmove, I was asked to move many large pieces of office furniture. It occurred to me inretrospect that if I were injured during these activities, UCAR may have some liability.

Response (April 18): This is a great question. If moving large items is not in your jobdescription, don’t do it!

Logistics Operations is responsible for conducting and coordinating office moves. It hasthe tools and manpower to safely move large and heavy items. Logistics Operationsstaff will ask for two working days of advance notice to make staff available for smallmoves. Larger moves require more planning, and may involve the use of subcontractedprofessional staff.

UCAR staff are responsible for removing personal items from their offices before amove. Also, we ask that they pack files, journals, etc. into boxes provided by LogisticsOperations. Boxes should be packed lightly to lower the risk of injury to LogisticsOperations staff. Kerry Slaven is responsible for coordinating office moves. He can bereached at ext. 1151 or [email protected].

UCAR is responsible for providing medical care to employees who are injured at work.Work-related injuries must be reported to your supervisor and to the Health,Environment, and Safety Office (ext. 8556). We pay for medical care via our WorkersCompensation insurance. Our goal is to work safely and prevent injuries from occurringso that we don’t need to use the insurance, but it is there when needed.

—Milenda Powers, manager, Health, Environment and Safety Services

—Kerry Slaven, manager,Logistics Operations


Playing it Safe

Spring Fling '05

















http://www.ucar.edu/delphi











Delphi questions - Staff Notes

http://www.ucar.edu/communications/staffnotes/0505/delphi.html[5/3/2013 11:12:17 AM]

SERE news

UCAR casuals

Taking the LEAD

Delphi question

Just One Look










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