November 2006 -- Dr. Jim Slusser attended the EPA Star UV-B meeting in Boulder and presented a paper titled A History of the USDA UV-B Network.
November 2006 -- Dr. Barry Lefer from University of Houston visited with UV-B staff to discuss Houston's measurements. Dr. Lefer is PI with Dr. Slusser as co-PI of an EPA funded study of Houston's pollution aerosols and UV-B.
October 2006 -- Xinli Wang spent the month of October in Champaign, Illinois working with researchers to build the infrastructure to incorporate a crop model into the regional climate model-Climate Extension Weather and Research Forecasting Model.
October 2006 -- Dr. Wei Gao was the leading editor for Remote Sensing and Modeling of Ecosystems for Sustainability III which was published by The International Society of Optical Engineering.
September 2006 -- Dr. Wei Gao was co-editor for a two-volume book Earth Science Satellite Remote Sensing, which was published by Tsinghua and Springer.
September 2006 -- Dr. Jim Slusser traveled to Stockholm, Sweden to Chair the SPIE Europe Conference: Remote Sensing of Clouds and Atmosphere. He presented a paper written by recent graduate student Tommy Taylor titled Determining Ozone and Aerosol Optical Properties from UV-RSS. He also presented Ultraviolet Ground and Space-based Measurements, Models, and Effects Research authored by Dr. Peter Kiedron, NOAA. Dr. Slusser also traveled to Hanover, Germany for a meeting with Dr. Gunther Seckmeyer, Institute for Meteorology and Climatology, University of Hanover, a world expert in calibration and analysis of UV-B data.
August 2006 -- Dr. Gao, a SPIE symposia committee member of the International Society of Optical Engineering, chaired the international conference Remote Sensing and Modeling of Ecosystems for Sustainability III during the society's annual meeting in San Diego. Dr. Gao and his graduate students presented several papers.
August 2006 -- A big welcome to Bill Smith, from North Carolina, and Chelsea Corr, from Albany, New York, to our program this fall. Bill Smith is working with Dr. Wei Gao, Dr. Jim Slusser, Drs. Bill Parton/Heidi Steltzer, NREL, and Dr. Jack Morgan, USDA-ARS-Rangeland Resources, to study the influence of UV-B on competition between native grasses and invasive Tamrisk, typical in Colorado Rangeland. Dr. Slusser and Dr. Sonia Kreidenweis, Department of Atmospheric Science will be mentoring Ms. Chelsea Corr as she analyzes optical and chemical UV data for air quality study in Houston, TX. This study will investigate the interactions between UV transmission through a polluted atmosphere and the pollution process itself.
August 2006 -- Dr. Alain Sarkissian visited for this month from the Centre National de la Rechirche Scientifique, Verrieres- Les-Buisson, France. Dr. Sarkissian is world renowned for his work in trace gas aerosol retrieval of planetary atmospheres. With the aging of our seven channel UV-B radiometers it is imperative that we begin work on the next generation of instrumentation. Dr. Sarkissian worked with Dr. Slusser and Roger Tree to test a new short focal length spectrometer that will have direct sun pointing capabilities. He performed thermal, optical and electronic tests to demonstrate the feasibility of using these spectrometers in the field.
August 2006 -- The 36th climatologic site in our network was installed early this month at the University of Houston, Texas. The equipment is owned by UH, as part of a suite of instruments being used by Dr. Barry Lefer for intensive in-situ monitoring and research of Houston's atmospheric pollution. The site is atop one of the 19-story tall residence halls, the North Moody Tower, about midway between downtown Houston and the Port of Houston.
July 2006 -- Andres Hernandez, graduate student in Mexico City, Mexico, evaluated the results of the NSF project, Collaborative Research: Impact of aerosols on the photochemistry of Mexico City, using the data set from the MIRAGE-Mex. Colorado State University provided the Ultraviolet Multifilter Rotating Shadowband Radiometer (UV-MFRSR) to measure the total and diffuse downwelling irradiance at several UV wavelengths to calculate aerosol optical depths during cloud-free conditions.
May 2006 -- Dr. Wei Gao was nominated as an Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Applied Remote Sensing. His term is for three years. He was also invited to be an advisory board member for the Center for Capacity Building in NCAR.
May 2006 -- Two of Dr. Gao's graduate students, Shuyan Liu and Qifeng Lu, received their Ph.D. degrees in May. Shuyan is working for Beijing Normal University as an assistant professor and Qifeng accepted a job at the China Meteorological Administration as a research scientist.
April 2006 -- A new option is available from our web site. An instrument's deployment history by serial number along with its calibration co-efficient is available. This info can be obtained by selecting Stations/Data, Instrument Characteristics, and Serial Number Deployment History.
March 2006 -- We have 3 new short term sites opened in Mexico: Tenango, Mexico, Mexican Institute for Petroleum [IMP], and the Technical University of Tecamac [UTTEC]. Data for the site in Tenango, Mexico (80 km south of Mexico City) can be found under site location: Mexico,Mexico City, CASA(S1); data for the site at the Mexican Institute for Petroleum [IMP] can be found under site location: Mexico,Mexico City, T0(S2); data for the site at the Technical University of Tecamac [UTTEC] can be found under site location: Mexico,Mexico City, T1(S3).
March 20, 2006 -- Welcome aboard Bruce Hundermark. Bruce is joining our staff as a scientific programmer. He will help in the software development of future research products as well as developing more quality control procedures for our data stream. Bruce can be reached at 491-3606 or by email at bruce.hundermark@colostate.edu.
March 2006 -- Dr. Jim Slusser traveled to Mexico City to meet with Dr. Michel Grutter and Andres Hernandez to work on the infrastructure and equipment for a NSF Grant to study pollution in the Mexico City area. Colorado State University's field suite of spectrally-resolved UV radiation instrumentation will be deployed for the NSF sponsored MIRAGE-Mex field campaign at three Mexico City "supersite" ground stations. This UV radiation package includes instrumentation from Colorado State University and the University of Houston.
February 2006 -- The UV-B Monitoring Program received a letter from Senator Ken Salazar, D-Colo., giving thanks for the outstanding research done at CSU. <93>Your work has provided greater understanding of the effects of ultraviolet light on plants and animals to the scientific community and the nation as a whole,<94> wrote Salazar. <93>Thank you for keeping Colorado State<92>s tradition of excellence a reality.<94>
February 2006 -- Drs. Jim Slusser, Wei Gao and Xinli Wang attended a workshop on the molecular aspects of plant secondary metabolism in response to UV-B radiation in San Antonio, Texas, February 2-3. The workshop was sponsored by the USDA CSREES and the USDA UV-B Monitoring Program, NREL.
January 2006 -- Dr. Slusser has been selected to chair the 11th Conference on Remote Sensing of Clouds and the Atmosphere in Stockholm, Sweden, Sept 11-16. The conference will focus on all aspects of remote sensing of clouds and the atmosphere with several planned specialist sessions.
January 2006 -- Dr. Wei Gao attended the SPIE Photonics West 2006 meeting in San Jose, California, Jan. 21-26. Dr. Gao presented papers describing ultraviolet ground- and space-based measurements, models and effects research. The meeting also gave Dr. Gao the opportunity to network with other researchers from around the world. SPIE is the largest international force for the exchange, collection, and dissemination of knowledge in optics, photonics and imaging.
January 2006 -- Welcome aboard Tommy Taylor. Tommy is joining our staff to develop additional scientific products for UVB radiation. He is currently working with aerosol retrievals.