RAMM/CIRA Quarterly Report

A formal comment on the GOES-11 satellite article titled "Satellite Observations of a Severe Supercell Thunderstorm on 24 July 2000 made during the GOES-11 Science Test" by J. Weaver (NESDIS/RAMM), J. Knaff, D. Bikos (CIRA), G. Wade (NESDIS/CIMSS), and J. Daniels (NESDIS/ORA) was received by the editor of Weather and Forecasting. A formal reply to the comment was written and accepted for publication. The editor of the journal commented that the exchange turns out to be as scientifically valuable as the original article itself.

A paper entitled "A satellite perspective of the 3 May 1999 Great Plains tornado outbreak within Oklahoma" by Bikos, Weaver and Motta appears in the June 2002 issue of Weather and Forecasting. An electronic copy of the article is attached. 3May99.pdf

Documentation of one of the VISIT teletraining sessions as an article for the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society was put on hold this quarter. A draft of the manuscript [entitled, "Lightning Meteorology I: Distance-Learning Training on the Use of Cloud-to-Ground Lightning Data in the Short Range Forecast and Nowcasting Processes" by Bard Zajac (CIRA) and John Weaver (NOAA)] will likely be completed this fall.

A web version of the VISIT session can be found at:

http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/visit/ltgmet1/01_title.asp

J. Weaver attended (via teleconference) the Integrated Planning Teams' joint kickoff meeting for the cross-NOAA line office Science and Technology Infusion Plan (STIP). STIP is a multi-agency program designed to satisfy requirements of the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) and will define high priority and strategic product and service goals in the area of severe weather for the next 20-25 years. The plan was originally an NWS initiative, but various other groups within NOAA were asked to participate in order to nudge individual agency efforts in a common direction.

An interesting new loop was added to the Lightning Met-II session as yet another example of the principle that Positive Strike Dominated thunderstorms frequently transition to Negative Strike Dominated if and when they cross the low-level Theta-e ridge axis. This loop is now on the web-based version of the session at:

http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/visit/ltgmet2/3mayltg.asp