President’s Report for the June 2007 Newsletter

As emailed to members on 12 June 2007:

It came as a great shock to hear of the passing of Prof. Augie Auer, a long-time member of the New Zealand Meteorological Society and a regular contributor to our Annual Conference.  Augie was in Melbourne with his family celebrating both his 67^th birthday and his wedding anniversary.  

Augie was a Professor of Atmospheric Science at the University of Wyoming for 22 years before immigrating to New Zealand in 1984 to join the MetService as Chief Meteorologist. In this role he is remembered fondly for the work he did in mentoring young staff and for showing his colleagues how to delve into weather situations to see how they occurred and evolved.

In 1998, Augie left the MetService to join TV3 as weekday weather presenter.  He came in this role with a very thorough understanding of the weather but also with an ability to transfer his enthusiasm of the weather to his audience through his cheerful grin and easy-going language.  He made meteorology fun for his audience.

Augie recently became involved in the climate debate, and was a key player in the founding of the Climate Science Coalition.  Augie made a significant impact with his determination to have the other side of the climate debate heard.  

Augie was a highly respected person in the scientific community, and will be greatly missed by everyone who has known him.  On behalf of the committee, I would like to extend our deepest sympathies to his wife and family.

Kim Dirks

President of the Meteorological society of New Zealand

Regional Reports.

 - Auckland (Vice president Sally Garrett)

I am pleased to announce that on August 7th Howard Diamond will be presenting to the MetSoc in Auckland.

Howard has worked for NOAA since 1981 and has a variety of experiences as a project manager working with different data and information projects for the National Ocean Service, National Weather Service, as well as the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS). In November 1999 he joined NESDIS and assumed the role as the U.S. Global Climate Observing System program manager; in this role he also serves as the central focal point within NOAA for directory level metadata and data access activities. Howard represents NOAA at a number of national and international groups involved in information and data management that include the Federal Geographic Data Committee, the US Global Change Research Program's DIWG, and the Committee on Earth Observing Satellite's Working Group on Information Systems and Services. Howard holds a B.S. degree in Biological Sciences from the Florida State University, as well as an M.S. degree in Technology Management from the University of Maryland.

The room booking is till to be confirmed, but tentatively Auckland University Physics Department (as usual) 6:30pm Tuesday August 7th.

Also, Nick White has agreed to speak to us on Wednesday August 29th.

After graduating with BSc (Hons) in 1990, and Dip.App.Sci. (Vic) in Meteorology in 1991 Nick worked for the Meteorological service in a variety of roles until the beginning of 1997, the last few years being based at RNZAF base Auckland.  During this time, he took leave to compete in the '93/4 Whitbread race on Yamaha and the '95 America's Cup with Tag Heuer.  Since then he has developed one of the worlds most popular electronic navigation software used by Volvo sailors and cruisers alike, called Expedition.  This software enables "everyday" sailors to exploit meteorological information. Nick has agreed to speak to us about his career, and how sailors use weather forecasts to best advantage.

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- Wellington (Vice president Jim Renwick)

A very successful and well-attended one-day workshop discussing the new IPCC Assessment Report was held at the National Library on 25 May, and was advertised to MetSoc Wellington members.

The Antarctica NZ annual conference was held in Wellington in the first week of July, with several well-advertised public events outside of the main conference, including talks by Susan Solomon, Bill Manhire and others.

NIWA Seminar open to Met Soc members: 10:30am Friday 3 August 2007

Main conference room, NIWA Greta Point, Wellington

Global Earth Observations for Climate: "Taking the Earth’s Pulse for the New Century:”by Howard J. Diamond, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/National Climatic Data Center
The Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) is the climate component of the international Global Earth Observations System of Systems (GEOSS) effort, in which environmental ministers from over 60 nations have agreed to a 10-year implementation plan. This seminar will provide information on GEOSS and GCOS, with a focus on climate observing in the Pacific. In addition there will be a discussion of some climate data management efforts and a research effort dealing with a climatological study of tropical cyclones in the Southwest Pacific basin.

For further information, please contact Jim Renwick.

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Christchurch (Vice President Mikhail Titov)

Christchurch members were invited to attend the CASANZ seminar given by Prof. Peter Brimblecombe (University of East Anglia, Norwich, ‘Atmospheric Environment’ senior editor). The seminar was held in at the NIWA Christchurch branch in May.  Prof. P. Brimblecombe is the Erskine Fellow at the Department of Geography (UoC).

There was also a splash of activity was before winter students’ vacations:

Dr. Arnico Panday (Postdoctoral Associate, Center for Global Change Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology) outlined the key findings of his PhD work in a presentation “The diurnal cycle of air pollution in Katmandu Valley, Nepal”, held on 21^st of May 2007 at the Department of Geography (UoC).

Prof. P. Brimblecombe (the Erskine Fellow at the Department of Geography, UoC) as a senior editor of ‘Atmospheric Environment’, probably the best journal in its field, made a presentation “How to get your paper published. Some tips about getting a paper through” on 23^rd of May 2007 at the Department of Geography (UoC).

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Dunedin (Vice President Helen Power)

The Geography Department at the University of Otago has a number of seminars scheduled that have also been advertised with local members of the NZ Met Soc.

 The first of the series was on Tuesday, July 24. Dr. Nicolas Cullen, also from the University's Geography Dept, gave a seminar on 'The shrinking glaciers of Kilimanjaro: can global warming be blamed?' Based on modeling and field observations, Cullen's research indicates that the glacial retreat is not due to global warming. Although mean global temperatures have increased since pre-industrial times, temperatures on Kilimanjaro itself show no significant trend. Rather, the retreat of the glaciers is primarily due to reduced precipitation, reduced cloud, and increased solar radiation that has enhanced the sublimation rate of the glaciers, especially on the vertical glacial walls. Approximately 40 people attended the seminar, alas, none from the Met Society, besides me.

The next seminar that will be of interest to members is scheduled for Tuesday, August 7. Dr. Patricia Langhorne, from the Otago Department of Physics, will talk on “Where land and sea ice meet”. We hope for more attendance by Met Soc members :-)

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2007 MET SOC AGM

The plan is to have this year’s AGM in Wellington on Wednesday 28 November as part of an afternoon seminar presenting talks related to “International Polar Year”, starting around 1pm.  The AGM could then run from 4pm-5:30pm, followed by presentation of the Kidson medal and a Social Function running from 5:45 – 7:30 pm.

More details will come later, but please put this date in your calendar and try and keep this time.

2007 MetSoc Conference

The society's 2007 conference will be held in Geelong (Victoria, Australia) from 29 January to 1 February 2008 jointly with AMOS and with some involvement from the Association of Wind Engineers and the Institute of Marine Engineering Science and Technology).

The web site for the first call for papers is http://www.amos.org.au/conf2008/index.html

2008 MetSoc Conference

Met Soc has been invited to join in with the 2008 HydroSoc conference that is being planned to take place in Greymouth in November 2008. 

2009 MetSoc Conference

Current plans is to have a joint conference with the Marine Sciences Society in Auckland in 2009.

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AGU conference on the SPCZ December 2007

The next AGU meeting  is being held in San Francisco, Dec. 10-14, 2007 and will address the "Dynamics of the Southwest Pacific Ocean and the South Pacific Convergence Zone (SPCZ) (session OS08). The purpose is to bring up the dynamics perspectives from above and below the sea surface, identify the main issues, and possibly envisage appropriate experiments. Abstract submission is open until Sept 6 (http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm07/). Conveners are Alex Ganachaud George Kiladis Ken Ridgway Dean Roemmich Jim Renwick

The Southwest Pacific is a region of Complex Ocean and atmosphere circulation. The South Pacific Convergence Zone (SPCZ) is a prominent feature of the atmosphere that varies substantially on synoptic, seasonal, and interannual timescales.  Under the Trade winds and the influence of the SPCZ, thermocline waters are transported westward within the South Equatorial Current (SEC).  The SEC splits into strong zonal jets upon encountering island archipelagoes, and crosses the Coral Sea before bifurcating at the Australia/PNG coast and advecting to the equator in low-latitude western boundary currents and to high latitudes in the East Australian Current and Tasman Sea extensions.  Because thermocline waters carry the atmospheric imprints from the subtropical gyre center, their transit in the Coral Sea corresponds to a major circulation pathway that controls the redistribution of subtropical water to the equator and to the Southern Ocean.  The associated transports are potentially of great importance to tropical climate prediction as changes in either the temperature or the amount of water arriving at the equator have the capability to modulate the ENSO cycle and thereby produce basin-scale climate feedbacks.  The state of the atmosphere and subsequent upper-layer ocean circulation variability is largely governed by the wind stress curl of the SPCZ, whose formation, shape and behavior are neither well understood nor well modeled, despite its prominent role in the Southern Hemisphere energy budget.  

This session is intended to highlight the latest progress and foster new research on the Southwest Pacific oceanic and atmospheric circulation, possible interaction between the SPCZ and the ocean circulation, and their significance to the basin-scale and global climate system.

ICSHMO 2009

The American Meteorological Society AMS committee organizes and hosts an International Conference on Southern Hemisphere Meteorology and Oceanography (ICSHMO) about every 3 years or so, and is a major scientific endeavor in enhancing scientific cooperation in the hemisphere.  The last ICSHMO conference (the 8th one in the series) took place in Brazil in April 2006, and the next is being planned for Melbourne 9-13 February 2009.

Howard Diamond, the chair of the AMS Meteorology and oceanography of the Southern Hemisphere (SHMO) committee, is briefly visiting New Zealand in August, and will be presenting talks to Met soc members in Auckland and Wellington.  

Newsletter Editor’s Report

Members are now getting near monthly emailed newsletters, containing a compilation of weather related news clippings taken from the web.  These monthly emails are then collated once every three months into a hard copy newsletter that is posted to all members.  If you are a member and wish to receive these monthly news-emails then please send your email to our newsletter editor, bobmcd@... 

WEATHER AND CLIMATE JOURNAL:

Volume 27 has been posted. 

Call for Papers.  Members are reminded that Weather and Climate is the Journal of the Meteorological Society of New Zealand and is a conduit for papers on the atmosphere, the weather and the climate, particularly in the New Zealand and South Pacific regions.  All papers are peer reviewed.  Information for contributors is included in the inside back cover of the journal or can be obtained from the editor, Dr Brian Giles at gilesnz@...

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PHOTO COMPETITION

We are pleased to announce another photo competition.  It is really a way of having fun by seeking examples of wonderful weather shots and sharing them with other enthusiasts.

Conditions Of Entry:

SNAP WHAT YOU SEE.  Entry is open to all individuals resident in NZ (but not the photo judging committee or their immediate family). Note date and place of the image.  Email it to bobmcd@... or post to "Met Soc competition, unit 5, 53 Hamilton Road, Herne Bay Auckland".

The deadline for entries is 30 June 2008.  There is no entry fee.  No more than ten entries accepted per entrant.  In return for entering your image for consideration, Met Society reserves the right to put your image (adequately acknowledged) on the http://metsoc.rsnz.org web site.  This means that we ask that you do not transfer publication rights for your entry to any third party until after the competition is finished.  All other rights remain with the contributor.

Have fun and keep checking our web site to see the new entries as they arrive during the four seasons!

Image Content:  

Photos/images are to be taken in NZ between now and June 2008.  Image must be a true reproduction of what the viewer could see in a single frame and not blended, modified or enhanced in any way.  Cropping is allowed.  If any identifiable people appear in the photos their written permission to submit must be included. Nothing illegal. There are no categories and no theme, but if it isn't related to the weather it will not go far with our judges.

Judging And Prizes

No more than one prize per entrant. First prize is three years free subscription to Met. Society (value $75).  Second prize is two years subscription (value $50) and third prize one year subscription (value $25). Images will be voted on by a panel of judges consisting of our photo subcommittee plus an independent expert with a professional eye.  Winners are to be announced on the Met Society web site on 1 August 2008, the start of the financial/subscription year for the Society.

Bob McDavitt

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