Atmospheric Sciences section members are concerned with climate change, atmospheric chemistry, dynamics, radiative transfer and other processes that affect the atmosphere.

 

Welcome to the AGU Atmospheric Sciences Section

More than 23,000 of the AGU's 60,000 members are affiliated with Atmospheric Sciences and more than 7,800 identify Atmospheric Sciences as their primary section.

View the latest Atmospheric Sciences Section Newsletter, Vol. 7, No. 1.

Now is the time to nominate your colleagues for the 2013
Holton Award, Kaufman Award, or Ascent Award
DEADLINE HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO MARCH 31, 2013

We are excited to announce the winners of the 2012 new Ascent Awards:

 

The winner of the 2012 Holton Award is Daehyun Kim.

With great pleasure the Atmospheric Sciences Section of the American Geophysical Union announces that Dr. Daehyun Kim has been awarded the 2012 James R. Holton Junior Scientist Award. Dr. Kim is a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University. He works on intraseasonal variability (especially the Madden-Julian Oscillation - MJO) and deep convection, including convective parameterization and climate model development. Although only receiving his Ph.D. two years ago, he has published 21 papers in high quality journals.

His accomplishments can best be described by quoting from his nomination letters. “I would argue that Daehyun has done as much as any other single individual (at any career stage) in the last few years to push forward our understanding of the MJO using GCMs.” “His work is distinguished from that of others in the field by two things. First, Daehyun is able to get into a model - including into the guts of the parameterizations - and manipulate it with great facility. He is also unparalleled at model diagnosis and analysis.” “This kind of deep analysis is needed if we are to learn about the atmosphere from flawed models - and when we study the MJO, all models are flawed.”

“Simply put, Daehyun is a scientific phenomenon. He is one of those rare individuals who possess keen scientific insight as well as the boundless enthusiasm and energy to carry out his ideas. We could tell that Daehyun was someone special when he took it upon himself to lead development of the MJO Diagnostics package of the CLIVAR MJO Working Group as a student. This comprehensive package is considered the gold standard for MJO diagnosis. Amazingly, he did this project on the side while developing a convection parameterization for his Ph.D. research.” “I consider Daehyun to be the best young scientist to enter the field of tropical meteorology in the last few years, and I feel fortunate to have interacted with him.”

“After arriving at Columbia, Daehyun made it a point to learn the gory details of our GCM so he could design and implement his own improvements. Almost no one ever has the tenacity and insight to do this successfully with GCMs except the people who build them and run them. To paraphrase the old saying - everyone always complains about climate models but nobody ever does anything about them. Daehyun was the exception - he did something.”

“The energy and fundamental insights Daehyun brings to any problem he tackles, combined with his tremendous intellectual curiosity and a humility that too few scientists exhibit, account for the steep arc his career has taken.” “Daehyun Kim is really a prototype for the 21st Century leader in the climate community. There are not many tropical meteorologists (of any age) who can translate theoretical insights into practical approaches that actually make climate models more realistic.” For these reasons, the AGU Atmospheric Sciences Section is proud to award the 2012 Holton Award to Daehyun Kim.  

The winner of the 2012 Kaufman Award is Pawan K. Bhartia.

With great pleasure the Atmospheric Sciences Section of the American Geophysical Union announces that Dr. Pawan K. Bhartia has been awarded the 2012 Yoram J. Kaufman Award for Unselfish Cooperation in Research. Dr. Bhartia is a Senior Research Scientist in the Atmospheric Chemistry and Dynamics Branch at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

His accomplishments can best be described by quoting from his nomination letters. “How does one think about P.K. without thinking about Yoram? P.K. embodies Yoram’s spirit of pure joy of research and exuberance in sharing this joy with just about everybody. True, P.K. is quieter than Yoram and seemingly more reserved, but his enthusiasm for scientific inquiry and the mentoring of young scientists is equally unbounded. P.K.’s unwavering goal is to advance the science that can be obtained from remote sensing data. In his pursuit of this goal, P.K. knows no barrier, no international boundary, no language impediment, no age divisions. There is only the advancement of the science. To advance this goal, he has inspired and cultivated the next generation of remote sensing scientists in the U.S, and was a leader in the negotiations to fly the Dutch Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on the NASA Aura spacecraft. … There is no one in the business less selfish, more cooperative and self-effacing than P.K. His last first author paper was in 1996, preferring since then to let younger scientists have the opportunity to take the lead. He appears as co-author on more than 90 papers, and you can be sure that he made substantial contribution in each one, because P.K. turns down ‘ceremonial’ offers of co-authorship right and left.” [Quote from a letter signed by 27 “scientists, young and old, who are proud to call P.K. Bhatia their mentor, guide and/or inspiration.”]

“It is very rewarding to work with him, because of his excellent ideas, his inspiration and his unselfishness, the latter being a rare quality amongst scientists.” “… P .K. has been a prolific source of ideas for the development, improvement, and extension of the ozone retrieval algorithms used in the operational ozone satellite program. His guidance and vision in algorithm development, measurement calibration, and product validation are directly responsible for the success of the NOAA Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet instrument (SBUV/2) program's operational near-real-time ozone products and ozone climate data records … He is happiest when he has been able to provide useful direction to the research paths of his colleagues. His modest assessment of his own ideas and openness to novel ideas makes it easier for others to explore new areas as well as allowing them to admit the inefficiencies of their current approaches. He is an excellent sounding board with a strong ability to find the key underlying questions or assumptions that must be addressed to move research forward. A proper accounting, usually hidden in an acknowledgement of the contributions of the NASA Ozone Processing Team (P.K. has been the guiding light of this Team for the last 30 years.), would show that the majority of my publications drew important content from his suggestions despite his less frequent appearance as a co-author. His genuine desire to understand the methods and messages of every presentation he attends matched with his respect for good science and creative solutions create a level playing field where new and old team members’ contributions are nurtured and sifted to produce the best results.”

“I have always found P.K. to be an exceedingly likeable person, one who plays down his own manifold accomplishments. In personal interactions he is always interested in what other people have to say, and encouraging of their ideas and goals. Dr. Bhartia has worked tirelessly and selflessly over the decades to ensure that new and valuable atmospheric observations be made available to the scientific community, and to ensure that a new generation of atmospheric scientists are well placed to exploit these observations for decades to come. Dr. Bhartia’s selfless dedication to the field, to nurturing his colleagues, and to collaboration with other scientists, make him truly deserving of this award.”

For these reasons, the AGU Atmospheric Sciences Section is proud to award the 2012 Kaufman Award to P.K. Bhartia.  

Please consider making a tax-deductible charitable donation to the Atmospheric Sciences Section of AGU.

In 2011, members of the Atmospheric Sciences Section contributed nearly $30,000 to support AGU's various funds through the Voluntary Contribution Campaign. Last year, due largely to member donations like these, AGU facilitated career development events attended by over 750 students, sponsored members' visits with U.S. policy makers, and hosted 40 K-12 teachers at Fall Meeting workshops which will soon reach thousands more when posted on the web! Additionally, voluntary contributions allowed AGU to provide travel grants to 183 deserving domestic and international students to present their research for the first time at the 2011 AGU meeting.  These programs are essential for AGU's relevance and vitality. We know Atmospheric Science members want AGU to do more.  Please join us in supporting AGU's efforts to strengthen our scientific society by making a gift to the 2010 Voluntary Contribution Campaign.  Unrestricted contributions are used to support AGU's greatest needs, but you can directly support students pursuing Atmospheric Sciences by making a gift to the David Hofmann Travel Grant, Holton-Kaufman Grant, or Namias Travel Grant.  You can make your gift when you renew your AGU membership, or you can give today.

Funds in the honor of our past members

We have three funds that honor our past members :

Holton-Kaufman Fund.  The James Holton-Yoram Kaufman Fund was just established to honor James Holton and Yoram Kaufman.  The primary purpose is to fund the awards given in their names to winners of the two AS Section Awards, the James R. Holton Award and the Yoram J. Kaufman Award.  The secondary purposes of the Fund are to support the Outstanding AS Student Paper awards for AGU meeting presentations and travel awards for young scientists from developing countries. Seeded with existing AS section resources, your contribution will grow the Fund and allow its income to be used for the above purposes.  Click here to donate.

David J. Hofmann Student Travel Fund.  David Hofmann, AGU Fellow and 47-year member, died recently. Dave was a great guy, a pioneer in scientific ballooning and lidar, a leader of in ozone and stratospheric aerosol research, and most recently, Director of the Global Monitoring Division of the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory. He traveled to Antarctica 19 times to conduct his studies. To honor his memory, NOAA has endowed a fund in his name to support travel of students to AGU meetings.  Your contribution will allow the income to grow and allow the fund to support more students. Click here to donate.   Once on the site, click on Atmospheric Sciences and select the donation “in memory of” and follow instructions from there.  The donations will be included in AGU’s annual report.

Namias Fund.  Jerome Namias, AGU Fellow and 50-year member, was an inspiration to several generations of meteorologists and climatologists. He was instrumental in developing the scientific basis for experimental forecasts as far as five days into the future, and became known as “the extreme forecaster.” Dr. Namias first became enthusiastic about the weather from a high school physics teacher. He helped establish the long-range forecasting branch of the US Weather Service and the Climate Research Division, and the Experimental Climate Prediction Center at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Named in his honor, this fund is used to encourage student participation in Atmospheric Sciences research, by giving travel grants to students to attend AGU meetings.This fund has already been established by a generous contribution from Jerry's widow, Edith Namias. Your contribution will allow the income to grow and allow the fund to support more students. Click here to donate.

Webmaster: Alan Robock (robock@envsci.rutgers.edu)