Aeronomy Laboratory Science Review

1-3 September 1998 • Boulder, Colorado

Purpose

This review was one of the periodic assessments by NOAA of its Laboratories. The purpose was to examine the goals, accomplishments, and plans of the research at the Aeronomy Laboratory.

Reviewers

The review team was led by Jim Rasmussen, Director of the NOAA Environmental Research Laboratories. The attendees were 21 NOAA managers and program directors. The review team included four invited external reviewers:

• Dr. Roland Madden - National Center for Atmospheric Research (CO), Climate and Global Dynamics Division. Research focus: The dynamics of tropical intra-seasonal oscillations and their relation to climate.
• Dr. Patrick McCormick - Hampton University (VA), Department of Physics. Research focus: Satellite observations of stratospheric ozone and aerosols, their trends, and the related processes.
• Prof. Stuart Penkett - University of East Anglia (UK), School of Environmental Sciences. Research focus: Field measurements of chemical species involved in tropospheric ozone production and in the lifetimes of radiatively important gases.
• Prof. Paul Wine - Georgia Institute of Technology (GA), Georgia Tech Research Institute, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, and Department of Chemistry. Research focus: Laboratory studies of atmospheric chemical reactions.

Topics Covered

1. Aeronomy Laboratory Overview
2. Stratospheric Ozone Research
3. Regional Tropospheric Chemistry Research
4. The Chemistry, Radiation, and Dynamics of Climate

Other Aspects

• descriptions of the new analytical techniques and instruments developed at the Laboratory and their research applications
• visits to a nearby field site at which an instrument intercomparision was held
• tours of some of the laboratories in the buildings occupied at the time of the review (September 1998) and the Aeronomy Laboratory quarters in the new NOAA building (occupied in Spring 1999)

Summary of the Aeronomy Laboratory and Its Research