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Explore with Students the Connections between a Changing Land Cover and Climate
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Steve Albers
Steve Albers received his BSc in Physics from the State Univ. of New York at Albany (1978), and MS (1986) in Atmospheric Science from the University of Oklahoma.
Between 1976 and 1977 he worked as part of the Viking Intern program connected with
the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Brown University. He did some image processing
of Viking Mars Lander Images at JPL's Image Processing Laboratory as part of the
Viking Lander Imaging Team. He also performed some data reduction for the Meteorology
Team. During the summers from 1980-1985 Steve worked as a Field Meteorologist for
the North Dakota Cloud Modification Project. He directed hail suppression and rain
enhancement cloud seeding with fleet of six aircraft utilizing ice nucleation seeding
materials and operated an Enterprise WR-100 5cm weather radar. Between 1983 and
1985 he worked as a Research Assistant at the School of Meteorology, University
of Oklahoma. His research topic was the development of a statistical severe weather
forecast package. He served as a teaching Assistant for Meteorological Measurements
and did some storm chasing.
Since 1986 Steve has worked at various NOAA facilities in Boulder, CO , including
the PROFS program, Forecast Systems Laboratory, and the Earth System Research Laboratory.
In this context he came on-board CIRA in 1989. His work includes extensive development
and implementation of meteorological analyses of wind, clouds, temperature, and
microphysical variables for the Local Analysis and Prediction System. A variety
of remotely sensed and in-situ data are ingested, quality controlled, and merged
in the analyses. The analyses are used for initializing NWP models and are displayed
on workstations for nowcasting, and they are fielded at ESRL, other government agencies
as well as private companies. He has worked on satellite image processing algorithms,
including photometric correction that depends on viewing geometry, as well as image
processing to produce global planetary, meteorological, and geophysical maps using
IDL and other display software for NOAA's Science On A Sphere TM (SOS). Steve gives
SOS presentations and daily weather briefings. He's participated in meteorological
workstation and World Wide Web display software. Radar experience includes development
of radar Doppler velocity de-aliasing algorithm, testing and evaluation of algorithms
to be run on the Next Generation Weather Radar (NEXRAD), and radar data interfacing
for the Regional Radar Volume Project. Steve takes on some CIRA supervisory duties
as well.
Frank Niepold
Frank Niepold is currently a Climate Education Fellow at NOAA's Climate Program
Office in Silver Spring Maryland and a GLOBE Program Master Trainer. At NOAA, he
develops and implements NOAA's Climate goal education and outreach efforts that
specifically relate to NOAA's Environmental Literacy cross cutting priority. As
a GLOBE Trainer, he trains teachers in intensive field and laboratory settings throughout
the United States and Internationally, most recently in Phuket Thailand. Mr. Niepold
has spent seven years developing remote sensing educational materials for the Landsat
Educational Outreach team. He has spent 10 years working as a Middle/High School
Earth Systems Science Teacher. As a teacher, he developed an international school
collaboration series of projects using the scientist/teacher/student partnership
model to monitor climate change. Projects include: Coral reef monitoring in the
Caribbean, Red, and Arabian Seas; Global monitoring and validation of Aerosols;
Glacial retreat among others.
His collaboration on a paper about International GLOBE Program collaborations, Scientist-Teacher-Student
Partnerships For Aerosol Optical Thickness Measurements In Support Of Ground Validation
Programs For Remote Sensing Spacecraft, was selected by International Astronautical
Federation for their 53th International Astronautical Congress. Mr. Niepold and
four of his student's paper, Assessing Satellite-Based Aerosol Retrievals And Ground
Truth Validation For Terra's MODIS Sensor Over Urban Areas Using The Globe Program's
Handheld Sun Photometers, was one of the ten projects selected to be presented at
the 2003 Global Learning Exhibition, by the GLOBE program in Sibenck, Croatia. This
work was highlighted in several articles, one was featured on a NASA news web site,
The Globe Program: Science in the Sunshine.
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/5-8/features/F_Globe_Program_Sunshine.html
Mr. Niepold is happily married with three boys and resides in Olney, MD, USA. He
received his MSEd in Earth Space Science Education (2006) from John's Hopkins University,
Baltimore, MD with areas of concentration in Earth Observing Systems, Scientist/Teacher/Student
Collaboration and Earth Systems science education focused on climate. He earned
a BA in Human Ecology (1994) from the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, ME
and B.F.A. in Photography and Video (1989) from Tyler School of Art, Temple University,
Philadelphia, PA. An interview of Frank Niepold is available at the NASA Laboratory
for Terrestrial Physics Education and Outreach Web Site:
http://ltp-education.gsfc.nasa.gov/niepold1.html
Jessica Mackaro
Jessica Mackaro is a Project Scientist at the GLOBE Program Office working on the Student Climate Research Campaign.
For more information contact webseminars@nsta.org
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Sponsored by NOAA
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