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What's New - Archive

2006
2005

	2006
	December 2006
	Jeff Lazo, Julie Demuth, Eve Gruntfest, Barb Brown, and Rebecca Morss attended the Second THORPEX International Science Symposium (STISS) in Landshut, Germany December 4-8. Jeff presented a poster and the other SIPers gave various talks. SIP's Rebecca Morss, along with Lisa Dilling, Genevieve Maricle, and Nat Logar, co-organized sessions on "Creating Usable Science in the 21st Century: Strategies for More Effectively Connecting Science to Societal Needs" at the American Geophysical Union fall meeting in San Francisco, Calif. These sessions were held December 12-13, 2006. Invited speakers included Tim Killeen (AGU president), William Hooke (AMS Policy Program) and David Goldston (U.S. Congressional staffer).
	November 2006
	Julie Demuth, formerly a visiting scientist, was hired as an Associate Scientist II to continue her work on WAS*IS and to begin doing research on communication of weather forecast uncertainty information.
	October 2006
	The first edition of SIP's Weather and Society Watch newsletter was published October 20. To view this edition, please click here. To subscribe to the newsletter, please click here. Rebecca Morss gave two presentations with co-author Fuqing Zhang on "Public response to Hurricane Rita forecasts along the Texas Coast: A student research study linking classroom to reality,” at the 13th Cyclone Workshop on October 22-27 in Pacific Grove, Calif.
	September 2006
	The Inter-American Institute - NCAR Advanced Study Program Colloquium on "Policy Planning and Decision Making Involving Climate Change and Variability" was held September 11-22, 2006 in Boulder, Colo. Rebecca Morss served on the organizing committee. Emily Laidlaw's Associate Scientist I appointment was changed from half-time to full-time status. Jeff Lazo gave a talk entitled “Economics of Weather Impacts and Weather Forecasting” to the Beijing Meteorological Bureau in Beijing , China on September 27. Jeff also presented “Social Sciences and Weather Forecasts” on September 27 as well.
	August 2006
	Rebecca Morss co-chaired the Science of Communicating Uncertainty in Weather and Climate topic at UCAR's Junior Faculty Forum on August 1-3, 2006 in Boulder, Colo. The North American THORPEX Societal and Economic Research and Applications Workshop, organized by Jeff Lazo and Rebecca Morss, was held on August 14-16, 2006 in Boulder, Colo. SIP's redesign of the Extreme Weather Sourcebook, facilitated by Emily Laidlaw and SERE's Cheryl Markel, was released. Jeff Lazo presented “Overall US Sector Sensitivity Assessment Evaluation of the Sensitivity of U.S. Economic Sectors to Weather Variability” to the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Boulder , Colo. on August 2, 2006.
	July 2006
	A new group of WASISers came to Boulder July 13-21 for the Summer WASIS workshop. SIP's Eve Gruntfest and Julie Demuth, along with Sheldon Drobot, Gina Eosco, and Tanja Fransen, ran a WASIS session at the annual Hazards Research and Applications Workshop in Boulder, CO, on July 10. The SIP team met with the SIP Advisory Board. Eve Gruntfest and Julie Demuth gave a presentation to the board members about WASIS. Emily Laidlaw gave a presentation about SIP's Information Resources Coordiation efforts. Rebecca Morss gave a presentation about SIP's research efforts, and Jeff Lazo gave an overview of SIP's activities. The pre-publication version of the National Research Council report "Completing the Forecast: Characterizing and Communicating Uncertainty for Better Decisions Using Weather and Climate Forecasts" became available. Members of the report committee included Barbara Brown and Rebecca Morss.
	June 2006
	Rebecca Morss participated in a panel on Business Models for Mesoscale Observing Networks at the American Meteorological Society Enterprise Meeting in Boulder, Colo. SIP's newsgroup, WxSoc was officially organized. To read more about the newsgroup and to subscribe, please click here. Jeff Lazo gave a talk entitled “Toward a Social Science Research Agenda on Hurricane Forecast and Warning Issues” at the Second Annual AMS Weather and Climate Enterprise Summer Community Meeting in Boulder , Colo. on June 29.
	May 2006
	Emily Laidlaw, formerly a student research assistant, was hired as a part-time Associate Scientist I to continue work on SIP's information coordination project and to begin research on the economic benefits of improved forecast information. SIP's redesign of the Societal Aspects of Weather web site, facilitated by Emily Laidlaw and SERE's Cheryl Markel, was released. Jeff Lazo gave a talk on “Overall US Sector Sensitivity Assessment Evaluation of the Sensitivity of U.S. Economic Sectors to Weather Variability” to the University of New Mexico economics department on May 5. Jeff Lazo gave a talk entitled “Societal Impacts and Economic Benefits of Weather Information” to the Taskforce on Public Weather Services in Geneva , Switzerland on May 15. Jeff Lazo presented “THORPEX Societal and Economic Research and Applications: Overview and Example” to the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (CMOS) on May 31.
	April 2006
	Rebecca Morss served as guest instructor for a class on "Direct studies for undergraduate research: Uncertainties and societal impacts of Hurricane Rita's forecast" at Texas A&M University to work with students on a semester-long research project investigating how Texas Gulf Coast residents used forecasts of Hurricane Rita. SIP's Eve Gruntfest, Julie Demuth, and Rebecca Morss, along with Sheldon Drobot and Mary Hayden, went to Norman, Okla, on April 18-20 to run the Norman WAS*IS workshop. Jeff Lazo presented an overview of the “Societal Impacts Program” to the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Silver Springs , Maryland on April, 14.
	March 2006
	Rebecca Morss and C. V. Murty organized and co-chaired the session on Disaster Simulation and Mitigation at the National Academies of Engineering First Indo-U.S. Frontiers of Engineering Symposium in Agra, India, March 2-4, 2006. SIP acquired Roger Pielke Jr.'s Extreme Weather Sourcebook and Societal Aspects of Weather Web sites from CIRES' Center for Science and Technology Policy Research, and began work on redesigning them. Julie Demuth gave a presentation about WASIS at the annual Association of American Geographers meeting in Chicago, on March 8. WASISers reconvened for the second week of the Boulder WAS*IS workshop, held March 12-17. Jeff Lazo gave a presentation on “Hurricane Forecast Socio-Economic Working Group: Social Science Research Agenda on the Hurricane Forecast and Warning System” to the Hurricane Intensity Working Group on March 1.
	February 2006
	Julie Demuth gave a presentation about WAS*IS at the annual American Meteorological Society meeting in Atlanta, GA, on February 1. Rebecca Morss gave a presentation on "Policy research on observing network design for weather prediction" on February 1 at the Symposium on Policy Research at the AMS annual meeting in Atlanta, GA. SIP's web site redesign goes online. Jeff Lazo gave a presentation entitled “Overall U.S. Economic Sensitivity to Weather” at the AMS annual meeting policy forum on February 2.
	January 2006
	Rebecca Morss organized and chaired the Academic session of the Symposium on the Public/Private Sector Partnership on January 31, 2006 at the 2006 American Meteorological Society annual meeting in Atlanta, Ga. Emily Laidlaw began working on an information resources coordination project to redesign SIP's Web site, reorganize and update SIP's community resources and create new outreach resources. Jeff Lazo gave a presentation entitled “Overall U.S. Economic Sensitivity to Weather” at the AMS annual meeting user's forum on January 30, 2006.

	2005
	December 2005
	Rebecca Morss gave a presentation entitled "Science, stakeholders, and flood decision-making: Three cases in weather and climate" on December 7, 2005 at the American Geophysical Union fall meeting in San Francisco, CA.
	November 2005
	The first week of the WAS IS Methods Workshop will be held in Boulder November 7th through the 11th with 27 participants from around the United States and the World.
	October 2005
	Jeff Lazo presented a paper on “What are weather forecasts worth?” at the Canadian Society for Ecological Economics CANSEE meeting in Toronto, Canada on October 28. Jeff Lazo gave a presentation to the Penn State meteorology department on October 13, 2005 that included an overview of the Societal Impacts Program and a talk entitled “Evaluation of the Sensitivity of U.S. Economic Sectors to Weather.”
	August 2005
	Rebecca Morss presented a paper on "Socioeconomic value of (Quantitative) Precipitation Forecast information: A synthesis" (co-authored with SIP's Asim Zia and Jeff Lazo) on August 1, 2005 at the American Meteorological Society Conference on Numerical Weather Prediction in Washington, DC. SOARS protégé Braxton Edwards, mentored by Rebecca Morss and ISSE's Olga Wilhelmi, gave a presentation entitled "A flood risk assessment of the Colorado Front Range region using GIS" on August 9 in the SOARS Protege Colloquium.
	July 2005
	Julie Demuth started with the SIP on July 1 to work with Eve Gruntfest on the Methods Workshop. She will be located in ISSE through May of 2006. Julie is being funded through the UCAR Visiting Scientists Program.
	June 2005
	Eve Gruntfest joined NCAR as a visitor with the SIP through May 2006. Eve will be the lead-PI in developing and implementing the Methods Workshop. Asim Zia presented a paper on “Value of Quantitative Precipitation Forecast Information: A Methodological Review”(co-authored by Rebecca Morss and Jeff Lazo) at the 25th International Symposium on Forecasting in San Antonio, TX. Rebecca Morss gave a presentation on "A THORPEX Pacific Predictability Experiment: User and social science research perspectives" on June 6, 2005 at the THORPEX Workshop on a Pacific Predictability Campaign in Seattle, WA. Rebecca Morss gave a presentation entitled "THORPEX Societal and Economic Applications research at NCAR: A few highlights" on June 28, 2005 at the Workshop on The Weather-Climate Interface Theme for TIIMES in Boulder, Colo.
	May 2005
	Rebecca Morss gave a presentation entitled "Risk, uncertainty, and decision-making: Two examples in climate and weather" on May 23, 2005 at the ASP / Inter-American Institute Program Planning Workshop in Boulder, Colo.
	April 2005
	Rebecca Morss gave a presentation on "Designing observing networks for improved weather prediction: An interdisciplinary approach" on April 26, 2005 at the National Science Foundation in Arlington, VA.
	March 2005
	Jeff Lazo gave a presentation "Developing a Socio-Economic Research Agenda on the Hurricane Forecast and Warning System" at the WMO Tropical Cyclone Workshop, March 24, 2005 in Macao, China. Jeff Lazo gave a presentation to the NCAR Director's Committee on March 18th. The presentation provided an overview of some of the SIP activities as well as an example of economic valuation approaches being used in the study of households' values for weather forecasts. Jeff Lazo gave a presentation "Socio-Economic Research Agenda on the Hurricane Forecast and Warning System" March 10th, 2005 at the Interdepartmental Hurricane Conference in Jacksonville, FL on the need for social science research on the hurricane forecast and warning system. Asim Zia gave a brown bag lunch seminar entitled "Meta-Decision Models: A Multi-Scalar Adaptive Approach to Model Environmental Policy Designs and Decision Behaviors" on March 14, 2005 at the University of Colorado Institute for Behavioral Sciences.
	February 2005
	A Workshop on "Developing a Social Science Research Agenda on the Hurricane Forecast and Warning System" was held February 16-18, 2005 in Pomona, California. A series of White Papers on the state of the art of forecasting and social science research is available at: White Papers and Workshop Report DLSI is rapidly approaching 100 entries. Rebecca Morss gave a seminar entitled "Meteorological observations for science and society: An interdisciplinary approach to observing network design" on February 22, 2005 at the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere in Fort Collins, Colo.