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04-23-04</title></head><body>
<div align="center"><font size="+2" color="#0000FF"><b>DIALOG and
Disccrs News</b></font></div>
<div align="center">04-23-04</div>
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color="#0000FF"><b>***************************************************</b
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<div align="center"><font size="+1"
color="#0000FF"><b>Resources</b></font></div>
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<div><b>The Great Lakes an Environmental Atlas and Resource Book</b>,
EPA, find a richly illustrated and concisely written on-line atlas
with chapters devoted to the natural and cultural history of the Great
Lakes, current problems and sources of exploitation, plus management
policies. The comprehensive approach to understanding the Great Lakes
lends credibility to the systems approach advocated by the
Biocomplexity Initiative.<br>
http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/atlas/index.html</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><b>Current Marine Data, Ocean Weather Inc</b>., this commercial
site offers a clean, quick world map interface for accessing water
temperature, wave height, and wind direction. A Java loop puts
these parameters into motion. This is a good site for
correlating wave height with storms and circulation around semi
permanent pressure cells.</div>
<div>http://www.oceanweather.com/data/</div>
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color="#0000FF"><b>***************************************************</b
></font></div>
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<div align="center"><font size="+1" color="#0000FF"><b>Science
News</b></font></div>
<div align="center"><font size="-1">Check out this section both for
information, and for</font></div>
<div align="center"><font size="-1">examples of how to communicate
science to a non-scientist audience</font></div>
<div align="center"><br></div>
<div><b>PLAN NEAR FOR GLOBAL CLIMATE MONITORING</b></div>
<div>from Associated Press<br>
TOKYO -- Nations are near agreement on the
blueprint of a global climate<br>
monitoring system that would help forecast environmental threats such
as<br>
rising sea levels or drought, but negotiating the details won't be
easy,</div>
<div>U.S. officials said Friday.<br>
Officials from 47 nations and more than two dozen
international<br>
organizations are meeting in Tokyo this week to decide what the
climate<br>
watch system should look like, who will run it and how open it should
be.<br>
They are expected to announce on Sunday a plan for the next decade
through</div>
<div>2015.</div>
<div> U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
head, Mike Leavitt, cautioned that the<br>
system will likely suffer growing pains.<br>
http://snipurl.com/5wdc</div>
<div align="center"><br></div>
<div><b>SCIENCE GROUP SAYS U.S. BUDGET PLAN WOULD HARM
RESEARCH</b></div>
<div>from The New York Times (Registration Required)<br>
WASHINGTON, April 22 — The nation's largest
general science group said<br>
Thursday that the Bush administration's proposed budget for the next
five<br>
years could cut research financing at 21 of the 24 federal agencies
that</div>
<div>engage in it.<br>
Among fields that would most likely be hurt,
the organization said, are<br>
physics, medicine, oceanography, astronomy, geology, chemistry,
psychology,<br>
biology, climatology, anthropology, ecology, mathematics,
archaeology,</div>
<div>meteorology, sociology and energy research.<br>
"Particularly during a presidential
election year, it's essential that<br>
policy makers and taxpayers understand the impacts of any federal
budget<br>
changes, especially any proposals that may have implications for the
pace<br>
of scientific discoveries in coming years," said Al Teich,
director of<br>
science and policy programs for the group, the American Association
for the<br>
Advancement of Science, based in Washington.<br>
http://snipurl.com/5wd7<br>
</div>
<div><b>ARCTIC OZONE LOSS MORE SENSITIVE TO CLIMATE CHANGE THAN
THOUGHT</b></div>
<div>NASA PRESS RELEASE: 04-138</div>
<div> A cooperative study involving NASA
scientists<br>
quantifies, for the first time, the relationship between<br>
Arctic ozone loss and changes in the temperature of Earth's</div>
<div>stratosphere.</div>
<div> The results indicate the loss of Arctic
ozone due to the<br>
presence of industrial chlorine and bromine in Earth's<br>
atmosphere may well be sensitive to subtle changes in<br>
stratospheric climate. Such ozone depletion leads to<br>
increased exposure to harmful, ultraviolet solar radiation at</div>
<div>Earth's surface.</div>
<div> According to the study, the sensitivity
of Arctic ozone to<br>
temperature is three times greater than predicted by<br>
atmospheric chemistry models. This leads to the possibility<br>
decreases in stratospheric temperatures may have<br>
significantly larger impacts on future Arctic ozone<br>
concentrations than have been expected in the past. Dr.<br>
Markus Rex of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and<br>
Marine Research, Potsdam, Germany, led the study. It also<br>
included scientists from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory</div>
<div>(JPL), Pasadena, Calif.</div>
<div> The researchers analyzed more than 2,000
balloon measurements<br>
collected over the past 12 years. They found the amount of<br>
ozone loss occurring in any given Arctic winter is closely<br>
related to the amount of air exposed to temperatures low<br>
enough to support the formation of polar stratospheric<br>
clouds. Reactions occurring on the surface of these clouds<br>
convert chlorine from unreactive forms to other forms that</div>
<div>quickly deplete ozone.</div>
<div> Based on the relation between ozone loss
and polar<br>
stratospheric cloud existence, the researchers found every<br>
degree Kelvin (equal to one Celsius degree) cooling of the<br>
Arctic results in an additional ozone destruction of five<br>
percent. This sensitivity is a factor of three larger than<br>
previously predicted by state-of-the-art, coupled climate-</div>
<div>chemistry computer models.</div>
<div> The scientists found the coldest
stratospheric winters,<br>
during which most of the ozone loss occurs due to greater<br>
polar stratospheric cloud formation, have gradually become<br>
significantly cooler during the past few decades. "If<br>
stratospheric climatic conditions had not changed since the<br>
1960s, Arctic ozone loss would be much less severe today,<br>
despite the increase in chlorofluorocarbons and bromine,"
Rex</div>
<div>said.</div>
<div> "This study presents a new method
of looking at a multi-year<br>
data set that enables us to relate year-to-year variations in<br>
the amount of ozone depletion to climate change," said co-<br>
author Dr. Ross Salawitch, a JPL research scientist. "Results<br>
of this research will lead to substantially improved computer<br>
model simulations of this phenomenon and will provide an<br>
excellent method for analyzing data from satellites such as<br>
NASA's soon-to-be-launched Aura atmospheric chemistry</div>
<div>laboratory," he said.</div>
<div> Researchers are trying to understand why
the Arctic<br>
stratosphere cools. It may be due to a number of factors:<br>
rising levels of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide; a<br>
feedback between ozone depletion and stratospheric<br>
temperature; and natural variability. Higher amounts of<br>
greenhouse gases trap heat near Earth's surface, warming the<br>
surface and preventing the heat from reaching the<br>
stratosphere, thus cooling the upper atmosphere. However,<br>
climate models vary widely in their estimates of how much<br>
stratospheric cooling has occurred due to rising greenhouse</div>
<div>gases over the past 40 years.</div>
<div> Stratospheric chlorine and bromine have
begun to decline in<br>
response to the Montreal Protocol, a worldwide agreement<br>
signed in 1987 that limits the production of<br>
chlorofluorocarbons and other ozone depleting pollutants.<br>
Scientists believe this indicates the cleansing process has<br>
begun, and eventually the ozone layer will recover, although<br>
chlorofluorocarbons can stay in the atmosphere for 50 to 100<br>
years. The study suggests the healing process might be<br>
slowed, in the short term, by changes in stratospheric</div>
<div>climate.</div>
<div> Tracking the predicted recovery of the
ozone layer is a key<br>
science objective of NASA's Aura spacecraft. Aura is the<br>
latest in the Earth Observing System series and scheduled for<br>
launch in June. Aura will study the atmosphere's chemistry<br>
and dynamics, providing data to help scientists better<br>
understand Earth's ozone, air quality and climate change.<br>
Aura's chemistry measurements will follow up on records that<br>
began with NASA's Upper Atmospheric Research Satellite and<br>
will also continue the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer</div>
<div>mission's goal of collecting comprehensive ozone data.</div>
<div> The paper was highlighted by the
American Geophysical Union<br>
and published in Geophysical Research Letters, Volume 31,</div>
<div>L04116.</div>
<div> For information about the research on
the Internet, visit:</div>
<div
align="center"
>http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/earth/air_ozone/air_ozone_index.cfm</div>
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<div align="center"><br></div>
<div align="center"><font size="+1"
color="#0000FF"><b>Forum</b></font></div>
<div align="center"><br></div>
<div><b>US Commission on Ocean Policy</b></div>
<div>The US Commission on Ocean Policy has released its preliminary
report</div>
<div>today [April 20, 2004]. The public comment period is open
for 30 days, ending on 21 May. You may wish to send comments to
the Commission during this period. Details about the Commission
and its work are available at</div>
<div>http://oceancommission.gov/.</div>
<div> AGU has also formed a panel to draft a
position statement on the report, focusing on issues that deal with
research and education. The panel<br>
welcomes your input and recommendations. A copy of the comments
you<br>
send directly to the Commission would be helpful to the panel.
Please<br>
send your comments to Peter Folger at AGU headquarters,
pfolger@agu.org</div>
<div><mailto:pfolger@agu.org>.<br>
The commission report establishes findings
and makes recommendations to<br>
the President and Congress for a coordinated and comprehensive
national<br>
ocean policy. It addresses a range of issues, from stewardship
of<br>
marine resources to marine science and research, including coastal
and<br>
estuarine research. This is the first comprehensive review of
U.S.</div>
<div>ocean policy since the Stratton Commission report over 30 years
ago.</div>
<div> Panel members are:<br>
Michael J. McPhaden-Chair<br>
Kenneth H. Brink<br>
Antonio J. Busalacchi<br>
Janet W. Campbell<br>
Margaret L. Delaney<br>
Jeff Dozier<br>
Rana A. Fine<br>
David M. Karl<br>
John A. Knauss<br>
Cindy Lee</div>
<div>Jeffrey J. Park</div>
<div> Sincerely,<br>
Michael McPhaden<br>
President, Ocean Sciences Section</div>
<div><br></div>
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<div align="center"><font size="+1" color="#0000FF"><b>Jobs for
PhDs</b></font></div>
<div align="center"><font color="#0000FF"><b><br></b></font></div>
<div><b>Interdisciplinary Research and Education at NCAR</b></div>
<div>We have an important senior position open at NCAR for someone
with a strong interest in interdisciplinary research and education.
The announcement is at:<br>
http://www.fin.ucar.edu/hr/careers/uco.cfm?do=jobDetailExt&job_ID<span
></span>=253</div>
<div><br></div>
<div align="center"><font color="#0000FF"><b><br></b></font></div>
<div
align="center">**************************************************</div>
<div align="center"><br></div>
<div align="center"><font size="-1">This newsletter has been developed
by C. Susan Weiler for the purpose of distributing information of
potential interest to recent PhDs engaged in interdisciplinary aquatic
science or climate change research, and to build an international
sense of community among recent grads. It provides an international
forum for the exchange of information and opinions regarding research,
professional and social issues.</font></div>
<div align="center"><font size="-1">The views and opinions expressed
are strictly those of C.S. Weiler or of the individual who has
submitted a particular item for distribution. The opinions expressed
do not necessarily reflect those of the funding agencies or sponsoring
societies. Dr. Weiler serves as producer and editor and reserves the
right to edit or reject material submitted to the list.</font></div>
<div align="center"><font color="#0000FF"><b>Please submit
announcements of interest to recent PhDs to phd@whitman.edu or
weiler@whitman.edu.</b></font></div>
<div align="center">For ease of transmission, please do not send
attachments. Send a short message in the body of an e-mail message,
and link to any appropriate websites.</div>
<div align="center"><font color="#0000FF"><b><br></b></font></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<x-sigsep><pre>--
</pre></x-sigsep>
<div>C. Susan Weiler,
Ph.D. <br>
Biology
Department <span
></span> Tel:
509-527-5948 <br
>
Whitman
College <span
></span
>
Fax: 509-527-5961<br>
Walla Walla, WA 99362<br>
weiler@whitman.edu <br>
Programs for Recent
PhDs <span
></span> http://aslo.org/phd.html</div>
<div> Minorities in the Aquatic Sciences
http://www.aslo.org/mas.html<br>
DIALOG poster
http://www.aslo.org/phd/dialogposter.pdf<br>
DISCCRS poster
http://www.aslo.org/phd/disccrsposter.pdf <span
></span> </div>
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