CBS3 Meteorologist Kathy Orr and CW Philly Meteorologist Christa Quinn attended the American Meteorological Society (AMS) Broadcast Meteorology Conference in Denver, Colorado. The focus was climate change and new technologies in weather forecasting, including the increasing importance of space weather.
http://cbs3.com/slideshows/Kahty.Orr.Christa.20.761289.html
Our first adventure was a 30 mile bus ride to Boulder, CO, the home of NOAA’s Earth System research laboratory. This facility was great…only 10 years old and state of the art. Weather art dotted the lobby. The “sea of clouds” is a continuous self-generating cloud machine (see our slideshow).
If you think that’s cool…chick out “Science on a Sphere.” It’s an amazing 3D look at the earth’s weather using four projectors on a huge 68” diameter sphere. This is used for weather education.
We met some of the brightest minds in weather research including scientists at the Space Weather Prediction Center. Here we found out that storms on the sun could disrupt more than satellite communication in the future…air travel could be impacted as well! These meteorologists monitor activity on the sun 24/7. The do not expect much activity in the next few years (the sun’s activity is at a minimum) but when it picks up, some of the storms have the potential to produce solar flares that can be 20 times the size of the Earth!
The most picturesque part of our visit was the landscape. NOAA sat below the beautiful Flatiron Mountains. Locals say they are the “foothills of the Rockies”, but coming from Pennsylvania, they looked like mountains to us!
Even higher in the “hills”, nestled at the base of the Flatirons is NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research). What a view! We were treated to a picnic lunch (good cookies!) and an awesome tour. Here we learned from some of the world’s leading weather and climate researchers about climate models (like our forecast models) and exciting weather research that will be available to us to use in our weathercasts in the future.
We’ll share much more with you in the coming months on CBS3 and the CW Philly.
Poosted By:
Kathy Orr and Christa Quinn
