Special Events

Upcoming noteworthy events organized by NASA/GISS staff include:

CFMIP 2019 Meeting on Clouds, Precipitation, Circulation, and Climate Sensitivity

To be held Sep. 30 to Oct. 4, 2019, at the St. John Hotel in Mykonos, Greece.
+ Read More

+ Past Meetings & Workshops

Other Upcoming Events

Following are upcoming seminars, workshops and other events of interest to GISS staff and to our research partners. Please note that due to security regulations, presentations on the GISS premises are not open to the general public.

Tuesday, April 9, 2019
11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Special Seminar
Topic: Do Measured and Modeled Antarctic Clouds "Radiate" the Same Personality?
Speaker: Israel Silber (Penn State)
More info: Abstract
Contact: Andrew Ackerman

Special Seminar
Speaker: Israel Silber (Penn State)
Title: Do Measured and Modeled Antarctic Clouds "Radiate" the Same Personality?

Abstract: Polar clouds have a substantial impact on the surface energy budget. Their net radiative effect can be significant even when the cloud layers are optically thin, and has been identified as the source of past widespread melting events. Therefore, great efforts are made to understand and properly parameterize polar cloud processes in large-scale models, particularly in Antarctica, where the atmosphere is exceptionally cold, dry, and clean, even relative to the Arctic. In this study, we examine the surface longwave radiation deviations of mesoscale forecast and reanalysis models (polar WRF and ERA5, respectively) from observations gathered in 2016 during the AWARE campaign at McMurdo Station, Antarctica. In addition, we evaluate the impact of clouds and their phase on these deviations and discuss their potential sources. Finally, we describe using observations and LES model runs a highly supercooled drizzle event that occurred during AWARE, as an example of a cloud process that needs to be captured by climate models.

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Tuesday, April 16, 2019
3:15 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Lectures in Climate Change - Webinar 8
Contact: Danielle Peters
Wednesday, April 17, 2019
1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.
GISS Lunch Seminar
Topic: Untangling the Annual Cycle of the Tropical Tropopause Layer with an Idealized Moist Model
Speaker: Edwin Gerber (Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, NYU)
More info: Abstract
Contact: Clara Orbe

GISS Lunch Seminar
Speaker: Edwin Gerber (Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, NYU)
Title: Untangling the Annual Cycle of the Tropical Tropopause Layer with an Idealized Moist Model

Abstract: The boundary between the troposphere and stratosphere in the tropics is less distinct than its high latitude counterpart, the tropopause, such that we often refer to the region between 12 and 17 kilometers (from the cloud tops to the cold point) as the tropical tropopause layer, or TTL. The TTL plays a critical role in regulating the chemical composition of the stratosphere, and its impact on middle atmosphere water vapor has implications for the surface energy balance. The processes regulating the climatology and annual cycle of the tropical tropopause layer and cold point, however, are not fully understood. Three main drivers have been identified: planetary-scale equatorial waves excited by tropical convection, planetary-scale extratropical waves associated with the deep Brewer–Dobson circulation, and synoptic-scale waves associated with the midlatitude storm tracks. In both observations and comprehensive atmospheric models, all three coexist, making it difficult to separate their contributions. I'll present a new, intermediate-complexity atmospheric model that we developed to untangle these process in the TTL. It reveals a remarkably generic response of TTL temperatures over a range of configurations, suggesting that the details of the wave forcing are unimportant, provided there is sufficient variation in the upward extent of westerly winds over the annual cycle. This explains in part why previous authors have come to differing conclusions, and more generally, provides a nice case study of why one must be very careful in developing a mechanistic explanation of a nonlinear phenomenon.

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Wednesday, May 15, 2019
1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.
GISS Lunch Seminar
Speaker: Park Williams (Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory)
Contact: Clara Orbe
Tuesday, May 21, 2019
3:15 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Lectures in Climate Change - Webinar 9
Contact: Danielle Peters
Tuesday, June 18, 2019
3:15 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Lectures in Climate Change - Webinar 10
Contact: Danielle Peters
Tuesday, July 16, 2019
3:15 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Lectures in Climate Change - Webinar 11
Contact: Danielle Peters

This event listing was last updated 2019-04-02.

Other Seminars & Colloquia

Other area institutes offering Earth science and related seminars and colloquia include:

+ American Museum of Natural History

+ Columbia University: Dept. of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics

+ Columbia University: Earth Institute

+ CCNY: Cooperative Remote Sensing Science and Technology Center

+ New York Academy of Sciences

+ New York University: Center for Atmosphere Ocean Studies

+ Rutgers University: Dept. of Environmental Sciences

+ Stony Brook University: School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences

Seminars & Colloquia

Most seminars at GISS are held during the academic year, September through May.

Formal seminar presentations by visiting scientists are held many Fridays at 11:00 a.m.

Informal lunchtime presentations by NASA GISS staff take place on Wednesdays at 1:00 p.m. about twice per month.

Other special seminars occur from time to time as visitors' schedules permit.

Security Note

Regulations require that visitors arrange in advance for a building pass. Persons attending a NASA GISS seminar or colloquium should contact the event host at least two days in advance of the event for assistance. Please include your affiliation in your e-mail.

Due to implementation of the REAL ID Act (2005), a state driver's license or identification card is currently (as of late 2018) required for admittance to the GISS premises, which is considered a federal facility. However, if you have a state-issued license or ID that is not considered REAL-ID compliant, you are urged to obtain one before entrance regulations change, which is expected to occur in 2020.

Persons who are not U.S. citizens or U.S. permanent residents and who may be planning a visit to GISS require that special arrangements be made. Please co-ordinate with your GISS host on this at least three weeks before your visit.

All visitors can expect to have their bags searched upon entry to GISS. This may include having to answer questions about personal items, including any medication the visitor may be carrying.