DOE WEEKLY REPORT

OCTOBER 19, 2009

OFFICE OF BIOLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH

 

 

I.          This Week’s Accomplishment 

 

Adding another Century to the Central European Temperature Record by Removing Early Instrumental Warm-Bias – A Windfall for Global Change Research.  Preindustrial surface air temperature records contain biases that make their use for global change research difficult.  Understanding and removing those biases would give scientists access to records prior to 1850, broadening current temperature records to a multi-centennial scale.  DOE-funded scientist Phil Jones (University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK) and his colleagues have succeeded in creating an instrumental temperature record for the Greater Alpine Region (GAR) in central Europe beginning in the year 1760 by accounting for changes in how instruments were inadequately protected from direct sunlight prior to 1850-1870, when new screening procedures were put in place.  Lack of adequate protection caused temperatures in the summer to be biased warm and those in the winter to be biased cold. Removal of those systematic errors was the key to creating this valuable, new, expanded data resource.  The results also have broader implications for the calibration of historical proxy climatic data in the region such as tree ring indices and documentation of grape harvest dates.

Böhm, R., Jones, P.D., Hiebl, J., Frank, D., Brunetti, M. and Maugeri, M:, 2009: The early instrumental warm-bias: a solution for

 

II.                Program Focus for the Week Ahead, includes Major Projects and Initiatives                                                                                                                                  

 

III.             Public Events/Meetings

 

IV.             Recovery Plan

 

The ARM Climate Research Facility project at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has awarded $47M worth of contracts, including all of their planned major items of equipment (MIEs).  The Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory project at PNNL has awarded contracts for all of its longest lead procurements.  The PNNL project manager for the Integrated Assessment (IA) project and the BER program manager visited the University of Maryland Computer and Space Sciences Complex in College Park, MD on October 13th, examined the existing physical infrastructure, and discussed possible configurations, facility modifications and related issues with the University of Maryland project team.  After consultation with the new head of informatics at the Joint Genome Institute (JGI), the JGI project at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) has re-scoped the planned file server purchase, reducing the costs by 1/3rd, and thereby freeing up some funds for other information technology needs.  The Kbase project at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has finalized the agenda for the SC09 workshop and is identifying participants for a workshop at the Plant and Animal Genome conference in San Diego, CA, in January 2010.  The Joint Bioenergy Research Institute (JBEI) at LBNL purchased enhanced capabilities for an existing Raman confocal imaging system.  The Bioenergy Science Center (BESC) at ORNL purchased a three stage molecular beam system as part of a new pyrolysis unit for its National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) partner.  The Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) at the University of Wisconsin has more than half of its funding under contract.

 

V.                Reform-Based Actions

 

VI.             Meetings/Events

 

VII.          Potential or Expected Press Stories

 

VIII.       Legislative Activity

 

IX.             Senior Personnel Announcements

 

X.                Issues for Attention