3 August, 1998

Monday, August 3rd, 1998

Arrival in Boulder at NOAA's Lab: Climate Monitoring and Diagnostic Laboratories.

I am in Boulder, Colorado, finally. After completing the school year in June and taking some time off with my family, I was looking forward to meet the people I had communicated with over email for several month and to learn about the ozone research which I will be part of at the South Pole . I will be working for two weeks at NOAA 's ( National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratories (CMDL). Dr. Dave Hofmann is the director and also my PI who agreed to support one of the high school teachers (me!!) selected by NSF to learn about ozone depletion research at the Antarctic. I did not realize until then that I had "met" Dr. Hofmann before. He is one of the figures of a permanent exhibit at the Smithsonian Institute which shows a life-size scene of the launching of a balloon with ozonesonde at the Antarctic. He was one of the scientist involved in launching ozonesondes at the Antarctic in the mid 1980th which led to the discovery of the ozone hole over the Antarctic in mid September. Check out the exhibition on your next visit in Washington, D.C. !

I had a great welcome, was introduced to many researcher and felt instantly at home. I will be working closely with Dr. Bryan Johnson, a research scientist of Dr. Sam Oltmans' Ozone and Watervapor group ( See also http://www.cmdl.noaa.gov/owv/ ) Bryan and Dave will also be going to the South Pole. Ann Thorn, the director's assistant helped so much with the logistics of my stay at NOAA and to get me settled at the hotel.

Dr. Dave Hofmann's Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory consists of several research groups and he introduced me to some members or their group chiefs about whom I will write later. All of them gave me a warm welcome and offered some time to learn about their parcticular work. The different groups and their Group Chiefs are:

1. Ozone and Water Vapor, Dr. Sam Oltmans

2. Carbon Cycle, Dr. Peter Tans

3. Nitrous Oxide and Halocompounds, Dr. Jim Elkins

4. Aerosol and Radiation, Dr. Ellsworth Dutton, Dr. John Ogren

5. Observatory Operations, Dr. J. Peterson

Check out their web site at: http://www.cmdl.noaa.gov/

My Principal Investigator Dave Hofmann and I (Elke Bergholz) at the Climate Monitoring and Diagnostic Laboratory at NOAA. Dave is explaining some of the poster work to me.