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Teacher in the Field Mark Eastburn

Teacher in the Field Ana Maria Varela

SALLJEX "Teachers in the Field"

The NOAA Office of Global Programs (OGP) and the National Science Foundation are proud to announce our SALLJEX Teachers in the Field: Mark Eastburn, an elementary school teacher at Johnson Park School in New Jersey and Ana Maria Varela, a high school teacher at the Nicolas Copernico High School in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Mark and Ana Maria first traveled to Bolivia on January 17, 2003 and visited one of the main operation centers for SALLJEX. While in Bolivia, they each flew twice on the NOAA P-3 and worked with scientists on collecting data.

After spending two weeks in Bolivia, Mark and Ana Maria traveled to the Universidad de Buenos Aires and helped researchers analyze data from SALLJEX and spent time at Nicolas Copernico High School. Both Mark and Ana Maria returned to their schools in February.

NOAA's P-3 being serviced on the runway

Jennifer Roman, Mark Eastburn, and Ana Maria Varela pose in front of the P-3 before their first flight.

(Top) The P-3 is serviced after a long flight. The low level jet can be seen carrying the clouds in the background.

(Bottom) From left to right, Jennifer Roman, Mark Eastburn, and Ana Marķa Varela all prepare for their first P-3 flight.

The South American Low Level Jet Experiment (SALLJEX), planned over the past five years by scientists in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, and the US, was launched on November 15, 2002, for 13 weeks to intensively measure the atmosphere over central South America in order to better understand and model the flow of moist air from the Amazon basin through the low level jet east of the Andes to the breadbasket region of southeastern South America where it feeds summertime storms and exerts controlling influences on droughts and floods.

The field campaign enhances observations over one of the largest over-land atmospheric data voids on the planet. The existing balloon sounding network over South America is augmented with additional sites in northern Chile, northwestern Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru and western Brazil. Up to eight balloon launches per day will be taken to resolve the diurnal (day-night) cycle during moderate to strong occurrences of the jet. The surface rain gauge network is also being enhanced in the region with an additional 1200 sites. The ground-based observations are augmented by wind and moisture measurements made along and across the core of the jet by a NOAA P-3 aircraft, stationed with the field operations center in the city of Santa Cruz, Bolivia.

A river filled with silt from heavy rainfall and the deforestation of the area

This aerial view shows a river filled with silt from heavy rainfall and the deforestation of the area.

A view from the cockpit shows the boom in front of the plane as the P-3 prepares to enter a cloud formation in the low level jet.

 A view of the boom in front of the plane as the P-3 prepares to enter a cloud formation in the low level jet
Jan Paegle explains to Mark and Ana Maria what the monitors are showing.

Jan Paegle, of the University of Utah, explains to Mark Eastburn and Ana María Varela what the monitors in front of him are showing.

Ana Maria Varela, Mark Eastburn, and Edwin Rodriguez pose for a picture in Señor Rodriguez's office at AASANA

 Ana Maria, Mark, and Edwin Rodriguez pose for a picture in Senor Rodriguez's office at AASANA

Upon completion of the field program, researchers will utilize the data collected to better understand and model the characteristics of the low level jet, particularly the diurnal cycle of wind and precipitation. NOAA and NSF sponsor the participation of US scientists in the experiment.

While on this adventure, Mark and Ana Maria hosted several live Web broadcasts, taught their classes, wrote lessons plans, maintained daily logs, took photographs, interviewed scientists, and engaged in a dialogue with other teachers and students, as well as the general public around the world.

Mark and Ana Maria were both given welcome home receptions from their schools, Johnson Park School in New Jersey and Nicolas Copernico High School in Buenos Aires. Mark and Ana Maria were also given a welcome home reception at the U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires.

In March, Mark and Ana Maria will be honored in a Congressional reception held on Capitol Hill sponsored by Representative Rush Holt (NJ).

To really spotlight our two SALLJEX teachers, please visit our web site www.ogp.noaa.gov/salljex.We are particularly proud of the video collection that is archived there. Also, visit the related links listed below for more information:

South American Low Level Jet Experiment

Supporting Schools

NOAA

NSF

  • National Science Foundation
    Home page for the National Science Foundation
    http://www.nsf.gov/

Previous OGP Supported Teachers

The Office of Global Programs (OGP) leads the NOAA Climate and Global Change (C&GC) Program. OGP assists NOAA by sponsoring focused scientific research aimed at understanding climate variability and its predictability. Through studies in these areas, researchers coordinate activities that jointly contribute to improved predictions and assessments of climate variability over a continuum of timescales from season to season, year to year, and over the course of a decade and beyond.

[2/10/03]

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