Meet October 2009 Employee and Team Member of the Month
Jason Baker
NOAA’s National Weather Service
Employee of the Month
October 2009
As a meteorologist in Memphis, Tenn., Jason Baker works alongside FAA Traffic Management staff responsible for the safe and efficient flow of air traffic through the south-central United States. Among his recent accomplishments, Baker refined the GR2Analyst radar interrogation program, allowing controllers to view familiar geographic settings on radar imagery. Baker verifies Federal Express weather forecasts for the 125 planes that land in Memphis (home of Federal Express Headquarters) during a three-hour window every night. He also has created and developed a Hub Impact Chart, which is used for briefings and for summarizing airport weather conditions throughout the eastern United States. Over the past nine months, Baker participated in a special project with FAA staff to fix a glitch in their new Traffic Management Advisory system and has helped create a new low-level wind graphic product for NOAA's Weather Service Web site.
NOAA’s Fisheries Service
Team Member of the Month
October 2009
Erin Moreland, a contractor with the Alaska Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, is exploring the capabilities of unmanned aircraft systems to collect scientific data in the Bering Sea. These systems have tremendous potential for use in dangerous or remote locations. With three years of expertise conducting pinniped surveys with the National Marine Mammal Laboratory, Moreland was chosen to help evaluate the effectiveness of these systems to survey seals on sea ice in the Bering Sea. In cooperation with NOAA's Office of Marine and Aviation Operations and researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Morehead developed project goals, shipboard integration and operational protocols, and safety plans. These efforts provided the necessary documentation and plans needed for NOAA researchers to conduct the first successful launch and retrievals of the unmanned aircraft systems from a NOAA vessel.