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Roger A. Pielke Sr. (born October 22, 1946) is an American
meteorologist A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists in research, while t ...
with interests in climate variability and
climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
, environmental vulnerability, numerical modeling,
atmospheric dynamics Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences (which include atmospheric chemistry and physics) with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not ...
,
land Land, also known as dry land, ground, or earth, is the solid terrestrial surface of the planet Earth that is not submerged by the ocean or other bodies of water. It makes up 29% of Earth's surface and includes the continents and various islan ...
/
ocean The ocean (also the sea or the world ocean) is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of the surface of Earth and contains 97% of Earth's water. An ocean can also refer to any of the large bodies of water into which the wo ...
atmosphere An atmosphere () is a layer of gas or layers of gases that envelop a planet, and is held in place by the gravity of the planetary body. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A s ...
interactions, and large
eddy Eddie or Eddy may refer to: Science and technology *Eddy (fluid dynamics), the swirling of a fluid and the reverse current created when the fluid flows past an obstacle * Eddie (text editor), a text editor originally for BeOS and now ported to Lin ...
/turbulent
boundary layer In physics and fluid mechanics, a boundary layer is the thin layer of fluid in the immediate vicinity of a bounding surface formed by the fluid flowing along the surface. The fluid's interaction with the wall induces a no-slip boundary condi ...
modeling. He particularly focuses on mesoscale weather and
climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologic ...
processes but also investigates on the global, regional, and
microscale The micrometre ( international spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; SI symbol: μm) or micrometer (American spelling), also commonly known as a micron, is a unit of length in the International System of Un ...
. Pielke is an ISI Highly Cited Researcher.


Background

Pielke was awarded a B.A. in
mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
at Towson State College in 1968, and then an M.S. and Ph.D. in
meteorology Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences (which include atmospheric chemistry and physics) with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not ...
at
Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...
(PSU) in 1969 and 1973, respectively. From 1971 to 1974 he worked as a research scientist at the
NOAA The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...
Experimental Meteorology Lab (EML), from 1974 to 1981 he was an associate professor at the
University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...
(UVa), served the primary academic position of his career as a professor at
Colorado State University Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a public land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University System. Colorado State University is classified among "R1: ...
(CSU) from 1981 to 2006, was deputy of
Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere The Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA) is a scientific research institution at Colorado State University (CSU) that operates under a cooperative agreement with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Off ...
(CIRA) at Colorado State University from 1985 to 1988, from 1999 to 2006 was Colorado State Climatologist, at
Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...
was a research professor from 2003 to 2006, and was a visiting professor at the
University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...
from October–December 2004. Since 2005, Pielke has served as Senior Research Scientist at the
Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences The Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) is a research institute that is sponsored jointly by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) and the Uni ...
(CIRES) at CU-Boulder and an emeritus professor of the Department of Atmospheric Science at CSU. After retiring from CSU and he remains a CIRES emeritus researcher. Pielke spearheaded development of the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS) with William R. Cotton. Pielke has served as Chairman and Member of the American Meteorological Society Committee on Weather Forecasting and Analysis, as Chief Editor of ''
Monthly Weather Review The ''Monthly Weather Review'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Meteorological Society. It covers research related to analysis and prediction of observed and modeled circulations of the atmosphere, including technique ...
'', was elected a Fellow of the
American Meteorological Society The American Meteorological Society (AMS) is the premier scientific and professional organization in the United States promoting and disseminating information about the Atmospheric sciences, atmospheric, Oceanography, oceanic, and Hydrology, hydr ...
(AMS) in 1982 and a Fellow of the
American Geophysical Union The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, atmospheric, ocean, hydrologic, space, and planetary scientists and enthusiasts that according to their website includes 130,000 people (not members). AGU's act ...
(AGU) in 2004, has served as Editor-in-Chief of the U.S. National Science Report to the
International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics The International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG; french: Union géodésique et géophysique internationale, UGGI) is an international non-governmental organization dedicated to the scientific study of Earth and its space environment us ...
, as Co-Chief Editor of the ''
Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences The ''Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences'' (until 1962 titled ''Journal of Meteorology'') is a scientific journal published by the American Meteorological Society. It covers basic research related to the physics, dynamics, and chemistry of the at ...
'', and as Editor of ''Scientific Online Letters on the Atmosphere''.


On climate change

In 2007 Pielke said that he was not a "sceptical scientist" about climate change, having stated that carbon dioxide, while important, is not the predominant forcing of global warming: : ''As I have summarized on the Climate Science weblog, humans activities do significantly alter the heat content of the climate system, although, based on the latest understanding, the radiative effect of CO2 has contributed, at most, only about 28% to the human-caused warming up to the present. The other 72% is still a result of human activities!'' Pielke has criticized the
IPCC The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an intergovernmental body of the United Nations. Its job is to advance scientific knowledge about climate change caused by human activities. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) ...
for its conclusions regarding CO2 and
global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
and accused it of selectively choosing data to support a selective view of the science. In 2010 Pielke revisited a question provided by
Andrew Revkin Andrew C. Revkin is an American science and environmental journalist, author and educator. He has written on a wide range of subjects including destruction of the Amazon rain forest, the 2004 Asian tsunami, sustainable development, climate chan ...
"Is most of the observed warming over the last 50 years likely to have been due to the increase in
greenhouse gas A greenhouse gas (GHG or GhG) is a gas that Absorption (electromagnetic radiation), absorbs and Emission (electromagnetic radiation), emits radiant energy within the thermal infrared range, causing the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse ...
concentrations", Pielke stated that "the 2010 answer ... remains NO", and that "The added greenhouse gases from human activity clearly have a role in increasing the heat content of the climate system from what it otherwise would be", but "there are other equally or even more important significant human climate forcings" and furthermore "We now know, however, that the natural variations of atmospheric and ocean circulation features within the climate system produces global average heat changes that are substantially larger than what was known in 2005. The IPCC models have failed to adequately simulate this effect."


Family

Pielke is married. He has two children. His son Roger A. Pielke Jr. is a political scientist and works in the field of climate policy. His daughter Tara Pielke is a web developer.


Publications

Pielke has published more than 300 scientific papers, 50 chapters in books, and co-edited 9 books. A listing of papers can be viewed at the Pielke Research Grou
website
* Pielke, R.A., 1984: Mesoscale Meteorological Modeling. 1st Edition, Academic Press, New York. * Pielke, R.A., 1990: The Hurricane. Routledge Press, London. * Cotton, W.R. and R.A. Pielke, 1995: Human impacts on weather and climate, Cambridge University Press, New York. * Pielke, R.A., 1995: A primer on weather and climate. * Pielke, R.A. and R.P. Pearce, Editors, 1994: Mesoscale modeling of the atmosphere. American Meteorological Society Monograph, Volume 25. * Pielke, R.A. Jr. and R.A. Pielke Sr., 1997: Hurricanes: Their nature and impacts on society. John Wiley and Sons, England. * Pielke, R.A. Jr. and R.A. Pielke Sr., Editors, 2000: Storms, Volumes I and II, Routledge Press, London. * Pielke, R.A Sr.., 2002: Mesoscale meteorological modeling. 2nd Edition, Academic Press, San Diego, California. * Kabat, P., Claussen, M., Dirmeyer, P.A., J.H.C. Gash, L. Bravo de Guenni, M. Meybeck, R.A. Pielke Sr., C.J. Vorosmarty, R.W.A. Hutjes, and S. Lutkemeier, Editors, 2002: Vegetation, water, humans and the climate: A new perspective on an interactive system. Global Change – The IGBP Series Springer


References


External links




''Climate Science''
– the weblog of th
Roger A. Pielke Sr. Research Group

List of publications
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pielke, Roger A. American climatologists American meteorologists 1946 births Living people Penn State College of Earth and Mineral Sciences alumni Towson University alumni Fellows of the American Geophysical Union Fellows of the American Meteorological Society