- Director's Message
- Table of Contents
- Strategic Goals: Science, Facilities & Technology
- 1. Exploring atmospheric, Earth system, and solar processes, variability, and change
- 2. Investigating the interaction of the atmosphere, the broader Earth system, and human society
- 3. Improving prediction of weather, climate, and other atmospheric phenomena
- 4. Developing community models
- 5. Enabling innovative field experiments and measurement campaigns
- 6. Developing new instrumentation
- Research Catalog
Stephen Shertz
General Information
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TIIMES
Engineer III
Contact Information:
PO Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307-3000
Office: FL1-2004
Telephone: 303-497-1042
Email: shertz@ucar.edu
Research Focus FY08:
Steve is the TIIMES engineer working on a variety of projects for the Water System, BEACHON, and Biogeochemistry projects. A few of the many projects, field studies and instruments he is or has been involved with include:
- Development and FAA certification of aircraft based instruments.
- Global Biogeochemical Cycles
- Regional Carbon Cycle
- Community Airborne Oxygen Instrument Development
- Oxygen & Carbon Dioxide Calibration, Profiles, & Measurements
- Regional Atmospheric Continuous CO2 Network in the Rocky Mountains (Rocky RACCOON)
- Airborne Carbon in the Mountains Experiment (ACME) with the Airborne CO2 Instrument
- Carbon in the Mountain Experiment (CME)
- Intermittent Sampler: a collaboratorive effort (EOL, MMM, ACD) lead by Al Cooper & Steve Shertz. The sampler provides a method for measuring high-rate fluxes with slow-response instruments. The sampler uses fast-response valves to capture air samples that can be measured with slow-response chemical sensors.
- MOPITT Airborne/Algorithm Test Radiometer (MATR): Ues gas filter correlation radiometry to measure tropospheric carbon monoxide (CO) with three optical channels or methane (CH4) with one channel..
- BOREAS: Field Project Examines Interactions Between Forests and the Atmosphere
Steve was a co-author in the 1992 Outstanding Publication Award: Ralph Keeling and Stephen Shertz, "Seasonal and interannual variations in atmospheric oxygen and implications for the global carbon cycle," Nature 358 (1992), 723-727.
Water Vapor Reference Sounding System
He is also a member of the Earth Observing Laboratory (EOL) Technology Development Facility responsible for the Water Vapor Reference Sounding System and the EOL Engineering Group. This collaboration between NSF/EOL and Southwest Sciences Incorporated (SWI) is aimed at exploring the feasibility of balloon-borne tunable diode laser (TDL) technology for in-situ water vapor measurements with verifiable accuracy. Such measurements are badly needed by the climate community. Status: Significant progress has been achieved on this project. A test facility that will be used to introduce known water vapor mixing ratios at a variety of pressures and temperatures indicative of the surface to ~ 30 km has been designed and a design review carried out. Valuable suggestions for improvements to this design are now being incorporated in the final design. This facility will challenge two TDL systems from SWI at various intervals over a yearlong time period. Many system components have been ordered and machining of the test chamber will begin once the two laser systems arrive at NCAR sometime within the next month. Completion of the test facility is anticipated this fall and the formal tests will commence.
Community Service FY08:
- Front Range Rescue Dogs (FRRD): Volunteers from Boulder County dedicated to training dogs and each other to assist on searches for the missing child, hiker, hunter, skier, water enthusiast or accident victim.