atmosphere. Dr. Avery is a fellow of the American Meteorological Society and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, as well as a member of the American Geophysical Union. She is the past chair of the United States Committee to the International Union of Radio Science and a past officer of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.

RAYMOND J.BAN is Senior Vice President of Meteorological Affairs and Operations at The Weather Channel, Inc. (TWC). His responsibilities include oversight of the meteorological operations and all meteorological activities of the company. Prior to joining TWC in 1982, he was employed by Accu-Weather, Inc.. He graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a degree in meteorology. Mr. Ban is currently serving as Commissioner of Professional Affairs of the American Meteorological Society, as a member of the Science Advisory Committee of the U.S. Weather Research Program, and also serves on the Board of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences at Penn State. He is a past member of the COMET (Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology, Education and Training) Advisory Panel and the Research and Technical Committee of the Southeast Region Climate Center.

HOWARD B.BLUESTEIN is Professor of Meteorology at the University of Oklahoma, where he has served since 1976. He received his Ph.D. in meteorology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research interests are the observation and physical understanding of weather phenomena on convective, mesoscale, and synoptic scales. Dr. Bluestein is a fellow of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) and the Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies. He is past chair of the National Science Foundation Observing Facilities Advisory Panel, the AMS Committee on Severe Local Storms, and the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research Scientific Program Evaluation Committee, and a past member of the AMS Board of Meteorological and Oceanographic Education in Universities. He is also the author of a textbook on synoptic-dynamic meteorology and Tornado Alley, a book for the scientific layperson on severe thunderstorms and tornadoes.

STEVEN F.CLIFFORD is director of the NOAA Environmental Technology Laboratory. He received his Ph.D. in engineering science from Dartmouth College. One of his research goals is to develop a global observing system using ground-based, airborne, and satellite remote sensing systems to better observe and monitor the global environment and use these observations as