Principal Research Scientist Bill Plant is the recipient of the 2003 John Wesley Powell Award, presented by the USGS. This award recognizes Dr. Plant's research using radar to monitor river discharge. Heat Transport and Storage in the North Atlantic. Oceanography Ph.D. student Shenfu Dong's analysis of heat balance of the Gulf Stream region shows that the dominant term in interannual variations in heat content for the region is anomalous advection by geostrophic currents. Ionian Sea Rainfall Experiment. A combination of radar, rain gauge, and underwater ambient sound measurements of rain will improve scientists' understanding of satellite measures of rainfall over the oceans. Measuring Ocean Skin Temperature. The Calibrated InfraRed in situ Measurement System (CIRIMS) is deployed on research vessels to provide accurate sea surface temperature measurements that are then used to validate those made by satellite radiometers. AIRS Department researchers study a wide range of atmospheric and oceanographic topics, all involving the use of remote sensing measurements. Field and laboratory experiments, in-house-designed, state-of-the-art instrumentation, numerical modeling, and data analyses are used to study diverse physical processes. We study the boundary between the atmosphere and water, on spatial scales from meters to entire ocean basins, to improve our understanding of issues from climate variation to coastal processes. Remote measurements are taken via aircraft, satellites, and acoustic sensors. AIRS scientists supervise and teach graduate and undergraduate students from the University of Washington's School of Oceanography, and the departments of Atmospheric Sciences, and Electrical and Civil Engineering.