Kevin Foley
Biography
I work as a member of the USGS PRISM project (Pliocene Research, Interpretation and Synoptic Mapping). I provide data management and programming to make the project's twenty-year collection of data useable and available to the Climate Modeling Community. Our primary users are the NASA GISS project and PlioMIP (Pliocene Model Inter-comparison Project) , an international consortium of climate modelers.
I previously worked as a member of the Glacier Studies Project on the Coastal Change and Glaciological Maps of Antarctica map series. This map series draws on a broad range of resources from satellite imagery and aerial photographs to ships logs from previous centuries to demonstrate changes in the configuration of Antarctic glaciers and coastal ice over time. The project dates back to 1990. I joined the project in 2000 to study problems in map production that existed due to the broad range of source materials of varying scale and projections and the small number of reliable positional ground control points. I initiated a program to digitize all source materials and shift the production of maps to digital means.
Education:
- Master of Public Administration, with Concentration in Environmental Science and Policy, George Mason University. 2015
- B.S. Geology, George Mason University. 1995
Professional Experience:
- 2007 to present – GIN project, formerly PRISM Project, U.S. Geological Survey, FBSC, EGPSC, Reston, Virginia. Programming, data management and micropaleontology.
- 2015 – Detail to USGS Core Science/ Land Remote Sensing Group for feasibility study of a LANDSAT deata cube project.
- 2000 to 2014 – Coastal Change and Glaciological Maps of Antarctica, EGPSC, Reston, Virginia. Digital mapping of glaciers and coastal change in Antarctica.
- 1995 to 1999 – Warm Climates Project, Physical Scientist, Climate History Team. Management of computer graphic lab, GIS application servers and network data servers.
- 1989 to 1995 – Physical Science Technician, Paleontology and Stratigraphy Branch, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia. Microfossil Laboratory Manager.
- 1987 to 1989 – Physical Science Aide, Paleontology and Stratigraphy Branch, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia. Moving offices, repairing computers, shaking sieves.
Science and Products
Pliocene Research, Interpretation and Synoptic Mapping (PRISM4)
PRISM will help distinguish the USGS as a world leader in paleoclimate research, data generation and delivery for use in addressing the modern world's climate-related needs. We will be recognized for the passion of our researchers and partners in providing quality, innovative paleoclimate interpretation and data analysis to the science (climate change) community and to the public we serve....
PlioMIP (Pliocene Model Intercomparison Project) Strategy, Communications and Synthesis for the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (IPCC AR5)
USGS PRISM (Pliocene Research, Interpretation and Synoptic Mapping) Project global data sets of Pliocene conditions, which form the most comprehensive global reconstruction for any warm period prior to the recent past, are used to drive numerical climate model simulations designed to explore the impact of climate forcings and feedbacks during the Pliocene. The Pliocene world provides an...
Revised PRISM3 Pliocene Sea Surface Temperature Estimates
Model experiments that attempt to simulate climates of the past serve to identify both similarities and differences between two climate states and, when compared with simulations run by other models and with geological data, to identify model-specific biases. Uncertainties associated with both the data and the models must be considered in such an exercise. The most recent period of sustained...
Community sourced mid-Piacenzian sea surface temperature (SST) data
This data set collects, from peer-reviewed research, values of sea surface temperature (SST) that occurred at various sites across the Earth during a brief period of the mid-Piacenzian
PRISM late Pliocene (Piacenzian) alkenone - derived SST data
This dataset collects sea surface temperature data generated through alkenone analysis of late Pliocene sediments collected from cores and outcrops
Mid-piacenzian of the north Atlantic Ocean
The Piacenzian Age (Pliocene) represents a past climate interval within which frequency and magnitude of environmental changes during a period of past global warmth can be analyzed, climate models can be tested, and results can be placed in a context to better prepare for future change. Here we focus on the North Atlantic region, incorporating new...
Dowsett, Harry J.; Robinson, Marci M.; Foley, Kevin M.; Herbert, Timothy D.; Otto-Bliesner, Bette L.; Spivey, Whittney
PRISM marine sites—The history of PRISM sea surface temperature estimation
For more than three decades, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Pliocene Research, Interpretation and Synoptic Mapping (PRISM) Project has compiled paleoenvironmental data with the goal of reconstructing global conditions during the warm interval in the middle of the Piacenzian Age of the Pliocene Epoch (about 3.3 to 3.0 million years ago). Because...
Robinson, Marci M.; Dowsett, Harry J.; Foley, Kevin M.; Riesselman, Christina R. PRISM late Pliocene (Piacenzian) alkenone - derived SST data
Dowsett, Harry J.; Foley, Kevin M.; Robinson, Marci M.; Herbert, Timothy D. A simple rubric for Stratigraphic Fidelity (β) of paleoenvironmental time series
The Pliocene, specifically the late Pliocene, has been a focus of paleoclimate research formore than 25 years. Synoptic regional and global reconstructions along with high-resolution time-series have produced nuanced conceptual models of paleoenvironmental conditions and enhanced our understanding of climate variability and climate sensitivity...
Dowsett, Harry J.; Robinson, Marci M.; Foley, Kevin M. The PRISM4 (mid-Piacenzian) paleoenvironmental reconstruction
The mid-Piacenzian is known as a period of relative warmth when compared to the present day. A comprehensive understanding of conditions during the Piacenzian serves as both a conceptual model and a source for boundary conditions as well as means of verification of global climate model experiments. In this paper we present the PRISM4...
Dowsett, Harry J.; Dolan, Aisling M.; Rowley, David; Moucha, Robert; Forte, Alessandro; Mitrovica, Jerry X.; Pound, Matthew; Salzmann, Ulrich; Robinson, Marci M.; Chandler, Mark; Foley, Kevin M.; Haywood, Alan M. A global planktic foraminifer census data set for the Pliocene ocean
This article presents data derived by the USGS Pliocene Research, Interpretation and Synoptic Mapping (PRISM) Project. PRISM has generated planktic foraminifer census data from core sites and outcrops around the globe since 1988. These data form the basis of a number of paleoceanographic reconstructions focused on the mid-Piacenzian Warm Period (3...
Dowsett, Harry J.; Robinson, Marci M.; Foley, Kevin M.
Coastal-change and glaciological map of the Amery Ice Shelf area, Antarctica: 1961–2004
Reduction in the area and volume of Earth’s two polar ice sheets is intricately linked to changes in global climate and to the resulting rise in sea level. Measurement of changes in area and mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet was given a very high priority in recommendations by the Polar Research Board of the National Research Council. On the...
Foley, Kevin M.; Ferrigno, Jane G.; Swithinbank, Charles; Williams, Richard S.; Orndorff, Audrey L. The PRISM (Pliocene Palaeoclimate) reconstruction: Time for a paradigm shift
Global palaeoclimate reconstructions have been invaluable to our understanding of the causes and effects of climate change, but single-temperature representations of the oceanic mixed layer for data–model comparisons are outdated, and the time for a paradigm shift in marine palaeoclimate reconstruction is overdue. The new paradigm in marine...
Dowsett, Harry J.; Robinson, Marci M.; Stoll, Danielle K.; Foley, Kevin M.; Johnson, Andrew L. A.; Williams, Mark; Riesselman, Christina
State of the Earth’s cryosphere at the beginning of the 21st century : glaciers, global snow cover, floating ice, and permafrost and periglacial environments: Chapter A in Satellite image atlas of glaciers of the world
This chapter is the tenth in a series of 11 book-length chapters, collectively referred to as “this volume,” in the series U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1386, Satellite Image Atlas of Glaciers of the World. In the other 10 chapters, each of which concerns a specific glacierized region of Earth, the authors used remotely...
Williams, Richard S.; Ferrigno, Jane G.; Williams, Richard S.; Ferrigno, Jane G. Assessing confidence in Pliocene sea surface temperatures to evaluate predictive models
In light of mounting empirical evidence that planetary warming is well underway, the climate research community looks to palaeoclimate research for a ground-truthing measure with which to test the accuracy of future climate simulations. Model experiments that attempt to simulate climates of the past serve to identify both similarities and...
Dowsett, Harry J.; Robinson, Marci M.; Haywood, Alan M.; Hill, Daniel J.; Dolan, Aisling M.; Stoll, Danielle K.; Chan, Wing-Le; Abe-Ouchi, Ayako; Chandler, Mark A.; Rosenbloom, Nan A.; Otto-Bliesner, Bette L.; Bragg, Fran J.; Lunt, Daniel J.; Foley, Kevin M.; Riesselman, Christina R.
Computational considerations for collecting and using data in the equidistant cylindrical map projection and the bounds of sampling geographic data at progressively higher resolution
The Equidistant Cylindrical Map projection is popular with digital modelers and others for storing and processing worldwide data sets because of the simple association of latitude and longitude to cell values or pixels in the resulting grid. This projection does not accurately display area, and the diminished geographic area represented by cells...
Foley, Kevin M. Sea surface temperatures of the mid-Piacenzian Warm Period: A comparison of PRISM3 and HadCM3
It is essential to document how well the current generation of climate models performs in simulating past climates to have confidence in their ability to project future conditions. We present the first global, in-depth comparison of Pliocene sea surface temperature (SST) estimates from a coupled ocean–atmosphere climate model experiment and a SST...
Dowsett, Harry J.; Haywood, A.M.; Valdes, P.J.; Robinson, Marci M.; Lunt, D.J.; Hill, D.J.; Stoll, D.K.; Foley, Kevin M.