A Professional Prospectus:
Or, How I Learned to Stop
Worrying and Love the Models
Ben Hatchett
M.S. Student
Division of Atmospheric Sciences
Desert Research Institute
University of Nevada, Reno
Outline
• How Place Matters
• Family
• Interest in
Weather
• Work History
• Why Reno
• Research
• Future Directions
Places Matter!
• Birthplace: Woodland, CA
• Raleigh, NC (2 years)
• Sacramento, CA (8 years)
• Davis, CA (8 years)
• Lake Tahoe, CA (5 years)
• Reno, NV (2 years)
• Les Praz de Chamonix, FR
(3 months)
Family
• Parents met in high school in Pomona, CA,
communicated via letters during college in the Bay
Area (old school!)
• Dad is a Agricultural Economist
– B.S. UC Berkeley
– MBA UC Riverside
– Ph.D UC Davis (Why we were there and ended up
there!
• Mom is a Family Nurse Practitioner
– B.S. San Francisco State
– M.S. UC San Francisco
– M.S. FNP UC San Francisco
• Younger brother is studying Computer Science at
Sacramento City College
How living in the center of the
Universe influenced me:
• Progressive, bike-oriented, academic and agricultural community
• Close to quality mountain activities (snowboard on Donner Summit
or Mountain bike in Auburn and still make half of school!)
Interest in
Weather
• 1997-98 El Nino Year, fell in love
with riding deep pow,
snowboarding changed my life
• Being obsessed with snow and rocks
and riding/climbing increasingly
exposed and radical routes meant
an understanding of weather was
critical to survival
Work
•
Rocknasium Climbing Gym
– Junior Climbing Team Coach
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Lab Assistant, Mercury
Biogeochemistry Analytical Lab
(UNR)
Forest Soils and Hydrology Research
Assistant (IERS, Inc)
Kayak Guide, Tahoe City Kayak
GIS/IT Intern, Truckee Meadows
Water Authority
GIS Analyst, Great Basin Landscape
Ecology Lab
Undergraduate
Education
UNR was close to home, far from home, NOT a UC (everyone else)
Mackay
Mines
• School
Came toof
UNR
to be in mountains, away from California chaos
• Mackay
School of Mines
Good programs
in Earth Sciences
– Excellent choice
Majored
in Geography, minor in Hydrogeology
– Small classes, many opportunities for research and scholarships
Lots ofGeography
freedom and
to pick
and choose coursework
• Studied
Hydrogeology
– People,
Environments, Place,
Space, Time, Rocks,
and Water
From
environmental
microbiology
to dance
criticism and aesthetics
Small classes, lots of opportunities for research, scholarships, learn in productive but
not competative environment
Many like-minded individuals who enjoyed academics as well as outdoor fun
GREAT CHOICE!
Why
Reno?
Chamonix, Haute-Savoie, France
3 months of madness in the mountains
The following pictures may cause dizziness
Professor Darko Koracin
• Ph.D. Atmospheric Physics, UNR, 1989
• M.S. Atmospheric Physics, University of Zagreb, Croatia, 1983
• B.S. Geophysics and Meteorology, University of Zagreb,
Croatia, 1979
• Research Professor at UNR since 1990
– Focused on high resolution mesoscale models (MM5/WRF, RAMS,
ARPS, COAMPS) to investigate atmospheric flows in complex
terrain and over the oceans, real-time weather forecasting, fog
formation, ocean upwelling
– Transport and dispersion modeling of air pollution
• Coupling of Lagrangian Random Particl Model to MM5
A Shoutout to the Computer Support
Team
Aka the folks who teach me everything!
• Travis McCord
– Master of computer programming
• Ramesh Vellore, Ph.D.
– Post-Doctoral Researcher
Thesis Work
“Statistical and Dynamical Downscaling of Global Climate Models to
Regional Scales for Hydroclimate Forecasting in the Great Basin
Motivation: Coupled AO-global
climate models attempt to assess
impacts of climate change on large
scale, computational constraints
limit resolution to 100km scale. To
understand impacts at regional
scale, output data must be scaled
down to smaller grid
Two methods:
Dynamical: Uses GCM boundary
conditions to drive regional climate
models (i.e. WRF). “Nested model”
Statistical: Evaluates observed
spatial and temporal relationships
between large-scale predictors and
local climate predictands.
Importance
• Water resources are critical to economy and biosphere of Arid West
• Climate change alters spatial and temporal distribution of:
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Water resources
Energy Sources (Water, Wind)
Vegetative communities
Animal habitats
• GCMs do not reflect local characteristics (topography, land use, NAM
Monsoon, etc) and certain large-scale variability (i.e. ENSO, ITCZ)
• Downscaling offers a glimpse into possible outcomes of future local climate
• My view: Probabilistic ensemble model approach at least offers insight to:
• How economists/policymakers can mitigate/adapt to future
• Operation of smaller-scale forcing functions of climate (regional/local scale)
• Goal: Couple downscaled climate information for next 100 years to
hydrologic and economic models for water resource projections
Cool things I (am/will be)learning and
using
– Unix/Linux shells
– Perl
– Fortran
– ENVI/IDL
– WRF
– CCSM3
– MatLab
– Minitab
–R
– Always more GIS!
For the future…
• Continue pushing the limit of extreme ski/snowboard
alpinism
– Linkups of technical rock climbs (ridges) to steep descents
– Visit Andes, Himalaya, Alaska Range, Canadian Rockies,
Kamchatka
• Ph.D in Interdisciplinary Earth Sciences Field
– Field of biogeophysics
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Plants: Biochemistry, Photosynthesis, Physiology
Microbiology: Little critters, big role in biogeochemical cycles!
More atmospheric science!
Gain better understanding transcendent-scale systems
– Employment
• Research Institute (National Lab, Academic, ect)
• Private Industry
• Marry trustfund model