A Professional Prospectus:Or, How I Learned to Stop

Worrying and Love the Models

Ben HatchettM.S. Student

Division of Atmospheric SciencesDesert 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• 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

• Came to UNR to be in mountains, away from California chaos• Mackay School of Mines

– Excellent choice– Small classes, many opportunities for research and scholarships

• Studied Geography and Hydrogeology– People, Environments, Place, Space, Time, Rocks, and Water

Undergraduate Education

UNR was close to home, far from home, NOT a UC (everyone else)Mackay School of Mines

Good programs in Earth SciencesMajored in Geography, minor in HydrogeologyLots of freedom to pick and choose courseworkFrom environmental microbiology to dance criticism and

aestheticsSmall classes, lots of opportunities for research, scholarships, learn in productive but not competative environmentMany like-minded individuals who enjoyed academics as well as outdoor funGREAT CHOICE!

Why Reno?

Chamonix, Haute-Savoie, France3 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 BasinMotivation: 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:

• 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

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• 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