Jerald Brotzge

Biography

Dr. Jerald A. Brotzge serves as the program manager for New York State Mesonet. His work encompasses the field of surface instrumentation, radar and storm-scale meteorology. Brotzge is responsible for the deployment, operations, and sustainability of the NYS Mesonet. The network will consist of a system of 125 interconnected surface weather stations deployed throughout New York designed to observe, record, and disseminate weather data, with as many as 17 super sites equipped with profiler technology to gather above-ground meteorological observations to support more accurate forecasting. NYS Mesonet is being designed to provide the high resolution data needed to support monitoring and predictive modeling of mesocale weather events (intermediate size meteorological phenomenon, usually less than 50 miles in horizontal range) and emerging weather-related risks, including rainfall and floods, heavy snow and ice, and high winds. Brotzge previously served as managing director and senior scientist for the Center for the Analysis and Prediction of Storms (CAPS) at the University of Oklahoma, and as a senior research scientist and director of NetRad Operations for CASA (Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere). He has taken part on various research projects with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Brotzge earned his Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in meteorology with a minor in math at St. Louis University in 1994. He then went on to earn his Master of Science (M.S.) in 1997 and his Ph.D. in 2000, both at the University of Oklahoma. His research focus as a student involved boundary-layer and land-surface instrumentation, climatology, and meteorological statistics.

Research Interest

Rader and storm-scale meteorology; weather technology