Remembering Tom Zapotocny

The University of Wisconsin and the atmospheric science community as a whole recently lost a valuable scientist. Tom Zapotocny, long time SSEC researcher and UW graduate, passed away on March 6. SSEC will honor Tom and his scientific work with a memorial symposium and luncheon on May 11.

According to Professor Don Johnson, a mentor and colleague, Tom became a “key player” in studies to ascertain the benefit of satellite data to numerical weather prediction models. While receiving funding for his satellite impact studies, Tom continued to work without financial support on a UW model during the evening and into the early hours of the morning. “Meteorology was his job, his hobby and his passion,” says Todd Schaack, a close coworker of Tom’s.

Tom began working with Professor Johnson as an undergraduate hourly employee in the late 1970s. In 1984, Tom earned his Masters in what was then the Meteorology Department. He completed work for his PhD in 1990.

After receiving his PhD, Tom joined with Brad Pierce, Fred Reames, and other scientists in developing the global UW Hybrid Model for the 1994 Antarctic Southern Hemisphere Ozone Experiment. Schaack and Allen Lenzen, both from SSEC and members of the original team, have continued to work with Tom on this model to cultivate futher applications for weather, climate and air quality predictions. In collaboration with Pierce and other scientists at NASA’s Langley Research Center, the team at SSEC combined the UW Hybrid Model with a chemical modeling system developed at NASA to create the Real-time Air Quality Modeling System.

Tom also became involved in studies to assess the impact of satellite data on the accuracy of numerical weather prediction. Working with NOAA scientist Paul Menzel, who connected Tom with researchers at the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), Tom began a project to add and remove different types of data from the initial conditions used by a prediction model to determine which products improve the quality of a forecast. Tom worked to demonstrate the benefits of using satellite data. He successfully published several papers about these studies and, most importantly, contributed to greatly expanded use of satellite measurements in the U.S. forecast models.

This data impact research extended to a strong collaboration with Jim Jung at the Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation. Together, Tom and Jung did the initial and significant subsequent work to integrate data from the MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) and the Atmospheric InfraRed Sensor (AIRS) into numerical weather prediction models. The results indicated substantial improvement in NCEP’s Global Forecast System. Over the last few years, Tom also worked closely with Li Bi, a graduate student, on further satellite data impact studies.

“He can give you insightful directions and also great help in details,” Bi says of working with Tom. “I’ve learned so much from him and really appreciated the chance to work with him.”

While engaged in several projects at SSEC, Tom continued to fine-tune the UW Hybrid Model on his own time. “Tom had the dream to make it his model and to make it successful,” Schaack says. Schaack described Tom’s basement as a small scale forecasting operation with computers everywhere and stacks of DVDs filled with data.

“He had all of his machines running our model all of the time,” Schaack says. “I don’t know anyone else who could keep track of all of that [data] and then draw it all together.”

“He worked among the hardest of all of us,” Professor Johnson says. Schaack adds “without a doubt.” His coworkers also remember Tom’s sense of humor and his love for football and hockey.

--Jen O’Leary



SSEC	Remembering Tom Zapotocny The University of Wisconsin and the atmospheric science community as a whole recently lost a valuable scientist. Tom Zapotocny, long time SSEC researcher and UW graduate, passed away on March 6. SSEC will honor Tom and his scientific work with a memorial symposium and luncheon on May 11. According to Professor Don Johnson, a mentor and colleague, Tom became a “key player” in studies to ascertain the benefit of satellite data to numerical weather prediction models. While receiving funding for his satellite impact studies, Tom continued to work without financial support on a UW model during the evening and into the early hours of the morning. “Meteorology was his job, his hobby and his passion,” says Todd Schaack, a close coworker of Tom’s. Tom began working with Professor Johnson as an undergraduate hourly employee in the late 1970s. In 1984, Tom earned his Masters in what was then the Meteorology Department. He completed work for his PhD in 1990. After receiving his PhD, Tom joined with Brad Pierce, Fred Reames, and other scientists in developing the global UW Hybrid Model for the 1994 Antarctic Southern Hemisphere Ozone Experiment. Schaack and Allen Lenzen, both from SSEC and members of the original team, have continued to work with Tom on this model to cultivate futher applications for weather, climate and air quality predictions. In collaboration with Pierce and other scientists at NASA’s Langley Research Center, the team at SSEC combined the UW Hybrid Model with a chemical modeling system developed at NASA to create the Real-time Air Quality Modeling System. Tom also became involved in studies to assess the impact of satellite data on the accuracy of numerical weather prediction. Working with NOAA scientist Paul Menzel, who connected Tom with researchers at the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), Tom began a project to add and remove different types of data from the initial conditions used by a prediction model to determine which products improve the quality of a forecast. Tom worked to demonstrate the benefits of using satellite data. He successfully published several papers about these studies and, most importantly, contributed to greatly expanded use of satellite measurements in the U.S. forecast models. This data impact research extended to a strong collaboration with Jim Jung at the Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation. Together, Tom and Jung did the initial and significant subsequent work to integrate data from the MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) and the Atmospheric InfraRed Sensor (AIRS) into numerical weather prediction models. The results indicated substantial improvement in NCEP’s Global Forecast System. Over the last few years, Tom also worked closely with Li Bi, a graduate student, on further satellite data impact studies. “He can give you insightful directions and also great help in details,” Bi says of working with Tom. “I’ve learned so much from him and really appreciated the chance to work with him.” While engaged in several projects at SSEC, Tom continued to fine-tune the UW Hybrid Model on his own time. “Tom had the dream to make it his model and to make it successful,” Schaack says. Schaack described Tom’s basement as a small scale forecasting operation with computers everywhere and stacks of DVDs filled with data. “He had all of his machines running our model all of the time,” Schaack says. “I don’t know anyone else who could keep track of all of that [data] and then draw it all together.” “He worked among the hardest of all of us,” Professor Johnson says. Schaack adds “without a doubt.” His coworkers also remember Tom’s sense of humor and his love for football and hockey. --Jen O’Leary


Last Updated: June 22, 2007	SSEC, 1225 W. Dayton Street, Madison, WI 53706, USA For questions or problems about this page, please contact SSEC Webmaster