Mohan Ramamurthy

Combining information technology with atmospheric science keeps this researcher on his toes

Mohan Ramamurthy (Photo by Carlye Calvin.)

To Mohan Ramamurthy, the best laboratory a scientist could ever have is the atmosphere itself. As he puts it, “The weather is always changing, presenting new challenges on a continual basis.”

Mohan is director of Unidata, a UOP program that works with educators and researchers to provide data and research tools for understanding and exploring the Earth sciences. The program also takes a lead in strengthening collaboration and cooperation in the Earth system science community. But that’s not all he does. Mohan also studies weather prediction, including snowfall and hurricanes, as a scientist in NCAR’s Mesoscale and Microscale Meteorology Division.

 “I’m a scientist who has always been passionate about applying computers to advance science education,” he explains. “An organization like UCAR, with its science and service mission, allows me to do both.”

He originally planned to be a physicist. While earning his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in high-energy physics at the University of Poona in India, Mohan began taking computer classes. “I’ve always been fascinated by computers,” he recalls. He also got a job with the India Meteorological Department and worked on an international field campaign to study the Indian monsoon.

The combination of computers and weather appealed to Mohan so much that he pursued it all the way from India to the University of Oklahoma, where he undertook a doctoral thesis on the analysis of data and modeling of disturbances associated with monsoons. He followed up his Ph.D. with a postdoctoral appointment in supercomputing at Florida State University.

His next move was to the University of Illinois, as a professor of atmospheric sciences. “I spent a lot of time there looking for ways to apply information technology to advance science education,” he notes. During his 16 years at the university, Mohan was involved in several innovative projects, including the launch of one of the first Web sites to provide real-time weather data and the creation of Weather World 2010. WW2010 is one of the most widely used weather education sites on the Web, averaging nearly a million hits a week from schools all over the world.

The most challenging part of his Unidata job? Bringing together data and tools from different geoscience disciplines. “Most of the significant challenges in our field are multidisciplinary in nature,” he explains. “But integrating the data and tools from different disciplines is difficult and poses a major challenge. The community looks to us for leadership on problems like this.

“The most rewarding part is making an impact on the community we serve with the tools, data, and service we provide,” he adds. “And the work we do benefits a very large community.” Unidata’s reach is now global, with more than 150 universities involved and projects on several continents.

Although his role at Unidata keeps him busy, Mohan still finds time to continue his meteorological research. One of his main interests is ensemble forecasting of local weather. In this method, scientists account for the uncertainties in a forecast by, for example, varying the initial weather conditions and then comparing the multiple predictions those conditions generated to create a composite forecast. Mohan applies ensemble forecasting to hurricanes as well, using the approach to forecast their track and intensity.

Mohan maintains that while atmospheric scientists have made considerable progress in forecasting and other areas over the years, they still have a lot of work ahead. “One of the things I always try to emphasize as a scientist and educator is that we all have a responsibility to document not only the what, where, and when, but also the how and why,” he says. “And that’s where it becomes most challenging and most interesting.”

• by Nicole Gordon
July 2004