PSL Renewable Energy Team Members

Jian-Wen Bao Jian-Wen Bao is a NOAA research meteorologist on PSL's Forecast and Modeling Development Team. He received his M.S. in 1990 and Ph.D. in 1993 from the Department of Meteorology at The Pennsylvania State University. Bao's research focuses on the impact of air-sea interaction on tropical storm development. Recently, he has been responsible for developing and testing the physics component of the ESRL global model. He is working to develop an advanced 3-dimensional turbulent mixing scheme suitable for high-resolution wind and cloud prediction models that are required in renewable energy decision making.
Laura Bianco Laura Bianco is a CIRES research scientist on PSL's Boundary Layer Observations and Processes Team. She hold a BSc in Physics and earned her Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science from the University of L'Aquila in Italy, in 2002. She is also an Associate Editor for the Atmospheric Measurement Techniques Journal. Her research focuses at improving remote sensing observations in the boundary layer and study atmospheric processes in this layer of the atmosphere. She was involved in the WFIP campaign planning and data analysis and will be involved in WFIP2 as well.
Irina Djalalova Irina Djalalova is a CIRES research associate on PSL's Boundary Layer Observations and Processes Team. She holds a B.S. and M.S. in Physics, with specialization in Applied Mechanics, from Moscow State University, Russia, School of Mathematics and Mechanic. For many years she worked in the radar group of the NOAA Environment Technology Laboratory. She currently works in the renewable energy field, participating in all major projects including WFIP, WFIP2 and POWER. Her interests cover the validation and visualization of the observational data and corresponded models data by creating the on-going project web sites, including design, real-time management, quality control and analysis of the data.
no photo available Sara Michelson is a CIRES professional research assistant in PSL's Forecast Modeling Development Team. She received a B.S. in Meteorology in 1995 and a M.S. in Meteorology in 1998 from The Pennsylvania State University. Her research has focused on using physical process diagnosis to evaluate and develop physics parameterizations in numerical weather prediction models. She is currently evaluating microphysics parameterizations in mesoscale models for severe weather prediction. She has also worked on the evaluation and development of land-surface and atmospheric boundary layer parameterizations in arctic, tropical cyclone and air-quality modeling studies.
Jim Wilczak Jim Wilczak is a senior scientist on PSL's Boundary Layer Observations and Processes Team. His research includes remote sensing of the atmosphere, turbulence, ensemble forecasting, air-sea interaction, and forecasting for wind energy. He has received several NOAA distinguished authorship awards and has been an Associate Editor of the journal Boundary Layer Meteorology for the past 15 years. Most recently he was the technical lead for the DOE-sponsored Wind Forecast Improvement Project.