Professional Experience

Steve Albers
5116 Williams Fork Trail, Apt. 105
Boulder, CO 80301-3413
1-303-530-5430

EDUCATION:

                                - Sewanhaka High School, Floral Park, NY (1973).
       B.S. Physics             - State Univ. of New York at Albany (1978).
       M.S. Atmospheric Science - University of Oklahoma (1986).
                                - Passed Ph.D. qualifying exam.

EXPERIENCE:

2018 to Present: Global Cloud Analysis Lead Scientist (Spire Global)
Initial development of an improved cloud analysis based on previous work done at NOAA. Analysis of cloud and related environmental variables utilizes geosynchronous satellite visible and infrared radiance data, along with standard meteorological data. The analysis has been further optimized for global application to augment the regional capability. The resulting three-dimensional fields are used for model initialization and three-dimensional visualization. Cross-team collaboration on potential plans for some cloud-related datasets for use in data assimilation and machine learning applications.

1986 to 2018: Senior Research Associate - NOAA/OAR/ESRL and CIRA* (Earth System Research Laboratory)
Extensive development and implementation of meteorological analyses of wind, clouds, temperature, and microphysical variables for the Local Analysis and Prediction System and more recently the High Resolution Rapid Refresh. This includes a variety of remotely sensed and in-situ data is ingested, quality controlled, and merged in the analyses. The analyses are used for initializing NWP models and are displayed on workstations for nowcasting. Installation of analysis systems at ESRL and other government agencies and private companies. Satellite image processing algorithms, including photometric correction that depends on viewing geometry.

Ray-tracing algorithm was developed to simulate realistic all-sky images from NWP model analysis/forecast output. This operates from vantage points between ground level and outer space. The full-color simulated images are being compared with actual imagery from all-sky cameras and images from the DSCOVR satellite. This serves the purpose of communication of model output, model validation, and can act as a forward model to assimilation of images into models. Image processing to produce global planetary, meteorological, and geophysical maps using IDL and other display software for NOAA's Science On A Sphere TM (SOS). Gave numerous SOS presentations. Meteorological workstation and World Wide Web display software. Development of radar Doppler velocity de-aliasing algorithm. Testing and evaluation of algorithms to be run on the Next Generation Weather Radar (NEXRAD). 40+ journal and conference publications. CIRA/LAPB personnel supervisor.
* (jointly affiliated with the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA) at Colorado State University)

1983 to 1986: Research Assistant - School of Meteorology, University of Oklahoma
Research Topic: Development of a statistical severe weather forecast package. Teaching Assistant for Meteorological Measurements. Storm Chasing.

Summers 1980-1985: Field Meteorologist - North Dakota Cloud Modification Project. Directed hail suppression and rain enhancement cloud seeding with fleet of six aircraft utilizing ice nucleation seeding materials. Operated Enterprise WR-100 5cm weather radar.

1982 (Spring Semester): Adjunct Professor - Nassau Community College. Taught Numerical Analysis.

7/1976 to 4/1977: "Post" Viking Intern - Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Brown University. Image processing of Viking Mars Lander Images at JPL's Image Processing Laboratory as part of the Viking Lander Imaging Team. Helped maintain photo library. Meteorology Team data reduction.

Summer 1975: Optical Fabrication - A. Jaegers, Lynbrook NY. Ground telescope objectives and blocked prisms.


MISCELLANEOUS:

Programming in FORTRAN, IDL, LINUX/UNIX/VAX scripting, Perl, VICAR, BASIC, PASCAL, AND "C". AVS visualization. NCAR graphics. WWW development.

Published "Mutual Occultations of Planets, 1557-2230", SKY and TELESCOPE; March 1979. Accurate calculations of mutual planetary occultations (using numerical integration) led to the realization that Galileo prediscovered Neptune in 1613 as cited in SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN; December, 1980.

I enjoy observational astronomy with my 6" and 16" reflecting telescopes.

Other projects:

Image processing algorithm to smoothly combine total solar eclipse images of varying exposures. Featured in SKY and TELESCOPE, November 1994.

A general optical design program which applies non-linear optimization to a set of spot diagrams, which define performance, by automatically varying the optical configuration.

Lunar eclipse ray tracing model to simulate the appearance of the umbra.

Comet Tail Simulation

Light Pollution Modeling to produce a skyglow map of the United States

Journal and Conference Publications


Homepage: https://www.cira.colostate.edu/staff/albers-steve/

Email: Steven.Albers@colostate.edu