Randall Collander
Research Associate III, Meteorologist
Office: D.Skaggs Resch. Cntr., Rm 2B502
Phone: (303) 497-5960
Fax: (303) 497-7262
Email:
Mailing Address:
Randall Collander
Global Systems Division/Forecast Applications Branch
325 Broadway
Boulder, CO  80305-3328
Biography

Randall Collander received his BS degrees in Meteorology and Mathematics from Metropolitan State College of Denver (1992).   His areas of interest include surface and atmospheric meteorological observing systems, observational data quality control, extreme precipitation events, balloon-borne atmospheric sampling and mesoscale severe weather events.  He began his professional career with NOAA’s Forecast Systems Laboratory as an undergraduate and continues working for FSL (now the Global Systems Division of the Earth System Research Laboratory). Accomplishments include development of the quality-control scheme utilized by the National Climatic Data Center in their Hourly Precipitation Dataset observation data and a balloon and unmanned vehicle trajectory prediction algorithms currently used by the US military. His work to graphically analyze and display numerical output for the two WRF model cores (ARW and NMM) was critically important to core selection for the WRF Rapid Refresh which will soon replace the Rapid Update Cycle (RUC) model for operational forecasting.  Mr. Collander joined CIRA in 1995 as a Research Associate, where he continues his work developing and improving the automated hourly and daily precipitation quality-control algorithms in use at ESRL and the Environmental Modeling Center of NCEP.

Recent Work
Figure

Above: Stage II analyses of hourly precipitation for 2300-0000 UTC 26-27 June 2005.  Panel A is the analysis using QC’d stations, Panel B is the present operational analysis, manually Qc’d but without additional new QC, and Panel C is the difference (A — B).  Differences result from removal of potentially anomalous precipitation observations, and in one area, erroneously passing a malfunctioning gauge, supporting the need for additional case studies and algorithm adjustment.  The Environmental Modeling Center (EMC) of NOAA’s National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) is using the precipitation quality-control scheme operationally for model precipitation verification studies.  Recent work has fine-tuned the algorithm to reduce occurrences of classifying erroneous observations as “good,” and vice-versa.  The QC algorithm is also being used in rainfall studies for the Hydrometeorological Testbed (HMT) study presently focused on northern California.

Selected Publications

Brown, J.M., S.Benjamin, T.G. Smirnova, G.A. Grell, L.R. Bernardet, L.B. Nance, R.S. Collander, and C.W. Harrop, 2007: Rapid Refresh Core Test aspects of WRF-ARW and WRF-NMM performance relevant to the Rapid Refresh application.  22nd Weather Analysis and Forecasting Conf., Park City, Utah, Amer. Meteor. Soc.

Collander, R.S., E.I. Tollerud, B.D. Jamison, F. Caracena, C. Lu, and S.E. Koch, 2006: Turbulence in MCS anvils: Observations and analyses from BAMEX. 12th Conf. on Aviation, Range, and Aerospace Meteorology (ARAM), Atlanta, GA, Amer. Meteor. Soc.

Collander, R.S. and C.M.I.R. Girz, 2004: Evaluation of balloon trajectory forecast routines for GAINS. Advances in Space Research 33, 1727-1731.

Moninger, W.R., M.F. Barth, S.G. Benjamin, R.S. Collander, B.D. Jamison, P.A. Miller, B.E. Schwartz, T.L. Smith, and E. Szoke, 2006: TAMDAR evaluation work at the Forecast Systems Laboratory: An overview. 10th Symposium on Integrated Observing and Assimilation Systems for Atmosphere, Oceans, and Land Surface (IOAS-AOLS), Atlanta, GA, Amer. Meteor. Soc.

Tollerud, E.I., F. Caracena, D.L. Bartels, S.E. Koch, B.D. Jamison, R.M. Hardesty, B.J. McCarty, W.A. Brewer, R.S. Collander, S. Albers, B. Shaw, D.Birkenheuer, and C. Kiemie, 2005: Mesoscale moisture transport by the low-level jet during the IHOP field experiment. 11th Conf. on Mesoscale Processes, Albuquerque, NM, Amer. Meteor. Soc.

Tollerud, E.I., R.S. Collander, Y. Lin, and A. Loughe, 2005: On the performance, impact, and liabilities of automated precipitation gauge screening algorithms. 21st Conf. on Weather Analysis and Forecasting, Washington, D.C., Amer. Meteor. Soc.

Tollerud, E.I., M.W. Govett and R.S. Collander, 1995: Producing a CD-ROM of Historical Hydrologic Data (including Hourly Precipitation) for Research Use at National Weather Service Offices. FSL Forum, Forecast Systems Laboratory, December 1995, 42-45.

Tollerud, E.I., F. Caracena, S.E. Koch, B.D. Jamison, R.M. Hardesty, B.J. McCarthy, C. Kiemle, R.S. Collander, D.L. Bartels, S. Albers, B.Shaw, D.L. Birkenheuer, and W.A. Brewer, 2008:  Mesoscale moisture transport by the low-level jet during the IHOP Field Experiment.  Mon. Wea. Rev. In publication.

General Themes
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