Meteorologists study the Earth's atmosphere and its interactions with the Earth's surface, the oceans and the biosphere. Their knowledge of applied mathematics and physics allows them to understand the full range of atmospheric phenomena, from snowflake formation to the Earth's general climate. , 2006. Research meteorologists are specialized in areas like:
Climatology to estimate the various components of the climate and their variability to determine, for example, the wind potential of a given region or global warming.
Air quality where they are interested in the phenomena of transport, transformation and dispersion of atmospheric pollutants and may be called upon to design scenarios for the reduction of polluting emissions.
Atmospheric convection to refine knowledge of the structure and forces involved in tropical cyclones, thunderstorms and mid-latitude storms;
Meteorologists can also be consultants for private firms in studies for projets involving weather phenomena such as windfarms, tornado protection, etc... They finally can be weather presenters in the medias.
Training
To become a meteorologist, a person must take at least one undergraduate university degree in meteorology. For researchers, this training continues with higher education, while for forecasters, each country has its own way of training. For example, the Meteorological Service of Canada and UK Met Office have their own training course after the university, while Météo-France takes charge of all the training once the person has passed the entrance examination at the National School of Meteorology after High School. In United States, forecasters are hired by the National Weather Service or private firms after university, and receive on-the-job training, while researchers are hired according to their expertise. In some countries there is a third way for weather presenters, such as in United States, where graduate in meteorology and communication at the college or university level can be hired by medias.
Some known meteorologists
Francis Beaufort, inventor of the wind scale that bears his name.
Jacob Bjerknes, son of the former, who attended the Norwegian school and who studied the El Niño phenomenon. He linked the latter to the Southern Oscillation.
James Stagg, RAF meteorologist who was responsible for three teams of meteorologists predicting a lull for June 6, 1944, which allowed the landings in Normandy.
Carl-Gustaf Rossby, was a swedish meteorologist foremost known for identifying and charactherizing the waves seen in Jet streams as well as in the westerlies in the earth's atmosphere, known as Rossby Waves, or "Planetary waves". Rossby was featured on the cover of Time on December 17, 1956, for his contributions to the field. The highest award of the American Meteorological Society, of which Rossby was also a recipient in 1953, is named after him.
Josh Wurman, is a researcher in meteorology, for instance as a lead scientist of the VORTEX2 project. He is also a key meteorologist on the Discovery Channels Storm Chasers series.
