Meteorology alumnus, John G. W. Kelley, receives
GEMS Alumni Achievement Award

University Park, PA (October 17, 2007)

Dr. John G. W. Kelley

John was selected for this award because of his extraordinary career accomplishments in the development and implementation of several data and forecast systems that have advanced the marine coastal communities' ability to access and forecast environmental information.

Three critical efforts in particular have propelled John's career.
John while a Ph.D. student at Ohio State University assisted in the development of a prototype real-time numerical lake nowcast/forecast systems for the Great Lakes, a joint project between OSU and NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. This was the first coastal ocean forecast system developed and implemented semi-operationally for U.S. waters. For this effort, John and rest of the OSU-GLERL team won the American Meteorological Society's Special Award in 2001. While at OSU, he was a major participant in a joint project between GLERL, OSU, NCAR, and other federal agencies in coupling the Penn State/NCAR mesoscale weather prediction model with lake wave and circulation models for Lake Erie in real-time via an experimental NASA communication satellite. After completing his Ph.D. John help develop and implement a sea surface temperature data assimilation scheme for NWS’ operational Coastal Ocean Forecast System for the NW Atlantic Ocean while a postdoc at the NWS/NCEP Environmental Modeling Center. Afterwards John joined the National Ocean Service’s (NOS) and developed the Operational Data Acquisition and Analysis System (ODAAS) to support the real-time atmospheric, oceanographic, and hydrologic data requirements of experimental and operational NOS numerical oceanographic forecast modeling systems for U.S. estuaries and coastal waters. The ODAAS serves as the lifeline to NOS forecast modeling systems. John’s significant efforts for developing data and forecast systems that advanced NOAA’s capabilities to provide physical information on the present and short-term future state of lakes, coasts, and estuaries were recognized with a Presidential Early Career Award in 2000, the nation's highest award for young scientists. John reinvested his award money to jump start a second project, which is called nowCOAST.

John created and led a team of scientists to develop nowCOAST, a GIS-based web mapping portal to real-time coastal observations and NOAA forecasts (http://www.nowcoast.noaa.gov). This robust, Internet application provides easy and centralized access to online oceanographic, meteorological, hydrologic, and water quality real-time data and NOAA forecast information for all U.S. coastal regions. NowCOAST provides comprehensive, spatially referenced access to real-time data and forecasts from 12,000 locations nationwide, integrating across NOAA offices and other Federal, state and academic institutions. Scientists and the public can access information needed for shipping, recreation, coastal monitoring, research, environmental prediction, and hazard assessment and response for all U.S. Coastal regions. This is a highly admired, well-used tool with over two million hits monthly that directly supports NOAA and Department of Commerce missions. The nowCOAST portal is considered to be a model for the future, global Integrated Ocean Observing System. For this effort John received a U.S. Department of Commerce Bronze Award in 2004.

During 2005 and 2006, he led the technical modification and transition to operations of the Great Lakes Operational Forecast System (GLOFS) at NOS. He developed the necessary real-time observational data at NCEP to provide real-time surface meteorological observations for the GLOFS surface meteorological interpolation scheme. He has also led the evaluation GLOFS forecast guidance for all the Great lakes and the rewriting of evaluation statistics for lakes in terms of NOS standards. This effort resulted in all five Great Lake models become operational in fiscal year 2006, a major NOS milestone.

John also holds another U.S. Department of Commerce Bronze Award (2001) for a joint project between NWS, NOS, and OAR "for advancing the production and delivery of nowcasts and short term forecasts of coastal atmospheric and oceanographic information for the Chesapeake Bay." In 2002 he was part of the team which received he National Oceanographic Partnership Program's Award for Excellence in Partnering for the Coastal Marine Demonstration project, a joint project between several federal agencies, academia, and the private sector.

John received two degrees from Penn State; his M.S. in Meteorology in 1986 and a Master's degree in Public Administration in 1989. He received his Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences from Ohio State University in 1995 and a B.A. in Geography/Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Rhode Island in 1981. John served as a member of the AMS' STAC Committee on Coast Environment from 2002-2005 and he is a member of the American Meteorological Society, the National Weather Association, and has affiliations with the Mt. Washington Observatory.

John will visit the Department of Meteorology from October 24-28 to receive the GEMS Award, talk to a meteorology class, and present a PSUBAMS/CWS special seminar on Friday, October 26 at 1:30 p.m. in 112 Walker Building titled"NOAA's GIS Web Mapping Portal to Real-Time Coastal Observations and Forecasts."