Dr. Xuejin Zhang
Information Technology Specialist
Hurricane Research Division
phone: 305-361-4558
fax: 305-361-4402
xuejin.zhang@noaa.gov
NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory
4301 Rickenbacker Causeway
Miami, FL 33149
Professional InterestsDr. Zhang is an associate scientist employed in AOML's Hurricane Research Division and the Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies (CIMAS), a cooperative institute of NOAA's AOML, at the University of Miami. His primary research interest is numerical model development and application. He studies tropical cyclone forecast and simulation, land-air-sea interaction, regional climate, data quality control and homogenization, and parallel computing during his more than two-decade career. His expertises are on numerical algorithm, atmospheric dynamics, and model initialization.
Dr. Zhang received a B.S. in Climatology from Nanjing Institute of Meteorology, now known as Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, in China (1991), M.S. in Synoptic Dynamics from Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences (1996), and Ph.D. in Atmosheric Science from the North Carolina State University (2007). He is a member of the American Meteorological Society (AMS).
Current Research Projects
Recently Published Peer-Reviewed Papers- Alaka, G.J. Jr., J.A. Sippel, Z. Zhang, H.-S Kim, F. Marks, V. Tallapragada, A. Mehra, X. Zhang, A. Poyer, and S.G. Gopalakrishnan. Lifetime performance of the operational Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting (HWRF) model for North Atlantic tropical cyclones. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-23-0139.1 2024
- Hazelton, A., G.J. Alaka, Jr., L. Gramer, W. Ramstrom, S. Ditchek, X. Chen, B. Liu, Z. Zhang, L. Zhu, W. Wang, B. Thomas, J.H. Shin, C.-K. Wang, H.-S. Kim, X. Zhang, A. Mehra, F. Marks, and S. Gopalakrishnan. 2022 real-time hurricane forecasts from an experimental version of the Hurricane Analysis and Forecast System (HAFSV0.3S) Frontiers in Earth Science, 11:1264969, https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2023.1264969 2023
- Alaka, G.J. Jr., X. Zhang, and S.G. Gopalakrishnan. High-definition hurricanes: Improving forecasts with storm-following nests. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 103(3):E680-E703, https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-20-0134.1 2022
- Alaka, G.J. Jr., J.A. Sippel, Z. Zhang, H.-S Kim, F. Marks, V. Tallapragada, A. Mehra, X. Zhang, A. Poyer, and S.G. Gopalakrishnan. Lifetime performance of the operational Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting (HWRF) model for North Atlantic tropical cyclones. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-23-0139.1 2024
- Hazelton, A., G.J. Alaka, Jr., L. Gramer, W. Ramstrom, S. Ditchek, X. Chen, B. Liu, Z. Zhang, L. Zhu, W. Wang, B. Thomas, J.H. Shin, C.-K. Wang, H.-S. Kim, X. Zhang, A. Mehra, F. Marks, and S. Gopalakrishnan. 2022 real-time hurricane forecasts from an experimental version of the Hurricane Analysis and Forecast System (HAFSV0.3S) Frontiers in Earth Science, 11:1264969, https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2023.1264969 2023
- Alaka, G.J. Jr., X. Zhang, and S.G. Gopalakrishnan. High-definition hurricanes: Improving forecasts with storm-following nests. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 103(3):E680-E703, https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-20-0134.1 2022
- Hazelton, A., K. Gao, M. Bender, L. Cowan, G.J. Alaka Jr., A. Kaltenbaugh, L. Gramer, X. Zhang, L. Harris, T. Marchok, M. Morin, A. Mehra, Z. Zhang, B. Liu, and F. Marks. Performance of 2020 real-time Atlantic hurricane forecasts from high-resolution global-nested hurricane models: HAFS-globalnest and GFDL T-SHiELD. Weather and Forecasting, 37(1):143-161, https://doi.org/10.1175/WAF-D-21-0102.1 2022
- Leighton, H., R. Black, X. Zhang, and F.D. Marks. The relationship between reflectivity and rainfall rate from rain size distributions observed in hurricanes. Geophysical Research Letters, 49(23):e2022GL099332, https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL099332 2022
- Hazelton, A., Z. Zhang, B. Liu, J. Dong, G. Alaka, W. Wang, T. Matchok, A. Menra, S. Gopalakrishnan, X. Zhang, M. Bender, V. Tallapragada, and F. Marks. 2019 Atlantic hurricane forecasts from the Global-Nested Hurricane Analysis and Forecast System (HAFS): Composite statistics and key events. Weather and Forecasting, 36(2):519-538, https://doi.org/10.1175/WAF-D-20-0044.1 2021
- Dong, J., B. Liu, Z. Zhang, W. Wang, A. Mehra, A.T. Hazelton, H.R. Winterbottom, L. Zhu, K. Wu, C. Zhang, V. Tallapragada, X. Zhang, S. Gopalakrishnan, and F. Marks. The evaluation of real-time Hurricane Analysis and Forecast System (HAFS) Stand-Alone Regional (SAR) model performance in 2019 Atlantic hurricane season. Atmosphere, 11(6):617, https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11060617 2020
- Gopalakrishnan, S., D. Koch, S. Upadhayay, M. DeMaria, F. MARKS, E.N. Rappaport, A. Mehra, V. Tallapragada, Y. Jung, G. Alaka, C. Alexander, M. Bender, L. Bernardet, M. Biswas, T. Black, M. Brennan, J. Cangialosi, J. Dong, R. Dunlap, M. Ek, J.L. Franklin, L. Gramer, G. Hallliwell, L. Harris, A. Hazelton, J.S. Hilderbrand, E. Kalina, H.S. Kim, P. Kucera, N. Lett, B. Liu, T. Marchok, P. McCaslin, K. Musgrave, L. Nance, K. Newman, M. Onderlinde, A. Penny, W. Ramstrom, J. Sippel, R. Torn, X. Wang, W. Wang, J. Whitaker, H. Winterbottom, D.A. Zelinsky, F. Zhang, C. Zhang, X. Zhang, Z. Zhang, and L. Zhu. 2019 Hurricane Forecast Improvement Project R&D activities summary: Recent results and operational implementation. HFIP Technical Report, HFIP2020-1, 45 pp., https://doi.org/10.25923/qzd3-m787 2020
- Hazelton, A.T., X. Zhang, S. Gopalakrishnan, W. Ramstrom, F. Marks, and J.A. Zhang. High-resolution ensemble HFV3 forecasts of Hurricane Michael (2018): Rapid intensification in shear. Monthly Weather Review, 148(5):2009-2032, https://doi.org/10.1175/MWR-D-19-0275.1 2020
- Leighton, H., R. Black, X. Zhang, F.D. Marks, and S.G. Gopalakrishnan. Ice particle size distribution from composites of microphysics observations collected in tropical cyclones. Geophysical Research Letters, 47(15):e2020GL088762, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL088762 2020
- Liu, Q., X. Zhang, M. Tong, Z. Zhang, B. Liu, W. Wang, L. Zhu, B. Zhang, X. Xu, S. Trahan, L. Bernardet, A. Mehra, and V. Tallapragada. Vortex initialization in the NCEP operational hurricane models. Atmosphere, 11(9):968, https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11090968 2020
- Alaka, G.J., X. Zhang, S.G. Gopalakrishnan, Z. Zhang, F.D. Marks, and R. Atlas. Track uncertainty in high-resolution ensemble forecasts of Hurricane Joaquin. Weather and Forecasting, 34(6):1889-1908, https://doi.org/10.1175/WAF-D-19-0028.1 2019
- Zhang, J.A., F.D. Marks, J.A. Sippel, R.F. Rogers, X. Zhang, S.G. Gopalakrishnan, Z. Zhang, and V. Tallapragada. Evaluating the impact of improvement in the horizontal diffusion parameterization on hurricane prediction in the operational Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting (HWRF) model. Weather and Forecasting, 33(1):317-329, https://doi.org/10.1175/WAF-D-17-0097.1 2018
- Alaka, G.J., X. Zhang, S.G. Gopalakrishnan, S.B. Goldenberg, and F.D. Marks. Performance of basin-scale HWRF tropical cyclone track forecasts. Weather and Forecasting, 32(3):1253-1271, https://doi.org/10.1175/WAF-D-16-0150.1 2017
- Zhang, X., S.G. Gopalakrishnan, S. Trahan, T.S. Quirino, Q. Liu, Z. Zhang, G. Alaka, and V. Tallapragada. Representing multiple scales in the Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting modeling system: Design of multiple sets of movable multi-level nesting and the basin-scale HWRF forecast verification. Weather and Forecasting, 31(6):2019-2034, https://doi.org/10.1175/WAF-D-16-0087.1 2016
- Aberson, S.D., A. Aksoy, K.J. Sellwood, T. Vukicevic, and X. Zhang. Assimilation of high-resolution tropical cyclone observations with an ensemble Kalman filter using HEDAS: Evaluation of 2008-2011 HWRF forecasts. Monthly Weather Review, 143(2):511-523, https://doi.org/10.1175/MWR-D-14-00138.1 2015
- Bernardet, L., V. Tallapragada, S. Bao, S. Trahan, Y. Kwon, Q. Liu, M. Tong, M. Biswas, T. Brown, D. Stark, L. Carson, R. Yablonsky, E. Uhlhorn, S. Gopalakrishnan, X. Zhang, T. Marchok, B. Kuo, and R. Gall. Community support and transition of research to operations for the Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting model. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 96(6):953-960, https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-13-00093.1 2015
- Goldenberg, S.B., S.G. Gopalakrishnan, V. Tallapragada, T. Quirino, F. Marks, S. Trahan, X. Zhang, and R. Atlas. The 2012 triply-nested, high-resolution operational version of the Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting System (HWRF): Track and intensity forecast verifications. Weather and Forecasting, 30(3):710-729, https://doi.org/10.1175/WAF-D-14-00098.1 2015
- Quirino, T.S., J. Delgado, and X. Zhang. Improving the scalability of a hurricane forecast system in mixed-parallel environments. Proceedings, 16th IEEE International Conference on High Performance Computing and Communications, Paris, France, August 20-22, 2014. IEEE Computer Society, 276-281, 2015
- Zhang, D.-L., L. Zhu, X. Zhang, and V. Tallapragada. Sensitivity of idealized hurricane intensity and structures under varying background flows and initial vortex intensities to different vertical resolutions in HWRF. Monthly Weather Review, 143(3):914-932, https://doi.org/10.1175/MWR-D-14-00102.1 2015
- Zhu, P., Z. Zhu, S. Gopalakrishnan, R. Black, F.D. Marks, V. Tallapragada, J.A. Zhang, X. Zhang, and C. Gao. Impact of subgrid-scale processes on eyewall replacement cycle of tropical cyclones in HWRF system. Geophysical Research Letters, 42(22):10027-10036, https://doi.org/10.1002/2015GL066436 2015
- Gall, R., F. Toepfer, F. Marks, E.N. Rappaport, A. Aksoy, S. Aberson, J.W. Bao, M. Bender, S. Benjamin, L. Bernardet, M. Biswas, B. Brown, J. Cangialosi, C. Davis, M. DeMaria, J. Doyle, M. Fiorino, J. Franklin, I. Ginis, S. Gopalakrishnan, T. Hamill, R. Hodur, H.S. Kim, J. Knaff, T. Krishnamurti, P. Kucera, Y. Kwon, W. Lapenta, N. Lett, S. Lord, T. Marchok, E. Mifflin, M. Morin, K. Musgrave, L. Nance, C. Reynolds, V. Tallapragada, H. Tolman, R. Torn, G. Vandenberghe, T. Vukicevic, X. Wang, Y. Weng, J. Whittaker, R. Yablonsky, D.-L. Zhang, F. Zhang, J. Zhang, X. Zhang, and D.A. Delinsky. Hurricane Forecast Improvement Project: 2013 HFIP R&D activities summary—Recent results and operational implementation. HFIP Technical Report, HFIP2014-2, 50 pp., 2014
- Aksoy, A., S.D. Aberson, T. Vukicevic, K.J. Sellwood, S. Lorsolo, and X. Zhang. Assimilation of high-resolution tropical cyclone observations with an ensemble Kalman filter using NOAA/AOML/HRD’s HEDAS: Evaluation of the 2008-2011 vortex-scale analyses. Monthly Weather Review, 141(6):1842-1865, https://doi.org/10.1175/MWR-D-12-00194.1 2013
- Gopalakrishnan, S.G., F. Marks, J.A. Zhang, X. Zhang, J.-W. Bao, and V. Tallapragada. A study of the impacts of vertical diffusion on the structure and intensity of tropical cyclones using the high resolution HWRF system. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 70(2):524-541, https://doi.org/10.1175/JAS-D-11-0340.1 2013
- Rogers, R.F., S.D. Aberson, A. Aksoy, B. Annane, M. Black, J.J. Cione, N. Dorst, J. Dunion, J.F. Gamache, S.B. Goldenberg, S.G. Gopalakrishnan, J. Kaplan, B.W. Klotz, S. Lorsolo, F.D. Marks, S.T. Murillo, M.D. Powell, P.D. Reasor, K.J. Sellwood, E.W. Uhlhorn, T. Vukicevic, J.A. Zhang, and X. Zhang. NOAA’s Hurricane Intensity Forecasting Experiment (IFEX): A progress report. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 94(6):859-882, https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-12-00089 2013
- Xu, H., X. Zhang, and X. Xu. Impact of Tropical Storm Bopha on the intensity change of Supertyphoon Saomai in the 2006 typhoon season. Advances in Meteorology, 2013:487010, 13 pp., https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/487010 2013
- Gopalakrishnan, S.G., S. Goldenberg, T. Quirino, F. Marks, X. Zhang, K.-S. Yeh, R. Atlas, and V. Tallapragada. Towards improving high-resolution numerical hurricane forecasting: Influence of model horizontal grid resolution, initialization, and physics. Weather and Forecasting, 27(3):647-666, https://doi.org/10.1175/WAF-D-11-00055.1 2012
- Laureano-Bozeman, M., D. Niyogi, S. Gopalakrishnan, F.D. Marks, X. Zhang, and V. Tallapragada. An HWRF-based ensemble assessment of the land surface feedback on the post-landfall intensification of Tropical Storm Fay (2008). Natural Hazards, 63(3):1543-1571, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-011-9841-5 2012
- Yeh, K.-S., X. Zhang, S.G. Gopalakrishnan, S. Aberson, R. Rogers, F.D. Marks, and R. Atlas. Performance of the experimental HWRF in the 2008 hurricane season. Natural Hazards, 63(3):1439-1449, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-011-9787-7 2012
- Gopalakrishnan, S.G., F. Marks, X. Zhang, J.-W. Bao, K.-S. Yeh, and R. Atlas. The experimental HWRF system: A study on the influence of horizontal resolution on the structure and intensity changes in tropical cyclones using an idealized framework. Monthly Weather Review, 139(6):1762-1784, https://doi.org/10.1175/2010MWR3535.1 2011
- Zhang, X., T. Quirino, K.-S. Yeh, S. Gopalakrishnan, F. Marks, S. Goldenberg, and S. Aberson. HWRFx: Improving hurricane forecasts with high-resolution modeling. Computing in Science and Engineering, 13(1):13-21, https://doi.org/10.1109/MCSE.2010.121 2011
Awards and Honors | | | | | | | 2013 | | NOAA Team Member of the Month (May 2013) | | NOAA
| | | | 2012 | | Certificate of Appreciation | | AOML
| | | | 2009 | | Certificate of Merit | | AOML
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