
Research Interests
Numerical model development and application.
Xuejin Zhang, Ph.D.
Meteorologist, Hurricane Research Division
305.361.4558
4301 Rickenbacker Causeway
Miami, Florida 33149
Dr. Xuejin Zhang is a Meteorologist employed in NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory’s Hurricane Research Division. 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 expertise is in numerical algorithms, atmospheric dynamics, model initialization, and microphysics parameterization. He is currently leading the NOAA’s Unified Forecast System (UFS) R2O Hurricane Application Team.
2007, Ph.D., Atmospheric Science, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC
1996, M.S., Synoptic Dynamics, Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, China
1991, B.S., Climatology, Nanjing Institute of Meteorology (now known as Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology), China
- 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 model (HWRF) for North Atlantic tropical cyclones. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 105(6):E932-E961, https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-23-0139.1 2024
Ref. 4396 - Kim, H.-S., B. Liu, B. Thomas, D. Rosen, W. Wang, A. Hazelton, Z. Zhang, X. Zhang, and A. Mehra. Ocean component of the first operational version of Hurricane Analysis and Forecast System: Evaluation of HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model and hurricane feedback forecasts. Frontiers in Earth Science, 12:1399409, https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2024.1399409 2024
Ref. 4439 - Ramstrom, W., X. Zhang, K. Ahern, and S. Gopalakrishnan. Implementation of storm-following nest for the next generation Hurricane Analysis Forecast System (HAFS). Frontiers in Earth Science, 12:1419233, https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2024.1419233 2024
Ref. 4457
2014 South Florida Federal Executive Board Federal Employee of the Year Award
For contributions toward the development of the advanced, high-resolution Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting (HWRF) model used operationally to provide forecast guidance to the National Hurricane Center.
May 2013 NOAA Team Member of the Month
For contributions in support of NOAAʼs Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting (HWRF) high resolution computer model.
2012 NOAA Federal Employee of the Year Award
For innovative work on the NCEP/EMC hurricane forecast model, leading to greatly improved hurricane track and intensity forecasts.