Xuejin Zhang

Research Interests

Numerical model development and application.

Xuejin Zhang, Ph.D.

Meteorologist, Hurricane Research Division

305.361.4558

Xuejin.Zhang@noaa.gov

4301 Rickenbacker Causeway
Miami, Florida 33149

About

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.

Current Work & CV

Current Work

Meteorologist, Hurricane Research Division

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Education

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

Publications

Yang, X., Zhang, X., & Zhang, J. A. Unique vertical characteristics of hydrometeors observed in the tropical cyclone outer rainband region. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 131, , https://doi.org/10.1029/2025JD045717 2026
Ref. 4603
Chen, J. H., Marchok, T., Bender, M., Gao, K., Gopalakrishnan, S., Harris, L., Hazelton, A., Liu, B., Mehra, A., Morin, M., Yang, F. L., Zhang, X. J., Zhang, Z. and Zhou, L. J. Closing the Gap-Hurricane Prediction Advances in the US FV3-Based Models Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 106(7), E1211-E1220., https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-24-0036.1 2025
Ref. 4524
Zhang, X., V. Tallapragada, Z. Zhang, and A. Mehra Tropical Cyclone Modeling and Prediction: Advances in Model Development and Its Applications Frontiers in Earth Science, 13, 1615811., https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2025.1615811 2025
Ref. 4526

View all Related Publications

Yang, X., Zhang, X., & Zhang, J. A. Unique vertical characteristics of hydrometeors observed in the tropical cyclone outer rainband region. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 131, , https://doi.org/10.1029/2025JD045717 2026
Ref. 4603
Chen, J. H., Marchok, T., Bender, M., Gao, K., Gopalakrishnan, S., Harris, L., Hazelton, A., Liu, B., Mehra, A., Morin, M., Yang, F. L., Zhang, X. J., Zhang, Z. and Zhou, L. J. Closing the Gap-Hurricane Prediction Advances in the US FV3-Based Models Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 106(7), E1211-E1220., https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-24-0036.1 2025
Ref. 4524
Zhang, X., V. Tallapragada, Z. Zhang, and A. Mehra Tropical Cyclone Modeling and Prediction: Advances in Model Development and Its Applications Frontiers in Earth Science, 13, 1615811., https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2025.1615811 2025
Ref. 4526
Zhu, P., Fung, K. Y., Zhang, X. J., Zhang, J. A., Bao, J. W., Wang, C. K., Liu, B., Zhang, Z., Harris, L., Gao, K., Yang, F. L., Han, J. G. and Wang, W. G. Toward a unified parameterization of three dimensional turbulent transport in high resolution numerical weather prediction models npj Climate and Atmospheric Science, 8(1), 223., https://doi.org/10.1038/s41612-025-01117-6 2025
Ref. 4577
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
Chen, J.-H., A. Clark, G. Ge, L. Harris, K. Hoogewind, A. Jenson, H. Lopez, J. Mouallem, B. Zavadoff, X. Zhang, and L. Zhou. 2022-2023 global-nest initiative activity summary: Recent results and future plan. NOAA Technical Memorandum, OAR-GFDL 2023-001, 13 pp., https://doi.org/10.25923/yx20-3k04 2023
Ref. 4411
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
Ref. 4331
Poyer, A., W. Komaromi, S. Gopalakrishnan, L. Wolf, F. Marks, G. Alaka Jr., J. Anderson, V. Tallapragada, M. Brennan, A. Mehra, X. Zhang, Z. Zhang, A. Hazelton, D.A. Zelinsky, J.L. Franklin, A. Aksoy, C. Alexander, M. Bender, L. Bernardet, M. Biswas, J. Cangialosi, M. DeMaria, R. Dunlap, M. Ek, G. Eosco, L. Gramer, L. Harris, J.S. Hilderbrand, E. Kalina, H.-S. Kim, P. Kucera, B. Liu, P. McCaslin, T. Marchok, J. Moskaitis, K. Musgrave, L. Nance, K. Newman, M. Onderlinde, W. Ramstrom, D. Rosen, J. Sims, J. Sippel, D. Stern, R. Torn, X. Wang, W. Wang, Y. Weng, B.C. Zachry, C. Zhang, M. Zhang, and L. Zhu. 2021-2022 HFIP R&D activities summary: Recent results and operational implementation. HFIP Technical Report, HFIP-2023-1, 73 pp., https://doi.org/10.25923/exgj-1n68 2023
Ref. 4413
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
Ref. 4037
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
Ref. 4041
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
Ref. 4205
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
Ref. 3925
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
Ref. 3809
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
Ref. 3876
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
Ref. 3782
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
Ref. 3835
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
Ref. 3853
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
Ref. 3726
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
Ref. 3490
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
Ref. 3407
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
Ref. 3328
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
Ref. 3067
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
Ref. 3068
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
Ref. 3099
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
Ref. 3089
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
Ref. 3091
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
Ref. 3205
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
Ref. 2970
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
Ref. 2850
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
Ref. 2814
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
Ref. 2862
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
Ref. 2851
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
Ref. 2688
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
Ref. 2712
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
Ref. 2714
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
Ref. 27
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
Ref. 109

Awards

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.