Curt Reutner works in the Data Management and Analysis Division of the Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission located in Austin, Texas, where he is an Air Pollution Meteorologist working on models used to forecast atmospheric conditions, such as ozone levels, in major metropolitan areas. He is currently involved in an effort to incorporate data they expect to receive from a new weather satellite earth station capable of providing an atmospheric profile in cloud free areas. This satellite will allow the Commission to model the atmosphere better, but will also necessitate reformation and testing of the current mathematical models to incorporate the data provided by the new satellite. Curt joined the Commission after working during this past summer with the same group. He is one of the few people in the country with expertise in this satellite, having worked with a forebearer of the system while in the U.S. Air Force during Desert Storm.
The models Curt's division work with incorporate data obtained from a variety of sites. Data is collected 365 days a year, with some sites producing data every five minutes. Part of his job is analysis of the results produced by the atmospheric models to determine if the output is reasonable. He must then determine if some input data is invalid and should be flagged so that it is not used by the model. He describes the process as a spiral, where the model is tweaked, run again, data checked, the model again tweaked, and the process run through again. With the addition of the new satellite data, the quantity and types of input data will increase and he predicts that incorporation of this information into the model will be a two year project.
Curt has a B.S. in mathematics from Emporia State University and has completed graduate level course work in physics, computer science, and meteorology. After leaving the USAF he taught in Texas for two years. He left teaching partly for financial reasons, but also because he did not find it as personally satisfying as he had hoped. When the opportunity to work on the satellite project arose, he jumped at the chance to work on something he enjoys and for which he has interest and expertise. He finds a wide range of mathematics and physics courses useful in his work in meteorology, but in particular the study of vectors and spherical geometry. While putting together presentations he occasionally regrets not having taken an art course. He believes it is best to gain as broad an educational experience as possible and to never stop the learning process
