Dr Robert Tubbs
Robert leads the Satellite Imagery group in Space Applications and Nowcasting.
Areas of expertise
- Retrieval of satellite-derived cloud information
- Assimilation of satellite observations in NWP
- Development of convective-scale data assimilation systems
- Fourier optics and optical measurements of turbulent mixing
Current activities
Robert leads the Satellite Imagery group which develops derived products for situational awareness and nowcasting. These products include cloud properties, the identification of convective systems, mineral dust, volcanic ash and sulphur dioxide. The imagery is directly available to forecasters in the Met Office Operations Centre; moreover, the products we generate feed directly into the data assimilation for the Global and UK versions of the Met Office Unified Model (MetUM), into our aviation nowcasting systems and into the initialisation of the NAME dispersion model.
Career background
Robert has worked for the Met Office since January 2008. Prior to joining the Met Office, Robert completed a PhD at the University of Cambridge studying the effects of turbulent mixing in the troposphere on optical propagation and imaging, followed by four related postdoctoral fellowship positions supported by respectively: the University of Leiden (Netherlands); the European Commission's Marie Curie programme; Arcetri Observatory (Italy); and the Max Planck Gesellschaft (Germany).
Since joining the Met Office in 2008, Robert has focused on the assimilation of satellite radiances into the Met Office UKV model, provided updates to the UKV and SINGV data assimilation systems and has set-up the WCSSP southeast Asia regional data assimilation system. More recently Robert has worked on atmospheric composition retrieval from satellite data.