George A. Weidner

I have worked on the automatic weather station (AWS) program at the University of Wisconsin since 1981. During that period, I have participated in 17 field seasons in Antarctica and four field seasons in Greenland. My work has included the design, building and maintenance of the AWS for particular field programs in Antarctica, Greenland and Peru, the processing of the data, and the preparation of reports and papers for presentation and publication.

I grew up in northern Wisconsin in a small company town that was know for having the largest juvenile furniture factory (it made furniture for children , it didn’t employ them) in the United States. From there I enrolled at the University of Wisconsin – Madison and obtained a joint degree in Physics and Astronomy graduating in June of 1970.

After a brief Naval career, I returned to the University of Wisconsin – Madison, and was admitted to the graduate program of the Department of Meteorology. After one semester, Professor Charles R. Stearns offered me a Research Assistantship and since then I have worked with Professor Stearns for some 30 years. Prior to the automatic weather station program, we participated in a large field program that studied the impact of a large coal-fired power plant on the surrounding environment. Subsequent to that, Dr. Stearns and I maintained an array of sensitive microbarographs near Madison that was used to study atmospheric gravity waves and their role in modulating convection and precipitation.

Formal timeline follows:

Education:

B.S. (Physics and Astronomy) University of Wisconsin, 1970
M.S. (Meteorology) University of Wisconsin, 1976
Passed prelims September 1978 and completed course requirements for Ph. D. but began working full time on Antarctic Weather Station Project in 1981.

Work history:

Researcher, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, 1990 to Present.
Associate Researcher, Department of Meteorology, 1987 to 1990.
Physical Science Research Specialist, Department of Meteorology, 1983 to 1987.
Research Assistant, full time, Department of Meteorology, 1980 to 1982.
Teaching Assistant, Department of Meteorology, 1979-1980.
Research Assistant, halftime, graduate student, Department of Meteorology, 1974 to 1979.
Communications Technician, U.S. Navy, 1970-1973.
Furniture factory worker, summers, 1966-1969

Representative Publications:

Weidner, G. A. and C. R. Stearns, 1978: Topographic Influence on Surface Winds, Boundary-Layer Meteorology, 14, 167-182.

Stearns, C.R., L. Dzamba, B. Bowen, P. Falconer, and G. Weidner 1982: Instrumentation, Recording and Processing of Meteorological Data Near Portage, Wisconsin. 147 pp. EPA Grant II R803971, Water Resources Center, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin

Weidner, G. A.: Technical Manual for Antarctic Automatic Weather Stations, 282p. NSF Grant DPP 83-06265. Department of Meteorology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, 1985.

Savage, M. L., G. A. Weidner and C. R. Stearns 1988: Analysis of Gravity Wave Occurrence of 20 May 1977, MWR, Vol. 116, No. 2, pp 347-357

Savage, M.L., C. R. Stearns and G. A. Weidner, 1988: The Southern Oscillation Signal in Antarctica, in Second Conference on Polar Meteorology and Oceanography (preprints volume), 141-144, March 29-31, 1988, Madison, Wisconsin, American Meteorological Society, 1988.

Stearns, C.R. L.Keller, G.A. Weidner, and M. Sievers 1993: Monthly Mean Climatic Data for Antarctic Automatic Weather Stations, Antarctic Research Series, 61, pp. 1-22..

Stearns, C. R. and G. A. Weidner: Sensible and Latent Heat Flux in Antarctica, Antarctic Research Series, 61, pp. 109-138, 1993.

Bromwich, D. H., A. Pellegrini, T. Parish, C.R. Stearns and G.A. Weidner: Spatial and Temporal Characteristics of the Extraordinary Katabatic Winds at Terra Nova Bay. Antarctic Research Series, 61, 47-68, 1993.

Keller, L. M., G. A. Weidner, C. R. Stearns, M. T. Whittaker and R. E. Holmes: Antarctic Automatic Weather Station Data for the Calendar Year 1994. 465p. NSF grant DPP 9303569. Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, 1996.

Wendler, G., C. R. Stearns, G. A. Weidner, G. Dargaud, and T. Parish: On the extraordinary winds of Adelie Land, J. Geophys. Res., 102, (D4), 4463-4474, 1997.

Stearns, C. R., George A. Weidner and Linda M. Keller (1997): ” Atmospheric Circulation around the Greenland Crest”, J. Geophys. Res., 102, (D12), 13,801-13,812, 1997.

Takahashi, S., T. Kameda, H. Enomoto, T. Shiraiwa, Y. Kodama, S. Fujita, H. Motoyama, O. Watanabe, G. Weidner, and C. R. Stearns (1998): Automatic Weather Station Program during Dome Fuji Project by JARE in East Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica, Annals of Glaciology, 27, 528-534, 1998

Holmes, R. E., C. R. Stearns, G. A. Weidner and L. M. Keller (2000): Utilization of Automatic Weather Station Data for Forecasting High Wind Speeds at Pegasus Runway, Antarctica, Wea. Forecasting, 15 (2), 137-151, 2000.

Lazzara, M. A., Linda Keller, Charles R. Stearns, Jonathan Thom, and George A. Weidner (2002): “Antarctic Satellite Meteorology: Applications for Weather Forecasting”, Mon. Wea. Rev., 131, 371-383.