|
EDUCATION
 I
graduated from the high school Budějovická in Prague, Czech
Republic, in 1977. Next I went to Faculty of Mathematics
and Physics at the Charles University in Prague, finishing my Master of
Science degree in Meteorology in May of 1983 there. The CSc. degree (a
Czech equivalent to Ph.D. degree) in physics I received in January of
1994, also at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics. Both, Master's and
CSc's thesis works were aimed at satellite data interpretation in
meteorology.
EMPLOYMENT
That's very simple.
After graduating from the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics in 1983 I joined
the satellite
department of the CHMI
(Czech Hydrometeorological Institute, which is just an official
name for our national weather service). Since 1990 I'm the head of this
small department. We are involved in everything that has something to do
with meteorological satellites: data acquisition, processing, products
distribution, interpretation and archiving.
PROFESSIONAL
INTERESTS
Since 1981 I've been
involved in interpretation of the AVHRR data from the NOAA polar
orbiting satellites, since mid-90's I began to work also with data from
geostationary satellites Meteosat and GOES, and from the end of 90's
also with the MODIS data. From the very beginning of my meteorological
career I have focused at research of deep convective storms as seen from
satellites, particularly in the 3.7/3.9 micron bands (check this
site). Between 1994 and 1997 I collaborated on this topic with
couple of friends from NSSL
(National Severe Storms Laboratory) in Norman, Oklahoma (MOST project - Multispectral
Observations of Storm Tops). Our contacts and friendship last even
nowadays.
These
trips and contacts had a great influence on my notion of severe storms
and on my personal feelings about these - as a matter of fact, I find
convective storms being one of the most spectacular natural phenomena.
Though severe weather is not that frequent in the Czech Republic as is
over the U.S. Great Plains or some other parts of the Earth, we also do
have tornadoes, downbursts, and damaging hailstorms here (visit our web
page devoted to these). Since not too much is known about occurrence
of supercell storms and their accompanying weather in Central Europe, we
have been trying recently to learn more about their local character and
climatology, namely within a frame of various national research grants.
However, this is going to be a long-term effort...
Since
1993 I've been giving classes
about weather satellites and convective storms to students of
meteorology from the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles
University. Occasionally I also give lectures at training workshops of
EUMETSAT. I am a
member of the Czech Meteorological Society.
PRIVATE
INTERESTS AND PERSONAL INFORMATION
Since I was about
ten, my deepest hobby has been astronomy. When I entered the high
school, I already had my own telescope. Soon after that I made my first
mirror, for the second one I constructed with a help of my father an
8" Cassegrain telescope; my main interest has been
astronomical photography. During my student days I spent most of my free
time at the Prague's
public observatory (planning night observations brought me later on
to meteorology). Nowadays, I either occasionally take my telescope
somewhere outside from Prague (under darker sky), spend couple of days
at the Klet Observatory
at southern Bohemia, or travel worldwide to observe Solar eclipses...
Thanks
to the technical progress in digital photography, my interests have
recently shifted to an area of time-lapse
photography of clouds and other atmospheric phenomena. This blurs
the margins between my main profession, satellite meteorology, and my
hobbies...
And
since I don't want to resemble (after all that all-day sitting in front
of my PC or laptop) a bulky boulder
rolling over around our Sun, I occasionally do some biking and hiking.
My wife's name is Stáňa,
she works at Prague's planetarium,
we have no kids. We live at south part of Prague, at place called Kačerov.
Here is my official
web page at CHMI and here my list
of publications.
|
