• Senior Meteorologist at SMG from July 2006 - present
  • Lead Forecaster: STS-115 (Trainee), STS-117, STS-122 (Mentor)
  • Assistant Lead Forecaster: STS-121 (Trainee), STS-116, STS-120
• Technique Development Unit (TDU) meteorologist SMG Dec 2002 - July 2006
  • Lead TDU Meteorologist for: STS-69, STS-72, STS-77, STS-80, STS-83, STS-85, STS-89, STS-91, STS-93, STS-101, STS-97, STS-100, STS-105, STS-109, and STS-107.
• Senior Meteorologist - private industry May '02 to Nov. '02
• Contract Meteorologist at SMG from Apr. '95 to May '02
• US Air Force Weather Officer Dec. '85 to May '95

I have worked for the military, the private sector and the National Weather Service as a meteorologist. I have also worked as both a Lead Forecaster and TDU meteorologist at SMG. Lead Forecasters are responsible for the overall management of weather support for a mission including issuing the final GO/NO-GO weather forecast for the planned End-of-Mission and launch abort landings. TDU Meteorologists transfer new technology and develop techniques for use in the forecast office in addition to assisting the lead forecasters during launch and landing.

My additional duties include Training and Certification program leader, Science and Operations Officer (SOO) focal point, and lightning detection systems focal point. I am working on integrating new data sources into our AWIPS system, and I am particularly interested in lightning and atmospheric electricity: lightning safety, lightning prediction and detection, cloud electrification, and aircraft/spacecraft triggered lightning.

The following are papers and articles that I have authored or co-authored.

JOURNAL ARTICLES

• Case, J. L., J. Manobianco, T. D. Oram, T. Garner, P. F. Blottman, and S. M. Spratt, 2002: Local Data Integration over East-Central Florida Using the ARPS Data Analysis System. Weather and Forecasting, 17, 3-26.
• Brody, F., D. Bellue, R. Lafosse, and T. D. Oram, 1997: `The Operations of the Spaceflight Meteorology Group`. Weather and Forecasting, 12, 526-544.

CONFERENCE ARTICLES AND PRESENTATIONS

• "NWS Spaceflight Meteorology Group Support for the NASA Constellation Orion Vehicle" with T. Garner. 13th Conference on Aviation, Range and Aerospace Meteorology, New Orleans LA, Jan 2008.
• "Application of Multi-Spectral Data to Space Shuttle Landing Operations" with D. Hood and T. Garner. Fifth GOES Users Conference, New Orleans LA, Jan 2008.
• "Lightning Detection and Location: An Overview of Methods." Broadcast Meteorologist Session at NWA 32nd Annual Meeting, Reno NV, Oct 2007.
• "Training for Weather Support to Spaceflight Operations." NWA 32nd Annual Meeting, Reno NV, Oct 2007.
• "Tools used by the Spaceflight Meteorology Group to evaluate the Space Shuttle weather flight rules for landing forecasts" with B. Hoeth, R. Lafosse, and T. Garner, 23rd Conference on IIPS, San Antonio TX, Jan 2007.
• " An Operational Configuration of the ARPS Data Analysis System to Initialize WRF in the NWS Environmental Modeling System." with J. Case, P. Blottman, and B. Hoeth.NWA 31st Annual Meeting, Cleveland OH, Oct 2006.
• "The Lightning Watch and Warning Program at Johnson Space Center" with R. Lafosse and B. Hoeth. Second Conference on Meteorological Applications of Lightning Data, Atlanta, Jan 2006.
• "Use of lightning data for Space Shuttle and Soyuz re-entry and landing forecasts at Johnson Space Center" with T. Garner and B. Hoeth. Conference on Meteorological Applications of Lightning Data, San Diego, Jan 2005.
• "LDAD Issues and Challenges" with T. Garner and B. Hoeth. NWA Annual Meeting Presentation, Oct 2004.
• "Use of the Advanced Regional Prediction System (ARPS) for Space Shuttle weather forecasts at the NWS Spaceflight Meteorology Group" with T. Garner and B. Hoeth. 16th Conference on Numerical Weather Prediction, Jan 2004.
• "Stratospheric and Mesospheric Analysis in Support of the Space Shuttle Columbia Investigation" with T. Garner, J. Madura, M. Mlynczak, B. Roberts, A. Da Silva, and W. Hocking. NWA Poster, Oct 2003.
• `Lightning Nowcasts using WSR-88D Derived Products and AWIPS' with T. Garner and R. Lafosse. 21st Conf. On Severe Local Storms, Aug 2002.
• `Local Mesoscale Models for Nowcasting Space Shuttle Landing Weather' with T. Garner and R. Lafosse. Conf. on Weather and Forecasting. Aug 2002.
• `Verification of world-wide Space Station Emergency Landing Forecasts: Results and Challenges.` 10th Conf. on Aviation, Range, and Aerospace Meteorology, 2002.
• Oram, T. and T. Garner, 2000: Natural and Triggered Lightning Forecasts for Space Shuttle Landings, 2000 International Lightning Detection Conference. Tucson, AZ. 7-8 Nov 2000.
• Garner, T. and T. D. Oram, 2000: Natural and Triggered Lightning Forecasts for Space Shuttle Landings, Preprints: Ninth Conference on Aviation, Range, and Aerospace Meteorology, Orlando, FL
• `Short-term Forecasting at Kennedy Space Center using the ARPS Data Analysis System` with T. Garner and J. Case. 18th Conf. on Weather and Forecasting, 2001.
• `Natural and Triggered Lightning Forecasts for Space Shuttle Landings` with T. Garner. 9th Conf. on Aviation, Range, and Aerospace Meteorology, 2000.
• `Preliminary Evaluation of a First Guess Ceiling Forecast for Space Shuttle Landings.`, 9th Conf. on Aviation, Range, and Aerospace Meteorology, 2000.
• `Creating First Guess Forecast Products for the NWS Spaceflight Meteorology Group: Integration of LAPS and AWIPS Forecast Preparation System Algorithms in a McIDAS System`. 16th International Conf. on Interactive and Information Processing Systems for Meteorology, Oceanography, and Hydrology, 2000.
• `Integrating Real-time WSR-88D Radar Data into a McIDAS System` with K. B. Batson, W. Mangum, and B. Biggerstaff. 13th International Conf. on Interactive and Information Processing Systems for Meteorology, Oceanography, and Hydrology, 1997.
• `Forecasting Upper Winds for the Space Shuttle` with D. G. Bellue and K. B. Batson. 12th International Conf. on Interactive and Information Processing Systems for Meteorology, Oceanography, and Hydrology, 1996.
• `The Spatial Variations of Lightning in Small Florida Thunderstorms` with E. Philip Krider. 1991 International Aerospace and Ground Conf. on Lightning and Static Electricity.

If you have any comments or questions for Tim Oram, please e-mail the SMG webmaster.