Dr. Schlatter has been active for most of his career in the evaluation (including quality control) and use of many kinds of atmospheric observational data: surface- and space-based, in situ measurements and remotely sensed. His early work involved the incorporation of atmospheric observations into computer prediction models (data assimilation is the technical name for this). In recent years he has concentrated on data assimilation and prediction for regional applications.

Dr. Schlatter served on the committee that recommended site locations for the NOAA Profiler Network.

He was one of the original architects of the Rapid Update Cycle, an operational assimilation and prediction system at the National Weather Service’s Environmental Prediction Center that produces hourly analyses of surface and atmospheric conditions and generates short-term forecasts. The system serves primarily aviation, surface transportation, outdoor recreation and bench forecasters.

He was a leader in the North American Observing System (NAOS) committee, which generated many ideas that have currency today about how to judge existing and planned observing systems within the milieu of operational weather prediction and decision making, including the role of test beds.

He was a primary author of “The Cost and Operational Effectiveness of the NOAA Wind Profiler Network,” a report requested of the National Weather Service by the Senate Appropriations Committee. The report examined the utility of profiler data both subjectively within forecast offices, especially in severe weather watch and warning functions, and objectively within numerical forecast models.

In 2005, he wrote a report for the National Weather Service Office of Science and Technology, “A Phenomenological Approach to the Specification of Observational Requirements.” This document examined the time and space scales of high-impact weather phenomena and inferred the spatial and temporal frequency of observations appropriate for the detection, monitoring, and prediction of these phenomena.

Dr. Schlatter is now employed by the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado. His current work involves testing the efficacy in forecasts of existing and proposed observational data sources. The latter testing (called Observing System Simulation Experiments—OSSEs) involves complex simulations of the entire assimilation and prediction system under controlled experimental conditions.

He is well versed in weather forecasting; he gives the Daily Weather Briefing in his lab at regular intervals.

On the educational side, he has written the “Weather Queries” column for Weatherwise magazine since 1980.