Dr Jacob Cheung
Jacob is a senior aviation scientist who specialises in trajectory prediction applications.
Areas of expertise
- Aviation
- Trajectory prediction
- Ensemble systems
- Turbulence
- Stratosphere-troposphere coupling
Current activities
Jacob is currently involved in World Area Forecast Centre (WAFC) research and development work. In collaboration with WAFC Washington, and scientists from both National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), there are plans to upgrade the existing deterministic WAFC turbulence forecast and to introduce probabilistic forecasts for both turbulence and Cumulonimbus (Cb) clouds.
Jacob is also actively involved with NATS and Heathrow with his trajectory prediction work. Work is also underway to extend trajectory prediction to other areas such as ship routing.
Career background
Jacob originally joined the Met Office as a visiting scientist in 2011, studying the impact of the representation of stratospheric ozone to numerical weather prediction (NWP) systems. He then moved on to work in the Aviation Applications team in 2013. He recognised that commercial flight planning systems are fundamentally different to those in academia which hinders the industry’s ability to understand and benefit from using state-of-the-art NWP data in flight planning.
Jacob developed a trajectory prediction system that aims to bridge the gap between science and industry so that advancements in NWP can be demonstrated and conveyed. The system also introduced new capabilities such as ensemble routing and object avoidance which allow stakeholders to estimate any uncertainties due to weather and to route around weather hazards early in the planning phase.
External recognition
Jacob is a fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society.
