Bill Mahoney

Past NCAR Associate Director, RAL

Information

Bio

William (Bill) Mahoney was an NCAR Associate Director and Director of the Research Applications Laboratory (RAL) at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) from 2018 to 2023. He was involved in research and development activities for over 37 years and has directed weather research programs in aviation, surface transportation, social sciences, agriculture, performance assessment, intelligent forecast systems, wildland fire prediction, and renewable energy.

Bill received his M.S. degree in Atmospheric Science from the University of Wyoming in 1983 and received his B.S. degree in Aeronautics from Miami University of Ohio in 1981. He spent more than a decade researching microburst wind shear and its impact on aviation operations and was involved in the development of the in-situ and radar based low-level wind shear alert systems. More recently his focus has been on developing advanced aviation weather systems, surface transportation weather hazard detection capabilities, wind and solar energy, and wildland fire behavior prediction technologies. In addition to his Laboratory management duties, He is involved in program development and technology commercialization activities at NCAR.

Bill has written or co-authored more than 50 papers and frequently presents NCAR’s work at national and international conferences and seminars. He is a member of the American Meteorological Society (AMS), American Geophysical Union (AGU), Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITSA), and American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). He served as the Chair of the AMS Board on Enterprise Economic Development and was a member of the AMS Economic Development Committee. Bill is the Past Commissioner of the AMS Commission on the Weather, Water, and Climate Enterprise, and is an AMS Fellow.

Publications

2022

McCarthy, J., R Serafin, J Wilson, J Evans, C Kessinger, and W Mahoney, 2022: Addressing the Microburst Threat to Aviation: Research-to-Operations Success Story. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-22-0038.1

2019

A.R. Siems-Anderson, C.L. Walker, G. Wiener, W.P. Mahoney, S.E. Haupt, 2019: An adaptive big data weather system for surface transportation. Transportation Research Interdiciplinary Perspectives, http://dx.doe.org/10.1016/j.trip.2019.100071

2015

Haupt, S.E., and W. Mahoney, 2015: Taming Wind Power with Better Forecasts. IEEE Spectrum, 22 October 2015. http://spectrum.ieee.org/green-tech/wind/taming-wind-power-with-better-forecasts

2014

Haupt, S.E., W. Mahoney, K. Parks: 2014. Weather Matters for Energy. Springer Science+Business Media, New York, pp. 295-318, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-9221-4.

2013

Cheng, W.Y., Y. Liu, Y. Liu, Y. Zhang, W.P. Mahoney, T. Warner, 2013: The impact of model physics on numerical wind forecasts. Renewable Energy, 55, pp. 347–356.

Mahoney, W.P., J.M. O’Sullivan, 2013: Realizing the Potential of Vehicle Based Observations. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 94, 1007-1018.

2012

Mahoney, W.P., K. Parks, G. Wiener, Y. Liu, B. Myers, J. Sun, L. Delle Monache, T. Hopson, D., Johnson, and S. Haupt, 2012: A Wind Power Forecasting System to Optimize Grid Integration. IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy, in press.

2011

Aguilar, T.A., Y. Liu, and B. Mahoney, 2011: An Investigation into the Spatiotemporal Scale of Two Wind Ramp Events in Northeastern Colorado. Second Conference on Weather, Climate, and the New Energy Economy. 23-27 January 2011, Seattle, WA, AMS, Boston, MA.

Cheng, W., Y. Liu, B. Mahoney, M. Politovich, T. T. Warner, K. Parks, and J. Himelic, 2011: Improving the 0-3 hour wind forecast through wind farm data assimilation in the NCAR/ATEC WRF RTFDDA. Second Conference on Weather, Climate, and the New Energy Economy. 23-27 January 2011, Seattle, WA, AMS, Boston, MA.

Delle Monache, L., A. Fournier, T. M. Hopson, Y. Liu, B. Mahoney, G. Roux, and T. Warner, 2011: Kalman filter, analog and wavelet post processing in the NCAR-Xcel operational wind-energy forecasting system. Second Conference on Weather, Climate, and the New Energy Economy. 23-27 January 2011, Seattle, WA, AMS, Boston, MA.

Haupt, S.E., G. Wiener, Y. Liu, B. Myers, J. Sun, D. Johnson, and W. Mahoney, 2011: A Wind Power Forecasting System to Optimize Power Integration, ASME 5th International Conference on Energy Sustainability, Washington, DC, Aug. 7-10. (fully reviewed paper)

Johnson, D. B., B. Mahoney, Y. Liu, G. Wiener, W. Myers, and K. Parks, 2011: An overview of NCAR's advanced wind forecasting system for integrating wind resources into the new energy economy. Second Conference on Weather, Climate, and the New Energy Economy. 23-27 January 2011, Seattle, WA, AMS, Boston, MA.

Liu, Y., W. Cheng, G. Roux, Y. Liu, L. Delle Monache, M. Pocernich, B. Kosovic, T. M. Hopson, A. Bourgeois, G. Wiener, T. Warner, B. Mahoney, and D. B. Johnson, 2011: Wind energy forecasting with the NCAR RTFDDA and ensemble RTFDDA systems. Second Conference on Weather, Climate, and the New Energy Economy. 23-27 January 2011, Seattle, WA, AMS, Boston, MA.

Liu, Y., W. Cheng, G. Wiener, B. Lambi, and B. Mahoney, 2011: Statistical Analysis of intra-farm microscale wind characteristics at selected Xcel wind farms. Second Conference on Weather, Climate, and the New Energy Economy. 23-27 January 2011, Seattle, WA, AMS, Boston, MA.

Liu, Y., T. Warner, Y. Liu, C. Vincent, W. Wu, B. Mahoney, S. Swerdlin, K. Parks, J. Boehnert, 2011. Simultaneous nested modeling from the synoptic scale to LES scale for wind energy applications. Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, 99, pp. 308-319.

Mahoney, W.P, and J. O’Sullivan, 2011: Realizing the Potential of Vehicle Based Observations. Report of the AMS Annual Partnership Committee on Mobile Observations, Board on Enterprise Planning, Commission on the Weather and Climate Enterprise. http://www.rap.ucar.edu/wsap/themes/surf_trans.php

Sun, Juanzhen, Y. Zhang, Z. Ying, G. Wiener, N. Oien, and W. Mahoney, 2011: A rapid-updated wind analysis system based on mesoscale model, radar, and surface data for ramp-event wind energy forecasting. Second Conference on Weather, Climate, and the New Energy Economy. 23-27 January 2011, Seattle, WA, AMS, Boston, MA.

2010

Chapman, M.C., S.D. Drobot, T. Jensen, C. Johansen, W.P. Mahoney III, P.A. Pisano, and B. McKeever, 2010: Using vehicle probe data to diagnose road weather conditions – results from the Detroit IntelliDrive (SM) field study. Transportation Research Record, No. 2169, Maintenance Services and Surface Weather, pp. 116-127.

Drobot, S.D., M.C. Chapman, E. Schuler, G. Wiener, W.P. Mahoney III, P.A. Pisano, and B. McKeever, 2010: Improving road weather hazard products with vehicle probe data – the Vehicle Data Translator quality-checking procedures. Transportation Research Record, No. 2169, Maintenance Services and Surface Weather, pp. 128-140.

Liu, Y., T. Warner, W. Mahoney, K. Parks, Y.-H. Wan, 2010: Analysis and prediction of winds for inland wind farms: NWP modeling tools and challenges. Submitted to Wind Energy.

Mahoney, B, S. Drobot, P. Pisano, B. McKeever, and J. O’Sullivan: Vehicles as Mobile Weather Observation Systems. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 91, 1179-1182.

2009

Drobot, S.D., Mahoney, W.P., Pisano, P.A., and McKeever, B.B., 2009: Tomorrow’s forecast: informed drivers. ITS International, 15, NA1-NA2.

Mahoney, W.P., S. Drobot, E. Shuler, G. Wiener, M. Chapman, P. Pisano, B. McKeever, A. Stern: IntelliDrive Road Weather Research & Development – The Weather Data Translator. Intelligent Transportation Society of America, June 1-4 2009, Washington, D.C.

2008

Petty, K.R., and W.P. Mahoney, 2008: Enhancing Weather Information Through Vehicle Infrastructure Integration. Transportation Research Record, No 2015. Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, January 2007, Washington, D.C., pp. 132-140.

Stern, A.D., P. Pisano, K. Petty, and W. Mahoney, 2008: A Next Generation of Observations Based on Passenger Vehicles. Preprints, 24^th Conference on Interactive Information and Processing Systems, 21-24 January 2008, New Orleans, LA., AMS, Boston, MA.

2006

Mahoney, W.P., W. Myers, P. Pisano, R. Hallowell, and A. Stern, 2006: The U.S. Federal Highway Administration Winter Road Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS) Project: Overview and Results. Preprints, 12^th International Winter Road Congress, 27-30 March 2006, Torino, Italy.

Wolff, J.K., S. Linden, and W. Mahoney, 2006: Ensemble Forecast Spread and its Implication for Road Weather Forecasting. Preprints, 21^th Conference on Interactive Information and Processing Systems, 30 January – 3 February 2006, Atlanta, GA. AMS, Boston, MA.

2005

Mahoney, W.P., B. Bernstein, J. Wolff, S. Linden, W.L. Myers, R.G. Hallowell,
J. Cowie, A.D. Stern, G. Koenig, G. Phetteplace, P. Schultz, P.A. Pisano, and D. Burkheimer. The Federal Highway Administration's Maintenance Decision Support System Project: Summary Results and Recommendations. Transportation Research Record 1911, TRB, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 2005, pp. 133-142.

Mahoney, W.P., and R.A. Wagoner, 2005: Surface Transportation Weather Forecasting and Observations: Assessment of Current Capabilities and Future Trends. Preprints, 12^th World Congress on Intelligent Transportation Systems, 6 - 10 November, 2005, San Francisco, CA.

Mahoney, W.P., and R.A. Wagoner, 2005: Surface Transportation Weather Forecasting and Observations: Assessment of Current Capabilities and Future Trends. Mid-Continent Transportation Research Symposium, Iowa State University, 18-19 August 2005, Ames, Iowa.

Mahoney, W.P., 2005: Federal Highway Administration’s Maintenance Decision Support System Project: Summary Results and Recommendations. Transportation Research Board, 84^th Annual Meeting, 9-13 January 2005, Washington, D.C.

2004

Pisano, P.A., A.D. Stern, and W.P. Mahoney: The U.S. Federal Highway Administration Winter Road Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS) Project. Standing International Road Weather Commission, 12^th International Road Weather Conference, Bingen, Germany, June 2004.

Pisano, P.A., A.D. Stern, and W.P. Mahoney: Winter Road Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS): Demonstration Results and Future Plans. Preprints, 20^th Conference on Interactive Information and Processing Systems, 12-16 January 2004, Seattle, WA. AMS, Boston, MA.

Pisano, P.A., A.D. Stern, Mahoney, W.P., Myers, W.L., and D. Burkheimer: Winter Road Maintenance Decision Support System Project (MDSS): Overview and Status. Transportation Research Board, 6^th International Symposium of Snow and Ice Control. Spokane, WA., June 2004.

2003

Mahoney, W.P. and L. Smithson, 2003: Improving the Safety, Efficiency, and Capacity of the Highway System by Improving the Use of Weather Information. Forum White Paper. AMS Policy Forum: Weather and Highways, 4-5 November 2003, Washington, D.C., AMS, Boston, MA.

Mahoney, W.P., 2003: Decision Support Systems for Winter Road Maintenance: Opportunities for Radar Data. Preprints, 31^st Conference on Radar Meteorology, 6-12 August 2003, Seattle, WA. Amer. Meteor. Soc, Boston, MA.

Mahoney, W.P., and W. L. Myers, 2003: An Advanced Weather and Road Condition Decision Support System. Preprints, 9^th World Congress on Intelligent Transportation Systems, 14-18 October 2003, Chicago, IL.

Mahoney, W.P., and W. L. Myers, 2003: The Winter Road Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS): Project Update and Future Plans. Preprints, 19^th Conference on Interactive Information and Processing Systems, 9-13 February 2003, Long Beach, CA. AMS, Boston, MA.

Mahoney, W.P., 2003: The Prototype Winter Road Decision Support System (MDSS): Project Status and Preliminary Results. Preprints Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITSA) Annual Meeting, 18-23 May 2003, Minneapolis, MN.

Mahoney, W.P., and W. L. Myers, 2003: Predicting Weather and Road Conditions: An Integrated Decision Support Tool for Winter Road Maintenance Operations. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No 1824, 2003, pages 98-105.

2001

Mahoney, W.P., 2001: An Advanced Weather Information Decision Support System for Winter Road Maintenance. Preprints, 8^th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems, 30 September – 4 October 2001, Sydney, Australia.

Mahoney, W.P., 2001: An Advanced Winter Road Maintenance Decision Support System. Preprints, Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITSA) 2001 Annual Meeting, 4 – 7 June 2001, Miami Beach, Florida.

1997

Mahoney, W.P. and Bruce Donaldson, 1997: Automatic Windshear Warning System Designed to Enhance Flight Safety and Operational Efficiency. ICAO Journal, January/February 1997.

1996

Mahoney, W.P. and Bruce Donaldson, 1996: The Operational Windshear Warning System for Hong Kong's New Airport, Journal of Air Traffic Control, Oct-Dec 1996.

1994

Mahoney, W.P., Edward Brandes, and Robert Barron, 1994: Weather Detection for Airport Terminals: Advanced Radar Design Considerations, European Commission, COST 75, Weather Radar Systems, International Seminar, Brussels, Belgium, 20-23 September 1994, 626-637.

1993

Mahoney, W.P. III and Cleon Biter, 1993: Windshear detection: terminal Doppler weather radar and the low-level windshear alert system operational experiences in Denver 1987-1992, Preprints, 5th Intl. Conf. On Aviation Weather Systems, 1-5 August, Vienna, VA. AMS, Boston, MA.

Mahoney, W.P. III, John Caron, Frank Hage, Steve Delp, Deirdre Roach, Gary Blackburn, and Cleon Biter, 1993: The prototype aviation weather products generator: a vehicle to assess user needs. Preprints, 5th Intl. Conf. On Aviation Weather Systems, 1-6 August, Vienna, VA. AMS, Boston, M

1991

Cornman, L.B., and W.P. Mahoney III, 1991: Integration of the TDWR and LLWAS windshear detection systems, Preprints, 4th Intl. Conf. On Aviation Weather Systems, 24-28 June, 1991, Paris, France. AMS, Boston, MA, J27-J32.

Mahoney, W.P. III, 1991: The Aviation Weather Development Laboratory (AWDL): Preprints, 4th Intl. Conf. On Aviation Weather Systems, 24-28 June, Paris, France. AMS, Boston, MA, 112-117.

Mahoney, W.P. III and K. L. Elmore, 1991: The Evolution and Fine-Scale Structure of a Microburst-producing Cell. Monthly Weather Review, January, 119, 176-192.

1989

Brislawn, K., W. Wilson, W. P. Mahoney, G. Wiener and K. Goodrich: Microburst detection and display by TDWR: Shape, extent and alarms, 1989: Preprints to the 3rd International Conference on the Aviation Weather System, Anaheim, CA, 28 January - 3 February. AMS, Boston, MA.

Klingle-Wilson, D., S. H. Olson, W. Wilson, W. P. Mahoney, S. D. Smith, A. Witt and M.D. Eilts, 1989: Gust front detection algorithm for the terminal Doppler weather radar: Part 2, performance assessment. Preprints to the 3rd International Conference on the Aviation Weather System, Anaheim, CA, 28 January - 3 February. AMS, Boston, MA.

Mahoney, W.P. III and K. L. Elmore, 1989: The source region and evolution of a microburst downdraft. Preprints to the 24th Conference on Radar Meteorology, Tallahassee, FL, 27-31 March. AMS, Boston, MA.

Mahoney, W.P. III, W. Wilson, K. Brislawn and M.K. Politovich, 1989: Microburst detection by TDWR: Performance assessment. Preprints to the 3rd International Conference on the Aviation Weather System, Anaheim, CA, 28 January - 3 February. AMS, Boston, MA.

1988

Mahoney, W.P., 1988: Gust front characteristics and the kinematics associated with interacting thunderstorm outflows. Monthly Weather Review, 116, 1474-1491.

1987

Mahoney, W.P., III, 1987: The initiation of convection from gust front collisions. Preprints to the 3rd Conference on Mesoscale Processes, Vancouver, B.C., Canada, 21-26 August. AMS, Boston, MA, 211-212.

Mahoney, W.P., III, 1987: Aircraft measurements on microburst development from hydrometeor evaporation. Journal of Atmospheric Science, 44, 3037-3051.

1983

Mahoney, W.P.III, 1983: The development of downdrafts from the evaporation of hydrometeors. Report No. AS 144, Dept. of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Wyoming, 146 pp.

Rodi, A.R., K.L. Elmore and W.P. Mahoney, 1983: Aircraft and Doppler air motion comparisons in a JAWS microburst. Preprints to the 21st Conference on Radar Meteorology, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, 19-23 September. AMS, Boston, MA, 624-629.

Publications and Presentations (30)
Title	Source	Date
Addressing the microburst threat to aviation: Research-to-operations success story	Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society	2022-12-01
Advancements in operational wildland fire prediction	NCAR Day of Networking and Discovery 2017	2017-04-28
Realizing the potential of vehicle-based observations	Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society	2013-07-01
The impact of model physics on numerical wind forecasts	Renewable Energy	2013-07-01
Decision support for wildland fire management: Coupled fire-weather modeling [presentation]	Western Governors' Association (WGA) Winter Meeting 2012	2012-12-01
A wind power forecasting system to optimize grid integration	IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy	2012-10-01
Forecasting wind power ramps [presentation]	13th International Conference on Wind Engineering	2011-08-31
A wind power forecasting system to optimize power integration [presentation]	5th ASME/JSME Engineering Conference	2011-08-07
Simultaneous nested modeling from the synoptic scale to the LES scale for wind energy applications	Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics	2011-04-01
Diagnosing Road Weather Conditions with Vehicle Probe Data: Results from Detroit IntelliDrive Field Study	Transportation Research Record	2010-12-14
Diagnosing road weather conditions with vehicle probe data	Transportation Research Record	2010-12-10
Improving road weather hazard products with vehicle probe data	Transportation Research Record	2010-12-10
Vehicles as mobile weather observation systems	Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society	2010-09-01
Simultaneous nested modeling from the synoptic scale to the LES scale for wind energy applications [presentation]	5th International Symposium on Computational Wind Engineering	2010-05-27
A decision-support system for winter maintenance of roads, bridges, and runways	15th Standing International Road Weather Commission Conference	2010-05-05
A decision-support system for winter maintenance of roads, bridges, and runways	15th Standing International Road Weather Commission Conference	2010-05-05
A decision-support system for winter maintenance of roads, bridges, and runways	15th Standing International Road Weather Commission Conference	2010-05-05
Analysis and prediction of winds at the wind farms in Westcentral US: Modeling tools and challenges [presentation]	EGU General Assembly 2010	2010-05-04
Overview of the Vehicle Data Translator	15th Standing International Road Weather Commission Conference	2010-02-05
Overview of the Vehicle Data Translator	15th Standing International Road Weather Commission Conference	2010-02-05
Overview of the Vehicle Data Translator	15th Standing International Road Weather Commission Conference	2010-02-05
A versatile WRF and MM5-based weather analysis and forecasting system for supporting wind energy prediction [presentation]	23rd Conference on Weather Analysis and Forecasting/19th Conference on Numerical Weather Prediction	2009-06-05
Tomorrow's forecast: Informed drivers	ITS International	2009-06-05
IntelliDrive(SM) road weather research & development: The weather data translator	Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of ITS America	2009-06-01
Analysis and modeling study of inter-farm and intra-farm wind variations with the NCAR high-resolution multi-scale WRF-RTFDDA system	EGU General Assembly 2009	2009-04-22
Enhancing road weather information through vehicle infrastructure integration	Transportation Research Record	2008-05-01
MDSS Lab Prototype	Research Applications Laboratory (RAL) Records	2005-10-20
Fhwa's Maintenance Decision Support System Project: Results and recommendations	Maintenance Management and Operations Services	2005-03-01
The evolution and fine-scale structure of a microburst-producing cell	Monthly Weather Review	1991-01-01
Gust front characteristics and the kinematics associated with interacting thunderstorm outflows	Monthly Weather Review	1988-07-01

Curriculum Vitae

William P Mahoney III

Director

Research Applications Laboratory

National Center for Atmospheric Research

CV_William_Mahoney_15April_2023.pdf

Interests

As Deputy Director of NCAR's Research Applications Laboratory, I am interested in supporting the development of a broad array of science-based solutions to address decision maker needs in many sectors including the following.

Wind and solar energy prediction
Surface transporation weather
Aviation weather incuding wind shear
Wildland fire behavior prediction
Land surface condition prediction for agriculture

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