Olav Krogsæter

Olav Krogsæter

Senior Meteorologist, Bergen

An expert in weather forecasting, Olav is a senior meteorologist at StormGeo’s operational metocean desk in Bergen. With a PhD in renewable energy, Olav specializes in numerical modelling, along with verification of turbulence and atmospheric stability in the marine atmospheric boundary layer in connection with offshore wind farm development.

Olav’s Story

“Joining StormGeo in 1998, it was very exciting to be a part of a brand new company that challenged the monopoly of the Norwegian Meteorological Institute.”

Olav started his career at StormGeo just three months after its inception in 1998. At that time he was still a Master’s student, but had already earned some experience as a part-time lecturer at the University of Bergen in introductory courses in meteorology, and as a weather observer at Bergen airport, Flesland. In 1998 he joined StormGeo as an assistant meteorologist, providing TV-stations and newspapers with weather graphics and texts.

After his graduation in 1999 he got his first full-time position as a meteorologist in the company. At that time, StormGeo consisted of just 15–20 employees.

“One of the most rewarding periods during the first years was when I was in charge of the opportunity to work with Statoil, who had opted for a new weather contractor, and which StormGeo finally won – that was in fact the ‘door-opener’ to the strong growth that StormGeo experienced in the following years, especially in the offshore segment.”

Olav has also participated in several demanding and weather critical on-site missions throughout Europe, from the Barents Sea in the North, via the North Sea further south, and several times in Gibraltar and the Adriatic Sea for different StormGeo customers.

After 10 years as a weather forecaster, Olav wanted to go on with additional education to strengthen his meteorological expertise. He then embarked on his PhD study at the University of Bergen, while still formally employed at StormGeo, and also in cooperation with the newly established Norwegian Centre for Offshore Wind Energy, NORCOWE. After successfully defending his thesis in late 2014, Olav brought his expertise and research insights into renewable energy back to StormGeo, where he continues to work closely with both research and weather forecasting.

Expertise

Weather Forecasting; Atmospheric and Ocean Modeling; Operational Oceanography and Meteorology; Data Science; Offshore Wind, Renewables.

Publications

Alle prosessene ved iskanten må studeres
1999, Cicerone

Validation of boundary layer parameterization schemes in the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF) under the aspect of offshore wind energy applications - Part I: Average wind speed and wind shear.
Mar 3, 2014, Wind Energy

Validation of boundary layer parameterization schemes in the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model under the aspect of offshore wind energy applications—part II: boundary layer height and atmospheric stability
May 26, 2014, Wind Energy

Awards

Prize for best poster presentation.
Oct 2011, European Academy of Wind Energy
7th EAWE PhD seminar, Delft, the Netherlands.
Title: Wind Field in the Marine Boundary Layer.

Organizations

Bergen Geophysical Society
Apr 2015 – Feb 2017, Chairman

Education

Olav holds a PhD degree in Meteorology from the University of Bergen.