President
Petersen Research and Consulting, LLC
Dr. Petersen is a Certified Consulting Meteorologist and President of Petersen Research and Consulting. He was one of the Founders of the wind tunnel consulting firm Cermak Peterka Petersen (CPP) and has over 40 years’ experience in dispersion modeling using numberical and wind tunnel modeling methods. He presented or prepared comments on behalf of the Air & Waste Management Association's Atmospheric Modeling and Meteorology committee at past EPA Modeling Conferences regarding revisions to the EPA "Guideline on Air Quality Modeling” and has developed new regulatory modeling applications (Equivalent Building Dimensions and HYWINMOD). Since 2017, Ron has been conducting research for an Industry Group with the purpose of improving the building downwash algorithms in AERMOD. This research led to an improved theory for predicting turbulence increase and velocity deficit in building wakes. This theory was added to AERMOD and is currently included as an Alpha option in AERMOD v 19191. To achieve the project goals, collaboration between industry, EPA OAQPS, EPA ORD and A&WMA was essential and successful. This research is documented in two journal articles. Current research efforts are focusing on validating and improving PRIME plume rise predictions.
Ron has published several peered-reviewed papers for Atmospheric Environment, JAWMA, and JWEIA. He has also presented on the subject of air quality modeling using numerical and wind tunnel methods for ASHRAE, Labs21, A&WMA, EUEC, AIHA, AMS, AIChE, Process Safety. He is a reviewer for a variety of national professional journals and an ASHRAE Fellow. He is a member of AMS, A&WMA and ASHRAE. Ron has a B.S. in Mathematics and M.S. in Meteorology from the S.D School of Mines and a Ph.D. in Fluid Mechanics from Colorado State University.