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Ana Carla Fernandez

@anacarlafernandez

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I build wildfire smoke and air-quality forecasts using WRF-Chem, satellite observations, and HPC workflows.

United States

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What I'm looking for

I'm seeking opportunities to build and evaluate atmospheric, wildfire smoke, and air-quality prediction systems using HPC modeling, satellite observations, and collaborative scientific workflows.

At Washington State University, I develop WRF-Chem systems for wildfire smoke and aerosol prediction across the Pacific Northwest and contribute to the AIRPACT operational air-quality forecast repository.

I've built a custom FORTRAN pipeline that turns MODIS-derived fire radiative power into WRF-Chem emissions inputs, then evaluate forecasts against AERONET, WE-CAN, IMPROVE, satellite, and surface-monitoring observations. My work identifies where fire emissions and aerosol physics limit PM2.5 and ozone forecast skill during smoke episodes.

Previously, I established Mexico City's first WRF-Urban modeling system and led drought and wildfire risk-assessment workflows for Cuba's National Environmental Agency. I bring experience in Python, FORTRAN, Linux HPC, satellite remote sensing, statistical model evaluation, and collaborative scientific codebases.

Experience

Work history, roles, and key accomplishments

Graduate Research Assistant

Washington State University

Jan 2019 - Aug 2026 (7 years 7 months)

Developed and maintained WRF-Chem modeling components for wildfire smoke and aerosol simulation, and built a custom FORTRAN pipeline for fire emissions processing. Evaluated model performance against satellite and in-situ observations and contributed to the AIRPACT operational forecast repository.

Mosaic Fortran Python BASH Linux HPC Slurm Git GitHub AERONET EPA AQS Pyaqsapi PurpleAir API NetCDF JSON Random Forest scikit learn SQL BigQuery

Graduate Research Student

National Autonomous University of Mexico

Aug 2015 - Sep 2017 (2 years 1 month)

Established and operationalized Mexico City's first WRF-Urban modeling system, including configuration management and validation workflows. Wrote Python and FORTRAN utilities for data preprocessing, model execution, and performance metric computation.

WRF Python Fortran Linux Index of Agreement

Environmental Risk Assessment Specialist

National Environmental Agency

Sep 2014 - Jul 2015 (10 months)

Led development of analytical workflows and data-processing tools for national-scale drought and wildfire risk assessments. Coordinated a multidisciplinary team to translate climate hazard analyses into decision-support products for policymakers.

Data Processing Risk Assessment Team Coordination

Education

Degrees, certifications, and relevant coursework

Washington State University

Doctor of Philosophy, Civil & Environmental Engineering (Atmospheric Science)

Ph.D. in Civil & Environmental Engineering with a focus on Atmospheric Science, conferred August 2026. Dissertation applied WRF-Chem with MOZART-4/MOSAIC chemistry to simulate volatile phenol transport over Pacific Northwest viticultural areas.

National Autonomous University of Mexico

Master of Science, Earth Science (Atmospheric Science)

Grade: -

Activities and societies: -

M.Sc. in Earth Science with a focus on Atmospheric Science, completed in 2015.

University of Havana

Bachelor of Science, Meteorology

Grade: Gold Diploma

B.Sc. in Meteorology, completed in 2014 with a Gold Diploma for outstanding academic performance. Thesis applied the CALMET-CALPUFF dispersion system to industrial point sources.