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The Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) was formed from the Data Assimilation Office (DAO), which focused on atmospheric modeling and data assimilation, and the NASA Seasonal-to-Interannual Prediction Project (NSIPP), which focused on coupled (ocean-atmosphere-land-surface) climate modeling and prediction and on ocean and land data assimilation. In addition to developing, integrating and using these systems for research, we routinely generate products for use by some of NASA's instrument teams and by the U.S. operational climate prediction centers (NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) and the International Research Institute for Climate Prediction (IRI)). We address the optimal use of satellite and in situ observations to generate research quality data sets for climate analyses and also for weather, climate, and air quality forecasts. Our modeling and assimilation research includes coupling to and assimilation of atmospheric chemistry and ocean biology and carbon.

Given the central and integrating role that our work in modeling and data assimilation has to achieve for the Science Mission of the Agency, the GMAO's focus is on developing and maintaining world-class data assimilation systems for purposes associated with maximizing satellite data utility and as a centralized resource for testing and validating as wide a range of modeling and observational efforts as possible. We must have a system with demonstrated credibility so that it will be a resource in the design of future missions. Our goal is to undertake modeling and assimilation as components of an end-to-end process, from defining an instrument, characterizing its in-flight performance, through to the development of algorithms and forward models for data assimilation, integrating the data into assimilation products, and finally assessing the impact of the data on the products of the assimilation system.

To realize their potential as integrators of the cross-cutting themes of the NASA Science Mission Directorate, our models and assimilation systems represent a wide range of time scales, from high resolution weather, to short-term climate, to long-term climate, and must eventually couple the interactive components of physical climate with biogeochemistry.