National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Goddard Space Flight Center

The GMAO Research Site

The Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) supports NASA's Earth Science mission. Activities in Earth System modeling and data assimilation aim to maximize the impact of satellite observations on analyses and predictions of the atmosphere, ocean, land and cryosphere.

Science Snapshots

Science Snapshot Archive »

Impact of Satellite Sea Surface Salinity Observations on ENSO Predictions

Assimilating satellite sea surface salinity (SSS) from NASA’s Aquarius and SMAP instruments improves the analyses of the near-surface density and the mixed layer depth (MLD).

Assimilation of Satellite Soil Moisture for Improved Atmospheric Reanalyses

Based on experiments spanning the summer of 2013, we find that the use of soil moisture observations in the reanalysis resulted in regional improvements in near-surface atmospheric conditions.

A Scale-Aware Representation of Convection in the GEOS Model

The recent implementations of the Grell-Freitas Convection Parameterization and the University of Washington shallow cumulus parameterization, along with the evolving development of the finite-volume cubed-sphere (FV3) non-hydrostatic dynamical core, have led to a unique scale-aware capability for the GEOS model.

Using Loon Stratospheric Balloon Observations in Global Assimilation

we assimilated three months (June-August 2014) of Loon balloon in-situ wind measurements into the NASA GEOS global data assimilation system (DAS). The DAS combines all observations with an atmospheric model to produce global analysis of winds and temperatures.