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 »
The Many Faces of the Stratosphere thumbnail

The Many Faces of the Stratosphere

The stratospheric flow patterns on a global scale can sometimes resemble faces. We present four examples that we have encountered in the stratosphere while examining EPV fields from MERRA-2.
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Regional Impacts of COVID-19 on Carbon Dioxide Detected Worldwide from Space thumbnail

Regional Impacts of COVID-19 on Carbon Dioxide Detected Worldwide from Space

During the COVID-19 pandemic, analysis of NASA satellite observations using the GEOS model helped track the impact of lockdowns on emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide.
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SMAP Observations Can Improve Near-Surface Humidity and Temperature in GEOS Weather Analysis thumbnail

SMAP Observations Can Improve Near-Surface Humidity and Temperature in GEOS Weather Analysis

SMAP analysis improves the skill of soil moisture and screen-level air specific humidity (q2m) and daily maximum temperature (T2m_max) compared to a system without SMAP assimilation.
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Sub-city Scale Hourly Air Quality Forecasting by Combining Models with Observations thumbnail

Sub-city Scale Hourly Air Quality Forecasting by Combining Models with Observations

Air quality is a major health concern worldwide. To better understand this risk and mitigate its impact, accurate and timely air quality data are needed. A proposed method incorporating outputs of NASA’s GEOS Composition Forecasting (GEOS-CF) model system with satellite information from ESA’s TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) and ground measurement data from the EPA network in the continental United States is described.
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