National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Goddard Space Flight Center

Arctic Fires Summer 2019 - fine particulates

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 a regional US drought on land and atmospheric carbon

This study quantifies the impact of a regional US drought on land and atmospheric carbon, via simulations using GMAO’s Global Earth Observing System (GEOS) Earth System Model that couples the carbon, water, and energy cycles across the land and the atmosphere.

Was 2020 an exceptional year for fires in the Northern Hemisphere extratropics?

Comparison with estimates of historical (2003 through 2019) fire emissions indicated that 2020 was an exceptional year in terms of the total amount of pyrogenic carbon released in the atmosphere by wildfires in Siberia and the Western United States.

Water Limitations in the Tropics Offset Carbon Uptake from Arctic Greening

As Earth's climate is changing, increased uptake of atmospheric carbon by plants in the Arctic is being offset by a corresponding decline in the tropics. GMAO contributed to a study of ongoing shifts in productivity patterns across the globe.

Long-Term Improvements of GEOS-FP Forecast Skill

The GMAO's GEOS-FP model undergoes frequent upgrades. Here it is compared to the NCEP and ECMWF models in a 10-year time series. The narrowing of the gap between GMAO and the other centers over this ten-year period reflects the compounded effect of the small changes that make up each new upgrade.