GMAO Scientists to get feet wet with newly funded proposals

09.20.2016

Recently, scientists from the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) have won several proposal solicitations as either Principle Investigator (PI) or Co-Investigator (Co-I). Coincidently, water, in its various states, is a prominent theme in each of the funded proposals.

The Earth’s biosphere responds to changes in water and carbon cycles. In relation to this, GMAO had two funded proposals:

  • The SMAP Level 4 Eco-Hydrology Product: Linking the terrestrial water and carbon cycles through the joint assimilation of SMAP data and MODIS and OCO-2 vegetation observations:
    • PI, Rolf Reichle (GMAO)
    • CO-I, Randal Koster (GMAO) and G. James Collatz (GSFC Emeritus)
  • Use of SMAP observations in conjunction with OCO-2 data to improve understanding of the coupled carbon and water cycle within the GEOS-5 modeling system:
    • PI, Abhishek Chatterjee (GMAO/GESTAR)
    • CO-I, Randal Koster (GMAO)

Both proposals look at the linkage between the two cycles using data from SMAP and OCO-2. For more information about these proposals and others selected from Solicitation NNH15ZDA001N-SUSMAP, please visit: Science Utilization of the Soil Moisture Active-Passive Mission.

One of the funded Ocean Biology and Biogeochemistry proposals will improve our understanding of the various ocean carbon pathways and provide support for the NASA EXport Processes in the Ocean for RemoTe Sensing (EXPORTS) field campaigns by testing various sampling strategies prior to the sampling efforts.

  • Observation-System Simulation Experiments (OSSEs) and seasonal forecasts to support EXPORTS :
    • PI, Cécile S. Rousseaux (GMAO/USRA)
    • CO-I, Ivona Cetinić (NASA/USRA, Code 616), Watson W. Gregg (NASA GMAO), Anastasia Romanou (NASA GISS/University of Columbia)

Clouds play a major role in the water cycle as they have an important influence on the weather and climate. Data collected by two NASA satellites, CloudSat and CALIPSO (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation), provide better understanding the Earth’s atmospheric structure and behavior. Two GMAO scientists were Co-Is on funded CloudSat and CALIPSO Science Team Recompete proposals:

  • Constraining the Modeling of Dust Aerosol and Climate Impacts Using CALIPSO, CloudSat, and Other A-Train Satellite Measurements:
    • PI, Xiaohong Liu
    • CO-I, Anton Darmenov (GMAO)
  • Use of CloudSat and CALIPSO Data to Improve Cloud Anvil Modeling:
    • PI, Xiping Zeng
    • CO-I, Donifan Barahona (GMAO)

Selected projects from the Satellite Calibration Interconsistency Study solicitation are to utilize the quantitative comparison of multiple satellite data products to facilitate the development of multi-instrument/multi-platform data sets involving satellites from multiple providers.

  • Re-Calibrate Water Vapor Bands from International Geostationary Satellites for Consistency with AIRS:
    • PI, Mathew Gunshor
    • CO-I, Will McCarty (GMAO)

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