National Aeronautics and Space Administration

GMAO scientists were part of four proposals chosen for funding as part of the NASA ROSES 2021 Advanced Information Systems Technology program. The proposals were "An Analytic Collaborative Framework for the Earth System Observatory (ESO) Designated Observables," "A Framework for Global Cloud Resolving OSSEs," "Development of a next-generation ensemble prediction system for atmospheric composition," and "GEOS Visualization And Lagrangian dynamics Immersive eXtended Reality Tool (VALIXR) for Scientific Discovery."

The selected and funded proposal, "An Analytic Collaborative Framework for the Earth System Observatory (ESO) Designated Observables," lead by Principal investigator (PI) Arlindo da Silva, also includes Patricia Castellanos (co-investigator) and Tom Clune (collaborator). The goal of this project is to develop an Analytic Collaborative Framework for Earth System Observatory (ESO) missions, based on realistic, science-based observing system simulations and the Program of Record (PoR). Tying it all together is a cloud-based cyberinfrastructure that will enable each uniquely designed satellite in the Earth System Observatory to work in tandem to create a 3D, holistic view of Earth. While their ultimate objective is to include all the main missions comprising the Earth System Observatory, the focus in the initial two years will be on the Atmosphere Observing System (AOS) and the Surface Biology and Geology (SBG) Designated Observable, two missions for which specific synergisms have been identified in a recent workshop.

The proposal entitled "A Framework for Global Cloud Resolving OSSEs" was also selected for funding. Several GMAO members are involved in this proposal, including PI Tom Clune, Co-I/Science PI Arlindo da Silva, Co-Is Ricardo Todling, Patricia Castellanos and William Putman, and Collaborator Daniel Holdaway. The main objective of this proposal is to enable global, cloud-resolving Observing System Simulation Experiments (OSSEs) by addressing key computational challenges that prevent existing technologies from scaling to the spatial resolutions that will be needed by the end of decade. Among the many beneficiaries, are NASA's Earth System Observatory (ESO) missions currently in development.

Another GMAO selected and funded AIST proposal is "Development of a next-generation ensemble prediction system for atmospheric composition." The goal of this project is to develop a new modeling framework to support the real-time simulation of reactive gases and aerosols at very high resolution. The project is composed of two science tasks: the implementation of simplified parameterizations for atmospheric chemistry and tracer transport into the GEOS Earth System Model, and the development of an efficient methodology for generating probabilistic estimates of atmospheric composition using state-of-the science machine learning algorithms. The utility of this framework will first be demonstrated in the GEOS Composition Forecast system (GEOS-CF), with a technology transfer to NOAA’s next-generation air quality forecasting system planned in a second step. The project team consists of GMAO members Christoph Keller (PI), Patricia Castellanos (Co-I), and Steven Pawson (collaborator).

The fourth, with Thomas Clune as Co-I, is "GEOS Visualization And Lagrangian dynamics Immersive eXtended Reality Tool (VALIXR) for Scientific Discovery" led by PI Thomas Grubb, which proposes development of a scientific exploration and analysis mixed augmented and virtual reality tool with integrated Lagrangian Dynamics to help scientists identify, track, and understand the evolution of Earth science phenomena in the NASA GEOS model. The VALIXR project has wide applicability to the Earth sciences, from analysis of smoke plumes moving around the globe, to organized convection in hurricanes, to eddies associated with the polar vortex, and more.