National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Representatives from NASA’s Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) traveled to the Arctic Circle in March 2023 to attend the 24th International TOVS Study Conferences (ITSC) in Tromsø, Norway. Although cold and snowy, the GMAO had a much warmer visit with international colleagues to share the GMAO’s exciting work and progress using the Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS).

Presentations included a talk by Niama Boukachaba titled “Toward improving the assimilation of IASI and CrIS radiances over land into the NASA GEOS: LST Inversion and Validation”. Boukachaba also presented the poster “Implementing Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and Cross-Track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) Cloud-Clearing Algorithm into the NASA GEOS Model: focus on the 2017 Atlantic Tropical Cyclone season”. Other poster presenters were Yanqiu Zhu, “Status and Progress of Observation Usages in the GMAO GEOS Atmospheric Data Assimilation System”; Bryan Karpowicz, “Improving CrIS Infrared Assimilation in the GEOS Atmospheric Data Assimilation System”; and Erica McGrath-Spangler, “Global NWP Impacts of Infrared Sounders from Geostationary Orbit”.

The ITSC, organized by the International TOVS Working Group, is convened as a sub-group of the Radiation Commission of the International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences and of the Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites. Through this forum, research and operational communities present their research work and exchange information on infrared and microwave sounder data processing and studies, with topics ranging from algorithms of data processing, retrieval, and data assimilation to data impact on numerical weather prediction and climate studies.