Science Snapshots

Below are titles of and links to concise summaries of work on specific scientific investigations by GMAO staff researchers and their colleagues. Details about refereed scientific papers published by the GMAO staff are compiled on our GMAO Publications page.

February 2024

Tropcial Cyclone Akara Brews Near Brazil

January 2024

January 2024 ENSO Update

Sudden Stratospheric Warming Event

December 2023

Early Season Snowfall in the Northeast US

November 2023

Google Earth Engine Data Fusion Tool to Support Air Quality Managers

Direct Assimilation of AVHRR Satellite Radiance Mmeasurements in a Reanalysis System

October 2023

Meteorologic Analysis of the August 2023 Maui Wildfires

GEOS S2Sv2 Indian Ocean Dipole Forecast and its Potential Global Impacts

September 2023

Hurricane Idalia at Landfall

July 2023

Sea surface currents and salinity near the maritime continent

Ozone extremes over the U.S. tracked by NASA’s composition forecasting system

June 2023

SMAP Radiance Assimilation Over Land Improves GEOS Medium-Range Forecasts of Near-Surface Air Temperature and Humidity

Exceptional Wildfire Smoke Across Canada Inundates the Northeastern United States

May 2023

A New Minimum in Southern Hemisphere Sea Ice Extent

A New Generation of GMAO Apps in Google Earth Engine

April 2023

Health Impacts from Wildfires in 2021 Over North America

March 2023

Atmospheric Rivers: More Precipitation Saturates California

NASA GMAO Supports Successful Test of an Inflatable Decelerator (LOFTID)

February 2023

Atmospheric Rivers Inundate California

January 2023

A Tale of Two Blizzards

Stratospheric Ozone Forecasts are Realistic when using the Chemical Mechanism in the GEOS-CF System

December 2022

Simulating the 2022 Mauna Loa volcanic eruption using the GEOS model

November 2022

Using Observations from NASA’s CAMP2Ex Campaign to Evaluate Smoke Optical Properties in GEOS

October 2022

Stratospheric Circulation Changes Associated with the Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha'apai Eruption

September 2022

Dynamical Drivers of the Exceptional Warmth Over Siberia During the Spring of 2020

August 2022

Continental Patterns of Bird Migration Linked to Climate Variability

The Detection of Atmospheric Rivers in Reanalyses and its Influence on Precipitation

July 2022

Unprecedented Amount of Water Vapor Injected into the Stratosphere by the Hunga Tonga Eruption

May 2022

A Dusty Atmospheric River Brings Floods to the Middle East

April 2022

An Atmospheric Blocking Event Shatters Temperature Records in East Antarctica

The Exceptional Warmth over Eurasia during JFM 2020: Role of the Tropics

March 2022

A 3D View of an Atmospheric River from an Earth System Model

February 2022

Investigating the utility of hyperspectral sounders in the 9.6 micrometer Band to improve ozone analyses

January 2022

The Many Faces of the Stratosphere

December 2021

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

October 2021

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

September 2021

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

August 2021

2021 Greenland Ice Sheet Melt Events: A Variety Pack

The Abnormally Hot June 2021 in the Western U.S.: A MERRA-2 perspective

July 2021

An Early Start to the North American Biomass Burning Season in 2021

A Dynamical View of the Record Heatwave of June 2021 in Western North America

June 2021

The anomalous 2019 polar stratospheric chemistry in GMAO’s assimilation experiments

April 2021

GEOS-CF Surface Ozone Compares Well Against Background Observations from the Global Atmospheric Watch (GAW) Network

GEOS-S2S Predicted 2020 Summertime Precipitation Anomalies Three Months in Advance

March 2021

Impact of SMAP brightness temperature data and gauge-based precipitation on the skill of the SMAP L4 Soil Moisture (L4SM) product

Satellite Monitoring of Global Surface Soil Organic Carbon Dynamics Using the SMAP Level 4 Carbon Product

Rare Atmospheric River Caused Record Floods Across the Middle East

February 2021

Impact of a regional US drought on land and atmospheric carbon

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

January 2021

Water Limitations in the Tropics Offset Carbon Uptake from Arctic Greening

December 2020

Long-Term Improvements of GEOS-FP Forecast Skill

September 2020

An Analysis of Ocean, Land and Ice

August 2020

Declines in Atmospheric Pollution During the COVID-19 Lockdown Consistent with Economic Output Contraction

July 2020

All-time Highs in the High Latitudes: Siberia 2020

Atmospheric Dust Rivers: Saharan Dust Makes the Journey to the Americas

June 2020

Major Advance in MJO Prediction Skill in GMAO’s Near Real Time Seasonal Forecasts

May 2020

GEOS Captures Tropical Cyclone-Like System Trudy over the Mediterranean Sea

April 2020

Developing an Ozone Climate Data Record from Assimilation of High-Resolution Satellite Observations

January 2020

Global Transport of Smoke from Australian Bushfires

Snow Depth Variability in the Northern Hemisphere Mountains Observed From Space

December 2019

GEOS Composition Forecasting System (GEOS-CF): Capabilities and complexities

Assessing the Impact of Nearly 40 Years of Observations on Short-Range MERRA-2 Forecasts

November 2019

Fires in Latin America and Carbon Monoxide

High Resolution GEOS Forecasts of Super Typhoon Hagibis

October 2019

American and European Heatwaves During Summer 2019

An Unusual Train of Waves in the Southern Hemisphere Stratosphere

Global Assessment of Added Value in the SMAP Level-4 Soil Moisture Product

September 2019

Length Scales of Hydrological Variability as Inferred from SMAP Soil Moisture Retrievals

Impacts of 2019 Boreal Forest Fires on Atmospheric Pollution

August 2019

Historic Greenland Ice Melt Event Follows European Heatwave

July 2019

Air Pollutant Forecasts Using the NASA GEOS-CF Model: Global Modeling Assessment of Pollutants During Wildfires

May 2019

Impact of Satellite Sea Surface Salinity Observations on ENSO Predictions

April 2019

Assimilation of Satellite Soil Moisture for Improved Atmospheric Reanalyses

A Scale-Aware Representation of Convection in the GEOS Model

March 2019

Using Loon Stratospheric Balloon Observations in Global Assimilation

The Roles of Climate Change and Climate Variability in the 2017 Atlantic Hurricane Season

August 2018

Mid-Atlantic Local Area Flooding, July 21-25, 2018

May 2018

Joint Assimilation of SMOS brightness Temperature and GRACE Terrestrial Water Storage Observations

Recent decline in lower stratospheric ozone attributed to circulation changes

April 2018

Stratospheric Intrusion-Influenced Ozone Air Quality Exceedances Investigated in the NASA MERRA-2 Reanalysis

February 2018

Active Winter Weather Forecasted over North America follow a Major Stratospheric Sudden Warming Event

December 2017

Forecasting the Mt. Agung Ash Cloud Using GEOS

MERRA-2 Data on a Cube

October 2017

Validation of Aquarius and SMAP Sea Surface Salinity in the Tropics

Summer 2017: Signals of Weather Extrema Shown in the Aerosol Fields

NASA’s OCO-2 mission tracks the influence of El Niño on atmospheric CO2

Space-based and Data Assimilation Views of Total Ozone

August 2017

Influence of ENSO on Wintertime Precipitation

June 2017

High-Resolution Global Modeling of Atmospheric Chemical Composition

An Icelandic low spins in the North Atlantic

A New Look at the 2015-2016 El Niño

May 2017

The Evolution and Anatomy of the GEOS Atmospheric Model

GMAO's Hybrid Ensemble-Variational System Gets an Upgrade

April 2017

Taking Air Pollution to the Extreme

January 2017

SMAP Soil Moisture Skillful in Determining Subsequent Streamflow

SMAP Soil Moisture and Drought in Ethiopia

Estimate of carbon fluxes generated with the NASA GMAO Catchment-CN model

December 2016

OCO-2 and GEOS Team Up to Produce a New View of Carbon Dioxide

November 2016

A Slinky-fied View of a Frozen-In Anticyclone in MERRA-2

The ENRR Field Campaign: Improving Our Response to El Niño

September 2016

KORUS-AQ

NASA/GMAO Pulls the Plug on La Niña

Rebooting the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation (QBO)

August 2016

Forecasting the Ft. McMurray Fire in GEOS

July 2016

Sierra Nevada snowpack deficit in winter 2015 depicted by a Landsat-era Reanalysis

June 2016

Sensitivity to dust during the formation of hurricane Helene

May 2016

SMAP Level 4 Soil Moisture (L4_SM)

Tracking sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) onset with the adjoint

The Validated (Version 2) SMAP Level 4 Carbon Product Suite (L4_C)

April 2016

DJF 2015-2016: Warmest Arctic Winter in the Satellite Era

February 2016

Tropospheric and Stratospheric circulation changes related to cold outbreak over eastern US during week of 8-14 February 2016

MERRA-2: Improved Representation of Extreme Precipitation Events

January 2016

NASA's GEOS provides a satellite view of historic winter storm

"Historical" Hurricanes in MERRA-2

December 2015

The Global Pulse of Carbon Dioxide in the 21st Century

MERRA-2 Global Aerosol Distributions

MERRA-2 Quasi-Biennial Oscillation

Heat Waves and Cold Spells of the 21st Century

1.5-km Global Cloud-Resolving Simulations with GEOS-5

October 2015

SMAP Level 4 Surface and Root Zone Soil Moisture (L4_SM)

The NASA SMAP Level 4 Carbon (L4_C) Product Suite

A Stratospheric Intrusion Event on 29 April 2012 Captured by the MERRA-2 Reanalysis

September 2015

MERRA-2: Observing System Time Series

MERRA-2: Global Precipitation Time Series

MERRA-2: Greenland Ice Sheet Surface Mass Balance

August 2015

Hurricane Katrina with GEOS-5 (10-years of model improvements)

Influence of Orography on the Stratosphere

July 2015

Mapping Man-made CO2 from Space

GEOS-5 Seasonal El Niño Forecast: July 2015

June 2015

Assimilating SMOS Brightness Temperatures into the NASA GEOS-5 Catchment Land Surface Model for Soil Moisture Estimation

May 2015

Real-Time Assimiliation of ISS-RapidScat Observations

Observations Assimilated at NASA's GMAO: A six-hour snapshot

February 2015

The Tropopause Inversion Layer in GEOS-5: A Connection with Stratospheric Circulation

December 2014

Sulfur Dioxide and Sulfate in the 7km GEOS-5 Nature Run

Spring Hydrology Determines Summer Net Carbon Uptake in Northern Ecosystems

November 2014

7km GEOS-5 Nature Run Realism of Global Energy Budget and Land-Surface Features

7km GEOS-5 Nature Run Validation of Cloud and Radiation Fields

7km GEOS-5 Nature Run Mesoscale Convective Complexes

QFED - High Resolution Global Fire Emissions

October 2014

GEOS-5 Aerosol Analysis for the SEAC4RS Field Campaign

Tracking the Influence of Stratospheric Air in Aircraft Campaigns

Forecasting in the Southern Beaufort Sea for ARISE

Analysis and Prediction of the Upper Ocean Using GEOS iODAS

September 2014

A Neural-Network-Based Bias Correction Enhances the Value of Aquarius Sea Surface Salinity (SSS) Data

August 2014

Using GPM Data for Cloud and Precipitation Analyses

September 2013

Verifying GEOS-5 sulfur dioxide simulations [PDF]

August 2013

Sea Surface Temperatures, Heat, and Drought in the U.S. [PDF]

February 2013

GEOS-5 and the Stratospheric Sudden Warming Event [PDF]

Simulating the Transport of Aerosols with GEOS-5

January 2013

Hurricane Sandy Forecasts with GEOS-5 [PDF]

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