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At least 451 records · Page 25

Regional Climate Studies with Variable-Resolution Stretched-Grid GCMs

A variable resolution GCM using a global stretched grid with fine resolution over the area(s) of interest, is a viable new approach to regional and subregional climate studies and applications. It is an alternative to the widely used nested grid approach introduced a decade ago as a pioneering step in regional climate modeling. The first version of the SG-GCM based on the GEOS (Goddard Earth Observing System) GCM using a finite-difference approximation, has been developed and thoroughly tested during the last few years. Successful simulations have been performed with the SG-GCM for the anomalous regional climate events of the U.S. 1988 summer drought and 1993 summer flood. They have shown the practical feasibility of the SG-approach for regional climate modeling. The GEOS SG-DAS (Data Assimilation System) incorporating the SG-GCM has also been developed and tested. The assimilated regional fields and diagnostics are used for validating the SG-GCM regional simulations. Two new SG-GCMs are being developed. The first is the SG-version of the new NASANCAR FV-GCM (with the finite-volume (FV) dynamics), and the second is the SG-version of the new GCM with spectral-element dynamics. Both GCMs use the WAR CCM4 physics. Using these advanced numerics will provide increased computational efficiency for the new the SG-GCMs, and will allow us to employ more flexible stretching strategies beneficial for the efficient regional down-scaling. The major current developments are focused on: simulating the 1997-1999 (and beyond) ENSO cycle and related monsoonal circulations, with enhanced regional resolution; studying intraseasonal and interannual regional climate variability for the extended multiyear (AMIP-type) SG-GCM simulations; and studying the impact of ensemble integrations.

Fox-Rabinovitz, Michael↗

A Study of Heavy Precipitation Events in Taiwan During 10-13 August, 1994: Mesoscale Model Simulations - Part 2

Several heavy precipitation episodes occurred over Taiwan from August 10 to 13, 1994. Precipitation patterns and characteristics are quite different between the precipitation events that occurred from August 10 and I I and from August 12 and 13. In Part I (Chen et al. 2001), the environmental situation and precipitation characteristics are analyzed using the EC/TOGA data, ground-based radar data, surface rainfall patterns, surface wind data, and upper air soundings. In this study (Part II), the Penn State/NCAR Mesoscale Model (MM5) is used to study the precipitation characteristics of these heavy precipitation events. Various physical processes (schemes) developed at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (i.e., cloud microphysics scheme, radiative transfer model, and land-soil-vegetation surface model) have recently implemented into the MM5. These physical packages are described in the paper, Two way interactive nested grids are used with horizontal resolutions of 45, 15 and 5 km. The model results indicated that Cloud physics, land surface and radiation processes generally do not change the location (horizontal distribution) of heavy precipitation. The Goddard 3-class ice scheme produced more rainfall than the 2-class scheme. The Goddard multi-broad-band radiative transfer model reduced precipitation compared to a one-broad band (emissivity) radiation model. The Goddard land-soil-vegetation surface model also reduce the rainfall compared to a simple surface model in which the surface temperature is computed from a Surface energy budget following the "force-re store" method. However, model runs including all Goddard physical processes enhanced precipitation significantly for both cases. The results from these runs are in better agreement with observations. Despite improved simulations using different physical schemes, there are still some deficiencies in the model simulations. Some potential problems are discussed. Sensitivity tests (removing either terrain or radiative processes) are performed to identify the physical processes that determine the precipitation patterns and characteristics for heavy rainfall events. These sensitivity tests indicated that terrain can play a major role in determining the exact location for both precipitation events. The terrain can also play a major role in determining the intensity of precipitation for both events. However, it has a large impact on one event but a smaller one on the other. The radiative processes are also important for determining, the precipitation patterns for one case but. not the other. The radiative processes can also effect the total rainfall for both cases to different extents.

Tao, Wei Kuo↗

Assimilation of GOES Land Surface Data into a Mesoscale Models

A technique has been developed for assimilating Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-derived skin temperature tendencies and insolation into the surface energy budget equation of a mesoscale model so that the simulated rate of temperature change closely agrees with the satellite observations. A critical assumption of the technique is that the availability of moisture (either from the soil or vegetation) is the least known term in the model's surface energy budget. Therefore, the simulated latent heat flux, which is a function of surface moisture availability, is adjusted based upon differences between the modeled and satellite-observed skin temperature tendencies. An advantage of this technique is that satellite temperature tendencies are assimilated in an energetically consistent manner that avoids energy imbalances and surface stability problems that arise from direct assimilation of surface shelter temperatures. The fact that the rate of change of the satellite skin temperature is used rather than the absolute temperature means that sensor calibration is not as critical. The assimilation technique has been applied to the Oklahoma-Kansas region during the spring-summer 2000 time period when dynamic changes in vegetation cover occur. In April, central Oklahoma is characterized by large NDVI associated with winter wheat while surrounding areas are primarily rangeland with lower NDVI. In July the vegetation pattern reverses as the central wheat area changes to low NDVI due to harvesting and the surrounding rangeland is greener than it was in April. The goal of this study is to determine if assimilating satellite land surface data can improve simulation of the complex spatial distribution of surface energy and water fluxes across this region. The PSU/NCAR NM5 V3 system is used in this study. The grid configuration consists of a 36-km CONUS domain and a 12-km nest over the area of interest. Bulk verification statistics (BIAS and RMSE) of surface air temperature and dewpoint indicates that assimilation of the satellite data results reduces both the bias and RMSE for both state variables. In addition, comparison of model data with ARM/CART EBBR flux observations reveals that the assimilation technique adjusts the bowen ratio in a realistic fashion.

Lapenta, William M.↗

Assimilation of GOES Land Surface Data: Benefits to Numerical Weather Prediction

A technique has been developed for assimilating GOES-derived skin temperature tendencies and insolation into the surface energy budget equation of a mesoscale model so that the simulated rate of temperature change closely agrees with the satellite observations. A critical assumption of the technique is that the availability of moisture (either from the soil or vegetation) is the least known term in the model's surface energy budget. Therefore, the simulated latent heat flux, which is a function of surface moisture availability, is adjusted based upon differences between the modeled and satellite observed skin temperature tendencies. An advantage of this technique is that satellite temperature tendencies are assimilated in an energetically consistent manner that avoids energy imbalances and surface stability problems that arise from direct assimilation of surface shelter temperatures. The fact that the rate of change of the satellite skin temperature is used rather than the absolute temperature means that sensor calibration is not as critical. The technique has been employed on a semi-operational basis at the GHCC within the PSU/CAR MM5 since 1 November 1998. A one-way nested grid configuration was employed with a 75 kin CONUS domain and a 25 km grid over the southeastern United States. Initial conditions were obtained from the 12 UTC Early Eta Data Assimilation System analyses and lateral boundary conditions from the Early Eta forecast available at 3 hour intervals. The satellite-derived land surface temperature tendencies and insolation were assimilated between two and five hours (1400 and 1650 UTC) of the forecast. We performed the assimilation on the Southeastern domain only. In addition, a control run without assimilation was performed to provide insight into the performance of the assimilation technique.

Lapenta, William M.↗

A Cloud-Resolving Simulation of Hurricane Bob (1991): Storm Structure and Eyewall Buoyancy

A numerical simulation of Hurricane Bob (1991) is conducted using the Penn State University-National Center for Atmospheric Research mesoscale model MM5 with a horizontal grid spacing of 1.3 Km on the finest nested mesh The model produces a realistic hurricane that intensifies slowly during the period of fine-scale simulation. Time-averaged results reveal the effects of storm motion. vertical shear, beta gyres and deformation forcing on the structure of radial inflow, vertical motion, and precipitation. Instantaneous model fields show that radial inflow in the eyewall is very intense near the surface but transitions to strong low-level outflow near the top of the boundary layer. The low-level structure is modulated by a wavenumber 2 disturbance that rotates around the eyewall at half the speed of the maximum tangential winds and is consistent with a vortex Rossby edge wave. The statistical distribution of vertical velocity in the eyewall indicates that the eyewall is composed of a small number of intense updrafts that account for the majority of the upward mass flux rather than a more gradual and symmetric eyewall circulation, consistent with the concept of hot towers. Tongues of high equivalent potential temperature, Theta(sub e), are seen along the inner edge of the eyewall updraft and within the low-level outflow. This air originates from outside of the eyewall with the highest theta(sub e) air coming from the layer closest to the surface after penetrating closest to the center. Occasionally, high Theta(sub e), air within the eye is drawn into the eyewall updrafts. The high Theta(sub e), air rising within the eyewall is shown to be associated with positive eyewall buoyancy with sufficient convective available potential energy along its path to produce relatively strong convective updrafts. Although the requirements for conditional symmetric instability are met within the eyewall and the air parcel trajectories follow slanted paths, the radial displacement of air parcels in the low-level outflow moves the air parcel sufficiently far away from the upper- warm core that the air becomes unstable to vertical displacements. Hence, convective instability rather than symmetric instability accounts for the stronger updrafts in the eyewall.

Braun, Scott A.↗

Assimilation of GOES Land Surface Data Within a Rapid Update Cycle Format: Impact on MM5 Warm Season QPF

A technique has been developed for assimilating GOES-derived skin temperature tendencies and insolation into the surface energy budget equation of a mesoscale model so that the simulated rate of temperature change closely agrees with the satellite observations. A critical assumption of the technique is that the availability of moisture (either from the soil or vegetation) is the least known term in the model's surface energy budget. Therefore, the simulated latent heat flux, which is a function of surface moisture availability, is adjusted based upon differences between the modeled and satellite-observed skin temperature tendencies. An advantage of this technique is that satellite temperature tendencies are assimilated in an energetically consistent manner that avoids energy imbalances and surface stability problems that arise from direct assimilation of surface shelter temperatures. The fact that the rate of change of the satellite skin temperature is used rather than the absolute temperature means that sensor calibration is not as critical. The focus of this paper is to examine how the satellite assimilation technique impacts simulations of near-surface meteorology on the 0-to 12-hour time scale when implemented within a local rapid update cycle (LRUC) format. The PSU/NCAR MM5 V34 is used and configured with a 36-km CONUS domain and a 12-km nest centered over the southeastern US. The LRUC format consists of a sequence of 12-hour forecasts initialized every hour between 12 and 18 UTC seven days a week. GOES skin temperature tendencies and solar insolation are assimilated in a 1-hour period prior to the start of each twelve-hour forecast. A unique aspect of the LRUC is the satellite assimilation and the continuous recycling of the adjusted moisture availability field from one forecast cycle to the next. Preliminary results for a seven-day trial period indicate that hourly LST tendencies assimilated in a 1 hour LRUC showed improved simulated air and dewpoint temperatures for all cycles on each day. The LRUC will be used during the 2001 summer months to identify the impact of the assimilation on warm season QPF Results will be presented at the meeting.

Lapenta, William M.↗

2002 Blue Marble and Developments in HDTV Technology for Public Outreach

Fritz Hasler (NASA/Goddard) will demonstrate the latest Blue Marble Digital Earth technology. We will fly in from space through Terra, Landsat 7, to 1 m Ikonos "Spy Satellite" data of Disney World and the Orlando Convention Center. You will see the complete global cloud free and cloudy 500 m datasets from the EOS Terra satellite. Spectacular new animations from Terra, Landsat 7, and SeaWiFS will be presented. See also animations of the hurricanes & tropical storms of the 2001 season, as well as Floyd, Georges, and Mitch, etc. from GOES & TRMM supported by MM5 3-D nested numerical model results. See movies assembled using new low cost HDTV nonlinear editing equipment that is revolutionizing the way we communicate scientific results. See climate change in action with Global Land & Ocean productivity changes over the last 20 years. Remote sensing observations of ocean SST, height, winds, color, and El Nino from GOES, AVHRR, SSMI & SeaWiFS are put in context with atmospheric and ocean simulations. Compare symmetrical equatorial eddies observed by GOES with the simulations.

Hasler, Fritz↗

Fabricating High Resolution Mirrors for Hand X-Ray Astronomy

We describe the fabrication process for producing high-resolution conical mirrors for hard x-ray astronomy. When flown aboard stratospheric balloons, these high-resolution reflective mirrors focus hard x-rays (10-70 keV) emitted from cosmic sources such as supernovae, neutron stars, and quasars onto imaging focal plane detectors. Focused hard x-ray images allow scientists to determine the elemental compositions, temperatures, magnetic fields, velocities, and gravitational fields of these celestial bodies. The fabrication process involves generating super-polished mandrels, mandrel metrology, mirror shell nickel electroforming, and mirror testing. Each mandrel is a cylinder consisting of two conical segments; each segment is approximately 305-mm long. Through precision grinding these mandrels before super polishing, we have achieved 30 arc seconds, half power diameter replicated mirrors. During a May 2001 high atmosphere balloon flight, these mirrors focused high energy x-rays from three different celestial sources. However, we seek to improve the angular resolutions of future mirror shells by a factor of two. To achieve this goal, we have begun single point diamond turning the mandrels before super polishing. This has allowed greater precision tolerances on mandrel surface roughness and axial figure errors before super polishing. Surface roughnesses before polishing have been reduced from approximately 60 nm to approximately 15 nm. The peak to valley axial figure profile errors have been reduced from approximately 1.0 micrometers to approximately 0.4 micrometers. We are currently in Phase 2 of the HERO (high energy replicated optics) program which entails the production of sixteen 6-m-focal-length mirror modules, each containing a nested array of 15 mirror shells of diameters ranging from 50-mm to 94-mm. This flight is slated for the fall of 2003.

Speegle, Chet O.↗

Land Surface Data Assimilation and the Gulf Coast Sea-Breeze

A technique has been developed for assimilating GOES-derived skin temperature tendencies and insolation into the surface energy budget equation of a mesoscale model so that the simulated rate of temperature change closely agrees with the satellite observations. A critical assumption of the technique is that the availability of moisture (either from the soil or vegetation) is the least known term in the model's surface energy budget. Therefore, the simulated latent heat flux, which is a function of surface moisture availability, is adjusted based upon differences between the modeled and satellite observed skin temperature tendencies. An advantage of this technique is that satellite temperature tendencies are assimilated in an energetically consistent manner that avoids energy imbalances and surface stability problems that arise from direct assimilation of surface shelter temperatures. The fact that the rate of change of the satellite skin temperature is used rather than the absolute temperature means that sensor calibration is not as critical. The focus of this paper is to examine how the satellite assimilation technique impacts simulations of near-surface meteorology on the 4- to 48-hour time scale. The technique is implemented within the PSU/NCAR MM5 V34 and applied on a 36-km CONUS domain and a 12-km nest centered over Oklahoma. Two Friday periods during 2000 were selected for study, one during the warm season (May-June) and the other in the cold season (Nov-Dec). Bulk verification statistics (BIAS and RMSE) of surface air temperature and dewpoint show that the assimilation technique can improve numerical simulations on both regional and continental scales. Comparison of the simulated surface energy and water fluxes with observations from Energy Balance Bowen Ratio measurements taken at CART/ARM sites in the Southern Great Plains showed the assimilation technique produces a realistic argument of the Bowen ratio in both seasons. Additional runs with the Oregon State University land surface scheme as implemented within MM5 will be made and comparisons with assimilation results will be presented at the meeting.

Lapenta, William M.↗

Automatic Multilevel Parallelization Using OpenMP

In this paper we describe the extension of the CAPO (CAPtools (Computer Aided Parallelization Toolkit) OpenMP) parallelization support tool to support multilevel parallelism based on OpenMP directives. CAPO generates OpenMP directives with extensions supported by the NanosCompiler to allow for directive nesting and definition of thread groups. We report some results for several benchmark codes and one full application that have been parallelized using our system.

Jin, Hao-Qiang↗

MRI Evaluation of Spinal Length and Vertebral Body Angle During Loading with a Spinal Compression Harness

Weight bearing by the spinal column during upright posture often plays a role in the common problem of low back pain. Therefore, we developed a non-ferromagnetic spinal compression harness to enable MRI investigations of the spinal column during axial loading. Human subjects were fitted with a Nest and a footplate which were connected by adjustable straps to an analog load cell. MRI scans of human subjects (5 males and 1 female with age range of 27-53 yrs) during loaded and unloaded conditions were accomplished with a 1.5 Tesla GE Signa scanner. Studies of two subjects undergoing sequentially increasing spinal loads revealed significant decreases (r(sup 2) = 0.852) in spinal length between T4 and L5 culminating in a 1.5 to 2% length decrease during loading with 75% body weight. Sagittal vertebral body angles of four subjects placed under a constant 50% body weight load for one hour demonstrated increased lordotic and kyphotic curvatures. In the lumbar spine, the L2 vertebral body experienced the greatest angular change (-3 deg. to -5 deg.) in most subjects while in the thoracic spine, T4 angles increased from the unloaded state by +2 deg. to +9 deg. Overall, our studies demonstrate: 1) a progressive, although surprisingly small, decrease in spinal length with increasing load and 2) relatively large changes in spinal column angulation with 50% body weight.

Campbell, James A.↗

Automatic Multilevel Parallelization Using OpenMP

In this paper we describe the extension of the CAPO parallelization support tool to support multilevel parallelism based on OpenMP directives. CAPO generates OpenMP directives with extensions supported by the NanosCompiler to allow for directive nesting and definition of thread groups. We report first results for several benchmark codes and one full application that have been parallelized using our system.

Jin, Hao-Qiang↗

Automatic Data Distribution for CFD Applications on Structured Grids

Development of HPF versions of NPB and ARC3D showed that HPF has potential to be a high level language for parallelization of CFD applications. The use of HPF requires an intimate knowledge of the applications and a detailed analysis of data affinity, data movement and data granularity. Since HPF hides data movement from the user even with this knowledge it is easy to overlook pieces of the code causing low performance of the application. In order to simplify and accelerate the task of developing HPF versions of existing CFD applications we have designed and partially implemented ADAPT (Automatic Data Distribution and Placement Tool). The ADAPT analyzes a CFD application working on a single structured grid and generates HPF TEMPLATE, (RE)DISTRIBUTION, ALIGNMENT and INDEPENDENT directives. The directives can be generated on the nest level, subroutine level, application level or inter application level. ADAPT is designed to annotate existing CFD FORTRAN application performing computations on single or multiple grids. On each grid the application can considered as a sequence of operators each applied to a set of variables defined in a particular grid domain. The operators can be classified as implicit, having data dependences, and explicit, without data dependences. In order to parallelize an explicit operator it is sufficient to create a template for the domain of the operator, align arrays used in the operator with the template, distribute the template, and declare the loops over the distributed dimensions as INDEPENDENT. In order to parallelize an implicit operator, the distribution of the operator's domain should be consistent with the operator's dependences. Any dependence between sections distributed on different processors would preclude parallelization if compiler does not have an ability to pipeline computations. If a data distribution is "orthogonal" to the dependences of an implicit operator then the loop which implements the operator can be declared as INDEPENDENT.

Frumkin, Michael↗

Variable-Resolution GCMs

Variable resolution GCMs using a global stretched grid (SG) with enhanced regional resolute over multiple (four) areas of interest represent a viable new approach to regional climate and climate change studies and applications. The four areas, one at each global quadrant, include major global monsoonal circulations over North America, South America, India-China, and Australia. The SG-approach is an ideal tool for representing consistent interactions of global/large- and regional/mesoscales. It is an alternative to the widely used nested-grid approach. Several existing SG-GCMs are briefly described. The major discussion is based on the GEOS (Goddard Earth Observing System) SG-GCM regional climate simulations.

Fox-Rabinovitz, Michael S.↗

The Structure of A Pacific Narrow Cold Frontal Rainband

A NOAA P-3 instrumented aircraft observed an intense, fast-moving narrow cold frontal Farmhand as it approached the Pacific Northwest coast on 19 February 2001 during the Pacific Coastal Jets Experiment. Pseudo-dual-Doppler analyses performed on the airborne Doppler radar data while the frontal system was well offshore indicated that a narrow ribbon of very high radar reflectively convective cores characterized the Farmhand at low levels with echo tops to approximately 4-5 km. The NCFR exhibited gaps in its narrow ribbon of high reflectively, probably as a result of hydrodynamic instability all no its advancing cold pool leading edge. In contrast to some earlier studies of cold frontal rainbands, density current theory described well the motion of the overall front. The character of the updraft structure associated with the heavy rainfall at its leading edge varied across the gap region. The vertical shear of the cross-frontal low-level ambient flow exerted a strong influence on the updraft character, consistent with theoretical arguments developed for squall lines describing the balance of vorticity at the leading edge. In short regions south of the gaps the vertical wind shear was strongest with the updrafts and rain shafts more intense, narrower, and more erect or even downshear tilted. North of the gaps the wind shear weakened with less intense Dihedrals which tilted upshear with a broader band of rainfall. Simulations using a nonhydrostatic mesoscale nested grid model are used to investigate the gap regions, particularly the balance of cold pool induced to pre-frontal ambient shears at the leading edge. Observations confirm the model results that the updraft character depends on the balance of vorticity at the leading edge. Downshear-tilted updrafts imply that convection south of the gap regions would weaken with time relative to the frontal segments north of the gaps since inflow air would be affected by passage through the heavy rain region before ascent, suggesting a mechanism for gap filling.

Jorgensen, David P.↗

High-Resolution Simulation of Hurricane Bonnie (1998): Storm Structure and Evolution

A simulation of Hurricane Bonnie (1998) has been performed using multiple grid nesting to 2 km grid spacing. The simulation is initialized with large-scale analysis fields from the European Center for Medium Range Forecasts and with a bogus vortex inserted via four-dimensional variational data assimilation. The simulation, verified against radar observations from TRMM and aircraft observations from the NASA CAMEX-3 field experiment, reproduces well the storm intensity, the wavenumber 1 asymmetry of the precipitation field, the occurrence of deep convective towers within the eyewall, and the presence of broad stratiform precipitation regions. This study will explore the evolution of air parcels in these convective towers, from their beginnings in the boundary layer to their movement in upper level outflow. The role of these towers in storm intensification may also be examined.

Braun, Scott A.↗

An Efficient Scheme for Updating Sparse Cholesky Factors

Raghavan had earlier developed the software package DCSPACK which can be used for solving sparse linear systems where the coefficient matrix is symmetric and positive definite (this project was not funded by NASA but by agencies such as NSF). DSCPACK-S is the serial code and DSCPACK-P is a parallel implementation suitable for multiprocessors or networks-of-workstations with message passing using MCI. The main algorithm used is the Cholesky factorization of a sparse symmetric positive positive definite matrix A = LL(T). The code can also compute the factorization A = LDL(T). The complexity of the software arises from several factors relating to the sparsity of the matrix A. A sparse N x N matrix A has typically less that cN nonzeroes where c is a small constant. If the matrix were dense, it would have O(N2) nonzeroes. The most complicated part of such sparse Cholesky factorization relates to fill-in, i.e., zeroes in the original matrix that become nonzeroes in the factor L. An efficient implementation depends to a large extent on complex data structures and on techniques from graph theory to reduce, identify, and manage fill. DSCPACK is based on an efficient multifrontal implementation with fill-managing algorithms and implementation arising from earlier research by Raghavan and others. Sparse Cholesky factorization is typically a four step process: (1) ordering to compute a fill-reducing numbering, (2) symbolic factorization to determine the nonzero structure of L, (3) numeric factorization to compute L, and, (4) triangular solution to solve L(T)x = y and Ly = b. The first two steps are symbolic and are performed using the graph of the matrix. The numeric factorization step is of dominant cost and there are several schemes for improving performance by exploiting the nested and dense structure of groups of columns in the factor. The latter are aimed at better utilization of the cache-memory hierarchy on modem processors to prevent cache-misses and provide execution rates (operations/second) that are close to the peak rates for dense matrix computations. Currently, EPISCOPACY is being used in an application at NASA directed by J. Newman and M. James. We propose the implementation of efficient schemes for updating the LL(T) or LDL(T) factors computed in DSCPACK-S to meet the computational requirements of their project. A brief description is provided in the next section.

Raghavan, Padma↗

Video Image Stabilization and Registration

A method of stabilizing and registering a video image in multiple video fields of a video sequence provides accurate determination of the image change in magnification, rotation and translation between video fields, so that the video fields may be accurately corrected for these changes in the image in the video sequence. In a described embodiment, a key area of a key video field is selected which contains an image which it is desired to stabilize in a video sequence. The key area is subdivided into nested pixel blocks and the translation of each of the pixel blocks from the key video field to a new video field is determined as a precursor to determining change in magnification, rotation and translation of the image from the key video field to the new video field.

Hathaway, David H.↗