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At least 73 records · Page 4

Development of a Grid-Independent Geos-Chem Chemical Transport Model (v9-02) as an Atmospheric Chemistry Module for Earth System Models

The GEOS-Chem global chemical transport model (CTM), used by a large atmospheric chemistry research community, has been re-engineered to also serve as an atmospheric chemistry module for Earth system models (ESMs). This was done using an Earth System Modeling Framework (ESMF) interface that operates independently of the GEOSChem scientific code, permitting the exact same GEOSChem code to be used as an ESM module or as a standalone CTM. In this manner, the continual stream of updates contributed by the CTM user community is automatically passed on to the ESM module, which remains state of science and referenced to the latest version of the standard GEOS-Chem CTM. A major step in this re-engineering was to make GEOS-Chem grid independent, i.e., capable of using any geophysical grid specified at run time. GEOS-Chem data sockets were also created for communication between modules and with external ESM code. The grid-independent, ESMF-compatible GEOS-Chem is now the standard version of the GEOS-Chem CTM. It has been implemented as an atmospheric chemistry module into the NASA GEOS- 5 ESM. The coupled GEOS-5-GEOS-Chem system was tested for scalability and performance with a tropospheric oxidant-aerosol simulation (120 coupled species, 66 transported tracers) using 48-240 cores and message-passing interface (MPI) distributed-memory parallelization. Numerical experiments demonstrate that the GEOS-Chem chemistry module scales efficiently for the number of cores tested, with no degradation as the number of cores increases. Although inclusion of atmospheric chemistry in ESMs is computationally expensive, the excellent scalability of the chemistry module means that the relative cost goes down with increasing number of cores in a massively parallel environment.

CTM↗

Universities Earth System Scientists Program

This document constitutes the final technical report for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Grant NAGW-3172. This grant was instituted to provide for the conduct of research under the Universities Space Research Association's (USRA's) Universities Earth System Scientist Program (UESSP) for the Office of Mission to Planet Earth (OMTPE) at NASA Headquarters. USRA was tasked with the following requirements in support of the Universities Earth System Scientists Programs: (1) Bring to OMTPE fundamental scientific and technical expertise not currently resident at NASA Headquarters covering the broad spectrum of Earth science disciplines; (2) Conduct basic research in order to help establish the state of the science and technological readiness, related to NASA issues and requirements, for the following, near-term, scientific uncertainties, and data/information needs in the areas of global climate change, clouds and radiative balance, sources and sinks of greenhouse gases and the processes that control them, solid earth, oceans, polar ice sheets, land-surface hydrology, ecological dynamics, biological diversity, and sustainable development; (3) Evaluate the scientific state-of-the-field in key selected areas and to assist in the definition of new research thrusts for missions, including those that would incorporate the long-term strategy of the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP). This will, in part, be accomplished by study and evaluation of the basic science needs of the community as they are used to drive the development and maintenance of a global-scale observing system, the focused research studies, and the implementation of an integrated program of modeling, prediction, and assessment; and (4) Produce specific recommendations and alternative strategies for OMTPE that can serve as a basis for interagency and national and international policy on issues related to Earth sciences.

Estes, John E.↗

NASA's Earth System Observatory— Atmosphere Observing System

NASA has begun pre-formulation studies for the Earth System Observatory, a constellation of observatories designed to implement the recommendations of the 2017 NASA Earth Science Decadal Survey. For the atmosphere, the Atmosphere Observing System (AOS) will focus on aerosols, clouds, convection, and precipitation, their mutual interactions, and interactions with atmospheric radiation. AOS consists of two projects, one in an inclined orbit to measure sub-daily variability across all times of day, particularly for deep convection and its attendant high clouds, and one in a polar orbit to provide globally distributed observations with more advanced capabilities, coupling to radiation, and an eye toward continuity of key cloud and aerosol data records. This paper describes the AOS science objectives, the architectures of the two projects, planned sub-orbital activities, and relevant applications.

Scott A Braun↗

The Earth System Grid Federation : an Open Infrastructure for Access to Distributed Geospatial Data

The Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF) is a multi-agency, international collaboration that aims at developing the software infrastructure needed to facilitate and empower the study of climate change on a global scale. The ESGF's architecture employs a system of geographically distributed peer nodes, which are independently administered yet united by the adoption of common federation protocols and application programming interfaces (APIs). The cornerstones of its interoperability are the peer-to-peer messaging that is continuously exchanged among all nodes in the federation; a shared architecture and API for search and discovery; and a security infrastructure based on industry standards (OpenID, SSL, GSI and SAML). The ESGF software is developed collaboratively across institutional boundaries and made available to the community as open source. It has now been adopted by multiple Earth science projects and allows access to petabytes of geophysical data, including the entire model output used for the next international assessment report on climate change (IPCC-AR5) and a suite of satellite observations (obs4MIPs) and reanalysis data sets (ANA4MIPs).

search,↗

The Earth System Science Pathfinder Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) Mission

A viewgraph presentation describing the Earth System Science Pathfinder Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) Mission is shown. The contents include: 1) Why CO2?; 2) What Processes Control CO2 Sinks?; 3) OCO Science Team; 4) Space-Based Measurements of CO2; 5) Driving Requirement: Precise, Bias-Free Global Measurements; 6) Making Precise CO2 Measurements from Space; 7) OCO Spatial Sampling Strategy; 8) OCO Observing Modes; 9) Implementation Approach; 10) The OCO Instrument; 11) The OCO Spacecraft; 12) OCO Will Fly in the A-Train; 13) Validation Program Ensures Accuracy and Minimizes Spatially Coherent Biases; 14) Can OCO Provide the Required Precision?; 15) O2 Column Retrievals with Ground-based FTS; 16) X(sub CO2) Retrieval Simulations; 17) Impact of Albedo and Aerosol Uncertainty on X(sub CO2) Retrievals; 18) Carbon Cycle Modeling Studies: Seasonal Cycle; 19) Carbon Cycle Modeling Studies: The North-South Gradient in CO2; 20) Carbon Cycle Modeling Studies: Effect of Diurnal Biases; 21) Project Status and Schedule; and 22) Summary.

carbon cycles↗

Constraining the Earth System with EOS-Aura Observations

NASA's Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) model and data assimilation system is a flexible, modular global system that is used for applications that range from weather prediction to climate analysis. Resolving scales ranging from a few kilometers to several tens of kilometers, with scale-aware parametrization settings, the GEOS system offers NASA scientists and their partners a flexible system that is attuned to bringing in observations from all components of the Earth System. The GEOS system thus serves as a tool that enhances the value to NASA of observations from individual instruments, by bringing them into context with the full suite of "operational" observations and other research datasets. This presentation will emphasize how the GEOS system has been used to extend the value of observations from EOS-Aura, in conjunction with other NASA and non-NASA observations. One example is atmospheric ozone from the OMI and MLS instruments, that has been used extensively in GEOS systems for both weather (GEOS-FP) and the MERRA-2 reanalysis. The presentation will emphasize the value of these ozone datasets for studying long-term changes of ozone since 2004 and will discuss prospects of continuing such analyses in the post-Aura era. A new configuration of GEOS, the Composition Forecasting (CF) system has recently gone in to production: this uses a full troposphere-stratosphere chemistry mechanism (GEOS-Chem) to analyze and predict global constituent distributions, including surface air quality. While constituent observations are not yet assimilated into GEOS-CF, EOS-Aura data are used substantially to evaluate the system and plans are in place to introduce assimilation at a later stage. Examples from GEOS-CF will be shown to illustrate the value of EOS-Aura observations. Discussions will focus on the likely value of long-term analyses of EOS-Aura observations in context of understanding potential impacts on the health of humans and the biosphere, including the importance of sustaining long-term, global observing systems such as that pioneered by EOS-Aura.

Pawson, Steven↗

Earth System Perspective

We review the most current knowledge pertaining to carbon cycle components in an Earth System model and discuss data assimilation applications to inform and improve process-based representations in these models.

Earth System model↗

Preservation of Data for Earth System Science- Towards a Content Standard

Various remote sensing agencies of the world have created a data rich environment for research and applications over the last three decades. Especially over the last decade, the volume and variety of data useful for Earth system science have increased quite rapidly. One of the key purposes of collecting these data and generating useful digital products containing derived geophysical parameters is to study the long-term trends in the Earth s behavior. Long-term observational data and derived products are essential for validating results from models that predict the future behavior of the Earth system. Given the significant resources expended in gathering the observational data and developing the derived products, it is important to preserve them for the benefit of future generations of users. Preservation involves maintaining the bits with no loss (or loss within scientifically acceptable bounds) as they move across systems as well as over time, ensuring readability over time, and providing for long-term understandability and repeatability of previously obtained results. In order to ensure long-term understandability and repeatability, it is necessary to identify all items of content that must be preserved and plan for such preservation. This paper discusses the need for a standard enumerating and describing such content items and reports on the progress made by NASA and the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP Federation) in the U.S. towards such a standard.

Ramapriyan, Hampapuram↗

Scientific Visualization & Modeling for Earth Systems Science Education

Providing research experiences for undergraduate students in Earth Systems Science (ESS) poses several challenges at smaller academic institutions that might lack dedicated resources for this area of study. This paper describes the development of an innovative model that involves students with majors in diverse scientific disciplines in authentic ESS research. In studying global climate change, experts typically use scientific visualization techniques applied to remote sensing data collected by satellites. In particular, many problems related to environmental phenomena can be quantitatively addressed by investigations based on datasets related to the scientific endeavours such as the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE). Working with data products stored at NASA's Distributed Active Archive Centers, visualization software specifically designed for students and an advanced, immersive Virtual Reality (VR) environment, students engage in guided research projects during a structured 6-week summer program. Over the 5-year span, this program has afforded the opportunity for students majoring in biology, chemistry, mathematics, computer science, physics, engineering and science education to work collaboratively in teams on research projects that emphasize the use of scientific visualization in studying the environment. Recently, a hands-on component has been added through science student partnerships with school-teachers in data collection and reporting for the GLOBE Program (GLobal Observations to Benefit the Environment).

Chaudhury, S. Raj↗

NASA's Advanced Information Systems Technology (AIST): Combining New Observing Strategies and Analytics Frameworks to Build Earth System Digital Twins

NASA's Advanced Information Systems Technology (AIST) Program is one of several Technology programs managed by the Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO) in the Earth Science Division (ESD). The AIST Program focuses on advanced information systems and novel computer science technologies that will be needed by NASA Earth Science in the next 5 to 10 years. The three main thrusts of the AIST Program deal with New Observing Strategies, Analytic Collaborative Frameworks and Earth System Digital Twins. This paper describes these three thrusts and how they work together to create future Earth Science information systems.

Jacqueline Le Moigne↗

Nasa's Advanced Information Systems Technology (AIST): Combining New Observing Strategies And Analytics Frameworks To Build Earth System

NASA's Advanced Information Systems Technology (AIST) Program is one of several Technology programs managed by the Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO) in the Earth Science Division (ESD). The AIST Program focuses on advanced information systems and novel computer science technologies that will be needed by NASA Earth Science in the next 5 to 10 years. The three main thrusts of the AIST Program deal with New Observing Strategies, Analytic Collaborative Frameworks and Earth System Digital Twins. This paper describes these three thrusts and how they work together to create future Earth Science information systems.

Jacqueline Le Moigne↗

Using an Explainable Machine Learning Approach to Characterize Earth System Model Errors: Application of SHAP Analysis to Modeling Lightning Flash Occurrence

Computational models of the Earth System are critical tools for modern scientific inquiry. Effortstoward evaluating and improving errors in representations of physical and chemical processes inthese large computational systems are commonly stymied by highly nonlinear and complexerror behavior. Recent work has shown that these errors can be effectively predicted usingmodern Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) techniques. In this work, we go beyond these previousstudies to apply an interpretable A.I. technique to not only predict model errors but also movetoward understanding the underlying reasons for successful error prediction. We use XGBoostclassification trees and SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) analysis to explore the errors inthe prediction of lightning occurrence in the NASA GEOS model, a widely used Earth SystemModel. This explainable error prediction system can effectively predict the model error andindicates that the errors are strongly related to convective processes and the characteristics ofthe land surface.

Artificial intelligence↗

Earth System science

Recent research has solidified a view of the Earth as a global-scale interactive system with complex chemical, physical, biological and dynamical processes that link the ocean, atmosphere, land (soils, ice, snow) and marine and terrestrial living organisms. These processes both within and between the major parts of the system help determine global and regional climate and control the biogeochemical and hydrologic cycles essential to life. The study of the Earth System requires measurements ranging from the scales of the smallest processes to the global scale. An ambitious satellite observational program, the Earth Observing System (EOS), carried out along with the complementary and ongoing World Climate Research Program (WCRP) and International Geosphere-Biosphere Program (IGBP) represents a major international effort to understand this System and predict its future changes. The complex and intriguing nature of the Earth System is discussed along with a number of closely coupled processes occurring within it. These are: clouds, precipitation and vegetation; ocean circulation, sea-surface temperature and phytoplankton; coupled oceanic and atmospheric circulation (the Southern Oscillation); biological activity, atmospheric chemistry and climate; and biological emissions and the ozone layer.

Prinn, R. G.↗

Orbital Noise in the Earth System and Climate Fluctuations

Frequency noise in the variations of the Earth's obliquity (tilt) can modulate the insolation signal for climate change. Including this frequency noise effect on the incoming solar radiation, we have applied an energy balance climate model to calculate the climate fluctuations for the past one million years. Model simulation results are in good agreement with the geologically observed paleoclimate data. We conclude that orbital noise in the Earth system may be the major cause of the climate fluctuation cycles.

Liu, Han-Shou↗

Ocean and Earth System Modelling

Petascale supercomputing infrastructure + modelling and analysis capabilities + interdisciplinary upper-ocean expertise Multiscale ocean turbulence simulation Physical-biogeochemical interactions Analysis of large data sets from remote sensing and Earth system model ensembles

Ocean↗

Coupled Aerosol-Chemistry Simulations of the January 2022 Eruptions of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai in the NASA GEOS Earth System Model

The January 2022 eruptions of the underwater Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano injected more than 100 Tg of water vapor and approximately 0.5 Tg of sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere. Injected materials reached as high as ~55 km in altitude, while the main plume from the eruption travelled west over Australia and the Indian Ocean between about 20 – 30 km altitude. We investigate the transport and the impact of the erupted materials in coupled aerosol-chemistry simulations performed with the NASA Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) Earth system model. A sulfur mechanism introduced into the Global Modeling Initiative (GMI) stratospheric-tropospheric chemistry package allows for an interactive simulation of the water vapor-chemistry impacts, and the large water vapor perturbation results in rapid conversion of sulfur dioxide to sulfate aerosol in our aerosol mechanism. We report on the results of a multi-year ensemble of simulations performed with this system that include a control ensemble (no eruption), a water vapor-only injection ensemble, and a water vapor and sulfur dioxide injection ensemble. Simulations of the near-field aerosol and chemistry transport are compared to available measurements from OMPS-LP, OMPS-NM, CALIOP, MLS, and other sensors. The extended impact of the volcanic materials on the stratospheric composition and chemistry over the next several years is further investigated in forecast simulations.

Peter Colarco↗

Modeling Large Dust Aerosols in the Community Earth System Model Version 2 (CESM2)

Dust aerosols have a wide size distribution from less than 0.1 to over 100 μm and dominate Earth's atmospheric aerosol mass. However, most Earth system models (ESMs) inadequately represent dust aerosols larger than 10 μm in diameter, limiting the accuracy of the simulated dust cycle and climate impacts. Here, we introduce a new modeling framework that captures the full observed size distribution of dust aerosols, incorporating recent advances into a mineral-resolved version of the Community ESM, while addressing known issues in previous versions. Comprehensive evaluation against diverse observations of bulk dust and component minerals demonstrates that the model reproduces the observed dust cycle across particle sizes. Incorporating the previously unrepresented large-dust fractions substantially alters dust budget estimates, highlighting potential changes in simulated climate impacts and underscoring the importance of comprehensive size-resolved dust modeling. Despite these advancements, uncertainties persist. Our results indicate that a size-dependent reduction in settling velocity is required to reproduce the observed dust size distribution downwind of source regions. Specifically, in the new model, the gravitational settling velocity of dust particles larger than 10 μm in diameter must be reduced by as much as 85% to achieve agreement with observations. This empirical reduction serves as a constraint on physics-based models of dust settling. Future developments should address misrepresented physical processes that hinder accurate modeling of the large dust aerosol transport. Expanding observational data sets covering the full-size distribution is also essential to better constrain the dust cycle and improve the representation of dust optical properties and climate effects.

mineral dust↗