Weekly Report for the Week of September 2, 2008
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GSFC Laboratory for Atmospheres, Code 613
Projects/missions
- Most significant accomplishment/milestone with GEO-CAPE.
Several Laboratory members attended and gave presentations at the community workshop to initiate a science definition study pertaining to the NRC Decadal Survey Geostationary Coastal and Air Pollution Events (GEO-CAPE) mission 18-20 August 2008 at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the science questions that can and should be addressed by a future Geostationary satellite that monitors coastal ocean biology and air quality, discuss the types of observations that potentially could be used to directly address the appropriate science questions, and spell out the scientific and technical activities required to insure that such a mission would be successful. Several potential instrument concepts were discussed. Attendees from the Laboratory for Atmospheres included P. K. Bhartia (613), Randy Kawa (613.3), Joanna Joiner (613.3), Bryan Duncan (613.3/UMBC-GEST), Mian Chin (613.3, and James Gleason (613.3). Chief scientist for the Earth Sciences Directorate, Mark Schoeberl, also attended.
Proposals
- Most significant proposals submitted/funded.
- A Joint Proposal Submitted to NNH08ZDA001N-AIST (Advanced Information Systems Technology) with the title: “Coupling NASA Advanced Multi-scale Modeling and Concurrent Visualization Systems for Improving Predictions of Tropical High-impact Weather” by Bo-Wen Shen (UMCP/ESSIC, GSFC/code 613.1), Wei-Kuo Tao (GSFC/code 613.1), Byran Green (ARC/NAS and CSC), Chris Henze (ARC/NAS), Piyush Mehrotra (ARC/NAS), Jui-lin (Frank) Li (JPL), Antonio Busalacchi (UMCP/ESSIC), Peggy Li (JPL).
- This proposal addresses the support for the Earth Science missions: Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory (CLARREO), Aerosol-Cloud-Ecosystems (ACE), PATH (Precipitation and All-Weather Temperature and Humidity), and Three-dimensional Tropospheric winds from Space-based Lidar (3D-winds) missions in the NRC Decadal Survey (2007). The primary object of this research proposal is to seamlessly integrate NASA advanced technologies of supercomputing (e.g., the Pleiades supercomputer with 43,008 cores), concurrent visualization (e.g., with 128-panels Hyperwall-2), and multi-scale (global-, meso-, and cloud-scale) modeling systems for improving the understanding of the roles of atmospheric moist thermodynamic processes and the cloud-radiation-aerosol interactions, aimed at improving predictions of high-impact tropical weather systems such as hurricanes, monsoons and Madden-Julia Oscillations.
External interactions (HQ, universities, other Gov't organizations, etc.)
- Most significant interaction. The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and National Research Council (NRC), sponsored by EPA, NASA, NOAA, and NSF, are conducting a study of "The Significance of the International Transport of Air Pollutants". A 16-member committee held its second meeting in Washington, DC on August 25-27, 2008 to review progress of the project. Hongbin Yu (613.2/UMBC-GEST), among six guest speakers invited by the committee, discussed the perspective of using satellite remote sensing measurements to quantify the intercontinental transport of aerosols.
The NAS/NRC study, to be completed by Fall 2009, will assess the state of knowledge regarding the international flow of air pollutants into and out of the United States and across its various regions, on continental and intercontinental scales. It will also consider the impact of these flows on the achievement of environmental policy objectives related to air quality or pollutant deposition in the United States and abroad and impacts on regional and global climate change.
Papers
Margaret Hurwitz (613.3/ORAU)has submitted the following article to the Journal of Geophysical Research, “Assessment and Consequences of the Delayed Breakup of the Antarctic Polar Vortex in Two Versions of the GEOS Chemistry-Climate Model.” Following is the abstract from her paper.
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