Research and Activities

Keeping the overarching goals of the DAC to (1) provide excellent support to training of DA experts, (2)  advance DA science and innovation, (3) build a diverse network of DA experts and (4) support a university team to work closely with NOAA to advance DA,  CADRE has proposed DA research and development topics to address the UFS DA challenges highlighted in Fig 1. These topics include:

• Projects to advance DA and Machine Learning (ML) that include but are not limited to: UFS short and medium range weather, Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL), strongly coupled land-atmosphere DA for S2S prediction, all-sky satellite radiance observations, tropical cyclogenesis prediction, winter weather, ensemble DA, and Non-Gaussian satellite radiance observation error estimation and implementation in existing GFS and RRFS DA, implementation and testing of multigrid-Beta filter (MGBF) for radar DA within RRFS JEDI variational framework, etc.
• Collaboration with WPO-EPIC for joint training UFS and DA courses, code management and complex model interfaces
• Collaboration with NOAA DA scientist for UFS JEDI implementation, code release, and O2R2O
• Collaboration with the UKMO TDSA

Fig 1. UFS data assimilation challenges highlighted in CADRE (Future of Modeling & Data Assimilation Consortium, Invited Talk by Xuguang Wang, UIFCW 2024)

 

Education and Workforce Development Activities

CADRE’s Education and Workforce Development is depicted in Fig 2 below and has the following recommendations:

1.  new advising model, co-advising students and postdocs with NOAA scientists to perform DA research
2. New data assimilation class curriculum development
3. Public data assimilation training courses
4. Scientist and student exchange with UK Met office, UK MOAP e.g. University of Reading and TDSA
5. Public data assimilation science workshops and meetings and
6. Comprehensive outreach program

The DAC plans to collaborate closely with EPIC, JCSDA and and NOAA (such as the EMC and the EPIC) to iterate on the most viable options for adopting a community-centric UFS DA workflow in the JEDI framework for O2R and R2O applications.

Fig 2. CADRE Education and Workforce Development  (Future of Modeling & Data Assimilation Consortium, Invited Talk by Xuguang Wang, UIFCW 2024)

The DAC shall combine expertise across a range of DA disciplines and methodologies as explained in the NOFO requirements.

 

CADRE will achieve these requirements through:

1. Increasing the number of graduate students and postdocs formally trained in DA with NOAA UFS and the Joint Effort for Data assimilation Integration (JEDI) DA system work experience
2. Enhancing the national and international DA workforce pipeline development through training and outreach focusing on diversity and inclusion
3. Seeking solutions through JEDI to challenging DA issues in the UFS short range (RRFS, HAFS), medium range (GFS) and sub-seasonal to seasonal (S2S) predictions
4. Promoting intellectual and technical exchanges in R2O and O2R. Collaborating with NOAA, UKMet Office Trans-Atlantic Data Science Academy (UKMO TDSA) and other weather entities, CADRE will achieve these goals through:
   1. Advising graduate students and postdocs to perform a broad scope of DA research using JEDI and UFS models
   2. Implementing new DA capabilities to UFS JEDI to facilitate O2R2O
   3. Developing and expanding DA materials for classroom teaching and public training
   4. Disseminating results through publications, DA workshops, technical documentations, and code releases

NOAA is enabling close collaborations between academic DA researchers and the weather enterprise to address challenging DA issues key to improve the next generation UFS regional and global models toward improved forecast skill. The overarching priorities are to establish, clarify and improve NOAA’s Research to Operations (R2O) and Operations to Research (O2R) priorities and processes determining DA components in UFS releases with a clearly defined plan to implement innovative DA research from the DAC and other community researchers. One of the key initiatives involving multiple stakeholders is to identify a community-centric DA infrastructure focusing on a fully cycled end-to-end DA workflow for UFS global and regional applications for bringing DA innovations to research and operations.

The period of performance of the selected joint DAC proposal CADRE is 04-01-2024 – 09-30-2027

In alignment with the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (Public Law 117-169) Sec. 40004 Oceanic and Atmospheric Research and Forecasting for Weather and Climate and the Weather Forecasting and Innovation Act of 2017 of 2017 (Public Law 115-25).  Projects sought were responsive to the PWR Report DA Priority Area 1: Use and Assimilation of Existing Observations, Priority Area 2: Advanced Data Assimilation Methods, Capabilities and Workforce, and Priority Area 3: Observation Gaps and Use and Assimilation of New Observations.