| NSF Org: |
AGS Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences |
| Recipient: |
|
| Initial Amendment Date: | May 1, 2019 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | May 1, 2019 |
| Award Number: | 1914920 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Sylvia Edgerton
sedgerto@nsf.gov (703)292-8522 AGS Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences GEO Directorate for Geosciences |
| Start Date: | June 1, 2019 |
| End Date: | May 31, 2023 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $464,371.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $464,371.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
|
| History of Investigator: |
|
| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
77 MASSACHUSETTS AVE CAMBRIDGE MA US 02139-4301 (617)253-1000 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
|
| Primary Place of Performance: |
77 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge MA US 02139-4301 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
|
| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
|
| Parent UEI: |
|
| NSF Program(s): | Atmospheric Chemistry |
| Primary Program Source: |
|
| Program Reference Code(s): | |
| Program Element Code(s): |
|
| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.050 |
ABSTRACT
This project will integrate a state-of-science atmospheric chemistry model (GEOS-Chem) into an Earth System Model (ESM) that provides state-of-the-art computer simulations of the Earth's past, present, and future climate states. This effort is a partnership between the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and several academic institutions, including Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to expand the national capabilities for climate modeling and atmospheric chemistry research.
The first objective of the project is to deliver a mature GEOS-Chem module within the Community Earth System Model (CESM) Earth System Model in the first year of the project. The resulting CESM2 configuration with GEOS-Chem (CESM2-GC) will be evaluated by comparison to a large ensemble of atmospheric observations and to CAM-chem, that is the CESM2 configuration with chemistry. The second objective is to incorporate the GEOS-Chem emissions tool (HEMCO) into the model as an independent component in CESM2, not only for computing emissions but also as a general regridding and as an I/O tool. The third objective is to implement GEOS-Chem and HEMCO into the future-generation CESM as part of the System for Integrated Modeling of the Atmosphere (SIMA) with interoperable components linked by common infrastructure through the Common Physics Framework (CPF). This will involve further partitioning of GEOS-Chem into its chemistry and deposition subcomponents under the CPF.
To assess the general performance of the model, global datasets will be used to benchmark the standard GEOS-Chem simulations at each version update. These include surface monitoring data for ozone and aerosol species, ozonesondes, satellite observations of ozone, aerosol optical depth, BrO, and other species, and vertical profiles from NASA aircraft campaigns for a large ensemble of species in coherent regions worldwide. The project will train several graduate students, enhance the nation's infrastructure for research by creating a new modeling tool, and increase the pool of personnel skilled in software engineering, a need strongly identified within the community.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
Note:
When clicking on a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number, you will be taken to an external
site maintained by the publisher. Some full text articles may not yet be available without a
charge during the embargo (administrative interval).
Some links on this page may take you to non-federal websites. Their policies may differ from
this site.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The goal of this award was to facilitate integration of the state-of-the-art GEOS-Chem atmospheric chemistry model into the Community Earth System Model, or CESM.
The key intellectual merit is the advancement of our ability to simulate chemistry-climate interactions, a priority which has been identified explicitly by the National Academies. The effect of specific choices in chemical modeling can also now be investigated, of particular importance given the known differences between models when simulating (e.g.) the response of global ozone – a greenhouse gas – to changes in emissions. Better understanding this relationship, and in particular why different models get different answers – including which of those are incorrect – will enable rational and efficient allocation of resources with regards to emissions reduction.
The broader impact comes through the potential to integrate two scientific communities. Since both GEOS-Chem and CESM are supported and used by communities of over 100 research groups, this work allows the broad community of Earth system modelers who use CESM to make use of the ongoing, cutting-edge advancements in atmospheric chemistry which are developed by the atmospheric chemists in the GEOS-Chem community. It also provides that latter community with the opportunity to explore chemistry-climate feedbacks which are not simulated in the base GEOS-Chem model.
As a result of this grant, the two key components of GEOS-Chem are now available as options within CESM. First, the Harvard team has successfully integrated the Harmonized Emissions Component (HEMCO) into CESM. This is needed by GEOS-Chem to handle emissions, and provides an unprecedented level of flexibility when simulating emissions generally in CESM. This process is documented in a peer-reviewed paper (Lin et al., 2021). Second, the MIT team has successfully implemented GEOS-Chem as an atmospheric chemistry module within CESM, acting as an alternative to the established CAM-chem module. This means that differences between results generated with GEOS-Chem and CAM-chem can now be much better understood, including the degree to which the representation of meteorology – rather than the representation of atmospheric chemistry – drives differences in results. This process, including preliminary analysis of some of these differences, has now been documented in a peer-reviewed paper (Fritz et al., 2022), with a follow-up paper on chemistry-climate feedbacks in aviation emissions impacts now in preparation.
This award directly supported the research of two PhD students (one at MIT and one at Harvard), in addition to a postdoctoral researcher at MIT. The process of integrating GEOS-Chem into CESM is now well underway, and this project has directly supported the overarching goal of developing the Multiscale Infrastructure for Chemistry and Aerosols (MUSICA) project at NCAR.
Last Modified: 08/17/2023
Modified by: Steven R Barrett
Please report errors in award information by writing to: awardsearch@nsf.gov.
