Funded Research Projects

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14641/189

An index of publicly funded research projects conducted by Texas A&M affiliated researchers.

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Continued Development of the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System
Oceanography; TAMU; https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14641/208; Department of Commerce
Brief Project Summary: The Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System (GCOOS) was formed in 2000 as one of the regional coastal ocean observing systems now under the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS). GCOOS is developing as a sustained ocean observing system that provides data, information, and products on marine and estuarine systems to a wide range of users. A Regional Association, GCOOS-RA, was established by Memorandum of Agreement in January 2005. The organizational structure was in place by April 2006. Much progress has been made toward the development of the GCOOS. However, as revealed by the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, which is a vivid example of the need for a robust ocean observing system in the Gulf of Mexico (GoMex), much remains to be done to bring this observing system to maturity. It should be noted that no new observing assets have been provided from any of the Deepwater Horizon funding opportunities to date. The goal of this project is to build a robust, user-driven, sustained, operational GCOOS that integrates data from diverse providers; assures consistency and quality of the data; creates new data products needed by users; and provides accurate data, products, and services to IOOS, decision-makers, and the public in a timely and efficient manner. Physical, meteorological, biogeochemical, biological and bathymetric data are included in the data system. The goal will be achieved through accomplishment of six objectives: (1) Maintain and strengthen the GCOOS-RA through continuation of activities of the board, councils, committees, task teams and office staff to manage the development of the GCOOS and organizing stakeholder workshops to identify needs and guide the priorities; (2) Continue to build the observing system, GCOOS, through: integration of existing observations made by different entities; provision of operation and maintenance support for existing non-federal systems that monitor surface currents, harmful algal blooms, hypoxia, water level changes, estuarine water quality, and ecosystem health; and provision of support for nonfederal systems that derive products needed by users from satellite data, and addition of new observations as funding allows; iii (3) Improve the Data Management and Communications system by establishing and expanding the capabilities of the GCOOS Data and Products Portal, adding new data providers for Gulf open ocean, coastal, and estuarine regions and making their data interoperable, building capabilities to access historical datasets, and participating in the development and evolution of the data management and communication plans of IOOS; (4) Support regional modeling capacity through providing in situ and remotely-sensed data to meet the needs of the modeling community in machine-to-machine formats, supporting the regional modeling task team for the Gulf of Mexico, pursuing physical and ecosystem modeling pilot projects to support marine resource decision-makers and hosting a model-data viewer for the region; (5) Enhance the integrated outreach and education activities of the GCOOS-RA through activities of the Outreach and Education manager and Outreach and Education Council that improve information exchange between user groups and data providers, promote ocean literacy, and provide materials for the public, and (6) Obtain certification to become a member of U.S. IOOS. Intended benefits: Four major benefits will come from this project. First, further integration of existing observing elements into a unified ocean observing system will provide easy access to data, products, and services needed by users in their desired formats. Second, some observations, which are in jeopardy of being eliminated, will be continued. Third, through outreach and education projects, more information will be available to help make informed decisions regarding a broad range of interactions with the coastal ocean environment—from recreational activities to emergency responses. Fourth, the formation of new connections between different sectors and the resulting synergies will provide society the capability to better predict and mitigate against coastal hazards, preserve and restore healthy marine ecosystems, ensure human health (e.g., improve prediction of water quality including harmful algal blooms), manage resources, facilitate safe and efficient marine transportation, and detect and predict climate variability and consequences. Sharing data, models, and products via the Internet will benefit all participants, including industry, NGOs, academia, and federal, state, regional, and local government agencies.
Continued Development of the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System
Oceanography; TAMU; https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14641/208; Department of Commerce
Brief Project Summary: The Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System (GCOOS) was formed in 2000 as one of the regional coastal ocean observing systems now under the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS). GCOOS is developing as a sustained ocean observing system that provides data, information, and products on marine and estuarine systems to a wide range of users. A Regional Association, GCOOS-RA, was established by Memorandum of Agreement in January 2005. The organizational structure was in place by April 2006. Much progress has been made toward the development of the GCOOS. However, as revealed by the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, which is a vivid example of the need for a robust ocean observing system in the Gulf of Mexico (GoMex), much remains to be done to bring this observing system to maturity. It should be noted that no new observing assets have been provided from any of the Deepwater Horizon funding opportunities to date. The goal of this project is to build a robust, user-driven, sustained, operational GCOOS that integrates data from diverse providers; assures consistency and quality of the data; creates new data products needed by users; and provides accurate data, products, and services to IOOS, decision-makers, and the public in a timely and efficient manner. Physical, meteorological, biogeochemical, biological and bathymetric data are included in the data system. The goal will be achieved through accomplishment of six objectives: (1) Maintain and strengthen the GCOOS-RA through continuation of activities of the board, councils, committees, task teams and office staff to manage the development of the GCOOS and organizing stakeholder workshops to identify needs and guide the priorities; (2) Continue to build the observing system, GCOOS, through: integration of existing observations made by different entities; provision of operation and maintenance support for existing non-federal systems that monitor surface currents, harmful algal blooms, hypoxia, water level changes, estuarine water quality, and ecosystem health; and provision of support for non- federal systems that derive products needed by users from satellite data, and addition of new observations as funding allows; (3) Improve the Data Management and Communications system by establishing and expanding the capabilities of the GCOOS Data and Products Portal, adding new data providers for Gulf open ocean, coastal, and estuarine regions and making their data interoperable, building capabilities to access historical datasets, and participating in the development and evolution of the data management and communication plans of IOOS; (4) Support regional modeling capacity through providing in situ and remotely-sensed data to meet the needs of the modeling community in machine-to-machine formats, supporting the regional modeling task team for the Gulf of Mexico, pursuing physical and ecosystem modeling pilot projects to support marine resource decision-makers and hosting a model-data viewer for the region; (5) Enhance the integrated outreach and education activities of the GCOOS-RA through activities of the Outreach and Education manager and Outreach and Education Council that improve information exchange between user groups and data providers, promote ocean literacy, and provide materials for the public, and (6) Obtain certification to become a member of U.S. IOOS. Intended benefits: Four major benefits will come from this project. First, further integration of existing observing elements into a unified ocean observing system will provide easy access to data, products, and services needed by users in their desired formats. Second, some observations, which are in jeopardy of being eliminated, will be continued. Third, through outreach and education projects, more information will be available to help make informed decisions regarding a broad range of interactions with the coastal ocean environment—from recreational activities to emergency responses. Fourth, the formation of new connections between different sectors and the resulting synergies will provide society the capability to better predict and mitigate against coastal hazards, preserve and restore healthy marine ecosystems, ensure human health (e.g., improve prediction of water quality including harmful algal blooms), manage resources, facilitate safe and efficient marine transportation, and detect and predict climate variability and consequences. Sharing data, models, and products via the Internet will benefit all participants, including industry, NGOs, academia, and federal, state, regional, and local government agencies
Utilizing geostationary satellite observations to develop a next generation ice cloud optical property model in support of JCSDA Community Radiative Transfer Model (CRTM) and JPSS CAL/VAL
Atmospheric Sciences; TAMU; https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14641/202; Department of Commerce
SOW As a flagship effort of a multi-agency (NOAA, NASA, Navy and Air Force) Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation (JCSDA), the Community Radiative Transfer Model (CRTM) is a powerful and robust tool to facilitate the forward and adjoint radiative transfer simulations involved in satellite remote sensing programs and data assimilation efforts. Although the CRTM is a state-of-the-art radiative transfer package, ice optical property model used in CRTM is obsolete. Ice clouds are ubiquitous in the atmosphere, covering approximately 40% of the tropics and 20% of the globe. These clouds play important roles in the radiative transfer process in the earth-atmosphere coupled system. It is well known that the “equivalent-sphere” model for ice clouds produces significant errors or even misleading results. Progress in developing of more realistic nonspherical ice crystal models has been steady but slow. The existing ice cloud optical property models still suffer various shortcomings, for example, some models lead to inconsistency for applications in the solar and infrared spectral regimes, and some models lacks microphysical consistency in comparison with in situ measurements. In response to this funding opportunity, we propose to develop a next generation ice model in support of the Community Radiative Transfer Model (CRTM) and the improved modeling capability will benefit the CAL/VAL efforts in conjunction with the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS). We will use observations made by the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) aboard GOES-16 and GOES 17 with high temporal resolution to first infer the radiative and microphysical properties (specifically, optical thickness and the effective particle size) using both the solar bi-spectral technique (i.e., the Nakajima-King method) and the infrared split window technique with daytime ABI observations while only infrared technique will be used for nighttime retrieval. Furthermore, we will collocate the aforesaid retrievals with collocated CALIOP retrieval. In the proposed retrievals, an ice cloud optical property model must be used. We will test various ice cloud models. The optimal model is the one that will lead to spectral consistency between solar-band and IR-band based retrievals and consistency between passive (ABI based) and active (CALIOP based) retrievals. After an optimal ice cloud model is identified, we will implement it in CRTM. Specifically, the implementation will be conducted for the channels of Cross-track infrared Soundar (CrIS) and Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on JPSS. This effort will support JPSS CAL/VAL effort. We call special attention to the optical ice cloud optical properties generated through the proposed project, which can be directly used to generate the forward look-up tables involved in JPSS-based cloud property retrievals in consistent with the improved CRTM so that data assimilation using CRTM and JPSS cloud products are consistent.
Utilizing geostationary satellite observations to develop a next generation ice cloud optical property model in support of JCSDA Community Radiative Transfer Model (CRTM) and JPSS CAL/VAL
Atmospheric Sciences; TAMU; Department of Commerce
As a flagship effort of a multi-agency (NOAA, NASA, Navy and Air Force) Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation (JCSDA), the Community Radiative Transfer Model (CRTM) is a powerful and robust tool to facilitate the forward and adjoint radiative transfer simulations involved in satellite remote sensing programs and data assimilation efforts. Although the CRTM is a state-of-the-art radiative transfer package, ice optical property model used in CRTM is obsolete. Ice clouds are ubiquitous in the atmosphere, covering approximately 40% of the tropics and 20% of the globe. These clouds play important roles in the radiative transfer process in the earth-atmosphere coupled system. It is well known that the “equivalent-sphere” model for ice clouds produces significant errors or even misleading results. Progress in developing of more realistic nonspherical ice crystal models has been steady but slow. The existing ice cloud optical property models still suffer various shortcomings, for example, some models lead to inconsistency for applications in the solar and infrared spectral regimes, and some models lacks microphysical consistency in comparison with in situ measurements. In response to this funding opportunity, we propose to develop a next generation ice model in support of the Community Radiative Transfer Model (CRTM) and the improved modeling capability will benefit the CAL/VAL efforts in conjunction with the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS). We will use observations made by the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) aboard GOES-16 and GOES 17 with high temporal resolution to first infer the radiative and microphysical properties (specifically, optical thickness and the effective particle size) using both the solar bi-spectral technique (i.e., the Nakajima-King method) and the infrared split window technique with daytime ABI observations while only infrared technique will be used for nighttime retrieval. Furthermore, we will collocate the aforesaid retrievals with collocated CALIOP retrieval. In the proposed retrievals, an ice cloud optical property model must be used. We will test various ice cloud models. The optimal model is the one that will lead to spectral consistency between solar-band and IR-band based retrievals and consistency between passive (ABI based) and active (CALIOP based) retrievals. After an optimal ice cloud model is identified, we will implement it in CRTM. Specifically, the implementation will be conducted for the channels of Cross-track infrared Soundar (CrIS) and Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on JPSS. This effort will support JPSS CAL/VAL effort. We call special attention to the optical ice cloud optical properties generated through the proposed project, which can be directly used to generate the forward look-up tables involved in JPSS-based cloud property retrievals in consistent with the improved CRTM so that data assimilation using CRTM and JPSS cloud products are consistent.

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Browsing Funded Research Projects by Funding Agency "Department of Commerce"