NOAA Climate Reanalysis Task Force Technical Workshop Comment Space

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NOAA Climate Reanalysis Task Force Technical Workshop



4 - 5 May 2015

Organizers: Jim Carton, Gilbert Compo, Arun Kumar, Suru Saha, Heather Archambault

To view the archive of the presentations, click here to be redirected to the agenda page on the MAPP website.

Workshop Report: Compo, G., J. Carton, X. Dong, A. Kumar, S. Saha, J. S. Woollen, L. Yu, and H. M. Archambault, 2016: Report from the NOAA Climate Reanalysis Task Force Technical Workshop. NOAA Technical Report OAR CPO-4, Silver Spring, MD. doi: 10.7289/V53J39ZZ. Full Report.

Workshop Objectives:

• Report on NOAA Climate Reanalysis Task Force progress
• Exchange reanalysis approaches, algorithms, and techniques currently in use and under development.
• Discuss techniques for addressing outstanding issues in the reanalysis efforts, e.g., presence of spurious discontinuities and trends, coupling of Earth System components, inclusion of new areas such as aerosols.
• Identify the various requirements for reanalysis products.
• Determine strategies and overlaps for national and international reanalysis efforts based on scientific drivers for climate and weather research.

Monday 4 May



9:00 a.m. Welcome

Arun Kumar, NCEP/CPC

9:05 a.m. Introduction to the Climate Reanalysis Task Force and Workshop

Gil Compo, U. of Colorado/CIRES & NOAA/ESRL/PSD

9:20 a.m. What is Reanalysis for?

Huug van den Dool, NCEP/CPC

1. National and International Reanalysis Efforts



Objective: Determine strategies and overlaps for national and international reanalysis efforts based on scientific drivers for climate and weather research.

Scientific and Technical Questions:

1. Would a centralized database for reanalysis observations that all centers can write to and read from be desirable? If so, what software should it based on? ECMWF ODB?

2. How do we bridge the gap between reanalysis requirements for monitoring vs. supporting hindcasts/forecasts?

3. How does long term reanalysis project into long term climate predictions?

4. What advances in integration of the oceans with the earth system are appropriate now?

- Integrated atmospheric correction for SST, SSS, ocean color, and sea level?

- What can we do towards coupled assimiliation?

Session Chair: Gil Compo, U. of Colorado/CIRES & NOAA/ESRL/PSD

Rapporteur: Jeff Whitaker, NOAA/ESRL/PSD

9:40 a.m Plans for Reanalysis at NCEP’s Environmental Modeling Center

Suru Saha, NCEP/EMC

10:00 a.m. Issues, Requirements, and Research towards NOAA’s Next Generation of Climate Reanalyses

Arun Kumar, NCEP/CPC

10:20 a.m. Coffee Break

10:40 a.m. Reanalysis at ECMWF

Dick Dee, ECMWF

11:00 a.m. CMA 40-year GSI based reanalysis: plans and progress

Zhiquan Liu, NCAR

11:20 a.m. MERRA-2, GMAO reanalysis efforts/plans

Ron Gelaro, NASA/GMAO

11:40 a.m. Discussion

Moderator: Heather Archambault, NOAA/CPO

12:10 p.m. Lunch

2. Developments in the Stratosphere

Objective: Discuss techniques for addressing outstanding issues in the reanalysis efforts

Scientific and Technical Questions:

1. What types of observations are needed to ensure accurate stratospheric analyzes going forward?

2. For poorly observed regions, such as stratosphere, what are advantages and disadvantages of bias-correcting observations compared to allowing jumps in reanalysis?

3. How to handle model bias in the stratosphere?

Session Chair: Ron Gelaro, NASA/GMAO

Rapporteur: Erica Dolinar, U. of North Dakota

1:30 p.m. Status at NCEP to improve the stratosphere in reanalysis

Craig Long, NCEP/CPC

1:50 p.m. Aerosol modeling

Sarah Lu, SUNY-Albany

2:10 p.m. Water vapor in the stratosphere

John McCormack, Naval Research Laboratory

2:30 p.m. Aerosol Reanalysis at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Arlindo da Silva, NASA/GMAO

2:50 p.m. Discussion

Moderator: Dan Barrie, NOAA/CPO

3:10 p.m. Coffee Break

3. Assimilation Development and Experiments: Atmosphere

Objectives: Exchange reanalysis approaches, algorithms, and techniques currently in use and under development. Discuss techniques for addressing outstanding issues in the reanalysis efforts

1. Can we prove (analytically or by cleverly designed numerical experiment) that we can produce (temporally) homogeneous analyses from an inhomogeneous data input, no matter how egregious the inhomogeneity of the latter?

2. What research approach(es) are required to understand reasons for jumps in climate reanalysis with new observational platforms?

3. In a "pure" Ensemble Kalman Filter, is the ensemble mean analysis meaningful?

Session Chair: Arun Kumar, NCEP/CPC

Rapporteur: Lisan Yu, WHOI

3:30 p.m. Developments in the Ensemble Kalman Filter

Jeff Whitaker, NOAA/ESRL/PSD

3:50 p.m. Forecast results and QBO response from NCEP conventional data only T254 EnKF only cycling semi-Lagrangian Reanalysis in 1970, 1981

Jack Woollen, IMSG & NCEP/EMC

4:10 p.m. Hybrid Data Assimilation at NCEP

Daryl Kleist, U. of Maryland

4:30 p.m. New applications of Data Assimilation to Reanalysis

Eugenia Kalnay, U. of Maryland

4:50 p.m. Reanalysis for Tambora 1815

Gil Compo, U. of Colorado/CIRES & NOAA/ESRL Physical Sciences Division

5:10 p.m. Discussion

Moderator: Gil Compo

5:30 p.m. Close for day

6:30 p.m. Informal dinner



Tuesday 5 May

4. Assimilation Development and Experiments: Ocean and Sea ice

Objectives: Exchange reanalysis approaches, algorithms, and techniques currently in use and under development. Discuss techniques for addressing outstanding issues in the reanalysis efforts

Science and Technical Questions:

1. How far back it is feasible to extend sea ice thickness analysis?

2. What are relative merits of comprehensive couple data assimilation vs. offline analysis of component systems, e.g., ocean, sea-ice?

3. How to interface with ocean reference sites in reanalysis efforts?

4. How to improve the land surface reanalysis?

5. How does long term reanalysis project into long term climate predictions?

6. What advances in integration of the oceans with the earth system are appropriate now?

- Integrated atmospheric correction for SST, SSS, ocean color, and sea level?

- What can we do towards coupled assimiliation?

Session Chair: Suru Saha, NCEP/EMC

Rapporteur: Yan Xue, NCEP/CPC

8:30 a.m. NASA ocean data assimilation

Guilliame Vernieres, NASA/GMAO SSAI

9:00 a.m. Impacts of ocean observations on NCEP GODAS analysis

Yan Xue, NCEP/CPC

9:15 a.m. Advancing Ocean Data Assimilation and Reanalysis

Steve Penny, U. of Maryland & NCEP

9:30 a.m. UMD SODA -- problems and progress

Jim Carton, U. of Maryland

9:45 a.m. The development of NSST within the NCEP GFS/CFS

Xu Li, NCEP/EMC

10:00 a.m. Coffee Break

10:30 a.m. ENSO in a large ensemble of historical reanalyses

Ben Giese, Texas A&M University

10:45 a.m. Land data assimilation at NCEP/EMC

Mike Ek and Jesse Meng, NCEP/EMC

11:00 a.m. Sea ice development at NCEP/EMC

Xingren Wu, NCEP/EMC

11:15 a.m. Discussion

Moderator: Jim Carton, U. of Maryland

12:10 p.m. Lunch

5. Reanalysis Evaluation

Objective: Identify the various requirements for reanalysis products.

1. Should there be an effort by reanalyses providers or reanalysis data distributors to create output files that are as similar to each other as reasonably possible to facilitate use of the data. For example, providing time aggregated files, following certain netCDF standards, using similar attributes, providing long-term mean files, etc.?

2. Would there be a use for a shared code base that could more easily allow users to compare reanalyses and reanalyses derived products (such as budgets) to each other and to observations?

Session Chair: Jim Carton, U. of Maryland

Rapporteur: Steve Penny, U. of Maryland

1:30 p.m. Dry-mass conservation and water consistency in reanalysis

Ricardo Todling, NASA/GMAO

1:50 pm Air-sea heat and freshwater fluxes in Atmospheric Reanalyses

Lisan Yu, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute

2:10 p.m. Impacts of NCEP Reanalysis R2 and CFSR fluxes on MOM4 simulations

Caihong Wen, NCEP/CPC

2:30 p.m. Evaluation and intercomparison of clouds, precipitation, and radiation budgets in recent reanalyses using satellite-surface observations

Erica Dolinar, U. of North Dakota

2:50 p.m. Coffee Break

3:10 p.m. Investigation of two extreme summer Arctic sea-ice extent anomalies in 2007 and 1996

Xiquan Dong, U. of North Dakota

3:30 p.m. Reanalysis evaluation in polar regions

Richard Cullather, NASA/GMAO

3:50 p.m. Rapporteurs give 5 minute summary of their session

4:15 p.m. Discussion and writing assignments

Moderator: Gil Compo

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