The NOAA Research Global-Nest Initiative: New Frontiers in Numerical Modeling

Dr. Lucas Harris

Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory

Monday March 10, 2025, 2 PM ET

Abstract:

Traditional global models and high-resolution limited-area models are limited in the range of phenomena they can represent with the fidelity needed by both science and society. This partitioning also restricts two-way interactions between large-scale circulations and local phenomena, especially for small-scale convective and orographic processes that feed back onto larger scales.

The NOAA Research Global-Nest Initiative is a multi-center effort to develop new global-nested and global storm resolving models to address these shortcomings of traditional models and to bring together both weather prediction and climate simulation models. This effort centers around the GFDL System for High-resolution prediction on Earth-to-Local Domains (SHiELD), built upon a strong foundation of common technologies, including the FV3 Dynamical Core, seamlessly integrated with both the UFS and the GFDL Seamless Modeling Suite. I will describe already the successes of the initiative, including the new 6.5-km SHiELD used for real-time weather prediction, new versions of our T-SHiELD and C-SHiELD global-nest models, and our X-SHiELD global-storm resolving model. Both scientific and prediction advances have been demonstrated, especially regarding significant advances in tropical cyclone track prediction skill and in cross-scale interactions for tropical convection and mountain snowpack, amongst others. I will close with discussion of new technologies, including this efforts’ contributions to machine learning models through the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, and to Pace, a complete rewrite of FV3 and SHiELD in Python for performance-portable computing, especially GPUs.

Biosketch:

Lucas Harris is the Deputy Division Leader of the Weather and Climate Dynamics Division and the head of the FV3 Team at NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory. His research is focused on the development of algorithms and software within the GFDL Finite-Volume Cubed-Sphere Dynamical Core (FV3) and its application in the worldwide community of FV3-based models, with a focus on the GFDL Seamless Modeling Suite, and the application of these new models to frontier weather and climate problems. He holds a PhD in Atmospheric Sciences and an MS in Applied Mathematics, both from the University of Washington. He received the Atmospheric Sciences Ascent Award from the American Geophysical Union in 2024.

Webinar:

Event site: https://go.umd.edu/harris

Zoom Webinar: https://go.umd.edu/harriswebinar

Zoom Meeting ID: 979 1570 6901

Zoom password: essic

US Toll: +13017158592
Global call-in numbers: https://umd.zoom.us/u/aMElEpvNu

For IT assistance:
Cazzy Medley: cazzy@umd.edu

Resources:

Seminar schedule & archive: https://go.umd.edu/essicseminar

Seminar Google calendar: https://go.umd.edu/essicseminarcalendar

Seminar recordings on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ESSICUMD