Earth System Research Laboratory Global Systems Division

Putting Tools in the Hands of Users

What does the ESRL Global Systems Division do for the nation?

The Global Systems Division transfers new technology and research findings in the atmospheric, oceanic, and hydrologic sciences to other NOAA offices and users of global environmental information. The Division conducts research and development to provide NOAA and the nation with systems that deliver global environmental information and forecast products ranging from short-term weather predictions to longer-term climate forecasts. The Division concentrates on the following research areas:

Bringing new regional-to-global atmospheric observing systems to maturity;
Developing and improving local to global weather prediction models;
Investigating parallel computer architectures as a vehicle for handling the enormous computational demands of global-scale environmental models; and
Developing environmental information systems.

Recent Accomplishments

Through the NOAA Profiler Network and other networks, the Division continues to gather atmospheric observations from disparate sources to facilitate local forecasting and regional modeling. The number of Cooperative Agency Profilers, most of which sample the atmospheric boundary layer, has grown to over 100. The number of ground-based GPS-Meteorology network sites estimating total column water vapor now exceeds 350. MADIS (Meteorological Assimilation and Data Ingest System) collects more than 18,000 new surface mesonet and upper air observations on an hourly basis. These data are forwarded to the NWS National Centers for Environmental Prediction for use in operational models. Payoffs: High-resolution observations for newgeneration models can greatly improve short-range forecasts of high impact weather – particularly severe convective storms, heavy snow/ice storms, and hazardous weather for surface and air travel.
Recent accomplishments in modeling include 3D variational analysis, now operational in the 13-km Rapid Update Cycle model. This opens the door to the assimilation of many new sources of observations that were previously difficult to accommodate. A multi-agency Developmental Test Center has been established in Boulder, CO to focus on the development of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model as both an operational model and as a research vehicle for the larger modeling community. Payoffs: Frequent high-resolution analyses and forecasts produced in real time are valuable to commercial aviation, civilian and military weather forecasting, the energy industry, regional air pollution prediction, and emergency preparedness. The WRF model will greatly increase the accuracy and specificity of weather forecasts.
Science On a SphereTM, developed at the Division, responds to NOAA's goals of educating present and future generations about the changing Earth and its global processes, such as atmospheric and oceanic circulation. It presents NOAA's global science in an exciting way through a 3D representation of our planet, as if the viewer were looking at the Earth from outer space. Science On a SphereTM has received major exposure to hundreds of students and parents, at the NOAA Science Center, the National Maritime Center (Nauticus), American Meteorological Society meetings, and the Maryland Science Center. Payoffs: Science On a SphereTM has become a powerful and revolutionary system for educating the public on the holistic nature of the earth's atmosphere, land, oceans, and biology.
As a leader in high-performance computing, the Division provides essential infrastructure for weather and other environmental research. Its high-performance computing system comprises 768 nodes with dual, 2.2GHz Intel Pentium processors and is able to access, process and distribute large datasets. Payoffs: Supercomputers are necessary in the development of very high-resolution mesoscale models that serve the research and operational communities, leading to advancements in atmospheric and oceanic forecasting capabilities and in testing future global observing systems through model simulations that require extraordinary processing power.
The Division continues its important role in developing systems related to the Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS), an interactive computer system that integrates all meteorological, hydrological, satellite, and radar data. Capitalizing on major development work at the Division, the National Weather Service is installing two Linux-based workstations at each U.S. Weather Forecast Office, to replace outdated hardware that inaugurated the AWIPS era. The Division also developed the "FX-Net" workstation as a low-cost alternative to AWIPS workstations. Using Wavelet compression techniques developed at the Division, FX-Net can deliver fairly large datasets and is the workstation of choice at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise and at eleven Geographic Area Coordination Centers throughout the U.S. Payoffs: More timely and accurate warnings and forecasts require continued improvements to AWIPS and the ongoing development of new subsystems.

What's next for the Global Systems Division?

During the next five to ten years, the Division will continue to support NOAA in the following areas:

Apply technology and research to the design, demonstration, and evolution of environment-related systems that are effective in real-time, highly demanding operational environments.
Conceive, design, test, and use meteorological observing systems, with an emphasis on integrated observing systems employing a large range of sensors and measuring systems. These efforts will significantly contribute to the global observing system of the 21st century.
Develop modeling and assimilation techniques to improve nowcasting, severe weather watches and warnings, quantitative precipitation forecasts, water management, air quality monitoring, fire weather, regional climate simulations, and design of observing systems, with emphasis on the WRF model.
Support NOAA in high-performance computing through (1) new computing technology investigation and utilization, (2) scalable model tool development, and (3) improved infrastructure.
Anticipate and respond to customers' needs in an ever-changing technological world through new program development, collaborations, and enhanced environmental science education.

Research Partnerships

The Division collaborates with the other ESRL Divisions on several projects, such as the assimilation of weather and climate information, and other NOAA Research and NOAA organizations. Further, the Division partners with two of NOAA's Cooperative Institutes: the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado at Boulder, in providing collaborative research and teaching in many disciplines of the environmental sciences; and the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA) at Colorado State University, in increasing atmospheric research in areas of mutual interest, such as in academia, government, and industry. The Division is supported by one Commercial Service Affiliate, the Systems Research Group, Inc. in Colorado Springs.