The NSF NCAR Next-Generation Online-Coupled Air Quality and Weather Analysis and Forecasting System (MPAS-GOCART2G-JEDI)

Accurate aerosol prediction remains challenging due to uncertainties in atmospheric composition arising from imperfect initial conditions, errors in emission inventories, and our limited understanding of aerosol processes and properties interacting with atmospheric variables. Due to their short lifetime and strong spatial/temporal variability, global observations of aerosols and clouds rely heavily on satellite remote sensing. 

The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) has recently developed the atmospheric Model for Prediction Across Scales (MPAS-A; Skamarock et al. 2012) coupled with the next-generation Goddard Chemistry Aerosol Radiation and Transport model (GOCART-2G; Collow et al. 2024) and interfaced with the Joint Effort for Data Assimilation Integration (JEDI) system. This integrated framework enables online-coupled data assimilation of multi-sensor, hyperspectral satellite aerosol retrievals and all-sky radiances across a wide spectral range within a unified atmosphere-aerosol analysis and forecasting system. 

This talk introduces the new MPAS-GOCART2G-JEDI system, with an emphasis on the assimilation of NASA Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) retrievals and their systematic evaluation against legacy AOD products such as MODIS, VIIRS, and AERONET.