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In response to NASA’s MEaSUREs announcement, we propose
to provide Earth System Data records critical to the validation
and assessment of global models. While these records are expected
to be of use to the modeling community at large, they are,
for example, already of interest to a broad group of global
chemistry and climate modeling groups participating in recent
Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate (AC&C) initiatives endorsed
by the WCRP-SPARC/IGBP-IGAC, which aim to address uncertainties
in atmospheric chemistry-climate interactions. The proposed
4-year effort has been broadly endorsed by modeling groups
which are engaging in assessment and validation activities,
primarily including AC&C, AeroCom, and HTAP. The proposed
activities will directly address the critical needs related
to the top two activities recently selected by AC&C, i.e.,
1) a 20-25 year hindcast of tropospheric ozone and aerosols,
and 2) a definition of processes that control the distribution
of the tropospheric trace gases/aerosols between mid and upper
troposphere. The proposed effort will enable model verification
and comparison exercises associated with these activities by
providing observational data in appropriate format and temporal
and spatial scales along with objectively assessed uncertainties.
We proposed to create airborne ESDR (Earth System Data Record)
products which will be derived from a wealth of publicly available
airborne data sets accumulated primarily from NASA airborne
field studies as well as from studies sponsored by NOAA, NSF
and international partners over the past two decades. The proposed
project will be focused in 3 areas:
1) To compile publicly available data sets from NASA airborne
campaigns as well as from the other campaigns sponsored by
NOAA, NSF and international partners.
2) To assemble a measurement evaluation panel, including both
measurement experts and modelers from a broad spectrum of institutions
and agencies, to provide objective assessment of measurement
uncertainties and biases and to determine how to best integrate
these observations into forms useful for model comparison.
3) To generate a standardized in-situ observational database
with best possible matching temporal and spatial scales to
model output, which represents snap-shot spatial distributions
of trace gas species and aerosol properties of interest.
Previous studies have shown the importance of model comparisons
to revealing inadequate understanding or representation of
critical processes. However, AC&C recently identified several
barriers to useful comparisons of models and observations,
including a general lack of understanding between the modeling
and measurement communities, a lack of a centralized and standardized
observational database, insufficient information on data quality
and uncertainties, and difficulties posed by mismatches in
the temporal and spatial scales of model output and measurements.
The proposed activities will make efforts to bridge the gaps
between the modeling and measurement communities, address the
measurement uncertainty issues, and provide standardized data
with best possible matching with model temporal and spatial
scales. We believe that our airborne ESDR products will be
useful to AC&C recommended modeling activities as well
as the satellite community in terms of validation and potential
retrieval algorithm improvement. In summary, the results of
the proposed project will be an important part of the effort
to maximize the value of the NASA suborbital program and to
make a significant contribution to improve the current understanding
of atmospheric chemistry and its interactions with climate
as well as the ability to predict climate change.
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