Observed Water Cycle Predictability and NEWS Organization
Houser, P. (PI); 01/12/2011-01/11/2014: Observed Water Cycle Predictability and NEWS Organization. NASA-NEWS Program, $568,296; 0.3 FTE/yr (GMU)., Sponsor POC: Dr..Jared Entin (202/358-0275, jared.k.entin@nasa.gov), Award #NX11AE32G
Summary: The overarching goal of the NASA Energy and Water Cycle Study (NEWS) is to document and enable improved, observationally-based, predictions of energy and water cycle consequences of Earth system variability and change. NEWS is nearing completion of its first 5-year phase, which has focused on the first coordinated attempt to describe the complete global energy and water cycle using existing satellite and ground based observations, laying the foundation for essential NEWS developments in model representations of atmospheric energy and water exchange processes. The NEWS implementation plan clearly states that the key question is to what extent expected climate changes are related to changes in the rate of the Earth’s energy and water cycles, and how well that can be predicted in the future. Much progress has been made towards addressing this question in the first phase of NEWS, which has focused on the first coordinated attempt to describe the complete global energy and water cycle using existing satellite and ground based observations. However, I propose to address one of the most significant outstanding gaps in NEWS phase 1, which is to use this coordinated observation-based global water and energy cycle description to assess global water and energy cycle predictability. In addition this proposal also supports the PI’s role as NEWS project scientist, provides support for maintenance of the NEWS web site and data center, and will provide limited support to maintain some NASA cold-season field observations.