NMMB/BSC Project

Overview: 

The National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NOAA/NCEP/EMC) is further developing the new Nonhydrostatic Multiscale Meteorological Model on the B grid (NMMB; Janjic, 2005; Janjic and Black, 2007; Janjic et al., 2011). The NMMB is an evolution of the operational WRF-NMME (Janjic et al., 2001; Janjic, 2003) that was reformulated from the Arakawa E grid to the Arakawa B grid and extended from meso to global scales.  Its unified non-hydrostatic dynamical core supports regional and global simulations and includes generalized hybrid vertical coordinate and improved tracer advection schemes. NMMB became operational at NCEP as the regional North American Mesoscale (NAM) model in October 2011.

The Earth Sciences Department of Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) and the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NOAA/NCEP/EMC) have agreed to collaborate on the context of the development of the NMMB model and its applications to air quality and weather forecasting within the framework of a Memorandum of Understanding. BSC is implementing on-line gas-aerosol chemical modules within NMMB within such a framework with NOAA/NCEP/EMC and other research institutions (NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, University of California, Irvine).
 
Objectives: 

The aim of the project is the development of a new chemical weather prediction system, NMMB/BSC Chemical Transport Model (NMMB/BSC-CTM), intended to be a powerful tool for research and to provide experimental efficient global and regional chemical weather forecasts at sub-synoptic and mesoscale resolutions.

Research Lines: 
  • Dust module: the NMMB/BSC-DUST is the new online dust model within the global-regional NCEP/NMMB numerical weather prediction model. Based on previous experience with the well established regional dust model and forecast system BSC-DREAM8b (Nickovic et al., 2001, Pérez et al., 2006ab) the BSC-DUST model now includes further developments for dust sources and emission and deposition schemes. The most relevant characteristics of NMMB/BSC-DUST are the on-line coupling of the dust model into the meteorological driver, the wide range of applications from meso to global scales, and the inclusion of dust radiative effects allowing feedbacks between aerosols and meteorology. It is the first step towards the development of the NMMB/BSC-CTM model.
  • Gas-phase chemical module: the NMMB/BSC-CTM is fully on-line chemical weather prediction system for meso to global scale applications. It integrates a tropospheric chemical mechanism coupled with on-line photolysis, emission and deposition schemes. The final goal is its coupling with the aerosol modules to include meteorology-chemistry-aerosol feedbacks.
  • Global aerosol module: with the aim of complementing the Dust module, an aerosol module for most relevant aerosols at global scale is under development. The module will solve the life cycle of sulphate, sea-salt, dust, black carbon and primary organic carbon.

FUTURE PLANS:

  • Secondary aerosols module: the model development will be complemented with the implementation of a secondary aerosol module for high-resolution applications.
  • Operational dust forecasts with NMMB/BSC-DUST model.
  • Experimental chemistry forecasts with NMMB/BSC-CTM model.
  • Porting and testing of the modelling system on several computational platforms (large scalar machines, hybrid systems with GPUs, linux based workstations).
 

PROJECTS/AREAS:

  • Improvement of the Dust Regional Atmospheric Model (DREAM) for prediction of Saharan dust events in the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands [CICYT CGL2006-11879].
  • Coupling of a fully online chemical mechanism within the atmosperic global-regional umo/dream model [CICYT CGL2008-02818].
  • Coupling of a fully online multi-component aerosol module within the atmosperic global-regional NMMB model [CICYT CGL2010-19652].
  • Supercomputación y e-Ciencia [Consolider CSD00C-06-08924]
  • NMMB/BSC-CTM porting and scalability test [PRACE Project and Preparatory Access 2010PA0419 and 2010PA0627]
 

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