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Weather and Atmospheric Dynamics

Research

The Weather and Atmospheric Dynamics Focus Area supports research to obtain accurate measurements of the atmosphere that help improve short-term, subseasonal, and seasonal weather predictivity and predictions at local, regional, and global scales.

Overview
Research Drivers
Funded Research Opportunities
Research Programs
Research Data
Missions and Campaigns
Public Events
Collaborators
Contacts
Weather and Atmospheric Dynamics Peer-Reviewed Publications

Focus Area News

A map of the southeast United States in grayscale with a rainfall color scale overlay. The range of colors where rainfall was found spans light blue to pale yellow at 15 centimeters onto red, the darkest shade matching 30 centimeters or more. Much of the densest rainfall is off of the Florida coastline and immediately in the initial landfall region. The colors lighten over Georgia with a secondary red patch spanning from the southwest border of North Carolina into southern West Virginia.

27 Years of Global Rainfall at Your Fingertips

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12 min read

NASA’s Hurricane Science, Tech, Data Help American Communities

Article4 months ago
9 min read

NASA’s TROPICS Mission: Offering Detailed Images and Analysis of Tropical Cyclones

Article4 months ago
5 min read

NASA 3D Wind Measuring Laser Aims to Improve Forecasts from Air, Space

Article5 months ago
Multiple lightning strikes span the stretch from open waters to peach and somewhat purple color skies. color

A Year in Review: New Earth Discoveries in 2024

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40 min read

GPM Celebrates Ten Years of Observing Precipitation for Science and Society

Article12 months ago
4 min read

Via NASA Plane, Scientists Find New Gamma-ray Emission in Storm Clouds

Article12 months ago
4 min read

NASA, IBM Research to Release New AI Model for Weather, Climate

Article1 year ago

Focus Area Overview

The Weather and Atmospheric Dynamics Focus Area supports research to obtain accurate measurements of the atmosphere that help improve short-term, subseasonal, and seasonal weather predictions at local, regional, and global scales. Weather includes everything from localized microphysical processes that occur in minutes, to global-scale phenomena that can occur for an entire season.

Weather and Atmospheric Dynamics helps improve our knowledge of the fundamental processes that drive these systems and inform the operational infrastructure upon which other federal agencies rely, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and the Department of Defense (DOD). Weather and Atmospheric Dynamics further supports research into profiling winds, temperature, humidity, pressure, and aerosols; air-sea and land-atmosphere interactions; and lightning occurrences.

Guiding and Planning Documents

2017 Earth Science Applications from Space

2015 Weather Focus Area Workshop Report

The Questions That Drive NASA's Weather and Atmospheric Dynamics Research

  • How can sub-seasonal to seasonal weather forecast duration and reliability be improved?

  • How can we improve predictive capability for weather, including extreme events?

  • What is the role of deep convective towers and precipitation on a tropical storm’s life cycle?

  • To what extent are storm intensification processes predictable?

  • How can we use NASA, NOAA, and other countries’ satellite observations innovatively and transition new algorithms, data, and tools to weather forecast operations at our partner agencies?

A powerful winter storm hit the west coast of the U.S. and Canada on Jan. 31, 2024. Weather forecasters expect heavy rainfall and gusty winds from coastal British Columbia to central California. Mountain areas such as the Sierra Nevada are likely to get significant snowfall. The NOAA-NASA GOES-West satellite captured this image on the morning of Jan. 31.
A powerful winter storm hit the west coast of the U.S. and Canada on Jan. 31, 2024. Weather forecasters expect heavy rainfall and gusty winds from coastal British Columbia to central California. Mountain areas such as the Sierra Nevada are likely to get significant snowfall. The NOAA-NASA GOES-West satellite captured this image on the morning of Jan. 31.
NASA-NOAA

Funded Research Opportunities

Solicited program elements relevant to Weather and Atmospheric Dynamics are publicized through the Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences (ROSES) NASA Research Announcements (NRAs) on the NASA Solicitation and Proposal Integrated Review and Evaluation System (NSPIRES) website. Past, open, and future solicitations can be searched and viewed on NSPIRES.

Past Weather and Atmospheric Dynamics and Related Solicitations and Selections

Research Programs

  • Weather and Atmospheric Dynamics

    Weather and Atmospheric Dynamics studies the dynamics of the atmosphere, temperature, moisture, and wind to better understand the conditions that drive specific weather events. This research improves computer models, algorithms, and data assimilation that support short-term to seasonal weather prediction and understanding. To do this, the Weather program observes atmospheric phenomena associated with the water cycle through suborbital and satellite observations to determine the relationship between atmospheric thermodynamics, dynamics, storm structure, and convection; ocean surface properties; and radiation within weather systems. Ultimately, Weather and Atmospheric Dynamics hopes to improve process models in these areas, provide initial conditions and assimilation of data to better characterize and understand weather systems, and develop long-term time-series of atmospheric analyses to support weather and climate studies.

    clouds below dark blue sky with plane wing and two engines
    The DC-8 aircraft engines are visible through the passenger window during the CPEX-CV campaign. Each day, the team took off from Cabo Verde, an island nation in the east tropical North Atlantic Ocean, logging roughly 100 hours altogether.
    NASA/Amin Nehrir

  • Precipitation Science

    The NASA Precipitation Measurement Missions (PMM) Science Team conducts scientific research including algorithm development, mission implementation, product validation, and data utilization in support of the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellites. Research topics include storm structure and mesoscale dynamics, the global water cycle, climate analysis, and precipitation microphysics. In addition, Precipitation Science programs support work on precipitation algorithms, ground validation studies, and applications.

    The ten satellites in the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) constellation provide unprecedented information about the rain and snow across the entire Earth.
    NASA/Scientific Visualization Studio

  • Lightning

    The primary objectives of the Lightning program include determining the relationship between the electrical characteristics of storms and precipitation, convection, and severe weather. Instruments have been designed, constructed, and deployed by NASA as ground-based, airborne, and space-based sensors capable of detecting and characterizing lightning in order to study the electrical behavior of thunderstorms.

    A far distance image of the Americas with a darkened earth and specks of light indicating lightning strikes. They are predominantly over land, fewer in South America than North America. There is also a horizontal line cluster of strikes out into the pacific parallel from the northmost section of South America.
    Lightning events detected by the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) on the International Space Station (ISS) during June 2023 using a 10-day roving window.
    NASA/Scientific Visualization Studio

  • Planetary Boundary Layer

    Improved understanding and prediction accuracy of the atmospheric Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL) and the ability to make significant advances in several PBL application areas (e.g., air quality and human health, improved forecasting of severe storms, improved climate projections, renewable energies) are currently constrained by the lack of global PBL observations at sufficient spatial and temporal resolution and sampling. NASA works to identify the most critical PBL science and applications questions in the context of Earth System science considering the diverse spatial and temporal scales of the atmosphere, ocean, land, and ice. New observing technologies and approaches, including in situ as well as ground-based, airborne, and satellite remote sensing, have the potential to significantly increase the quality, amount, and types of observations collected within the PBL.

    Image of a plane with casting a colorful beam, symbolizing data findings, down to the ocean below.
    The Next-Generation Aerosol Wind Profiler (AWP) wind lidar is capable of providing near-simultaneous full 3-D wind vector retrievals. The AWP operates with laser pulse energy and has a repetition rate combination for high spatial and vertical resolution wind profiling from space.
    NASA/Langley Research Center

  • Satellite Data Assimilation

    The Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) uses comprehensive global models and data assimilation techniques to maximize the impact of satellite observations in climate, weather, and atmospheric composition prediction. To achieve this goal, GMAO develops models and assimilation systems for the atmosphere, ocean, and land surface; generates products to support NASA instrument teams for field campaigns and the NASA Earth Science Research and Analysis program; and undertakes scientific research to inform modeling system development. The Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation (JCSDA) is a partnership among NASA, NOAA, and DOD. Its mission is to accelerate and improve the quantitative use of research and operational satellite data in weather, ocean, and environmental analysis and prediction models.

    Distribution of global weather observations assimilated into NASA weather models
    Example of global weather observations assimilated into the NASA Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS)-5 data assimilation system. Data assimilation occurs multiple times per day.
    NASA/Scientific Visualization Studio

  • High-End Computing and Modeling

    The NASA High-End Computing Program supports the agency's aeronautics research, human exploration, scientific discovery, and space operations missions. Our programs support Earth Science computational modeling needs, primarily focusing on weather and climate models. The High-End Computing Program also supports the development of machine learning and artificial intelligence foundation models, among other numerical techniques to study global climate change, weather forecasting, and prediction problems.

    gridded image of earth with layers of dots floating above. The dots also have trails of blue or white that follow weather patterns.
    The Modern Era Retrospective-analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) was developed to support NASA's Earth science objectives, by applying the state-of-the-art GMAO data assimilation system that includes many observing systems in a climate framework.
    NASA/Scientific Visualization Studio

  • Operational Geostationary Satellite Systems

    Earth Science Research from Operational Geostationary Satellite Systems is a cross-cutting Earth Science Division program element managed by the Weather and Atmospheric Dynamics Focus Area. The program provides an opportunity for the Earth Science research community to perform scientific research using data from the new generation of operational geostationary satellites. Program achievements include advancing the understanding of changes in the Earth’s radiation balance, air quality, and ozone layer, improving the capability to predict weather and extreme weather events, and enabling better assessment of the global water cycle, among other goals that inform decisions and provide benefits to society.

    Geostationary satellite view of clouds and weather systems over the Western Hemisphere. The GeoColor imagery combines data from multiple satellite channels to approximate what the human eye would see from space.
    NASA/Scientific Visualization Studio

  • Short-term Prediction Research and Transition

    The Short-term Prediction Research and Transition Center (SPoRT) takes the data products and algorithms from NASA research satellites and transitions them to NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS) Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs). SPoRT aims to improve short-term forecasts on a regional scale.

    Still image of dust probability data during the day
    The NASA Short-term Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) Center at Marshall Space Flight Center developed DustTracker-AI, a physically-based machine learning model to track dust into the night-time hours.
    NASA/Scientific Visualization Studio

Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs)

Public Events

Upcoming Meetings and Workshops

Select Recent Meetings and Workshops

Session materials and recordings linked as available.

Collaborating Organizations

NASA Center Programs

Interagency and International Partnerships

Contacts

Tsengdar Lee
Weather and Atmospheric Dynamics Focus Area Lead and Program Scientist
Weather Modeling and Data Assimilation
Short-term Weather Research and Transition
Contact | Bio

Will McCarty
Weather and Atmospheric Dynamics Program Scientist
Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM), CYGNSS, LIS, and Aqua
Contact | Bio

Justin Stachnik
Associate Program Scientist
Weather and Atmospheric Dynamics Focus Area
Contact | Bio

In memoriam, Gail Skofronick-Jackson (Bio)