OU announced it will lead a new Data Assimilation Consortium to improve weather forecasts, as part of a national multi-university plan Tuesday.
The Department of Commerce and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have recommended $6.6 million from the Inflation Reduction Act for the consortium, named the Consortium for Advanced Data Assimilation Research and Education, or CADRE.
Other universities participating in the consortium are Howard University, Pennsylvania State University, the University of Maryland, Colorado State University and the University of Utah. Additionally, three more universities will participate as non-funded collaborators.
This is part of President Joe Biden’s Investing in America agenda, which, according to its website, focuses on rebuilding the economy and public infrastructures, mobilizing private sector investments in the country and giving new good-paying jobs to citizens.
Xuguang Wang, presidential research professor in the School of Meteorology and Robert Lowry Chair professor, will be the director of this new consortium, according to an OU press release.
Wang said the CADRE will fill serious gaps in the data assimilation workforce by increasing the number of graduate students and postdocs formally trained in data assimilation.
“CADRE will work collaboratively to perform innovative data assimilation research and development to improve weather forecast from short range to subseasonal to seasonal scales,” Wang said.
Wang, director of the Multi-scale Data Assimilation and Predictability, or MAP, Laboratory at the School of Meteorology, leads research to develop new techniques and methodologies for data assimilation and ensemble forecast, according to the press release.
“Our MAP lab has also cultivated many students and early career scientists specialized in data assimilation,” Wang said. “We will leverage this experience to lead the consortium and work closely with CADRE partners to advance both data assimilation research and workforce development.”
According to the release, data assimilation is used to provide the starting points for weather forecasts. It can also be used to understand how weather or ocean systems might change over time, and help update weather models to fit new data.
Next-generation data assimilation faces significant challenges associated with high-resolution, multiscale, coupled earth system modeling as well as serious gaps in its workforce and the lack of sustained innovative data assimilation research. According to the press release, CADRE will address these challenges.
The consortium will also work closely with the Earth Prediction Innovation Center to advance new data assimilation science into operations within the Unified Forecast System.
Extreme weather causes billions of dollars in damage annually, and its risk has affected many communities over the years. According to the press release, advances in data assimilation will improve numerical weather prediction and help create better forecasts for extreme weather events such as tornadoes, hurricanes, winter storms, heavy rain, heat waves, wildfires and storm surge.
CADRE will be the latest in OU-led national and international collaborations in advancing weather and climate science.
Avery Avery copy edited this story.
