Group items tagged

Supports research to measure and model the concentration and distribution of gases and aerosols in the lower and middle atmosphere. Also supports research on the chemical reactions among atmospheric species; the sources and sinks of important trace gases and aerosols; the aqueous-phase atmospheric chemistry; the transport of gases and aerosols throughout the atmosphere; and the improved methods for measuring the concentrations of trace species and their fluxes into and out of the atmosphere.

Lack of essential observations from space is currently a major limiting factor in many areas of geospace and atmospheric research. Recent advances in sensor and spacecraft technologies make it feasible to obtain key measurements from low-cost, small satellite missions. A particularly promising aspect of this development is the prospect for obtaining multi-point observations in space that are critical for addressing many outstanding problems in space and atmospheric sciences. Space-based measurements from small satellites also have great potential to advance discovery and understanding in geospace and atmospheric sciences in many other ways. To take full advantage of these developments, NSF is soliciting research proposals centered on small satellite missions. The overarching goal of the program is to support the development, construction, launch, operation, and data analysis of small satellite science missions to advance geospace and atmospheric research. Equally important, it will provide essential opportunities to train the next generation of experimental space scientists and aerospace engineers.

In collaboration with the university science community, NCAR scientists focus on fundamental research aimed at improving our ability to predict meteorological, air quality and space weather hazards and increasing our understanding of the variability in and changes to the Earth's climate system at regional and global scales. These research themes are enabled by NCAR-operated facilities such as two highly modified aircraft (a C-130Q Hercules and a Gulfstream-V); a petascale supercomputing center in Cheyenne, Wyoming; and state-of-the-art community models, including the Community Earth System Model (CESM), the Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF) and the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM). Partnerships with researchers in complementary fields, such as hydrology, cryospheric science, oceanography, terrestrial biology, public health and social sciences, to name a few, broaden NCAR's activities beyond the traditional atmospheric and geospace sciences. Details about NCAR's research activities can be found on the website at ncar.ucar.edu and in NCAR's current strategic plan.

In collaboration with the university science community, NCAR scientists focus on fundamental research aimed at improving our ability to predict meteorological, air quality and space weather hazards and increasing our understanding of the variability in and changes to the Earth's climate system at regional and global scales. These research themes are enabled by NCAR-operated facilities such as two highly modified aircraft (a C-130Q Hercules and a Gulfstream-V); a petascale supercomputing center in Cheyenne, Wyoming; and state-of-the-art community models, including the Community Earth System Model (CESM), the Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF) and the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM). Partnerships with researchers in complementary fields, such as hydrology, cryospheric science, oceanography, terrestrial biology, public health and social sciences, to name a few, broaden NCAR's activities beyond the traditional atmospheric and geospace sciences. Details about NCAR's research activities can be found on the website at ncar.ucar.edu and in NCAR's current strategic plan.

The DOE SC program in Biological and Environmental Research (BER) hereby announces its interest in receiving applications for Atmospheric System Research (ASR) within BER's Earth and Environmental Systems Sciences Division (EESSD). ASR supports research on key cloud, aerosol, precipitation, and radiative transfer processes that affect the Earth's radiative balance and hydrological cycle, especially processes that limit the predictive ability of regional and global models. This FOA solicits research grant applications for observational, data analysis, and/or modeling studies that use observations[1] supported by BER, including the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility, to improve understanding and model representation of: 1) aerosol-cloud interactions, 2) aerosol processes, 3) warm boundary layer processes, 4) Arctic atmospheric processes from ARM's Cold-Air Outbreaks in the Marine Boundary Layer Experiment (COMBLE) and Multidisciplinary Drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) campaigns, and/or 5) convective cloud processes from ARM's Cloud, Aerosol, and Complex Terrain Interactions (CACTI) field campaign. All research supported from awards under this FOA is intended to benefit the public through increasing our understanding of the Earth system.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is focused on providing the essential and highest quality environmental information vital to our Nation's safety, prosperity and resilience. Toward this goal, the agency conducts and supports weather and climate research, oceanic and atmospheric observations, modeling, information management, assessments, interdisciplinary decision-support research, outreach, education, and partnership development. Climate variability and change present society with significant economic, health, safety, and security challenges and opportunities. In meeting these challenges, and as part of NOAA's climate portfolio within the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR), the Climate Program Office (CPO) advances scientific understanding, monitoring, and prediction of climate and its impacts, to enable effective decisions. Within this context, CPO manages competitive research programs through which NOAA funds high-priority climate science, assessments, decision support research, outreach, education, and capacity-building activities designed to advance our understanding of the Earth's climate system, and to foster the application and use of this knowledge to improve the resilience of our Nation and its partners. CPO supports research that is conducted across the United States and internationally. CPO's climate research portfolio is designed to achieve a fully integrated research and applications program. We meet this objective through a focus on climate intelligence and climate resilience, in support of NOAA's goals.

The Atmospheric System Research Program (ASR) in the Climate and Environmental Sciences Division (CESD), Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) of the Office of Science (SC), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), supports research on key cloud, aerosol, precipitation, and radiative transfer processes that has the potential to improve the accuracy of regional and global climate models. The ASR program hereby announces its interest in research grant applications for observational, data analysis, and/or modeling studies that use data from CESD, including the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility and the ASR program, to improve understanding and model representation of convective cloud processes, boundary layer cloud processes, and secondary organic aerosol processes, and to pursue ASR-relevant research using observations from recent ARM field campaigns.

The National Science Foundation is soliciting proposals for the management and operation of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). NCAR, an NSF Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC), is a center of excellence supporting the atmospheric, geospace and broader Earth sciences communities. NCAR operates world-class observational facilities and computing infrastructure, conducts extensive in-house research, maintains vigorous programs of education, outreach, and the promotion of diversity, and cultivates extensive national and international collaborations. NCAR also carries out research and development on behalf of other organizations, most commonly other U.S. Government agencies. This work, which can only be undertaken if it supports the NCAR mission, currently accounts for approximately 30% of NCAR's total funding.

The Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences (AGS) awards Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (PRF) to highly qualified investigators within 3 years of obtaining their PhD to carry out an independent research program. The research plan of each Fellowship must address scientific questions within the scope of AGS disciplines.  The program supports researchers for a period of up to 2 years with Fellowships that can be taken to the institution or national facility of their choice. The program is intended to recognize beginning investigators of significant potential, and provide them with experience in research that will broaden perspectives, facilitate interdisciplinary interactions and help establish them in leadership positions within the Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences community. Because the Fellowships are offered only to postdoctoral scientists early in their careers, doctoral advisors are encouraged to discuss the availability of AGS Postdoctoral Research Fellowships with their graduate students early in their doctoral programs. Fellowships are awards to individuals, not institutions, and are administered by the Fellows.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences (AGS) Lower Atmosphere Observing Facilities (LAOF) Program oversees a portfolio of multi-user national facilities that are sponsored by NSF for use by the geosciences research community. Program management resides within AGS in the NCAR and Facilities Section (NFS) which provides a single point for coordination of planning and resources.

The LAOF program enables geoscience research through the provision of specialized facilities, instrumentation, and field support services necessary to carry out the scientific field work associated with investigations of a wide range of geophysical phenomena. The program is actively involved in decisions about the acquisition, operation, maintenance, upgrading and replacement of these facilities based on input from the scientific community. LAOF funding supports both the planning for scientific field programs (e.g., experimental design, operational plans, logistical support) and the actual deployment of NSF-sponsored facilities.

Lack of essential observations from space is currently a major limiting factor in many areas of geospace andatmospheric research. Recent advances in sensor and spacecraft technolo­gies make it feasible to obtain key measurements from low-cost, small satellite missions. A particularly promising aspect of this development is the prospect for obtaining multi-point observations in space that are critical for addressing many outstanding problems in space and atmosphericsciences. Space-based measurements from small satellites also have great potential to advance discovery and understanding in geospace and atmospheric sciences in many other ways. To take full advantage of these developments, NSF is soliciting research proposals centered on small satellite missions. The overarching goal of the program is to support the development, construction, launch, operation, and data analysis of small satellite science missions to advancegeospace and atmospheric research. Equally important, it will provide essential opportunities to train the next generation of experimental space scientists and aerospace engineers. To facilitate launch of the satellites as secondary payloads on existing missions, the focus of the program is on CubeSat-based satellites. Launch of the satellites will mainly be through the standardized CubeSat deployment system, the Poly Picosatellite Orbital Deployer (P-POD). Launch of the P-PODS will be as auxiliary payloads on DOD, NASA, or commercial launches. This will be arranged after selection and is not part of this solicitation. This solicitation covers proposals for science missions to include satellite development, construction, testing and operation as well as data distribution and scientific analysis.

The consequences of climate variability and change are becoming more immediate and profound than previously anticipated. Over recent decades, the world has witnessed the onset of prolonged droughts on several continents, increased frequency of floods, loss of agricultural and forest productivity, degraded ocean and permafrost ecosystems, global sea level rise and the rapid retreat of ice sheets and glaciers, loss of arctic sea ice, and changes in ocean currents. These important impacts highlight that climate variability and change can have significant effects on decadal and shorter time scales, with significant consequences for plant, animal, human, and physical systems. The EaSM funding opportunity enables interagency cooperation on one of the most pressing problems of the millennium: climate change and??how it is likely to affect our world. It allows the partner agencies -- National Science Foundation (NSF) and??U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) -- to combine resources to identify and fund the most meritorious and highest-impact projects that support their respective missions, while??avoiding duplication of effort and fostering collaboration between agencies and the investigators they support.This interdisciplinary scientific challenge calls for the development and application of next-generation Earth System Models that include coupled and interactive representations of such??components as ocean and atmospheric currents, agricultural working lands and forests,?? biogeochemistry, atmospheric chemistry,?? the water cycle and land ice.?? This solicitation seeks to attract scientists from the disciplines of geosciences, agricultural sciences, mathematics and statistics. Successful proposals will develop intellectual excitement in the participating disciplinary communities and engage diverse interdisciplinary teams with sufficient breadth to achieve the scientific objectives. 

The Aeronomy program supports research on upper and middle atmosphere phenomena of ionization, recombination, chemical reaction, photo emission, and transport; the transport of energy, and momentum. This program also supports research into mass in the mesosphere-thermosphere-ionosphere system including the processes involved and the coupling of this global system to the stratosphere below and magnetosphere above and the plasma physics of phenomena manifested in the coupled ionosphere-magnetosphere system, including the effects of high-power radio wave modification.About the Coupling, Energetics, and Dynamics of Atmospheric Regions (CEDAR) ProgramThe CEDAR concept originated in the mideighties and was developed over several years through workshops, symposia, and committee deliberations by nearly 100 scientists involved in aeronomical studies.

Supports research on the magnetized plasma envelope of the outer atmosphere, including energization by the solar wind; the origin of geomagnetic storms and substorms; the population by solar and ionospheric sources; the origin of electric fields; the coupling among the magnetosphere, ionosphere, and atmosphere; and waves and instabilities in the natural plasma. Also supported are ground-based observational programs at high latitudes and laboratory experiments applicable to the geospace environment. Theoretical research programs may include numerical simulations using a variety of MHD, hybrid and particle codes. The analysis of data from all sources, whether ground-based or from spacecraft, is also supported.

The goals of the Program are to: (i) advance knowledge about the processes that force and regulate the atmosphere’s synoptic and planetary circulation, weather and climate, and (ii) sustain the pool of human resources required for excellence in synoptic and global atmospheric dynamics and climate research. Research topics include theoretical, observational and modeling studies of the general circulation of the stratosphere and troposphere; synoptic scale weather phenomena; processes that govern climate; the causes of climate variability and change; methods to predict climate variations; extended weather and climate predictability; development and testing of parameterization of physical processes; numerical methods for use in large-scale weather and climate models; the assembly and analysis of instrumental and/or modeled weather and climate data; data assimilation studies; development and use of climate models to diagnose and simulate climate and its variations and change. Some Climate and Large Scale Dynamics (CLD) proposals address multidisciplinary problems and are often co-reviewed with other NSF programs, some of which, unlike CLD, use panels in addition to mail reviewers, and thus have target dates or deadlines. Proposed research that spans in substantive ways topics appropriate to programs in other divisions at NSF, e.g., ocean sciences, ecological sciences, hydrological sciences, geography and regional sciences, applied math and statistics, etc., must be submitted at times consistent with target dates or deadlines established by those programs. If it's not clear whether your proposed research is appropriate for co-review, please contact CLD staff.

Physical and Dynamic Meteorology supports research involving studies of cloud physics; atmospheric electricity; radiation; boundary layer and turbulence; the initiation, growth, and propagation of gravity waves; all aspects of mesoscale meteorological phenomena, including their morphological, thermodynamic, and kinematic structure; development of mesoscale systems and precipitation processes; and transfer of energy between scales. The program also sponsors the development of new techniques and devices for atmospheric measurements.

The goals of the Program are to: (i) advance knowledge about the processes that force and regulate the atmosphere’s synoptic and planetary circulation, weather and climate, and (ii) sustain the pool of human resources required for excellence in synoptic and global atmospheric dynamics and climate research.Research topics include theoretical, observational and modeling studies of the general circulation of the stratosphere and troposphere; synoptic scale weather phenomena; processes that govern climate; the causes of climate variability and change; methods to predict climate variations; extended weather and climate predictability; development and testing of parameterization of physical processes; numerical methods for use in large-scale weather and climate models; the assembly and analysis of instrumental and/or modeled weather and climate data; data assimilation studies; development and use of climate models to diagnose and simulate climate and its variations and change.Some Climate and Large Scale Dynamics (CLD) proposals address multidisciplinary problems and are often co-reviewed with other NSF programs, some of which, unlike CLD, use panels in addition to mail reviewers, and thus have target dates or deadlines. Proposed research that spans in substantive ways topics appropriate to programs in other divisions at NSF, e.g., ocean sciences, ecological sciences, hydrological sciences, geography and regional sciences, applied math and statistics, etc., must be submitted at times consistent with target dates or deadlines established by those programs. If it's not clear whether your proposed research is appropriate for co-review, please contact CLD staff (listed above) or the potential co-reviewing program staff (including but not limited to)Eric Itsweire (Physical Oceanography), eitsweir@nsf.govL. Douglas James (Hydrological Sciences), ldjames@nsf.govThomas Baerwald (Geography and Regional Sciences), tbaerwal@nsf.govTom Russell (Applied and Computational Math),

The National Science Foundation's Directorate for Geosciences supports research programs in both Hydrologic Sciences (HS) and Physical and Dynamic Meteorology (PDM). These programs share a common interest in (1) the fluxes of water, mass and energy across the terrestrial-atmospheric boundary, (2) how such fluxes are measured and (3) how such fluxes are parameterized within large and small scale models. A host of research reports have identified multiple ways in which the terrestrial and atmospheric systems are coupled (Duffy et al., 2006; IPCC, 2013; NRC, 2012a, 2012b; Ralph et al., 2012; Smith et al., 2013) and there is growing recognition of the importance of these couplings, interactions, and their interdependencies for both scientific research and operational prediction.

This solicitation addresses the overlapping objectives of the National Space Weather Strategy and Action Plan (NSW-SAP) and the National Strategic Computing Initiative (NSCI) Update through a pilot program. The goal of this pilot program is to transform development of predictive modeling of the coupled evolution of the magnetized solar atmosphere and the solar wind, and their interaction with the Earth's magnetosphere and upper atmosphere. This requires advancing our understanding of the necessary and sufficient requirements of model complexity, computational performance, and observational inputs. The pilot program is also expected to directly contribute to the long-term goal of creating space weather models with quantifiable predictive capability.

The NOAA Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) invites applications for the establishment of a Cooperative Institute (CI) for Modeling the Earth System. This new cooperative institute supports the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) as it works toward advancing NOAA's ability to understand and predict variations and changes in weather, climate, oceans and coastal systems on a spectrum of timescales, through advanced numerical modeling of the Earth System's physical, dynamical, chemical, biogeochemical, and ecological processes. The scope of the new Cooperative Institute incorporates explicitly the consideration of the unforced variability of the Earth System, natural and anthropogenic forcings that include regional contributions and feedbacks, which together govern the response and temporal evolution of the Earth system (IPCC, 2001, 2013). Current state-of-the-art coupled climate models used to forecast weather-to-climate conditions particularly from sub-seasonal to seasonal to inter-annual to decadal and longer timescales must be improved dramatically. Fundamental research is needed to improve the representation of many processes and interactions of importance if these models are to fulfill their promise of advancing the scientific understanding and prediction and addressing NOAA's goals.

The CSTAR Program represents a NWS effort to create a cost-effective transition from basic and applied research to operations and services through collaborative research between operational forecasters and academic institutions which have expertise in the environmental sciences. These activities will engage researchers and students in applied research of interest to the operational meteorological community and will improve the accuracy of forecasts and warnings of environmental hazards by applying scientific knowledge and information to operational products and services. The CSTAR Program addresses NOAA's Mission Goal 3: Weather Ready Nation. NOAA's Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) office is announcing a separate federal funding opportunity that is a companion to this funding opportunity. Please search for funding opportunity number NOAA-OAR-OWAQ-2017-2005004 in grants.gov. The OAR funding opportunity supports projects that require NOAA testbed collaborations and demonstrations, while this funding opportunity does not have this requirement.

The CSTAR Program represents a NWS effort to create a cost-effective transition from basic and applied research to operations and services through collaborative research between operational forecasters and academic institutions which have expertise in the environmental sciences. These activities will engage researchers and students in applied research of interest to the operational meteorological community and will improve the accuracy of forecasts and warnings of environmental hazards by applying scientific knowledge and information to operational products and services. The CSTAR Program addresses NOAA's Mission Goal 3: Weather Ready Nation. NOAA's Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) office is announcing a separate federal funding opportunity that is a companion to this funding opportunity. Please search for funding opportunity number NOAA-OAR-OWAQ-2017-2005004 in grants.gov. The OAR funding opportunity supports projects that require NOAA testbed collaborations and demonstrations, while this funding opportunity does not have this requirement.