Energy and Water Cycle Study Focus Area Review

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NASA Energy and Water Cycle Study (NEWS)
Implementation Plan Outline

• Energy and Water Cycle Study Focus Area Review
• May 27, 2004

Jasinski/974
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Motivation

• What are the causes of water cycle variations?
• Are variations in the global and water cycle
  predictable?
• How are water and nutrient cycles linked?

NASA-ESE Water Energy Cycle Science Ques (7
of 24) - How are global precip, evaporation and
the cycling of water changing? - What are the
effects of clouds and surface hydr. procs on
Earths climate? - How are variations in local
weather, precipitation and water resources
related to climate variation? - What are the
consequences of climate change and increased
human activities for coastal regions? - How
can weather forecast duration and reliability be
improved? - How can predictions of climate
variability and change be improved? - How will
water cycle dynamics change in the future?
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Current Knowledge and Major Uncertainties What
we know global atmospheric and surface
temperature distributions top-of-the-atmosphere
radiation fluxes point processes What we
need to know global precipitation and water
vapor distributions cloud radiation absorption
and scattering properties global soil
moisture, snow cover/depth distributions
surface runoff evaporation land
surface/atmosphere feedbacks uncertainties in
integrated EWC processes
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NASA Energy and Water Cycle Study (NEWS) NEWS
is the primary mechanism for implementing the
Energy and Water Cycle Focus Area. Its goal
is To document and enable improved,
observationally-based, predictions of energy and
water cycle consequences of Earth system
variability and change
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NEWS Objectives

• NEWS research will promote and/or enable a
  continuum of objectives through incremental
  advances and breakthroughs over an extended
  period
• Focus on water and energy cycle processes
• Develop and deploy experimental EWC global
  observing system
• Document the global EWC by obtaining complete
  observational record of all
• associated relevant geophysical properties
• Build fully interactive global climate model
  that encompasses process-level
• EWC forcings and feedbacks
• Create global surface and atmosphere data
  assimilation system for EWC variables
• Assess variability of the global EWC on time
  scales ranging from seasonal to
• decadal, and space scales ranging from regional
  to continental to global
• Support the application of climate prediction
  capabilities for estimating the
• impact of climate variability and change on
  water resources

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NEWS implementation will include

• Product-driven investigations
• - Combine and interpret past and current
  observations
• - Derive global analysis and prediction tools and
  products,
• - Identify technological and observational
  requirements to guide future NASA investments.
• Independent discovery-driven investigations
• Explore scientific EWC frontiers
• Improving NASAs base capabilities and knowledge
  Earth system EWC
• Examine cross-cutting boundaries of current ESE
  disciplinary programs.
• A NEWS Science Integration Team
• Interfaces with other ESE research foci and
  activities
• Coordinates the NEWS investigations,
• Identifies/leads specific studies needed for
  integration of the results of independent
  product-driven or discovery-driven
  investigations.

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NEWS Strategy Phase-1 Exploits current
capabilities and prepares for future developments
of NEWS program elements (5 years) Phase-2
Addresses deficiencies and builds a viable
"prediction" system (5 - 7 years) Phase-3
Aims to deliver end-to-end system to address the
ESE vision (about 3 years)
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Linkages Between Energy and Water Cycle and
Other Focus Areas, e.g. Climate
Water in the climate system functions on all time
scales (from hours to centuries)

• Energy and Water Cycle /Climate Linkage
• Earths climate primarily driven by solar forcing
  and terrestrial radiation processes
• Key feedbacks affecting climate sensitivity are
  water vapor and cloud-radiation processes
• Terrestrial hydrologic processes impact climate
• Changes in precipitation patterns and
  intensity, represent the most serious
  manifestation of climate variability and change

• Focus Area Linkage
• Generally CVC Focus Area will handle longer-term
  energy and water processes Ocean (dynamics) and
  Ice (glaciers, sea ice, ice sheets), sea level
  rise
• Generally EWC Focus Area will handle
  shorter-term energy and water processes
  Precipitation, Evaporation, land-atmosphere
  interaction, radiation balance, etc.
• Coordinated linkages Clouds

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NEWS Status Draft NEWS Implementation
Plan Draft NEWS NRA Satellite
Systems in place GPM, HYDROS, CLOUDSAT
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Outstanding Issues Observations Uncertain
deployment schedule for comprehensive energy and
water observing system (e.g. GPM, HYDROS) Lack
of coordinated, and consistent long-term, global
data sets Modeling Limited capabilities to
assimilate key energy and water
variables Institutional Lack of support for
full interagency coordination
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NASA Energy and Water Cycle (NEWS) Road Map