Assimilation of satellite aerosol profiles to improve aerosol forecasts in JEDI/UFS-Chem

The capability to assimilate aerosol optical depth (AOD) measurements from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) has been implemented in Joint Effort for Data assimilation Integration (JEDI) (Huang et al., 2023; Wei et al., 2023). Despite the clear benefit of AOD data assimilation for aerosol analyses and forecasts, AOD assimilation has limited positive impact on the vertical profiles of aerosol loading (Wei et al., 2023).

This presentation will provide an overview of a Howard-UAlbany led CADRE project with close collaboration with NOAA and JCSDA. The project goal is to advance JEDI chemical data assimilation capability by conducting research and development on assimilating aerosol attenuated backscattered profiles (L1B) from Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) using JEDI/UFS-Aero. This work not only complements NOAA’s ongoing AOD data assimilation activities but also addresses critical challenges on constraining aerosol vertical distributions. The anticipated outcomes include: 1) providing training opportunities for Howard and UAlbany graduate student(s) and early career scientist(s), 2) demonstrating the anticipated improvements in UFS-Chem via improved initial conditions, and 3) prototyping the profiler data assimilation capability for NOAA to refine, test, and adopt.