The Data Assimilation Consortium: A Collaborative Effort to Advance the Data Assimilation Science (Invited Presentation)

The Data Assimilation Consortium, supported by the NOAA Research Weather Program Office, is a collaboration between universities and NOAA to advance Data Assimilation (DA) in Unified Forecast System Applications and is funded through the Inflation Reduction Act. This consortium brings together six participating universities led by the University of Oklahoma to support the training of DA workforce, advance DA science and innovation, build a diverse network of DA experts, and contribute to a university team to work with NOAA. Funding is provided for three years and projects are anticipated to start in the Fall of 2024. This presentation plans to cover a broad overview of this consortium and DA efforts supported by the Earth Prediction and Innovation Center program (EPIC), how the consortium plans to address critical gaps in the DA Science, progress updates and introductions to relevant talks on detailed work completed and planned to be completed by the consortium members known as the “Consortium for Advanced Data Assimilation Research and Education or, CADRE”. Key partners include the Transatlantic Data Science Academy, the Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation and NOAA Weather laboratories such as the Physical Science Laboratory and the Global Systems Laboratory. The Data Assimilation Consortium aligns with the NOAA Science Advisory Board’s for Priorities for Weather Research recommendations which includes 1.) Accelerate Earth system modeling approach to improve forecast accuracy and lead time, 2.) Improved weather data dissemination to support the Enterprise through open science approaches, and 3.) Support reanalysis and reforecasting to support model evaluation and improvement, and for artificial intelligence product applications.