PSL—CESSRST Partnership
About
The Physical Sciences Laboratory (PSL) is partnering with the NOAA Center for Earth System Sciences and Remote Sensing Technologies (CESSRST), a Cooperative Science Center. Affiliated with the City University of New York, CESSRST conducts research and educates and trains a diverse group of students, early career scientists, and engineers in NOAA-related science missions. The goal is to help create a diverse STEM workforce for NOAA and its contractors, academia, industries and the private sector.
To initiate new collaborations and strengthen existing ones, PSL hosted a meeting from August 13-15, 2018 in Boulder, Colorado with representatives from CESSRST on a wide range of water resources research topics.
This meeting set a path forward for PSL and CESSRST to stay connected and meaningfully engage in advancing NOAA’s science, social science and education missions.
Collaborative Science Topics
PSL is working with CESSRST on several water resources research themes. These themes are being facilitated through the NOAA Experiential Research & Training Opportunities (NERTO), including:
Carolien Mossel is investigating an ensemble of downscaled meteorological forecasts fed into the National Water Model to produce a hydrologic forecast ensemble with the goal of better understanding and improving hydrologic forecast guidance in California. She is using this PSL-created, unique hydrometeorological ensemble dataset to characterize errors coming from both hydrologic and atmospheric model predictions, ultimately helping researchers and forecasters improve and apply state-of-the-art probabilistic National Water Model forecast guidance.
Adrian Pena will be using urban weather observing stations from New York City to examine how various high-resolution forecast models (e.g., NOAA's HRRR model) represent small scale physical processes that control air temperature, moisture, wind speed, precipitation, and soil moisture. This evaluation will identify and characterize model forecast errors using a physical process-based framework to understand small-scale variability and uncertainty, and also ultimately aid forecast model development.
Engela Sthapit will be examining snow processes in both observations and the NOAA National Water Model across various watersheds in Maine. She will examine the representation of key physical processes related to snow in the National Water Model, and will also consider questions related to the assimilation of unique in-situ snow observations.
Jean Pierre Valle explored the implementation of the WRF-Hydro/the NOAA National Water Model to watersheds in Puerto Rico as a step toward an operational, spatially distributed flash flood forecasting system for this region. He is specifically examined the impacts of bringing various state-of-the-art, high resolution forecast data into this cutting-edge hydrologic modeling framework.
Carlos Wah-González investigated the sensitivity and accuracy characteristics of salinity measurements expected from a new L-band passive microwave radiometer under development for deployment on a small unmanned aircraft. The results will be utilized to help finalize the instrument specifications and plan future NOAA application to watershed monitoring.
Events
Brown Bag Seminars
- Thursday, December 3, 2020, 2:30–3:30pm (MT): Engela Sthapit will present Understanding Snow Representation in the Noah-MP Model
- Thursday, August 15, 2019, 10–11am (MT): Adrian Pena will present Evaluation of HRRR Forecasts using New York City NY-uHMT in-situ data
- Thursday, May 23, 2019, 10–11am (MT): Jean Pierre Valle will present Evaluation of the National Water Model for Puerto Rico
Meetings
- PSD—CREST Research and Education Collaboration Meeting (August 2018)
Meet the Students
Carolien Mossel
Geology, City College of the City University of New York
Research Topic: Analysis of uncertainty in using GEFS to drive the NWM
Internship: September 2020–Ongoing
PSL Mentors: Kelly Mahoney, Mimi Hughes, and Rob Cifelli
Engela Sthapit
Civil Engineering with a Water Resources major at the City College of New York
Research Topic: Understanding and improving snow representation in WRF Hydro
Internship: March 2020–Ongoing
PSL Mentors: Francesca Viterbo and Mimi Hughes
Adrian Pena
Earth System Science and Environmental Engineering, City College of the City University of New York
Research Topic: Evaluation of HRRR model precipitation forecasts in New York City using urban weather observing stations
Internship: May–August 2019
PSL Mentor: Kelly Mahoney
Jean Pierre Valle
Civil Engineering, University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez
Research Topic: Evaluation of WRF-Hydro at Western Puerto Rico
Internship: March–May 2019
PSL Mentor: Kelly Mahoney
Carlos R. Wah-González
Electrical Engineering, University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez
Research Topic: Definition and Characterization of an Airborne Sensor for Ocean Salinity and Soil Moisture Sampling
Internship: May–August 2018
PSL Mentor: Gary Wick