System for Integrated Modeling of the Atmosphere (SIMA) Community Workshop 2020

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Workshop
Jun. 28 to Jun. 30, 2020

6:00 pm MDT

Virtual Meeting

Workshop Details

  • Meeting Name:  System for Integrated Modeling of the Atmosphere (SIMA) Community Workshop 2020
  • Meeting Dates:  29 June - 1 July, 2020
  • Time:
    • June 29th: 10:00am to 12:00pm (plenary) and 1:00pm to 3:00pm (breakout #1) MDT
    • June 30th: 10:00am to 12:00pm (breakout #2) and 1:00pm to 3:00pm (breakout #3) MDT
    • July 1st:    10:00am to 12:00pm (synthesis) MDT
  • Location: Virtual Workshop  (Links to access the workshop to be provided at a later date)

Participant Pre-work

Selected participants are asked to review the SIMA background readings, SIMA Workshop Introduction Video and SIMA Community and Atmospheric Model User Experience surveys by Friday, June 26, 2020.

1.) Attempt to attend all planned sessions; time commitment ~10 hours total

  • June 29th: 10 am to 12 pm (plenary) and 1 to 3 pm (breakout #1)
  • June 30th: 10am to 12 pm (breakout #2) and 1 to 3 pm (breakout #3)
  • July 1st: 10 am to 12 pm (synthesis)
  • Note that all meeting times are in MDT 

2.) Review SIMA-related documents and videos; time commitment ~1.5 hours total:

3.) Participate in two surveys at least 1 week before the workshop; time commitment ~15 mins each

Purpose/Goal

The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) together with a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) are pleased to present a 2.5 day virtual workshop from June 29 to July 1, 2020 to communicate and discuss the development of a new unified framework for atmospheric modeling.

Scientific breakthroughs in understanding the climate system and resolving the uncertainties in the climate’s response to anthropogenic activities is contingent on the availability of robust atmospheric models with a broad range of capabilities. In response to that need, SIMA, or the System for Integrated Modeling of the Atmosphere, is an effort initiated by NCAR to develop a unified atmospheric modeling framework for the broad scientific community.  The goal is for SIMA to enable scientific applications within and across climate, weather, chemistry, and geospace. This workshop aims to bring experts from within and across these modeling communities to discuss and refine the goals and objectives of SIMA, including disciplinary and cross disciplinary scientific objectives, applications, needed scientific components, and supporting software infrastructure.

Key outcomes of the workshop are an assessment of community support and a community plan for SIMA development that can be delivered to NCAR and the NSF. Preliminary versions of a vision statement, scientific objectives, software needs, and near term goals have been introduced at disciplinary workshops in 2019 including the CESM, WRF/MPAS, MUSICA, and CEDAR workshops.  This workshop is meant to bring the communities together to evaluate and discuss these plans and early progress.

Specific objectives and outcomes of the SIMA workshop are:

  • An updated vision statement
  • Input to the scientific objectives of SIMA and its future applications
  • Use-cases and workflow needs for atmospheric models over the next decade
  • Identification of critical near-term tasks and plans for moving SIMA forward
  • An assessment of community support for SIMA