New blog series will look at possible expansion options
Editor’s note: William Gustafson, principal investigator for the Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) ARM Symbiotic Simulation and Observation (LASSO) workflow, sent in this update.
The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility is implementing routine operations of the LASSO workflow based on the vision shared in the recommendation report written at the conclusion of the LASSO pilot phase. LASSO combines observation data and large-eddy simulation modeling to support the study of atmospheric processes, improvement of observational retrievals, and representations of clouds and radiation in earth system models.
The first implementation of LASSO focuses on simulations of shallow convection at ARM’s Southern Great Plains atmospheric observatory and is proving to be a valuable tool for researchers.
ARM’s Decadal Vision calls for expanding LASSO beyond the shallow convection prototype to other weather regimes. Possibilities include adding simulations for other cloud types at ARM’s Southern Great Plains, North Slope of Alaska, or Eastern North Atlantic atmospheric observatories, or at other locations that would complement ARM’s suite of measurements.
We are beginning the process to determine the next weather regime to address with LASSO and will be requesting your input. The LASSO breakout session at the 2018 Joint ARM User Facility/Atmospheric System Research (ASR) Principal Investigators Meeting collected user input on how a LASSO expansion would help answer different science questions. You can see notes collected during the session in slides 15 to 22 published on the ASR website.
Throughout the next year, we will continue collecting user feedback to inform ARM’s decision on how to expand LASSO. We are beginning a series of blog posts outlining possible expansion options, with each post focusing on a particular scenario. Keep an eye out for these posts, which will be announced via the LASSO email list and ARM News.
We encourage you to contribute your ideas and feedback on expansion scenarios that interest you. Please send your ideas to lasso@arm.gov. This is your opportunity to influence where LASSO goes in the future!