November 23, 2021 - Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced plans to provide $70 million for research in Earth system model development which will contribute to further development of the Energy Exascale Earth System Model  (E3SM) through collaborations  that will use DOE high performance computers to enable advanced modeling via mathematical and computational solutions. The Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) partnership brings together experts in key areas of earth sciences, applied mathematics, and computer science to take maximum advantage of high-performance computing resources.

“America’s leadership in the climate sciences relies on tight collaborations involving Earth system scientists, mathematicians, and software developers, who take advantage of the world’s fastest computers,” said Sharlene Weatherwax, Associate Director of Science for Biological and Environmental Research.  “Given demands to more rapidly accelerate predictive capabilities, DOE intends to address the most pressing climate science challenges that have hindered scientific progress.”

Specific topics solicited under this announcement will focus on current challenges of the E3SM to improve its performance and representations of some key processes which are critical components of the global climate system and E3SM’s baseline climate state. These processes include ocean circulation, the Antarctic ice sheet, marine biogeochemistry, and variability of the winds in the tropical stratosphere. Efforts will also include improved physics and numerics to enhance coupling of the various components with high and variable resolutions of the E3SM. Projects will be required to emphasize process-level scientific understanding that leads to improved confidence in climate projections over multiple spatial and temporal scales.

Applications are open to universities, DOE national laboratories, nonprofit institutions, for-profit institutions, and other federal agencies.

Total planned funding is up to $70 million over five years duration of the projects, with $14 million anticipated in Fiscal Year 2022 dollars and outyear funding contingent on congressional appropriations.

The DOE Funding Opportunity Announcement, sponsored by the Biological and Environmental Research (BER) and Advanced Scientific Computing Research program offices within the Department’s Office of Science, can be found here.

More information about BER’s climate modeling activities can be found here.