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DESI gets to know its users: GSL performs the first comprehensive evaluation of powerful analysis tool
Researchers at the NOAA Global Systems Laboratory (GSL) have completed the first comprehensive evaluation of one of GSL’s flagship decision-support tools. The Dynamic Ensemble-based Scenarios for Impact-based Decision-Support Services (DESI) is a web-based application that allows meteorologists and other users to explore ensemble weather model data and extract probabilistic information...

GSL offers new storm surge alert tool
Emergency responders in central Florida navigating flooding resulting from storm surge during Hurricane Ian in 2022. Source: NOAA/NHC Hurricane Ian Tropical Cyclone Report. Image Credit: Phelan M. Ebenhack/EBENP, via Associated Press The deadliest hazard from tropical storms and hurricanes isn’t wind – it’s storm surge and the flooding that follows....

Weather prediction workshop and community model upgrades spotlight GSL-driven advancements
GSL’s model developers and evaluators have been hard at work testing, advancing, and planning the next generation of numerical weather prediction models. Recently, this has included taking a leading role at a recent workshop for the scientific community and making significant contributions to recent releases of two major atmospheric modeling...
More From GSL
GSL wins Department of Commerce Medals!

GSL has received three distinguished medals from the U.S. Department of Commerce. Since 1949, the Department has granted honor awards in the form of Gold, Silver, and Bronze Medals. The Gold and Silver Medals are the highest and second highest honor granted by the Secretary of Commerce for distinguished and...
Outreach spotlight: Artist versus The Machine

GSL/CIRES scientist Kirana Bergstrom led a Jupyter Notebook tutorial on Artificial Intelligence (AI) for 8th grade students called” Artist vs The Machine: Can You Beat an AI at Pictionary?” She led three in person sessions, each an hour long, for a total of more than 100 students. Kirana is part...
The future of decision support: DESI 3.0

NOAA GSL has released an upgrade to a powerful decision support system to provide forecasters, decision-makers, and other stakeholders with ensemble-based weather forecast information and visualizations. The Dynamic Ensemble-based Scenarios for Impact-based Decision Support (DESI) version 3.0 is a web and cloud-based application that is used by the NOAA National...
GSL names new Assimilation and Verification Division Chief

GSL is pleased to announce that Steve Weygandt has been selected as the new Chief of the Assimilation, Verification, and Innovation Division (AVID). Steve brings a wealth of experience and vision to the new position. Steve received an M.S. degree from Penn State University in 1991, researching mesoscale modeling. He...
GSL Seminar: The 30 December 2021 Colorado Front Range Windstorm

The Front Range windstorm of 30 December 2021 combined extreme surface winds (>45 m s−1) with fire ignition resulting in an extraordinary and quickly evolving, extremely destructive wildfire–urban interface fire event. This windstorm differed from typical downslope windstorms in several aspects. We describe the observations, model guidance, and decision-making...
Mike Mascola is the 2023 NOAA Employee of the Year for Customer Service

GSL’s Mike Mascola has received the NOAA Employee of the Year for Customer Service! Mike serves as the Facility Assistant for the Global Systems Laboratory (GSL) and provides exemplary Audio/Visual (A/V) support for the entire David Skaggs Research Center (DSRC) in Boulder, Colorado. Mike is a resourceful and creative problem...
GSL presents at the 2023 AGU Fall Meeting!

Are you going to the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting? Here is a list of GSL presentations and posters to consider! Dave Turner GSL “A containerized thermodynamic profile retrieval system for ground-based remote sensors” The choice of algorithm to derive thermodynamic profiles matters. The TROPoe algorithm can derive these profiles...
GSL scientist Dave Turner leads 5th National Climate Assessment Chapter

NOAA GSL Senior Scientist Dave Turner is an Agency Chapter Lead Author for the 5th National Climate Assessment Mitigation Chapter. The U.S. National Climate Assessment (NCA) is mandated by the Global Change Research Act of 1990. The assessment is conducted about every four years and is an authoritative scientific analysis...
Announcing the release of UFS Short-Range Weather App v2.2.0

Code sharing enables innovations in numerical weather prediction science The Earth Prediction Innovation Center (EPIC) and the Unified Forecast System (UFS) community have released the Unified Forecast System (UFS) Short-Range Weather (SRW) Application v2.2.0. The Unified Forecast System (UFS) is a community-based, comprehensive Earth modeling system with shared science components...
GSL hosts students from Colorado School of Mines for Capstone project

GSL hosted students from the Colorado School of Mines on 26 September 2023 for a tour of NOAA data centers in Boulder. The students are working on an eight-month Capstone project to design a Tier III multi-tenant data center that is 35,000 sqft. and supports 5 megawatts of load with...
Modernizing NOAA’s precipitation guidance for U.S. dams in a changing climate

Caption: Scientists from the NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory and the NOAA Global Systems Laboratory tour the Chimney Hollow Reservoir site in Colorado. Dams deliver essential services that support multiple infrastructure sectors and industries in the United States. U.S. dams irrigate at least 10 percent of U.S. cropland, help protect more...
2023 Forecast of Eclipse Impact on Sunlight

NOAA’s weather model predicts how the solar eclipse will influence weather NOAA GSL scientists have included effects of solar eclipses in NOAA’s High Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) operational weather model, which provides critical weather forecasts for the energy and aviation industries. When the moon’s shadow sweeps across the U.S. West...
GSL has named Dr. Curtis Alexander as GSL Deputy Director

GSL proudly announces Dr. Curtis Alexander as GSL Deputy Director. Dr. Alexander received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from The Pennsylvania State University (1999) and the University of Oklahoma (2002, 2010), respectively. He joined GSL in 2009 as a University of Colorado Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences researcher,...
2023 Summer Intern Projects

GSL hosted 14 interns this summer! Four graduate and seven undergraduate students were funded by a GSL and the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) Professional Research Experience Program (PREP-GSL/CIRES). This is the second year of PREP-GC and the first year to host interns in person! Three undergraduate...
GSL hosts film screening about the recent lived experiences of Black residents in Boulder

On Friday, June 16th, GSL hosted a showing of the film This Is [Not] Who We Are in the NIST auditorium on the DOC Boulder Labs campus. The film was produced by the Boulder-based Landlocked Films and Blackat Video Productions, and winner of numerous awards, including People’s Choice Award at...
GSL announces Ligia Bernardet as new EPAD Chief

GSL is proud to announce Ligia Bernardet as our new Chief of the Earth Prediction Advancement Division! Ligia has been part of GSL for more than 20 years serving in various positions. She joined GSL (then the Forecast Systems Laboratory, FSL) as a postdoctoral scientist in the field of forecast...
New Threats-in-Motion tackles erratic storms

On May 4, 2022, a destructive long-track supercell thunderstorm was moving northeast near Lockett, Texas, while NOAA National Weather Service Meteorologist Vivek Mahale was on duty. The tornado then took a dramatic left turn into the town, and its motion changed to the north and then to the...
GSL/CIRES scientist receives an Energy Systems Integration Group LifeTime Excellence Award

GSL/CIRES scientist Stan Benjamin received a LifeTime Excellence Award from the Energy Systems Integration Group at a ceremony in June. Benjamin was honored for “sustained contributions to atmospheric modeling and weather prediction for improved forecasting of renewable energy.” The Energy Systems Integration Group (ESIG) is a nonprofit organization that marshals...
NOAA names first manager of new Fire Weather Testbed

Zach Tolby, formerly a Senior Forecaster and Incident Meteorologist (IMET), at the Reno, Nevada Weather Forecast Office, was recently selected to be the first Manager and Lead Scientist of the Fire Weather Testbed, which is housed in the Global Systems Laboratory’s Boulder, Colorado offices. Tolby has over 12 years of...
2021 GSL Laboratory Review

Laboratory science reviews are conducted every five years to evaluate the quality, relevance, and performance of research conducted in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) laboratories. This review is for both internal OAR/NOAA use for planning, programming, and budgeting and external interests....
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Lead research and directed development through the transition of environmental data, models, products, tools, and services to support commerce, protect life and property, and promote a scientifically literate public.
Research Areas
Organizational Excellence, Earth System Prediction, Advanced Technologies, and Decision Support are the foundation to achieving the GSL Grand Challenge: Deliver actionable global storm-scale prediction and environmental information through advanced technologies to serve society.
Global Systems Laboratory
