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Global Systems Laboratory
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NOAA Scientists release global aerosol dataset to assist with weather modeling
Satellite-derived global aerosol distribution, September 17, 2017. Image credit: NOAA/NESDIS Aerosols, or tiny particles released to the atmosphere through various natural and human activities, play a key role toward understanding the Earth system. Every day, they impact air quality and human health, while also influencing our weather by affecting clouds...
GSL participates in the 2025 AGU Annual Meeting
The American Geophysical Union (AGU)’s Annual Meeting brings together the world’s leading Earth and space scientists. Several GSL scientists presented talks and posters at the 2025 Annual Meeting (“AGU25”) at the New Orleans Convention Center from December 15 to 19, 2025. This year, the GSL team delivered 16 oral...
Latest DESI upgrades include AI models, new datasets, and more
GSL’s latest release of the powerful Dynamic Ensemble Scenarios for Impact-based decision support (DESI) is now live on both the GSL experimental product development server and the National Weather Service (NWS) cloud platform. Version 3.5, released September 2025, brings several new features and datasets to support research and operations across...
More From GSL
GSL releases Hydrology Hazard Simplification Phase I to NWS operations
The GSL-developed Hazard Services “Hazard Simplification” Phase I messaging and consolidation process for hydrology hazards was activated at all NWS sites nationwide in November 2021 in collaboration with the NWS. Phase I includes updated messaging for river flooding, flash flooding, and area flooding. The changes include: “What/Where/When” format for all...
Evaluating the Economic Impacts of Improvements to Weather Models
You can only have an economic impact if the new version results in a different decision. Weather forecasts play an essential role in how different sectors plan and make decisions. The energy community benefits from good wind forecasts. A worker saves the company time by planning their commute around weather...
Blog Post: Untangling Positional and Structural Forecast Errors
Fig. 1. Schematic for total forecast error decomposition: (1) Spatially align a forecast with the verifying analysis field; (2) Smooth original and aligned forecast and analysis to remove unpredictable smaller scales; (3) Decompose total error into orthogonal (right angle) components of (i) large scale positional error, (ii) large scale...
Air pollution from wildfires, rising heat affected two-thirds of U.S. West
On a single day in 2020, 43 million people in the region experienced harmful levels of air pollution. Large wildfires and severe heat events are happening more often at the same time, worsening air pollution across the western United States, according to a new study led by Washington State University,...
GSL’s Michael Kraus retires after more than 50 years of federal service
Dr. Michael Kraus is retiring after more than 50 years of federal service and leadership at the Air Force Geophysics Laboratory and NOAA to support tactical and strategic weather decisions. Dr. Kraus began his career in 1967 as a civilian at the Air Force Geophysics Laboratory (AFGL). He developed techniques...
John Brown: GSL Scientist Emeritus
Dr. John Brown is retiring after an extraordinary, multi-faceted four-decade career of contributions to the NOAA weather community that has served the nation. He will return as GSL’s first Scientist Emeritus. Dr. Brown’s exceptional command of meteorology at convective, meso-, and synoptic scales, and mastery of modeling techniques and physics...
GSL presents at American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting 2021
GSL at the 2021 Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union GSL, CIRES, and CIRA researchers are presenting some interesting talks at the 2021 Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union. Highlights are listed below! Air Quality Experimental air quality forecasting with the Rapid-Refresh model coupled to chemistry (RAP-Chem) –...
GSL presents: “NOAA-CDC Ventures in Public Health and Weather”
Dr. Karen Holcomb presented “NOAA-CDC Ventures in Public Health and Weather: Impacts of vector control and weather on mosquito populations and West Nile virus transmission dynamics.” Dr. Holcomb has a Ph.D. in Epidemiology from the University of California-Davis and is with the NOAA Global Systems Laboratory in Boulder, CO, and...
GSL Seminar: “NOAA-CDC Ventures in Public Health and Weather”
On Friday, December 3, Dr. Karen Holcomb will present “NOAA-CDC Ventures in Public Health and Weather: Impacts of vector control and weather on mosquito populations and West Nile virus transmission dynamics.” Holcomb is a Post-Doc with NOAA Global Systems Laboratory (GSL), Boulder, CO, and CDC National Center for Emerging and...
GSL’s Science On a Sphere® transitions to operations
Global Systems Laboratory’s (GSL) Science On a Sphere ® operations began the transition From GSL to the NOAA Office of Education on October 1, becoming the first official research-to-education operations transfer at NOAA. This flagship education and technology program has long been a shining star for NOAA and our efforts...
GSL’s modeling team wins the 2021 NOAA Administrator’s Award
GSL’s modeling team has been honored with the 2021 NOAA Administrator’s Award for developing and delivering final upgrades to the first hourly-updated weather model that predicts high-impact weather on an urban scale to help save lives and property. The High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) now includes the first ensemble-based convective scale...
New study: Better forecasts lead to smaller losses in work time
New research has shown that adverse weather conditions such as rain, sleet, and snow lead to significant increases in both commute time and driver risk. This imposes significant costs on both individuals and the economy. A recent study by Colorado State University (CSU) and NOAA’s Global Systems Laboratory (GSL) scientists...
GSL and CSL paper identified as a top ten paper that has influenced the field of tropospheric chemistry
A 2005 paper published in Elsevier’s Atmospheric Environment was identified as one of the top ten papers that has influenced the field of tropospheric chemistry. The paper, “A fully coupled “online” Weather Research and Forecasting/Chemistry model” was authored by Georg Grell (GSL), Steven Peckham (CIRES), CSL’s Stuart McKeen and Greg...
GSL staff awards from Commerce and NOAA!
Congratulations to the GSL team for these Department of Commerce and NOAA Awards! NOAA Distinguished Career Award: John Brown “For a career devoted to scientific excellence and exemplary service by advancing numerical weather prediction and mentoring a generation of scientists.” Department of Commerce Bronze Medal: Forrest Hobbs “For successful transition...
Outcomes from the Hazard Services Summer 2021 Functional Assessment Test
GSL researchers hosted their fourth virtual Functional Assessment Test (FAT), evaluating next-generation Hazard Services capabilities. Hazard Services will modernize how the National Weather Service’s WFOs and National Centers create forecasts, watches, and warnings and consolidate these efforts into a single highly customizable software system. Over 25,000 short-fuse convective weather products...
GSL projects in the HFIP Real-Time Experiment – 2021
Each hurricane season brings the opportunity to demonstrate advances that improve weather model accuracy. The Hurricane Forecast Improvement Project (HFIP) real-time Experiments (HREx) starts officially on August 1 and ends on October 31. Real-time model products are evaluated after each season to identify techniques that appear particularly promising to operational...
A month of smoke forecasts from GSL’s FV3-Chem model
GSL’s visualization expert created this video of wildfire smoke forecasts from July 8-August 9, 2021 from GSL’s experimental FV3-Chem model. This shows the broad reach of smoke as it is carried by the wind across the world.
GSL receives 2021 National Weather Association aviation award for HRRR
Each day, NOAA’s Weather Forecast Offices provide almost 600 airports with close to 2,500 aviation weather forecasts and about 1,300 inflight forecasts. GSL’s Assimilation and Verification Innovation Division is honored by the National Weather Association (NWA) for developing and delivering the first convection-allowing hourly-updated weather model that provides guidance for...
Threats-In-Motion “Shakedown” testing in preparation for larger eval in the fall
GSL researchers have been working with NWS forecasters on shakedown tests of “Threats-In-Motion” (TIM), a warning dissemination approach that would enable NWS to enhance severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings. TIM will be tested this Summer in the NOAA Hazardous Weather Testbed. Testing will be done by 6 NWS forecasters (8,...
GSL has prototyped the Rapid Refresh Forecast System on the Cloud
A team of CIRES Software Engineers at NOAA GSL has prototyped the Rapid Refresh Forecast System on the Cloud. This work was in close collaboration with NOAA Environmental Modeling Center (EMC) on a FY19 Disaster Supplemental project. The first configuration tested was a forecast ensemble capability in real time as...
Our Mission
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
