Cross-Discipline Applications

In late 2022, SIMA solicited science proposals intended to both drive SIMA model developments and deliver a cutting-edge, cross-disciplinary science application. The proposal was awarded to the S2S^2 group: a subseasonal-to-seasonal, sun-to-surface prediction system (S2S^2), which will investigate the predictive capabilities of two recent extreme events, using the high-top version of CESM (135 level version of WACCM) with the MPAS dynamical core and a 3 km refined mesh. In 2021, North America experienced two record-shattering extreme and opposite regional events: the February cold air outbreak over Canada, the Great Plains, and Texas, and the June heatwave in the Pacific Northwest and Canada. These events broke countless records, caused over $200 billion in combined damages, and led to hundreds of deaths. This proposal combines significant complexity (full chemistry) with convection-permitting resolution and multiple ensemble members, in order to simulate and understand the predictability and mechanisms responsible for these two extreme events.