In FY21, the AC4 program will focus on a subset of AEROMMA by seeking to support studies of emissions and chemical transformation in the urban atmosphere. Specifically, AC4 plans to support the types of projects that:

In response to this unique opportunity to study the atmospheric composition effects of the ongoing pandemic in FY21, AC4 and COM programs invite proposals focused on, but not limited to, one or more of the following:

● Analysis of pandemic-related impacts within individual cities or regions in the United States or impacts of changes in particular anthropogenic activity

● Comparative studies across different regions or sectors of varying characteristics

● The use of previously collected and existing in situ measurements

● Collection of complementary in situ data to fully document atmospheric changes after the pandemic

● Application of JPSS and GOES satellite products, including identification of best suite of products for assessing and monitoring impacts on national and global scales

● Development of observational-based datasets (inclusive of satellites, in-situ) or emission inventories, through compilation or integration, that enable analysis of pandemic impacts

● Identification of atmospheric constituents, which can serve as markers of particular human and/or economic activity – agriculture, shipping, air traffic etc. – as affected by the pandemic disruptions and assessment of its return to previous levels

● Assessment of the overall magnitude of the event (as measured in changes in emissions and concentrations), and its place in a long term and/or national/global context

In FY 2021, the MAPP Program is soliciting proposals to advance climate monitoring. This effort builds on NOAA’s leadership in providing climate monitoring products to the public. NOAA’s Fisheries, Ocean, Satellite, and Weather services as well as its Laboratories and Cooperative Institutes provide a wide range of critical climate information to the public, leveraging the agency’s extensive in-situ and remote data holdings, modeling capabilities, communication and dissemination expertise, and scientific leadership. This solicitation also builds on a long history of the Climate Program Office’s support for building capabilities undergirding climate monitoring and new climate monitoring products.

In FY 2021, the MAPP Program is soliciting proposals to advance model diagnostic activities. Climate and Earth System Model (ESM) development is a key component of NOAA’s mission. NOAA’s models provide a vast resource of information to NOAA managers, decision makers, and scientists as well as external stakeholders interested in environmental change on various timescales. These models also serve as an incubator for and source of technology to advance operational prediction efforts across all timescales. Climate projections produced with NOAA’s models undergird efforts to assess climate change and its impacts, and serve as direct inputs to the National Climate Assessment. These models also serve as a laboratory to codify and test improved understanding of how the climate and Earth systems work, and engage NOAA scientists and the broader research community with each other to advance our understanding and ability to simulate the integrated climate and Earth systems.

In FY21, this multi-program competition is soliciting proposals that will increase the usefulness of NOAA observations to the NOAA observing, modeling and/or satellite communities, and/or the broader scientific community by one of the following:

1. Developing new observation-based (in situ, satellite) ocean synthesis datasets or products (physical and/or biogeochemical) for climate monitoring or modeling applications through applying existing methods or developing new, state-of-art, innovative methods and approaches (e.g. ocean state estimation, data assimilation, and quantification of observational uncertainty).
2. Evaluating current methods and approaches for ocean observing and modeling, and the ability of observed and modeled data/products to reproduce physical or biogeochemical processes, climate phenomena, or interactions between Earth System components on different timescales. Proposals should examine bias(es) in observed and modeled data/products and advance understanding of the cause(s) for large differences between observed and modeled ocean data/products. Collaborations between the ocean observing and climate modeling community are strongly encouraged for Type 2 proposals.

Please see the competition information sheet for more details.