Acquisition of High Performance Computational Cluster to Support Climate Change Research at Texas A&M International University

该奖项支持购买计算硬件，以促进德克萨斯农工国际大学（Texas a&m International University）在流域建模、生态水文学、土壤科学和大气化学方面的研究和研究培训。德克萨斯农工国际大学是一所本科院校，也是西班牙裔服务机构，90%以上的学生是西班牙裔。它服务于德克萨斯州南部的边境地区，那里的许多学生都是第一代和非传统的大学生。研究重点是基于卫星遥感数据的水文和土壤地幔过程的计算模拟，以及大气化学相互作用的模拟研究与对温室气体相互作用的理解。鉴于培养下一代计算建模技术的科学工作者的重要性，以及了解气候变化对陆地水文水库的影响和人为对空气质量的影响的社会重要性，这种支持与国家科学基金促进科学进步和促进国家健康、繁荣和福利的使命是一致的。农业生产中的一个限制因素是植物根区保持的土壤水分。依靠遥感观测地表微波发射作为北部大平原近地表土壤湿度的代理的计算密集型研究将包括使用先进过滤技术的新算法开发，从多模态遥感观测中提取土壤湿度估计，并对与已知气候振荡（包括厄尔尼诺）相关的导出土壤湿度数据产品的时间序列进行统计调查，太平洋年代际振荡和大西洋年代际观测，以便更好地了解全球海洋事件与大陆土壤湿度之间的遥相关。利用并行计算的其他研究将包括温室气体（包括二氧化碳、甲烷、亚硝酸和氟化化合物及其在水存在下的分解产物）相互作用的第一性原理热力学建模。对氟碳化合物的热化学性质的研究尤其引起人们的兴趣，因为它们在大气中的停留时间很长，而且它们在红外线中的吸收带也很长。模拟研究可以改进大气捕获技术和/或工业过程中使用的替代化合物。

This award supports acquisition of computational hardware to facilitate research and research training in watershed modeling, ecohydrology, soil science and atmospheric chemistry at Texas A&M International University, an undergraduate institution and Hispanic Serving Institution where over 90% of the student body are Hispanic. It serves a border area of south Texas where many of the students are first generation and non-traditional college students. Research focuses on computational modeling of hydrologic and soil mantle processes based on satellite remote sensing data and modeling studies of atmospheric chemical interactions with implications of understanding greenhouse gas interactions. This support is congruent with NSFs mission of promoting the progress of science and advancing the national health, prosperity and welfare given the importance of training the next generation scientific workforce in computational modeling techniques and the societal importance of understanding the impacts of changing climate on terrestrial hydrologic reservoirs and anthropogenic impacts on air quality.A limiting factor in agricultural production is the soil moisture maintained in the root zone of plants. Compute-intensive studies relying on remotely sensed observations of surface microwave emissions as a proxy for near surface soil moisture in the northern Great Plains will include new algorithm developments using advanced filtering techniques for extracting soil moisture estimates from multiple modality remote sensing observations and statistical investigation of time series of derived soil moisture data products in relation to known climatic oscillations including El Nino, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and the Atlantic Decadal Observations in order to better understand teleconnections between global oceanographic events and continental soil moisture. Additional research that will take advantage of parallel computing will include first principles thermodynamic modeling of interactions of greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous acid and fluorinated compounds and their decomposition products in the presence of water. Studies of the thermochemical properties of fluorocarbons in particular are if interest due to their very long residence times in the atmosphere and their absorption bands in the infrared. Modeling studies can result in improved atmosphere capture technologies and/or substitute compounds used in industrial processes.