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

该奖项支持收购计算硬件，以促进研究和研究培训流域建模，生态水文学，土壤科学和大气化学在得克萨斯州A M国际大学，本科院校和西班牙裔服务机构，其中超过90%的学生是西班牙裔。 它服务于德克萨斯州南部的一个边境地区，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建模，以及对理解温室气体相互作用的影响的大气化学相互作用的建模研究。 这种支持与国家科学基金会促进科学进步和促进国民健康的使命是一致的，考虑到在计算建模技术方面培训下一代科学劳动力的重要性以及了解气候变化对陆地水文水库的影响和人类活动对空气质量的影响的社会重要性，农业生产的一个限制因素是保持土壤水分在植物的根部 依靠地面微波发射遥感观测作为北方大平原近地表土壤湿度的代理的计算密集型研究将包括新的算法开发，使用先进的过滤技术从多模态遥感观测中提取土壤湿度估计值，并对与包括厄尔尼诺在内的已知气候振荡有关的派生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和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相互作用的第一原理热力学建模，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。 由于氟碳化合物在大气中的停留时间很长，而且其吸收带在红外线上，因此对氟碳化合物的热化学性质的研究尤其令人感兴趣。 建模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.