access_AocNov2021 - ACCESS-NRI/accessdev-Trac-archive GitHub Wiki

ACCESS Oversight Committee - Notes from the 25th November 2021

Natalia Bateman Vargas, ACCESS-NRI Outreach and Engagement Manager was introduced to the committee. Natalia has a background in biology and science comms (including at Questacon, CSIRO plant industry and an ARC Centre of Excellence). Natalia has started a glossary of ACCESS terms and is keen to get in touch with AOC members. She will be seeking input for a Comms plan and any comms contacts in each organisation.

Work continues on the collaboration agreement with a Partners meeting held 25/11/21. Cash and in-kind contributions are being finalised. An activity plan has been drafted for the Head Agreement based on input from the ACCESS Discussion Day.
A Business manager has been appointed and will start shortly.
The administrative assistant interviews have been held with a likely start early next year.
The Director position closes at the end of November with interviews in mid-December. The Associate director positions will be advertised shortly with assessment early next year.
Team leader and software engineer position descriptions are being developed ready for advertising in January. There will be around 20 roles, for 2 years with the possibility to extend contingent on funding.

Helen Cleugh, in her role as vice-chair of WCRP Joint Scientific Committee, provided an update on WCRP activities including implementation of their strategic plan and the launch of two new core projects, Earth System Modelling and Observations (ESMO) [includes CMIP] and Regional Information for Society (RIFS) [includes CORDEX]. WCRP role is coordination and facilitation and is consequently calling for hosts for ESMO and RIFS project offices. Helen was wanting to make sure Australia (and NZ) were aware of the call and to discuss any interest in either project office. Benefits would be a strong Southern Hemisphere presence and Australia has a strong track record in both domains. There is potential alignment with ACCESS-NRI for ESMO or with ACS for RIFS.
Committee discussion noted that an institutional rather than consortium bid was required and resource needed would be ~$500K per year given 3 staff. Suggestion that new space agency could be approached if an Earth observation aspect was included.

NCRIS survey result distributed. Level of demand for NCI was No 1. NCRIS Roadmap exposure draft due very soon for feedback.

Work on 0.25 degree ocean with ACCESS-CM2 continues in collaboration with COSIMA
ACCESS-ESM1.5 being used for test simulations of zero emissions from a given warming
Have been testing the impact of how the solar cycle is implemented for the Gregorian calendar and how this is done in other CMIP6 models (a minor but discernible sensitivity)
Discussions held around ACCESS modelling for NESP
Documenting data assimilation methodology used in decadal work for community use

BoM new Cray supercomputer – general BoM access next year. Porting latest operational suites PS45, GC4/GA8 for coupled NWP. NCI will remain as the main research machine for BoM and BoM is recruiting IT staff to help with support including on NCI.
Next November – joint WGNE, ECMWF workshop on systematic errors. O. Alves paper on errors in coupled NWP
Training materials for LFRic being developed for both developer level and user level. Internal testing at BoM, February. Extend to other researchers interested in LFric in March.

C. Jakob showed animation (hourly) from Australia 400 m run and 1 minute vorticity from 10m winds focussed on eye of cyclone. Paper to be prepared. Need to make more use of the simulation. Noted importance of good-quality ancillary files. O. Alves noted development of an urban model for Sydney with 300 m resolution and the potential for a regional modelling workshop. The data for Aus400 is published here: https://dx.doi.org/10.25914/5f1e4e3e3de2e. The direct access on NCI systems is included in the “Register for access” link on that landing page, as well as data for external downloads.
R. Schofield noted the recent Aus/NZ aerosol symposium and queried the role of smoke forecasting etc in the ACCESS-NRI. Suggested an opportunity to streamline – chemical weather forecasting at regional scale including input to predicting health impacts. R. Matear noted earth system applications e.g. input of ash to ocean and impact on carbon cycle. May 2022 – IGAC meeting (Manchester) with potential to host 2024 quadrennial ozone assembly for first time in SH.

New software engineer starting March. Looking at CICE with MOM6 rather than SIS2 including meeting planned with NCAR. Discussion needed on couplers/sea-ice.

RP2021 work underway. RP2022 being prepared for March next year. Co-design and outreach workshop around 5 themes including ‘Monitoring and modelling’ (where most ACCESS work sits). Workshop held with DAWE noting climate adaption as a strategic direction. Also ACCESS: overshoot, model improvements, continued CMIP.

O. Alves attended recent GC program board meeting. Reviewing progress on GC5. Release delayed to ~March. GA9 last official configuration before LFric. Reviewed first coupled version of GC5.LFric prototype – plan for 2 years, availability mid 2023. Reviewed Indo-Pacific PEG with need for new leads for PEG – ideally one or two from Australia.
R. Coleman spoke at UM Partner Board on ACCESS-NRI. Well received.

ACCESS-NRI invited to attend a DAWE coordinated meeting of the National Partnership for Climate Projections
No December meeting. Need for transition of AOC to NRI advisory group in 2022.
Thanks to Richard Coleman for his work as interim director.