IMAGe research: New Algorithms, Tools, and Geophysical Models

	IMAGe staff and other collaborators from NCAR at IMAGe's August 2006 retreat. The direction for some of the IMAGe science programs were discussed at this retreat, and many of these ideas were incorporated into plans for 2007 research.

The power of mathematical science is that similar methods and models can be used to solve problems in very different contexts. The Institute of Mathematics Applied to Geosciences (IMAGe) was formed in October 2004 as part of the overall reorganization of NCAR to bring tools and models to advance some of NCAR's fundemental science problems. IMAGe also serves to introduce the mathematics community to new problems that are posed by geophysical processes and observations. Given these goals, IMAGe embodies the NCAR strategic priority of "Conducting research in computer science, applied mathematics, statistics, and numerical methods" and "Engaging a broader and more diverse community."

Some accomplishments during FY 2006 have included multi-scale models for the complex structures produced by charged flows in a magnetic field, statistical models for the analysis of spatial data and the development of methods to fuse models and data that can handle errors in the model. Each of these projects is also complemented by publically available software that makes these advances accessible to the research community. Another significant activity was a successful series of four workshops on multiscale models, known as the Theme-of-the-Year (TOY), that brought together students, faculty, and physical and mathemtical scientists.

Some plans for FY 2007 include more extensions of adaptive alogrithms for the simulation of magetohydrodynamical flow, the development of spatial statistics for more than one variable at a location, and data assimiliation methods for tracing sources and sinks of atmospheric trace constituents. The 2007 IMAGe TOY will be on Statistics for Computer Models. It is in partnership with the NSF Mathematics Institute in North Carolina and will involve several numerical modeling groups at NCAR with statisticians interested in the design and analysis of computer experiments.

IMAGe projects and programs are supported primarily by NSF Core funding, with other support as indicated by the individual reports in this document.