The Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) is engaged in comprehensive long lead-time research fundamental to NOAA's mission. Scientists at GFDL develop and use mathematical models and computer simulations to improve our understanding and prediction of the behavior of the atmosphere, the oceans, and climate. GFDL scientists focus on model-building relevant for society, such as hurricane research, prediction, and seasonal forecasting, and understanding global and regional climate change.

Since 1955, GFDL has set the agenda for much of the world's research on the modeling of global climate change and has played a significant role in the World Meteorological Organization, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessments, and the U.S. Global Change Research Program. GFDL's mission is to be a world leader in the development of earth system models, and the production of timely and reliable knowledge and assessments on natural climate variability and anthropogenic changes.

GFDL research encompasses the predictability and sensitivity of global and regional climate; the structure, variability, dynamics and interaction of the atmosphere and the ocean; and the ways that the atmosphere and oceans influence, and are influenced by various trace constituents. The scientific work of the Laboratory incorporates a variety of disciplines including meteorology, oceanography, hydrology, classical physics, fluid dynamics, chemistry, applied mathematics, and numerical analysis.

Research is also facilitated by the Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Program (AOS), which is a collaborative program at GFDL with Princeton University. Under this program, Princeton faculty, research scientists, and graduate students participate in theoretical studies, both analytical and numerical, and in observational experiments in the laboratory and in the field. The program is supported in part by NOAA funding. AOS scientists may also be involved in GFDL research through institutional or international agreements.

For an overview of GFDL's work, see our Fact Sheet.

• May 18, 2012 An Integrated “End-To-End” Model For Climate-Fish Interactions - Climate impacts on marine ecosystems arise from a combination of direct influences of physical climate on organisms (e.g., temperature effects on metabolic process) and indirect effects controlled by interactions with directly affected organisms. Indirect influences may originate with primary producers (i.e., phytoplankton) and propagate upward from the bottom of the food web or with higher trophic levels (i.e., fish) and propagate downward. Elucidating and predicting the response of living marine resources to climate and fishing pressure thus requires movement toward models that resolve interactions spanning physics to fish in an integrated way. Read more
• May 14, 2012 21st Century Projections of North Atlantic Tropical Storms from CMIP5 Models - North Atlantic tropical storms (TS) are a major climate hazard to North America, and have exhibited variability and change on decadal timescales. Therefore, understanding and predicting future decadal TS activity on decadal timescales is central to NOAA's mission and highly relevant to society. Read more
• May 4, 2012 Tropical Tropospheric-Only Responses to Absorbing Aerosols - An ongoing challenge in quantifying aerosols’ impact on the climate is determining an optimal way of calculating aerosols’ radiative forcing. For absorbing aerosols, in particular, studies have shown that a forcing calculation that does not include the tropospheric response to absorbing aerosol (instantaneous forcing) is a poor proxy for the change in global mean surface temperature caused by the aerosol. Read more
• April 27, 2012 Comparing Global Atmospheric Model Simulations of Tropical Convection - An intercomparison of global atmospheric model simulations of tropical convection has been presented and evaluated with available observations collected during the TWP-ICE field experiment. Short simulations initialized from the ECMWF analysis have been used to constrain model large-scale states and thus isolate model systematic biases originating from various physical parameterizations. With realistic thermodynamic and kinematic fields captured in various weather regimes (wet, dry, and break), model precipitation, cloud properties (LWC, IWC, cloud fraction), radiation, and vertical heating profiles respond accordingly in these regimes. Despite somewhat realistically simulated precipitation, there are substantial cloud property discrepancies among the models, which are mainly influenced by cloud and convective parameterizations. Read more

Read more GFDL Research Highlights

• May 23, 2012: TBA
  Dr. Andreas Schiller ( The Bluelink Ocean Forecasting System CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research Hobart, AUS)
  Time: 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
  Location: Smagorinsky Seminar Room
• May 23, 2012: Local Oceanic Response to Atmospheric Forcing in the Gulf Stream Region (abstract)
  Xujing Jia Davis (WHOI)
  Time: 10:00 am - 11:30 am
  Location: Smagorinsky Seminar Room
• May 30, 2012: Air Pollution (primarily aerosols) and Climate Change: From CM2.1 to CM3 (abstract)
  Hiram Levy (GFDL)
  Time: 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
  Location: Smagorinsky Seminar Room
• May 31, 2012: Studies of low-lying Arctic clouds: Learning fundamentals of mixed-phase cloud physics from a persistent element of polar climate (abstract)
  Ann Fridlind (GISS)
  Time: 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
  Location: Smagorinsky Seminar Room
• June 7, 2012: Downwelling in Basins Subject to Buoyancy Loss (abstract)
  Claudia Cenedese (WHOI)
  Time: 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
  Location: Smagorinsky Seminar Room
• June 13, 2012: Nighttime oxidation of biogenic hydrocarbons (abstract)
  Steve Brown (ESRL)
  Time: 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
  Location: Smagorinsky Seminar Room
• June 14, 2012: Identifying Human Influences on Atmospheric Temperature: Are Results Robust to Current Uncertainties? (abstract)
  Ben Santer (LLNL)
  Time: 2:00 pm - 3:15 pm
  Location: Smagorinsky Seminar Room
• June 20, 2012: The Coherence and Impact of Meridional Heat Transport Anomalies in the Atlantic Ocean Inferred from Observations (abstract)
  Kathie Kelly (University of Washington, Applied Physics Laboratory)
  Time: 12:00 pm - 1:15 pm
  Location: Smagorinsky Seminar Room

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