Description

According to the World Meteorological Organization, the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, including heat and cold waves, heavy precipitation and droughts, and wildfires, have increased fivefold in the last 50 years. While current Earth observations from NASA allow monitoring of these extreme events for developing regional adaptation and mitigation strategies, it is crucial to assess how these events will unfold over the coming decades.

The typical spatial resolution of current Global Climate Models (GCMs) from various international institutions is larger than 1x1 degree latitude-longitude. For regional applications, higher spatial resolution GCM data is required. NASA Earth eXchange Global Daily Downscaled Projections (NEX-GDDP-CMIP6) provide global, high resolution, bias-corrected projections of daily minimum and maximum temperatures, precipitation, humidity, windspeed, and surface radiation from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) GCMs at 0.25x0.25 degree resolution. 

This two-part training, offered by NASA's Applied Remote Sensing Training Program (ARSET), focuses on evaluating projected statistics of extreme heat and cold wave events, and extreme precipitation excess and deficit events, from NEX-GDDP-CMIP6 at regional scale during the 21st century to assess regional risk.

Prerequisites

• Fundamentals of Remote Sensing
• Drought Monitoring, Prediction, and Projection using NASA Earth System Data. NASA Applied Remote Sensing Training Program (ARSET): Part 3
• Selecting Climate Change Projection Sets for Mitigation, Adaptation, and Risk Management Applications
• Climate Change Monitoring and Impacts Assessment using NASA Earth Observations
• Create user account on Google Earth Engine and register a Cloud Project
• Confirm that you can access the following sites:
  • NEX-GDDP-CMIP6 Dashboard
  • ARSET page on National Science Data Fabric (NSDF) site

Objectives

By the end of this training, attendees will be able to: 

• Identify available daily, high-resolution geophysical parameters from NASA Earth eXchange – Global Daily Downscaled Projections – Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (NEX-GDDP-CMIP6) to assess extreme weather statistics at a regional scale.
• Access daily temperature and precipitation data for a region of interest to calculate and analyze weather statistics using NEX-GDDP-CMIP6 data in Google Earth Engine.
• Visualize maps of extreme weather statistics for a region of interest using NEX-GDDP Dashboard.
• Customize provided Python/Jupyter notebook scripts to calculate extreme weather statistics for a region of interest.
• Assess projected statistics of extreme heat and cold wave events, and excess and deficit precipitation events from NEX-GDDP-CMIP6 at regional scale during the 21st century to evaluate risk for a region of interest.

Audience

• Primary Target Audience: Personnel from local, state, regional, and federal government and non-governmental organizations involved in managing disasters and planning for adaptation and mitigation.
• Secondary target audience: Academic faculty and students.

Course Format

• Two 120-minute parts, each including a 30-minute Q&A session.

Sessions

Part 1:  NEX-GDDP-CMIP6 Overview, Data Access and Application using Google Earth Engine

Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025

• About ARSET
• Training Overview
• Part 1 introduction
• Overview of NEX-GDDP-CMIP6 Data
• Online Access and Analysis using Google Earth Engine
• Hands-on Exercise
• Part 1 Summary
• Q&A session

ARSET Instructor

Amita Mehta

Guest Instructor

Bridget Thrasher (Climate Analytics Group)

Materials

• Part 1 Presentation Slides
• Part 1 Q&A document

Part 2: Extreme Event Statistics during 21st Century using NEX-GDDP Data

Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025

• Training Overview
• Part 2 introduction
• GDDP Data Access for a Region of Interest using Python/Jupyter Notebook Code
• Calculations of Extreme Events Statistics
• Hands-on Exercise
• Part 2 Summary & Training Summary
• Q&A session

ARSET Instructor

 Amita Mehta, Sean McCartney

Guest Instructor

 Kyo Lee (NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL))

Materials

• Part 2 presentation slides
• Part 2 Q&A transcript