I have been a Federal Civil Servant since 2009, when I joined the Space Sciences Division of the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). While at NRL, I was the co-leader of an ONR-funded project that produced the first coupling between the WACCM-X and the SAMI3 using ESMF. Prior to NRL, I was a Project Scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), where I was the sole developer of the first version of the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM1b); I worked with UARS satellite data investigating the synoptic structure of water vapor in the upper troposphere, tracer distribution in the middle atmosphere, and tidal variability, I was one of the founding members of the SPARC/DynVar initiative (http://www.sparcdynvar.org). I am a past member of the Middle Atmosphere Committee of the American Meteorological Society, and a member of the International Committee of the Middle Atmosphere (a committee of the International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences – IAMAS). In January 2023, I came to the Ionosphere, Thermosphere and Mesosphere Physics Laboratory of the Heliophysics Science Division of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, where my research has focused on the coupling between atmospheric regions, from the ground to the exosphere.
Fabrizio Sassi
(Associate Chief)
| Email: | fabrizio.sassi@nasa.gov |
| Org Code: | 675 |
| Address: |
NASA/GSFC Mail Code 675 Greenbelt, MD 20771 |
| Employer: |
Brief Bio
Current Projects
A link between weather regimes: Large-scale teleconnections in the Earth’s atmosphere and ionosphere
Earth's Thermosphere
LWS funded project: Understand whole atmosphere interactions mediated by dynamical variability
A unified approach to retrieval of mesosphere and lower thermosphere winds for assimilation in GEOS-5
Earth's Thermosphere
IRAD: This project will facilitate development of technology that delivers MLT wind measurements to high-altitude GEOS, yielding a unique and powerful capability at GSFC to target strategic focus areas of Heliophysics.
Atmospheric Gravity Wave Spectrum from High-Resolution GEOSx
Atmospheric Dynamics
STG: Mesoscale gravity waves spectra provide representation of dynamics in MLT in coarser resolution models
A High-altitude atmospheric model to bridge Earth System Modeling and Heliophysics Data: A Ground to Lower Thermosphere Climate Record
Earth's Thermosphere
ISFM: This project brings together Heliophysics and Earth Sciences groups at GSFC to advance scientific discoveries and forestall future challenges on short (space weather), medium (season-to-season, or S2S), and long (climate) time scales.
Positions/Employment
Associate Laboratory Chief for ITM
NASA - GSFC
November 2023 - Present
Research AST, atmospheres and ionospheres
NASA - Greenbelt MD
2023 - Present
Research Physicist
Naval Research laboratory - Washington DC
2009 - 2023
I was hired as a civil servant at the Naval Research Laboratory in April 2009. During my tenure at NRL, I led or participated in cross-disciplines projects that revealed the interactions between atmospheric and ionospheric physics. I conducted independent research that has illustrated the role of atmospheric weather in the structure and variability of the upper atmosphere.
Project Scientist
National Center for Atmospheric Research - Boulder CO
1999 - 2008
During the appointment in the Climate and Global Dynamics Division, I developed the first version of the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM), a whole atmosphere model with a lid at about 150 km. WACCM was the first truly whole atmosphere model in the US that included interactive chemistry and physical processes from the ground to the lower thermosphere.
Scientist
Atmospheric Systems and Analysis - Broomfield CO
1995 - 2000
During the appointment at ASAC, I applied numerical and mathematical tools to the analysis of NASA Upper Atmospheric Research Satellite (UARS) data. By converting the asynoptic fields to synoptic structure, I investigated tidal wave amplitudes, the structure of convection in the upper atmosphere, and nature of dynamics in the mesosphere.
Associate Scientist
NationalCenter for Atmospheric Reserch - Boulder CO
1994 - 1995
During this appointment, I continued the research commenced during my post-Doctoral appointment, by developing a mechanistic model of wave propagation in the middle atmosphere generated by tropical convective systems.
Post-Doctoral Fellow
National Center for Atmospheric Research - Boulder CO
1992 - 1994
During my post-Doctoral appointment, I started a collaboration with CU scientists to determine the spectrum of waves necessary to drive the Semiannual Oscillation of winds at the stratopause. This has led to a simple one-dimensional model that illustrated how different components of the gravity wave spectrum affect the tropical wave dynamics.
Education
· BS, Physics, 1987, Univ. of L’Aquila (Italy)
· Ph.D. in Physics, 1992, Univ. of Bologna (Italy)
Selected Publications
Refereed
2024. "Medium-Scale Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances Created by Primary Gravity Waves Generated by a Winter Storm." Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate [10.1051/swsc/2024036] [Journal Article/Letter]
2024. "Modeling the Post‐Midnight Equatorial Plasma Bubbles With SAMI3/SD‐WACCM‐X: Large‐Scale Wave Structure." Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics 129 (11): [10.1029/2024ja033023] [Journal Article/Letter]
2024. "Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere Temperatures Simulated by WACCM‐X With NAVGEM‐HA Meteorological Analyses and Compared to SABER Observations." Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics 129 (4): [10.1029/2024ja032536] [Journal Article/Letter]
2023. "Modeling the Day‐to‐Day Variability of Midnight Equatorial Plasma Bubbles with SAMI3/SD‐WACCM‐X." Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics [10.1029/2023ja031585] [Journal Article/Letter]
2022. "Impacts of acoustic and gravity waves on the ionosphere." Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences 9 [10.3389/fspas.2022.1064152] [Journal Article/Letter]
2022. "Improving ionospheric predictability requires accurate simulation of the mesospheric polar vortex." Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences 9 [10.3389/fspas.2022.1041426] [Journal Article/Letter]
2021. "Intercomparison of middle atmospheric meteorological analyses for the Northern Hemisphere winter 2009–2010." Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 21 (23): 17577-17605 [10.5194/acp-21-17577-2021] [Journal Article/Letter]
2011. "Mesospheric Precursors to the Major Stratospheric Sudden Warming of 2009: Validation and Dynamical Attribution Using a Ground-to-Edge-of-Space Data Assimilation System." Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems 3 (4): [10.1029/2011ms000067] [Journal Article/Letter]
2010. "Chemistry–Climate Model Simulations of Twenty-First Century Stratospheric Climate and Circulation Changes." J. Climate 23 (20): 5349-5374 [10.1175/2010JCLI3404.1] [Journal Article/Letter]
2007. "A New Look at Stratospheric Sudden Warmings. Part II: Evaluation of Numerical Model Simulations." J. Climate 20 (3): 470-488 [10.1175/JCLI3994.1] [Journal Article/Letter]
2006. "Simulations of anthropogenic change in the strength of the Brewer–Dobson circulation." Clim Dyn 27 (7-8): 727-741 [10.1007/s00382-006-0162-4] [Journal Article/Letter]
2003. "Tropical Cumulus Convection and Upward-Propagating Waves in Middle-Atmospheric GCMs." J. Atmos. Sci. 60 (22): 2765-2782 [10.1175/1520-0469(2003)060<2765:TCCAUW>2.0.CO;2] [Journal Article/Letter]