The NGEE Arctic Team Defends the Phase 4 Proposal

The NGEE Arctic Phase 4 Leadership team, including many of its Rising Leaders, traveled to Bethesda, Maryland in late February 2024 to present and defend the Phase 4 proposal on behalf of the entire NGEE Arctic team in front of an international panel of arctic experts. Over 1.5 days, the NGEE Arctic team presented 9 talks and 12 posters and responded to 11 homework questions assigned by the review panel. Oral presentations on the morning of Day 1 focused on two primary themes: (1) NGEE Arctic Foundations. This theme included talks on the history and accomplishments of the NGEE Arctic project since its inception in 2012, development of our project culture as summarized in the NGEE Arctic PIER plan, Phase 3 accomplishments, and Phase 3 closeout and community activities. (2) NGEE Arctic Phase 4 Vision. This theme included talks on our Model Evaluation Site selection process, Mod-Ex Science Questions (MEQs) motivating proposed science in Phase 4, Crosscutting Science Activities providing the tools and data needed to support MEQs, and a vision for what a successful Phase 4 would look like. The afternoon poster session largely focused on Phase 3 accomplishments, project management, and our PIER plan. Following the poster session, the international panel of arctic experts engaged the NGEE Arctic team with several wide-ranging questions encompassing Model Evaluation Site selection process, engagement with Alaska Native communities, integration of NGEE Arctic observations and model improvements with the Energy Exascale Earth System Model project, hypotheses driving our main science questions, and the remote sensing products the team planned to leverage in their Phase 4 science. Many of these discussions were targeted for additional ‘homework’ for the NGEE Arctic team, who enjoyed an evening of discussions that led to a presentation on responses to homework questions on the morning of Day 2. For many members of the NGEE Arctic team, including all our Rising Leaders, this was the first time they were able to experience an ‘in-person’ proposal defense, which was a privilege that allowed for excellent conversations with experts from across the Arctic. A decision on the Phase 4 proposal and defense is pending from our project sponsors in the Environmental System Science program within the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research program.B