Climate Scientist at NASA GSFC · Dynamical Physics × Generative AI

“Big whorls have little whorls, which feed on their velocity.
And little whorls have lesser whorls, and so on to viscosity.”
— Lewis Fry Richardson

Abdullah Al Fahad, Ph.D.

Climate Scientist · NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Global Modeling and Assimilation Office

About

I build forecasting systems where dynamical physics meets generative AI. At NASA GSFC's Global Modeling and Assimilation Office, I co-develop the GEOS-MITgcm coupled atmosphere–ocean model and combine it with PyTorch diffusion and flow-matching models to predict weather, subseasonal-to-seasonal, and decadal climate.

I earned my Ph.D. in Climate Dynamics from George Mason University in 2020. My research spans coupled model development and adjoint data assimilation, kilometer-scale "Nature Run" simulations for satellite observing-system experiments, and generative machine learning for downscaling, bias correction, and probabilistic ensembles — turning physics into decision-ready products for extreme weather and climate risk, used by government agencies and commercial insurance and energy partners.

Skills

🌊Models & NWP

GEOS / MITgcmWRFCESMGFS & ECMWFCMIP5/6/7Ensemble & downscaling

🎯Data Assimilation & Optimization

Adjoint methodsCoupled initializationOSSEsGreen's functionsBayesian / GP optimization

🧠Machine Learning & AI

PyTorch (CUDA)DiffusionFlow matchingSuper-resolutionGraphCast / GNNsBias correction & XAI

🗺Geospatial & Data

Xarray / DaskGDAL / RasterioQGIS / ArcGISNetCDF / GRIB / ZarrSatellite & radar

⚙️Programming & HPC

PythonFortran (MPI)SQLMATLAB / RAWSLinux HPC & GPUDocker / Git

Research Pillars

🌊

Dynamical Modeling & Prediction

GEOS-MITgcm coupled model development; kilometer-scale global simulation; S2S-to-decadal prediction.
🎯

Data Assimilation & Optimization

Adjoint methods, balanced coupled initialization, Green's-function and Bayesian calibration.
🧠

Physics-ML & Generative AI

Diffusion, flow-matching, and super-resolution for downscaling, bias correction, and fast ensembles.
🌡

Climate Forcing & Attribution

Attributing circulation, monsoon, and hydroclimate change to CO₂, aerosol, and SST forcing.
🌀

Extreme Events & Climate Risk

Tropical cyclones, floods, and monsoon extremes — probabilistic hazard science.
🛰

Earth Action: Applications

Flood mapping, energy-market wind/solar fields, and insurance catastrophe outlooks.
Explore my research → Google Scholar

In the Field