NOAA Cooperative Institutes are academic and non-profit research institutions that demonstrate the highest level of performance and conduct research that supports NOAA’s Mission Goals and Strategic Plan. Because many Cooperative Institutes are collocated with NOAA research laboratories, there is a strong, long-term collaboration between scientists in the laboratories and in the university. Cooperative Institutes not collocated with a NOAA laboratory often serve diverse research communities and research programs throughout NOAA. Cooperative Institutes serve an additional important function: they help educate and train the next generation of NOAA’s and the nation’s scientific workforce. Many of the cooperative agreements between NOAA and our academic partners provide for formal NOAA sponsorship of students through fellowships.
Currently, NOAA supports 21 Cooperative Institutes in 17 states.[more]ACTIVITIES & ANNOUNCEMENTS
CIRES Researchers Contribute to Creation of Simulation Tool to Guard against Tsunamis and Floods
Scientists at NOAA's Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) and National Geophyisical Data Center have created four high-resolution digital elevation models, or DEMs, of Oregon’s coastline that simulate deadly tsunamis and floods. These models will help emergency managers develop life-saving plans for communities in those locations. [more]
NOAA Accepting Proposals for New Cooperative Institute
Cooperative Institute for Satellite Climate Studies
Proposal Submission Deadline: February 3, 2009, 5 p.m., E.T.- Federal Register Notice (PDF)
- Federal Funding Opportunity (PDF)
HOT ITEMS
CICS Developing a Regional Earth System Model to Study Chesapeake Bay Health
Researchers at the Cooperative Institute for Climate Studies (CICS) and Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC) at the University of Maryland, College Park, are developing a Chesapeake Bay Forecasting System (CBFS) to provide integrated environmental prediction, retrospective analyses, and climate change projection capabilities for the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed. A major focus of the project is to work closely with the user community to identify products that will meet user needs in the daily to decadal time periods. A recent case study of Hurricane Hanna (September 6-7, 2008) has shown good potential in the forecasting capabilities of the modeling system, providing atmospheric data that resulted in promising watershed-runoff and Bay-condition predictions. [more]
CIFAR Holds “Hands-On” Climate Change Course for K–12 Teachers
In June 2008, researchers from NOAA’s Cooperative Institute for Alaska Research (CIFAR) created and led a novel, hands-on, intensive week-long course in climate change at the NOAA Kasitsna Bay Laboratory (KBL) near Homer, Alaska. Students in this pilot program received graduate or undergraduate credit through the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). They included three teachers from small rural K–12 schools in Alaska, an Alaska resident interested in setting up a citizen environmental monitoring program, and two teachers from large high schools in Virginia and South Carolina. [more]
CICAR Climate Researcher Awarded Balzan Prize
On September 8, Dr. Wallace S. Broecker, Columbia University Newberry Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences and principal investigator with NOAA’s Cooperative Institute for Climate Applications and Research (CICAR) was named winner of the 2008 Balzan Prize for his seminal work on global climate change. A statement released by the Milan-based Balzan Prize Foundation cited Broecker’s “extraordinary contributions to the understanding of climate change through his discoveries concerning the role of the oceans and their interactions with the atmosphere, as well as the role of glacial changes and the records contained in ice cores and ocean sediments. His contributions have been significant in understanding both gradual and abrupt climate changes.” [more]
JISAO Researchers Study Impact of Soot on Arctic Snow Melt Rates
Researchers at the University of Washington (UW) Joint Institute
for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean (JISAO), in collaboration
with the UW Department of Atmospheric Sciences, and the University
of Hawaii, are currently engaged in research to determine whether
ambient levels of soot in the Arctic are significant drivers of
the region’s rising snow melt rates. Using snow samples from a broad
array of sites within the Arctic Circle, the JISAO team melts and
filters the sampled snow and then uses a spectrophotometer to measure
the amount of light absorbed by the material on the filter. Comparison
with a set of calibration standards determines the amount of soot
per volume of snow and enables researchers determine how much of
the light absorption was by soot versus other components, such as
desert dust. [more]
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