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Climate Change Research Program The
Climate Change Research Initiative |
Updated
11 October, 2003
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The Climate Change Research Initiative |
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See also: Climate Change Science & Technology Management Structure (Organizational Chart)
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The Climate Change Research Initiative (CCRI) represents a focusing of resources and attention on those elements of the USGCRP that can best support improved public debate and decision-making in the near term. In particular, a goal of the CCRI is to improve the integration of scientific knowledge, including measures of uncertainty, into effective decision-support systems. The CCRI will adopt performance metrics and deliverable products useful to policymakers in a short time frame (2-5 years). To meet this goal, the CCRI aims to: (i) reduce the most important uncertainties in climate science and advance climate modeling capabilities; (ii) enhance observation and monitoring systems to support scientific and trend analyses; and (iii) improve decision-support resources. Specific CCRI plans and budget requests for FY 2003 are: 1. Develop more reliable representations of the global and regional climatic forcing resulting from atmospheric aerosols ($4 million).Aerosols and tropospheric ozone play unique, but poorly quantified, roles in the atmospheric radiation budget. FY 2003 CCRI investments (NOAA: $2M, NASA: $1M, and NSF: $1M) will be used to begin implementation of plans developed by the interagency National Aerosol-Climate Interactions Program to define and evaluate the role of aerosols that absorb solar radiation such as black carbon and mineral dust. Proposed activities are field campaigns (including aircraft flyovers), in situ monitoring stations, and improved modeling and satellite data algorithm development. 2. Inventory carbon and model sources and sinks ($15 million).Research objectives for carbon cycle science include modeling, inventory, observations, process research, and assessment, integrated according to topic areas that represent some of the field's greatest areas of uncertainty. FY 2003 CCRI funds (NSF: $9M, NOAA: $2M, DOE: $3M, and USDA: $1M) will be targeted for the Integrated North American Carbon Program (NACP), a priority of the U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Plan. This program will have an intensive focus on North American land and adjacent ocean basin carbon sources and sinks to improve monitoring techniques, reconcile approaches for quantifying carbon storage, and elucidate key controlling processes and 14 land management practices regulating carbon fluxes between the atmosphere and the land and ocean. The NACP calls for expansion of the AmeriFlux sites, the development of automated carbon dioxide and methane sensors, improvements in ground-based measurements and inventories of forest and agricultural lands, and empirical and process modeling. 3. Climate Modeling Center ($5 million).The continued development and refinement of computational models that can simulate the past and potential future conditions of the Earth system is crucial for developing capabilities to provide more accurate projections of future global change. In FY 2003, NOAA will establish a Climate Modeling Center within the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) at Princeton, New Jersey, which will focus on model product generation for research, assessment, and policy applications as its principal activity. GFDL has played a central role in climate research, pioneering much of the work in climate change, stratospheric chemistry modeling, seasonal weather forecasting, ocean modeling and data assimilation, and hurricane modeling. This core research capability will be enhanced to enable product generation and policy-related research by providing routine and on-demand model products for assessment and policy decision support. 4.Tools for Risk Management under Uncertainty ($6 million).It is uncertain how potential climate change could affect natural resources and the economy at local and regional geographic scales. Given these uncertainties, it is necessary to develop tools and approaches to manage risks associated with climate change at the regional level. This FY 2003 component of CCRI will direct additional resources to the NOAA Regional Integrated Science and Assessment (RISA) program ($1M) and NSF-supported research on decision and risk management ($5M).This innovative interagency approach links RISA's place-based research and applications activities with NSF's more methodological research in how to manage risks associated with climate change under uncertainty. 5.Atmospheric Observations ($4 million).These FY 2003 CCRI funds will be used by NOAA to work with other developed countries to reestablish the benchmark upper-air network, emphasizing data-sparse areas, and place new Global Atmosphere Watch stations in priority sites to measure pollutant emissions, aerosols, and ozone, in specific regions. 6. Ocean Observations ($4 million).In FY 2003, NOAA will use these CCRI funds to work toward the establishment of an ocean observing system that can accurately document climate-scale changes in ocean heat content, carbon uptake, and sea- level changes. The requirements for ocean observations for climate have been well documented, the relevant technology is available, and the international community is mobilized through the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) and the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) to implement key elements of the system. 7. Satellite Observations ($2 million).In FY 2003, NASA will begin a significant long-term effort working with NOAA and the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) Integrated Program Office (IPO) toward the development of high-fidelity climate data records from satellite observing systems. Initial efforts will target calibration and validation of instruments planned for the NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) satellite and the transition to NPOESS capabilities.
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On June 11, 2001, the President announced that his administration
would "establish the U.S. Climate Change Research Initiative to study
areas of uncertainty [about global climate change science] and identify
priority areas where investments can make a difference." The Secretary
of Commerce, working with other agencies, was directed to "set priorities
for additional investments in climate change research, review such investments,
and to improve coordination amongst Federal agencies."
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