US Climate Change Science Program

Updated 11 October, 2003

Strategic Plan for the
Climate Change
Science Program

Review draft, November 2002

 

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Modeling Priorities and Linkages in CCSP Program Elements

Atmospheric Composition (Chapter 5)

  • Carry out chemical transport modeling activities, with emphasis on cross-tropopause processes, the role of particles in accelerating ozone-loss chemistry, and stratospheric transport.
  • Use models to describe the interactions of various types of aerosols and to estimate the net sign, magnitude, and uncertainty in the cooling -- warming role of aerosols.
  • Build and evaluate diagnostic/prognostic models of the coupled climate, chemistry/transport, and ecological systems (in collaboration with other elements of the program).
  • Climate Variability and Change (Chapter 6)

  • Refined estimates of the role of climate feedback processes in affecting climate sensitivity and improvements in their representation in climate models.
  • Predictions of regional patterns of different modes of climate variability.
  • Improved predictions of ENSO, particularly the onset and decay phases, and assessment of potential predictability beyond ENSO, e.g., the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, the Arctic Oscillation, monsoons.
  • An improved ability to separate the contributions of natural versus human-induced climate forcing to climate variations and change, resulting in more credible answers to "what if" policy-related questions.
  • More advanced knowledge about the changes in natural variability that may result from anthropogenic forcing.
  • Improved understanding of the primary natural and forced mechanisms for abrupt climate changes.
  • Models of the full three-dimensional circulation of the global ocean.
  • Time dependent models of ice sheet changes to assess underlying mechanisms and their contributions to future sea level rise.
  • Climate monitoring and forecast capabilities for regional applications and risk reduction.
  • Water Cycle (Chapter 7)

  • New parameterizations for water vapor, clouds, and precipitation processes for use in climate models, using new cloud-resolving models created in part as a result of field process studies.
  • New models capable of simulating the feedbacks between the water cycle and the climate system (including biogeochemical cycles).
  • Models that partition precipitation among surface and subsurface pathways, route flows, and quantify physical and chemical interactions for evaluating climate and pollution impacts.
  • Integrated models of total water consumption for incorporation into decision support tools that identify water-scarce regions and efficient water use strategies.
  • Land Use and Land Cover Change (Chapter 8)

  • Urban growth models.
  • Identification of the regional components of a US land use and land cover change model.
  • National- and global-scale land use and land cover change projection models.
  • Climate models incorporating land use and land cover data.
  • National- and global-scale models with a coupled climate-land use system.
  • Carbon Cycle (Chapter 9)

  • Carbon cycle models including data assimilation customized for North America (developed under part I).
  • Models of ocean carbon cycling based on linkages between carbon and nitrogen in coastal environments, and of ocean carbon sequestration that incorporate biogeochemistry, ocean circulation, and the potential impact on ecosystems.
  • Global maps of carbon storage derived from model-based analysis of actual land cover (cooperative effort with the Land Cover element).
  • Advanced carbon models that include the long-term effects of actual land use history and are able to simulate interannual variability at ecosystem and landscape scales.
  • Improved projections of climate change forcings and quantification of dynamic feedbacks among the carbon cycle, human actions, and the climate system, with better estimates of uncertainty and errors, from prognostic carbon cycle models.
  • Ecosystems (Chapter 10)

  • Spatially explicit ecosystem models at regional to global scales, based on data from experimental manipulations focused on the effect of interactions among global change variables, to improve our capacity to observe contemporary, historical, and long-term changes in ecosystem structure and functioning.
  • Data and spatially explicit models for examining the impact of management and policy decisions on a wide range of ecosystems, to predict the efficacy and tradeoffs of management strategies at varying scales relevant to the decisions at hand.
  • Human Contributions and Responses to Environmental Change (Chapter 11)

  • Development of integrated assessment models with the ability to analyze the effects of measures directed at the reduction of urban air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
  • Development of integrated assessment models that introduce new energy and carbon sequestration technologies.
  • Model-based simulation studies of the influence of social and economic factors on vulnerability and adaptive capacity in households, organizations, and communities.
  • Analyses of the consequences of rapid climate changes in the past and the ability of hazard and resource management institutions to respond to surprising shifts in climate and to seasonal forecasts.
  • Model-based simulation studies of the influence of demographic, social, economic and climate change factors on the incidence and distribution of infectious diseases.
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