The U.S. Climate Change Science Program:
Vision for the Program and
Highlights of the Scientific Strategic Plan
Report released 24 July 2003

USDA-sponsored research supports long-term studies to improve our understanding of the roles that terrestrial systems play in influencing climate change, and the potential effects of global change (including water balance, atmospheric deposition, vegetative quality, and ultraviolet-B radiation) on food, fiber, and forestry production in agricultural, forest, and range ecosystems. USDA's research program is strengthening efforts to determine the significance of terrestrial systems in the global carbon cycle, and to identify agricultural and forestry activities that can contribute to a reduction in greenhouse gas concentrations. USDA's research agencies will support the Department in responding to the President's directive to develop accounting rules and guidelines for carbon sequestration projects. Contributions from USDA's research program include the development of improved emission and sequestration coefficients, new tools for accurately measuring carbon and other greenhouse gases, and the development of improved sequestration methodologies.

The DOC's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administation (NOAA) mission is: "To understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment and conserve and manage coastal and marine resources to meet the nation's economic, social, and environmental needs. The long-term global change efforts of NOAA are designed to develop a predictive understanding of variability and change in the global climate system, and to advance the application of this information in climate-sensitive sectors through a suite of process research, observations and modeling, and application and assessment activities.

Specifically, NOAA's research program includes ongoing efforts in operational in situ and satellite observations with an emphasis on oceanic and atmospheric dynamics, circulation, and chemistry; understanding and predicting ocean-land-atmosphere interactions, the global water cycle, and the role of global transfers of carbon dioxide among the atmosphere, ocean, and terrestrial biosphere in climate change; improvements in climate modeling, prediction, and information management capabilities; the projection and assessment of variability across multiple time scales; the study of the relationship between the natural climate system and society and the development of methodologies for applying climate information to problems of social and economic consequences; and archiving, managing, and disseminating data and information useful for global change research.

DOC's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) provides measurements and standards that support accurate and reliable climate observations. NIST also performs calibrations and special tests of a wide range of instruments and measurement techniques for accurate measurements. NIST provides a wide array of data and modeling tools that provide key support to developers and users of complex climate prediction models.

The Department of Defense does not support dedicated global change research, but continues a history of participation in the CCSP through sponsored research that concurrently satisfies national security requirements and stated goals of the CCSP. All data and research results are routinely made available to the civil science community. DOD science and technology investments are coordinated and reviewed through the Defense Reliance process and published annually in the Defense Science and Technology Strategy, the Basic Research Plan, the Defense Technology Area Research Plan, and the Joint Warfighting Science and Technology Plan.

Research supported by DOE's Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) is focused on the effects of energy production and use on the global Earth system, primarily through studies of climate response. Research includes climate modeling, aerosol and cloud properties and processes affecting the Earth's radiation balance, and sources and sinks of energy-related greenhouse gases (primarily carbon dioxide). It also includes research on the consequences of climatic and atmospheric changes for ecological systems and resources, the development of improved methods and models for conducting integrated economic and environmental assessments of climate change and of options for mitigating climate change, and education and training of scientists for climate change research.

Four National Institutes of Health (NIH) institutes support research on the health effects of ultraviolet (UV) and near-UV radiation. Their principal objectives include an increased understanding of the effects of UV and near-UV radiation exposure on target organs (e.g., eyes, skin, immune system) and of the molecular changes that lead to these effects, and the development of strategies to prevent the initiation or promotion of disease before it is clinically defined. In addition, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) supports research on the health effects of chlorofluorocarbon replacement chemicals, including studies on the metabolism and toxicity of hydrofluorocarbons and halogenated hydrocarbons.

HHS (NIH and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) also conducts research related to other impacts of global change on human health, including renewed concern about infectious diseases whose incidence could be affected by environmental change. In addition, NIH sponsors a program to assess the impact of population change on the physical environment and to account for effects of the physical environment on population change.

Research at DOI's U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) contributes directly to the CCSP's intellectual framework of a whole-system understanding of global change (i.e., the interrelationships among climate, ecological systems, and human behavior).The USGS examines terrestrial and marine processes and the natural history of global change, including the interactions between climate and the hydrologic system. Studies seek to understand the character of past and present environments and the geological, biological, hydrological, and geochemical processes involved in environmental change. The USGS supports a broad area of global change research, with a focus on understanding the sensitivity of natural systems and impacts of climate change and variability, surficial processes, and other global change phenomena on the nation's lands and environments at the regional scale. Specific goals of the program are: to improve the utility of global change research results to land management agencies; to emphasize monitoring the landscape and developing technical approaches to identifying and analyzing changes that will take advantage of a burgeoning archive of remotely sensed and in situ data; and to emphasize the response of biogeographic regions and features, particularly montane, coastal, and inland wetland ecosystems.

Through DOS annual funding, the United States is the world's leading financial contributor to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a major organization for the assessment of scientific, technical, and socioeconomic information relevant to the understanding of climate change, its potential impacts, and options for adaptation and mitigation. Recent DOS contributions to the IPCC provide substantial support for the Global Climate Observing System, among other activities.

DOT utilizes existing science to improve decisionmaking tools in three primary areas: (1) impact of climate variability and change on transportation (research to examine the effects that climate change and variability may have on transportation infrastructure and services, and to identify potential adaptation strategies for use by transportation decisionmakers, operators, state and local planners, and infrastructure builders); (2) increasing energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gases (research on reducing energy use will cover mitigation of transportation's environmental impacts both through conservation and through the application of new technology); and (3) modeling (research to develop and improve analytical tools for transportation energy use to support decisionmaking throughout government and in the private sector).

USAID provides decisionmakers with the information to effectively respond to drought and food insecurity through the Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET). FEWS NET analyzes remote-sensing data and ground-based meteorological, crop, and rangeland observations to track progress of rainy seasons in semi-arid regions of Africa in order to identify early indications of potential famine.

NSF programs address global change issues through investments in challenging ideas, creative people, and effective tools. In particular, NSF global change research programs support research and related activities to advance the fundamental understanding of physical, chemical, biological, and human systems and the interactions among them. The programs encourage interdisciplinary activities and focus particularly on Earth system processes and the consequences of change. NSF programs facilitate data acquisition and information management activities necessary for fundamental research on global change, and promote the enhancement of models designed to improve understanding of Earth system processes and interactions and to develop advanced analytic methods to facilitate basic research. NSF also supports fundamental research on the general processes used by organizations to identify and evaluate policies for mitigation, adaptation, and other responses to the challenge of varying environmental conditions.

Within the Smithsonian Institution, global change research is conducted at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, the National Air and Space Museum, the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, the National Museum of Natural History, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, and the National Zoological Park. Research is organized around themes of atmospheric processes, ecosystem dynamics, observing natural and anthropogenic environmental change on daily to decadal time scales, and defining longer term climate proxies present in the historical artifacts and records of the museums as well as in the geologic record at field sites.

The Smithsonian Institution program strives to improve knowledge of the natural processes involved in global climate change, provide a long-term repository of climate-relevant research materials for present and future studies, and to bring this knowledge to various audiences, ranging from scholarly to the lay public. The unique contribution of the Smithsonian Institution is a long-term perspective -- for example, undertaking investigations that may require extended study before producing useful results and conducting observations on sufficiently long (e.g., decadal) time scales to resolve human-caused modification of natural variability.