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Climate Variability and ChangeOverview Archived News Postings [June 2000 - July 2005] CCSP / USGCRP Climate Variability and Change Working Group Members
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To address fundamental CCSP goals, the climate variability and change (CVC) element emphasizes research to improve descriptions and understanding of past and current climate, as well as to advance national modeling capabilities to simulate climate and project how climate and related Earth systems may change in the future. Research under this element encompasses time scales ranging from short-term climate variations of a season or less to longer term climate changes occurring over decades to centuries. The CVC element places a high priority on improving understanding and predictions of phenomena that may cause high impacts on society, the economy, and the environment. Examples include identifying the relationships between variations and changes in climate and hurricane activity; improving understanding and predictions of droughts; increasing understanding of and capabilities to predict the El Niño-Southern Oscillation and its attendant impacts; identifying processes that may produce rapid or accelerated climate change; and improving capabilities to observe, understand, and model Earth system components that have high societal and environmental relevance, including sea ice, glaciers, ice sheets, and sea level. Addressing these fundamental issues requires an integrated approach toward understanding the interactions and feedbacks among the different components of the Earth system, including the atmosphere, ocean, land, cryosphere, and biosphere. CVC research is placing increasing emphasis on understanding and modeling the links and feedbacks among climate system components. Considerable advances have been made in this area through the development and application of Earth system models, including several that were used extensively in the recently completed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report (see introductory chapter of this report). CVC research is also emphasizing the development of new capabilities to link Earth system models together with Earth system observations to produce internally consistent maps of atmospheric, oceanic, land surface, and ice conditions that are called “Earth system analyses.” These analyses will help us to understand and explain past and current climate conditions, and provide decisionmakers with new tools to track how the Earth system is evolving in time over the entire planet. Research within the CVC element focuses on two broad, critically important questions to society defined in the CCSP Strategic Plan:
More specifically, CVC research addresses the five strategic research questions listed at the beginning of this chapter to achieve the milestones, products, and payoffs described in the CCSP Strategic Plan. Cooperative efforts involving CCSP agencies have led to significant progress in addressing the strategic questions articulated in the CVC chapter of the CCSP Strategic Plan. The following section highlights some of the major scientific advances achieved during this past fiscal year.
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