The NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies is located in the Morningside Heights-Columbia University neighborhood of New York City, at the corner of West 112th St. and Broadway. Our building, officially Columbia University's Armstrong Hall, is shown at right above.

If you watched the TV program Seinfeld, you may recognize our corner from the exterior shots of the diner where Jerry and friends hang out. The restaurant is Tom's Restaurant, and GISS occupies five of the building's seven floors. Four blocks up Broadway is the main entrance to the Columbia University campus, while a block east on 112th St. is the West Front of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine.

GISS is a component laboratory of Goddard Space Flight Center's Earth Sciences Division, which is part of GSFC's Sciences and Exploration Directorate. The institute was originally established in May 1961 by Dr. Robert Jastrow to do basic research in space sciences in support of Goddard programs. Much of the institute's early work involved study of planetary atmospheres using data collected by telescopes and space probes, and in time that led to GISS becoming a leading center of atmospheric modeling and of climate change.

Current research, under the direction of Dr. James Hansen, emphasizes a broad study of Global Change, which is an interdisciplinary initiative addressing natural and man-made changes in our environment that occur on various time scales (from one-time forcings such as volcanic explosions, to seasonal/annual effects such as El Niño, and on up to the millennia of ice ages) and affect the habitability of our planet. Program areas at GISS may be roughly divided into the categories of climate forcings, climate impacts, model development, Earth observations, planetary atmospheres, paleoclimate, radiation, atmospheric chemistry, and astrophysics and other disciplines. However, due to the interconnections between these topics, most GISS personnel are engaged in research in several of these areas.

A key objective of GISS research is prediction of atmospheric and climate changes in the 21st century. The research combines analysis of comprehensive global datasets, derived mainly from spacecraft observations, with global models of atmospheric, land surface, and oceanic processes. Study of past climate change on Earth and of other planetary atmospheres serves as a useful tool in assessing our general understanding of the atmosphere and its evolution.

The perspective provided by space observations is crucial for monitoring global change and for providing data needed to develop an understanding of the Earth system. As the principal NASA center for Earth observations, Goddard Space Flight Center plays a leading role in global change research. Global change studies at GISS are coordinated with research at other groups within the Earth Sciences Division, including the Laboratory for Atmospheres, Laboratory for Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences, and Earth Observing System science office.

GISS works cooperatively with area universities and research organizations, most especially with Columbia University. Close to half of our personnel are members of Columbia's Center for Climate Systems Research (CCSR) and we also work with researchers at Columbia's Earth Institute and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

Systems and programming support for GISS is provided by Sigma Space Partners, a joint venture of Sigma Space Corp. and SGT, Inc.