Overview
Research at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) 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 and annual effects such as El Niño, and on up to the millennia of ice ages — and that affect the habitability of our planet.
GISS is located at Columbia University in New York City. The institute is a laboratory in the Earth Sciences Division of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and a unit of the Columbia University Earth Institute.
Announcements
9/12: C.U. Postdoc Opportunities in Aerosols, Clouds and Interactions
Featured Story
Research Links Extreme Heat Events to Global Warming
A new statistical analysis by NASA scientists has found that Earth's land areas have become much more likely to experience an extreme summer heat wave than they were in the middle of the 20th century. (2012-08-06)
More Research News & Features
Mars24 Sunclock v. 7 Released
Just in time for the landing of MSL Curiosity, a new major version of the cross-platform Mars24 sunclock desktop application has been released.
(2012-08-03)
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The Titanian Seasons Turn, Turn, Turn
Images of high-altitude haze concentration and a vortex materializing at the south pole show that the seasons are turning on Saturn's moon Titan.
(2012-07-10)
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Cassini Shows Why Jet Streams Cross-Cut Saturn
Scientists studying images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft have found that heat from within the planet powers the jet streams.
(2012-06-25)
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The Great Ice Meltdown and Rising Seas
What lessons can we learn from the past history of glacial ice melt and sea-level rise about what will happen in the next century as the climate warms?
(2012-06-11)
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GISS Best Publication of 2011
GISS scientists have voted "Earth's Energy Imbalance and Implications" by Hansen et al. as the top work by institute staff published in 2011.
(2011-05-28)
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Plants Blooming, Leafing Earlier
Decades of data show plants are leafing and flowering sooner each year than predicted by controlled experiments designed to predict plant responses to rising temperatures.
(2012-05-02)
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Will a Warmer World Be Stormier?
No single extreme event is evidence of climate change. But what is the likelihood of more events such as stronger thunderstorms and hurricanes as surface temperatures rise?
(2012-04-24)
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Recent Publications
Dou, T., C. Xiao, , J. Liu, J. Ming, and D. Qin, 2012: The distribution of snow black carbon observed in the Arctic and compared to the GISS-PUCCINI model. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 12, 7995-8007, doi:10.5194/acp-12-7995-2012.
Self, S., and , 2012: The 1963-1964 eruption of Agung volcano (Bali, Indonesia). Bull. Vulcanol., 74, 1521-1536, doi:10.1007/s00445-012-0615-z.
Hoffman, J.S., A.E. Carlson, K. Winsor, G.P. Klinkhammer, , J.T. Andrews, and J.C. Strasser, 2012: Linking the 8.2 ka event and its freshwater forcing in the Labrador Sea. Geophys. Res. Lett., 39, L18703, doi:10.1029/2012GL053047.
, J.-Y. Grandpeix, F. Hourdin, F. Guichard, F. Couvreux, J.-P. Lafore, , , S. Bony, N. Rochetin, R. Roehrig, A. Idelkadi, M.-P. Lefebvre, and I. Musat, 2012: Control of deep convection by sub-cloud lifting processes: The ALP closure in the LMDZ5B general circulation model. Clim. Dynam., doi:10.1007/s00382-012-1506-x.
, , and , 2012: Characteristics of mesoscale organization in WRF simulations of convection during TWP-ICE. J. Climate, 25, 5666-5688, doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-11-00422.1.
Booth, J.F., S. Wang, and L. Polvani, 2012: Midlatitude storms in a moister world: Lessons from idealized baroclinic life cycle experiments. Clim. Dynam., doi:10.1007/s00382-012-1472-3.
