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
10/4: C.U. Postdoc Opportunity in Modeling Tools Development
10/1: NASA/ORAU Postdoc Applications Due Nov. 1
9/12: C.U. Postdoc Opportunities in Aerosols, Clouds and Interactions
Featured Story
Fresh Air for the Future
A study of tropospheric ozone and black carbon, pollutants from human activities which disrupt Earth's climate, shows that emission control measures could prevent millions of premature deaths by the year 2030. (2012-10-10)
More Research News & Features
Research Links Extreme Heat Events to Global Warming
A new statistical analysis 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)
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Science Brief
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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Recent Publications
The added value to global model projections of climate change by dynamical downscaling: A case study over the continental US using the GISS-ModelE2 and WRF models. J. Geophys. Res., 117, D20118, doi:10.1029/2012JD018091.
, , and , 2012:Kanakidou, M., R.A. Duce, J.M. Prospero, A.R. Baker, C. Benitez-Nelson, F.J. Dentener, K.A. Hunter, PS. Liss, N. Mahowald, G.S. Okin, M. Sarin, Atmospheric fluxes of organic N and P to the global ocean. Global Biogeochem. Cycles, 26, GB3026, doi:10.1029/2011GB004277.
, M. Uematsu, L.M. Zamora, and T. Zhu, 2012:Menking, K.M., Late-glacial and Holocene vegetation and climate variability, including major droughts, in the Sky Lakes region of southeastern New York State. Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol., 353-355, 45-59, doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2012.06.033.
, and R.Y. Anderson, 2012:Fiore, A.M., V. Naik, D.V. Spracklen, A. Steiner, N. Unger, M. Prather, D. Bergmann, P.J. Cameron-Smith, I. Cionni, W.J. Collins, S. Dalsoren, V. Eyring, G.A. Folberth, P. Ginoux, L.W. Horowitz, B. Josse, J.F. Lamarque, I.A. MacKenzie, T. Nagashima, F.M. O'Connor, M. Righi, S.T. Rumbold, Global air quality and climate. Chem. Soc. Rev., 41, 6663-6683, doi:10.1039/c2cs35095e.
, R.B. Skeie, K. Sudo, S. Szopa, T. Takemura, and G. Zeng, 2012: