About Us

The Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites-Maryland (CICS-MD) is a branch of the Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites (CICS). It is located at the M-Square Research Park of the University of Maryland, College Park along with the NOAA Center for Weather and Climate Prediction.

 The parent organization of CICS-MD, CICS, is a national consortium of academic, non-profit and community organizations and includes Minority Serving Institutions as well as others with strong faculties that enhance CICS' capability to contribute to NOAA's mission and goals. In addition to CICS-MD, the Institute has another main branch at the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville NC. It is known as CICS-NC.

 CICS host organization is the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center. ESSIC has fiduciary responsibility for CICS, provides the large majority of CICS-MD space, and hires and employs the majority of CICS-MD scientists and support staff.

 CICS-MD focuses on research in satellite observations and Earth system modeling in support of the NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service Center for Satellite Applications and Research and the National Weather Service/National Centers for Environmental Prediction. CICS-MD has additional collaborations with other NOAA units in the Washington, DC area, including the National Oceanographic Data Center and the Air Resources Laboratory.