October 2013 - Climate Program Office

MAPP-funded research aims to advance understanding and ability to predict year-to-year climate variations

NOAA’S Modeling, Analysis, Predictions, and Projections (MAPP) program awarded $8.6 million to support 10 new multi-year projects in which university partners and federal researchers will incorporate real-world observations into climate models and improve processes in those models to enhance the nation’s ability to visualize, understand, and predict year-to-year climate variations. Specifically, MAPP funding will support targeted improvements in the representation of clouds and sea ice, critical elements of the climate system, in climate models.

Webinar: Ocean Acidification – Perceptions, Risks and Uncertainties

CAP/RISA Events, General Event / By Kristina Kiest

The next webinar from the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment & Policy will take place on November 5 at 10 a.m. AK time (2 p.m. EST) and will feature Jeremy Mathis from the Ocean Acidification Research Center at UAF and the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory. The webinar is titled “Ocean Acidification: Perceptions, Risks and Uncertainties.”

MAPP Webinar

Climate Prediction Task Force news, MAPP News, MAPP Webinar / By Kristina Kiest

The NOAA CPO Modeling, Analysis, Predictions, and Projections (MAPP) program broadcasted a session from the Climate Diagnostics and Prediction Workshop hosted in parallel with the MAPP Climate Prediction Task Force meeting on the topic of the National Multi-Model Ensemble on Tuesday, October 22, 2013.

MAPP supports PNAS-published research on risks of Amazon Rainforest dieback

General News, MAPP News / By Kristina Kiest

Supported by CPO’s Modeling, Analysis, Prediction and Projection (MAPP) program and the National Science Foundation, researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have published a new study on the risk of Amazon Rainforest dieback in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The new study suggests that the southern portion of the Amazon rainforest is at much higher risk of dieback due to stronger seasonal drying that projections made by the climate models used in the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

AC4-funded project publishes paper on marine stratocumulus cloud formation

AC4 News, Atmospheric Chemistry, Carbon Cycle and Climate (AC4), Earth System Science and Modeling (ESSM) / By Kristina Kiest

With funding from CPO’s Atmospheric Chemistry, Carbon Cycle, & Climate (AC4), researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory sought to understand why some marine stratocumulus clouds form “open cells” while others form “closed cells,” even when the background whether conditions are similar.

AC4 program contributes to workshop of human-carbon interactions in urban systems

AC4 News, Atmospheric Chemistry, Carbon Cycle and Climate (AC4) / By Kristina Kiest

CPO’s Atmospheric Chemistry, Carbon Cycle, & Climate (AC4) program contributed to the support of a “Workshop on Human-Carbon Interactions in Urban Systems,” in which a number of NOAA scientists participated. The workshop took place from Oct. 16–18, 2013 in Boulder, Colo.

RISA scientist earns recognition for work at CLIMAS

CAP/RISA News / By Kristina Kiest

The Quivira Coalition, a nonprofit organization based in Santa Fe, N.M., which is dedicated to building economic and ecological resilience on western working landscapes, has recognized Dr. Jonathan Overpeck for his leadership of the Climate Assessment of the Southwest (CLIMAS) RISA.

Webinar: Alaskan RISA focuses on climate change research on the Copper River Delta

CAP/RISA Events / By Kristina Kiest

The Alaska Center for Climate Assessment & Policy (ACCAP), a RISA program, has a webinar scheduled for Oct. 8 at 10 a.m. AK time. Gordon Reeves, a US Forest Service researcher at the Pacific Northwest Research Station in Corvallis, OR will be presenting a talk titled: Climate Change Research on the Copper River Delta: The Emerging Effect of Local Variation.