Advancing scientific understanding of climate, improving society’s ability to plan and respond
Advancing scientific understanding of climate, improving society’s ability to plan and respond
NOAA’s Modeling, Analysis, Predictions, and Projections (MAPP) program awarded $4.3 million to support 17 new multi-year projects to improve our understanding of drought and advance NOAA’s prediction and monitoring capabilities to better anticipate and respond to drought. MAPP is a part of the Climate Program Office, situated within NOAA’s Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research.
The Climate Program Office congratulations the Drought Assessment Team, which was awarded a Group Silver Medal for Scientific/Engineering Achievement for their work assessing the origins of the 2012 Central Plains Drought. The group includes CPO’s Modeling, Analysis, Predictions and Projections (MAPP) Program and the Drought Task Force.
This NOAA Drought Task Force/NIDIS report details the results of an extensive multi-research-group analysis of the causes and predictability of the drought. The report finds that the exceedingly warm and dry conditions that caused the drought were due to a high pressure ridge off the west coast of the United States influenced heavily by anomalous sea surface temperatures. These influences are attributed to natural variability.
This special collection of the Journal of Hydrometeorology focuses on scientific research to advance the U.S.’s capability to monitor and predict drought, including the development of new data and methodologies. The results presented in this issue represent the outcomes of research in large part funded by NOAA’s Modeling, Analysis, Predictions and Projections (MAPP) program, also leveraging other U.S. agencies’ investments, and coordinated within the framework of the MAPP Drought Task Force.