Cooperative Institute: Earth System Modeling for Climate Applications

The summary for the Cooperative Institute: Earth System Modeling for Climate Applications grant is detailed below. This summary states who is eligible for the grant, how much grant money will be awarded, current and past deadlines, Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) numbers, and a sampling of similar government grants. Verify the accuracy of the data FederalGrants.com provides by visiting the webpage noted in the Link to Full Announcement section or by contacting the appropriate person listed as the Grant Announcement Contact. If any section is incomplete, please visit the website for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is the U.S. government agency offering this grant.

Cooperative Institute: Earth System Modeling for Climate Applications: NOAA has established itself as the premier Federal provider of climate information. Its expertise in long term climate was recently showcased in the International Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report on Climate Change. It is clear, however, that current state-of-the-art physical coupled climate models, particularly those that are used to forecast climate conditions on decadal and longer time scales, lack important features that are crucial for understanding how a warming world will affect the world's terrestrial and oceanic ecosystems and biogeochemical cycles, and importantly, how ecosystems can affect climate change. This understanding can be achieved in part by a vigorous climate observing program, and by a world class Earth System modeling capability. The proposed Earth System Modeling CI will address these needs by providing capabilities in Earth System Modeling research and Analysis to develop and improve climate models that simulate and predict chemical, physical, and ecosystem changes in the whole Earth system. The proposed Alaska CI should possess outstanding capabilities to provide research under three themes: (1) Earth system modeling and analysis, (2) data assimilation, and (3) earth system modeling applications. The CI should have capabilities and conduct research in data assimilation to develop and improve techniques to assimilate environmental observations, including aerial, terrestrial, oceanic, and biological observations, to produce the best estimate of the environmental state at the time of the observations for use in analysis, modeling, and prediction activities associated with climate predications. The CI should also have capabilities to conduct research on model applications including focus on the use of Earth System Models to study physical processes associated with long-term (decadal or longer) climate change and its impacts, including abrupt change, coastal processes, carbon management, sea-level rise, drought, the frequency of hurricanes and other extreme events, and climate predictability, as well as attributing climate change to natural and anthropogenic forces. The proposed CI must strongly support a strategic approach that attracts and maintains a competent and diverse workforce and creates an environment that develops, encourages, and sustains employees as they work to accomplish NOAA's strategic goals, as described in NOAA's latest Strategic Plan. The CI must also have a strong education program with established graduate degree programs in NOAA-related sciences. These programs must provide outstanding opportunities to train the next generation of scientists and NOAA employees by giving undergraduate, graduate students, and post-doctoral scientists a "hands on" opportunity to participate in NOAA research activities. To strengthen the collaborations between NOAA and the CI, most of these students and postdocs should be located close enough to allow them to work with GFDL scientists in Princeton, New Jersey at least weekly. This training is extremely important for NOAA as it strives to attract and maintain a competent and diverse scientific workforce.