The International and U.S. CLIVAR (CLImate VARiability and predictability) Project Offices (USCLIVAR PO) provide critical infrastructure support leading to the coordinated planning and implementation of U.S. and international research activities that address CLIVAR goals which are to:
- describe and understand the physical processes responsible for climate variability and predictability on seasonal, inter-annual, decadal, and centennial time-scales, through the collection and analysis of observations and the development and application of models of the coupled climate system, in cooperation with other relevant climate-research and observing programs; - extend the record of climate variability over the time-scales of interest through the assembly of quality-controlled paleoclimatic and instrumental data sets; - extend the range and accuracy of seasonal to inter-annual climate prediction through the development of global coupled predictive models; and - understand and predict the response of the climate system to increases of radiatively active gases and aerosols and to compare these predictions to the observed climate record in order to detect the anthropogenic modification of the natural climate signal.
This award supports the USCLIVAR PO staffing, travel by U.S. scientists to participate in CLIVAR meetings, funds for open science workshops, and costs associated with outreach and communications necessary to communicate CLIVAR findings and opportunities.
The intellectual merit of this proposal enables development of new community-driven scientific plans, coordination of research activity implementation, and provides assistance to U.S. research program agencies so their programs more effectively contribute towards mutually agreeable challenges.
The broader impacts resulting from this proposed activity are that the scientific community identifies emerging climate science research topics of interest to the community, sponsoring agencies, and to the nation; assesses current activities to identify program gaps; and catalyzes (interagency sponsored) research activities.
Complementary co-support is provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the Department of Energy.
