This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
Very rapid change has been observed in the Polar Regions and is projected to continue for the foreseeable future. This change is ubiquitous across the system occurring within the atmosphere, terrestrial and marine components and encompassing the physical, chemical and biological spheres. However, many of the linkages and feedbacks that determine the future trajectory of the polar systems are poorly constrained, which limits our ability to predict their future state. A systems perspective is required to further our understanding and determine what changes imply for the future. Global climate models explicitly synthesize across the atmosphere, terrestrial and marine components and many now incorporate biogeochemical and ecosystem processes into the physical system. As such, they are a critical tool for assessing polar system behavior and for studying linkages among various components and polar processes and feedbacks. These models also allow us to project future arctic conditions and investigate interactions between the polar and global systems. Traditionally global climate models have been developed at national centers, and had limited access by the broader scientific community. The Community Climate System Model (CCSM), which is based at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), has been unique in being a true community model that is built and used by a broad community of scientists. The CCSM source code and simulation output are freely available through the internet, and CCSM working groups, including the Polar Climate Working Group, that design the model system and experiments are open to all participants. To facilitate use of the CCSM by the polar scientific community requires in-house support. This effort will enable use and development of the CCSM by the broad polar scientific community through the funding of a dedicated polar community liaison in the Climate and Global Dynamics Division at NCAR. The functions performed by this liaison involve two primary tasks. The first is to facilitate the development of the sea ice component of the CCSM, which incorporates new parameterizations and software engineering requirements agreed upon by the Polar Climate Working Group. The second is to provide diagnostic assistance for the polar scientific community involved in the analysis and design of CCSM experiments, and act as a liaison to the greater polar system science community. This will ultimately lead to the improvement of polar processes in the CCSM, and enable model experiments to investigate polar system behavior.
