The project will support analysis, integration and modeling of the Earth system based on the recognition that understanding the Earth system requires an interdisciplinary approach to bring together physical, chemical and biological sciences and their interaction with societal and economic issues as well. The International Project Office (IPO) will support the project on Analysis, Integration and Modeling of the Earth System (AIMES) to: achieve a deeper and more quantitative scientific understanding of the role of human perturbations to the biogeochemical cycles and their role in altering the coupled physical climate system, in the past, present and future; and better describe and quantify interactions and feedbacks between biogeochemical and climate systems, the consequences of human activities and decisions for these systems, and implications of global environmental changes for humanity.
The IPO will support AIMES activities to include activities to improve predictions of human-caused trace gas emissions, map past human-caused environmental changes, and integrate climate and economic modeling. The IPO will also assist AIMES to involve expertise in such wide-ranging areas as climate modeling, ecology, hydrology, economics, anthropology, agriculture and forestry in order to generate new knowledge, a new breed of interdisciplinary scientists, and, most important, better predictions of environmental changes across the Earth.
The IPO will also support AIMES efforts: to consider development of new strategies for developing scenarios for a possible Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC); to collaborate with the Northern Eurasian Earth Science Partnership Initiative (NEESPI) to develop a northern high latitudes activity that focuses on integrating across scales; to develop a new focus on Applied Earth System Modeling to make the global change research agenda much more directly relevant to the development and policy communities; and to support AIMES involvement in the Global Emissions Inventory Activity (GEIA).
