NOAA and DOE join forces to tackle climate modeling

Contact: Monica Allen, 301-734-1123 or Dolline Hatchett/DOE, (202) 586-4477

Predicting the cost of climate clange

This map shows the differences in economic growth over 10 years due to increasing global temperatures. Red colors mean an increase in economic growth due to warming while blue colors mean growth declines. The darker the colors, the more extreme the change. (NOAA/ University of Arizona)

Scientists with NOAA and the Department of Energy's Office of Science will coordinate their climate modeling research programs to answer some of the most perplexing questions in climate and Earth systems science.

A newly signed agreement will result in more detailed and complex climate models that will advance our ability to produce climate projections on a finer scale, over longer timeframes, and with greater certainty so they can more readily be used by decision makers to plan for changing climate conditions.    

"Americans are demanding more information about our changing climate at finer geographic and time scales in order to make smarter choices at home, at work and in their communities," said NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco, Ph.D. "This collaboration will help catalyze a new generation of more detailed and accurate climate projections that will help inform our nations’ overall environmental intelligence and decision-making capacity." 

The agreement strives to exploit the unique talents and capacities of each of the agencies, in order to more efficiently develop an understanding of the climate system and science-based prediction tools in support of the nation's needs for secure energy, environment, water, food, health, and economic well-being. It was signed in late January by Lubchenco and William Brinkman, Ph.D., director of the DOE Office of Science.

"The size and complexity of the questions that climate science is seeking to answer require an effort of interagency scope," said Brinkman. "Developing a truly predictive understanding of the climate system poses an inordinate scientific challenge.

"Fortunately, the models are continuously improving as we add more sophisticated physics based on both theoretical and empirical research," he said. "By combining the intellectual and scientific firepower of our two agencies we will be able to achieve more together than we could working alone."

This agreement builds upon on-going collaborations between scientists at the DOE National Laboratories  and the NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory. The new agreement sets a framework for collaborations through 2020.

NOAA's mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Visit us at www.noaa.gov and join us on Facebook, Twitter and our other social media channels.  

DOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.  

For more information:

NOAA GFDL Climate Modeling: http://www.gfdl.noaa.gov/climate-modeling

DOE:  http://science.energy.gov/ber/research/cesd