Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies

RESEARCH

 

Climate Change Monitoring and Detection

Develop techniques to monitor climate and detect its changes, supporting NOAA's goal to understand climate variability and change to enhance society's ability to plan and respond

The goal of this research theme is to study climate change monitoring and detection in general, and specifically the homogeneity or lack thereof of the historical station records in the U.S. and to use this information to help address the climate change questions.

Research on climate change monitoring and detection will lead to:

  1. Climate indices and indicators that provide early detection of important climate changes in the U.S.

Research funded under this theme in fiscal year 2007:

Detection and Attribution of Climate Change Using Climate Indices for the United States Karoly (primary – OU School of Meteorology), Burkholder, Easterling (NCDC), Gleason (NCDC), Lawrimore (NCDC)
Objectives: Evaluate US climate extremes indices from observational data and climate model simulations; document the observed changes in climate extremes in the U.S. over the 20th century; and attribute the observed changes to specific climate forcings, where possible. [more]
The Use of Kernel Methods in Data Selection and Thinning for Satellite Data Assimilation in NWP Models Leslie (primary – OU School of Meteorology), Richman
Objectives: Funded by the Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation, the main objective of the first part of task is to thin the WindSat data; for the second part, the main goal is ingestion and assimilation of scatterometer data from the QuikSCAT instrument. [more]
Systems Integration and Prototype COOP Operations Management Essenberg (primary – CIMMS at NERON), R. McPherson, Lamb
Objectives: Research the integration of climate observing stations and communications systems for the NWS COOP Modernization with a prototype operations and monitoring component; investigate solutions to problems or limitations in previous climate observing networks so as to provide advice to the NWS regarding the state-of-the-art in observing systems technologies. [more]
Program Support for the Assimilation, Analysis and Dissemination of Pacific Rain Gauge Data: PACRAIN Morrissey (primary – OU School of Meteorology), Postawko, Greene
Objectives: Support NOAA’s Office of Climate Observation (OCO) effort to “build and sustain the global climate observing system that is needed to satisfy the long-term observational requirements of the operational forecast centers, international research programs, and major scientific assessments”; continue in our role as the Surface Reference Data Center (SRDC), a core program which supports the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) and the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX), by expanding our mission to collect, analyze, verify and disseminate global rainfall data sets and products deemed useful for Operational Forecast Centers, International Research Programs and individual researchers in their scientific endeavors. Housed in the Environmental Verification and Analysis Center (EVAC) at the University of Oklahoma, the EVAC/SRDC has built upon work from past NOAA-supported projects to become a unique location for scientists to obtain scarce rain gauge data and to conduct research into verification activities. These data are continually analyzed to produce error-assessed rainfall products. [more]