Scientific Theme: Advanced Modeling and Observing Systems

Theme report: Climate System Variability
MILESTONE NGDC04.3:
Implement harvesting and indexing of paleoclimate data to make data sets from remote servers
and remote databases available from the NOAA Paleoclimatogy website.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS FOR NGDC04.3:
CIRES scientists implemented the Open Archive Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) in order to
harvest paleoclimate metadata from other sources. They then harvested more than 54,000 metadata files from
Pangaea/World Data Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, a major repository for marine sediment data. These
metadata files are now indexed at the NOAA Paleoclimatology website as a special set, which allows visitors to the
NOAA Paleoclimatology website to search for any combination of Pangaea and WDC-Paleoclimatology data by
using the searching capabilities described in Milestone NGDC04.2. This implementation gives users a one-stop shop
for paleoclimate data; rather than visiting multiple websites to search for paleoclimate data, users can visit the
NOAA Paleoclimatology website and make one search for all data. Since only metadata are harvested, users are
linked to the original provider‘s website to obtain the current updated copy of the data itself.
CIRES researchers have also contributed to the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS), the U.S.
portal for drought information. By integrating information from many websites and agencies, this portal will provide
the public with another one-stop shop for accurate, timely and integrated information on drought conditions at the
relevant spatial scale to facilitate proactive decisions aimed at minimizing the economic, social and ecosystem losses
associated with drought. CIRES scientists led the selection process for the portal software for this project and
evaluated different portal software, interviewed user groups and conducted surveys, and wrote a report to the NIDIS
Program Manager. The recommended software, BEA AquaLogic, has been purchased and the portal will be live in
late 2007.
CSV-02: Mechanism and Forcings of Climate Variability
CSD03: Chemistry, Radiative Forcing, and Climate
GOAL:
(i) Observe and model the radiative forcing due to stratospheric ozone changes and tropospheric radiatively active
gases. (ii) Carry out upper-troposphere airborne experiments and diagnostic analyses that characterize the
dynamical and chemical processes that influence the radiative balance in the global atmosphere. (iii) Quantify the
chemical and optical properties that determine the lifetimes, abundances, and trends of greenhouse gases. (iv) Use
passive cloud observations to develop techniques that can be used to estimate cloud properties.
MILESTONE CSD03.1:
Plan and execute the Gulf of Mexico Air Quality and Climate Change Study (GoMACCS) field
study.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS FOR CSD03.1:
In 2006, NOAA/ESRL and CIRES led a major multi-institutional intensive field program that focused on
investigating important scientific questions that are common to both climate and air quality. The NOAA/ESRL and
CIRES components of the program are the Texas Air Quality Study (TexAQS) and the Gulf of Mexico Atmospheric
Composition and Climate Study (GoMACCS). This intensive field study provided significant new information that
is required to afford a better understanding of the sources, and atmospheric processes responsible for the formation
and distribution, of ozone and aerosols in the atmosphere and the influence that these species have on the radiative
forcing of climate regionally and globally, as well as their impact on human health and regional haze. The study was
carried out between July 1 and October 15, 2006, throughout Texas and the northwestern Gulf of Mexico. Three
NOAA platforms were deployed: a NOAA WP-3 aircraft, a NOAA Twin Otter, and the NOAA R/V Ronald H.
Brown. All objectives of this portion of the study were met.
GoMACCS was the NOAA/ESRL and CIRES climate change component of this field program, and characterized
marine/continental chemical and meteorological processes over Texas and the Gulf of Mexico in order to improve
the simulation of the radiative forcing of climate change by lower-atmosphere ozone and aerosols. In addition to
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