Biology and Environment

Projects Predictive Understanding of the Oceans' Wind-Driven Circulation on Interdecadal Time Scales A Geodesic Climate Model with Quasi-Lagrangian Vertical Coordinates Continuous Dynamic Grid Adaption in a Global Atmospheric Model Decadal Regional Climate Studies and Applications with Variable-Resolution GCMs Using Advanced Numerical Techniques Development of an Atmospheric Climate Model with Self-Adapting Grid and Physics Testing a New Hybrid Ocean Circulation Model Based on POP Decadal Variability in the Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Systems Improving the Processes of Land-Atmosphere Interactions in CCSM 2.0 at High Resolution Collaborative Design and Development of the Community Climate System Model for Terascale Computers Multi-Resolution Climate Modeling Towards the Prediction of Decadal to Multi-Century Processes in a High-Throughput Climate System Model Modeling Dynamic Vegetation for Decadal to Multi-Century Climate Change Studies Modeling and Analysis of Global and Regional Hydrologic Processes and Appropriate Conservation of Moist Entropy

The Biological and Environmental Research / SciDAC projects focus on Global Change. Global Change activities include the process research and modeling efforts needed to (1) improve understanding of factors affecting the Earth's radiant-energy balance; (2) predict accurately any global and regional climate change induced by increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases; (3) quantify sources and sinks of energy-related greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide; and (4) improve the scientific basis for assessing the potential consequences of climatic changes, including the potential ecological, social, and economic implications of human-induced climatic changes caused by increases in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and the benefits and costs of alternative response options.

Research is focused on understanding the basic chemical, physical, and biological processes of the Earth's atmosphere, land, and oceans and how these processes may be affected by energy production and use, primarily the emission of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel combustion. A major part of the research is designed to provide the data that will enable an objective
assessment of the potential for, and consequences of, global warming. The program is comprehensive with an emphasis on the radiation balance from the surface of the Earth to the top of the atmosphere including the role of clouds and on enhancing the quantitative models necessary to predict possible climate change at the global and regional levels. (Learn more about the Biological and Environmental Research Program within the Office of Science.)

The Department of Energy (DOE) Climate Change Prediction Program (CCPP) is the current phase in the evolution of DOE's long-standing climate modeling and simulation research agenda. The CCPP is focused on developing, testing and applying coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation models (GCMs) for climate simulation and prediction that stay at the leading edge of scientific knowledge and computational technology.

Although the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Second Assessment Report (1996) concluded that "the balance of evidence suggests that there is a discernible human influence on global climate," important uncertainties remain. What changes in climate can we expect? What will the impacts be on, for example, agriculture, unmanaged ecosystems, and sea level? Which regions of the world will be most affected? Accordingly, the climate modeling community needs the capability for multiple simulations using ever more detailed and accurate coupled models. Multiple simulations will be the basis for forecasting—tens to hundreds of years in the future—the likelihood and impact of climate variability and change over regions as small as river basins. (Read more on the CCPP home page.)