It also is being used in combination

Posted by Ellie on May 16, 2008 in National Science Foundation | 0 comments

Research in terrestrial settings will explore, for example, carbon storage, controls on carbon exchange between ecosystems and the consequences of change. Ocean science efforts will focus on longer term studies that will elucidate how sea level is changing in concert with changes in the stability of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. Program Highlights for FY Atmospheric Composition NSF programs in tropospheric and stratospheric chemistry will continue to address the composition of the atmosphere and its relation to climate variability and change. NSF has the computing infrastructure in place and under enhancement to enable more effective utilization of the research information.

Principal Areas of Focus National Science Foundation NSF programs address global change issues through investments that advance frontiers of knowledge and provide stateoftheart instrumentation and facilities while also cultivating diverse highly trained workforce and developing resources for public education. Studies of the transformation and transport of gaseous constituents and aerosols provide insights into the radiative and cloud nucleating properties of the atmosphere. Information from process studies will be used to refine models through scaling and parameterizations of subgrid processes, particularly the fluxes of water through the Earth system.

Students address these issues by evaluating multimedia data at various spatial and temporal resolutions, reviewing scientific evidence, and considering social concerns that contribute to global and climate change debates. Observational foci include stratospheric and tropospheric chemistry over Antarctica and the Southern Ocean carbon cycle. NSF IPY activities will focus on longer term studies that will elucidate how sea level is changing in concert with changes in the stability of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. The Hawaii Ocean TimesSeries HOT and Bermuda Atlantic Time Series BATS sites augment the LTER network in the central ocean gyre ecosystems.

The Community Climate System Model CCSM continues to be enhanced with better model physics and parameterizations as well by incorporating interactive chemistry and biology. Research in terrestrial settings will explore, for example, carbon storage, controls on carbon exchange between ecosystems and the atmosphere, delivery of carbon by rivers, carbon fluxes from highlatitude soils, and carbon export from mountains and submarine groundwater discharge.

Programs support projects that focus on decisionmaking under uncertainty associated with climate change. In addition, NSF supports projects that integrate research with education on global and climate change to demonstrate that scientific visualizationincorporated into inquirybased learningcan enable students to develop an understanding of complex global change phenomena.
Tags: amp, National Science Foundation