UM Center for Climate and Earth Science Research Gets $13 Million in New NASA Support

COLLEGE PARK, MD -- The University of Maryland-based Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, a leading center for research to understand and forecast climate change and its impacts, will receive $13 million in new funding over the next four years from NASA. The funding extends, and expands on, the initial support from NASA that enabled the establishment of the center in 1999.

The Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC) is a joint center among three University of Maryland departments, Atmospheric & Oceanic Science, Geology and Geography, and the Earth Sciences Directorate at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center. The new NASA funding will support continued work in ESSICs four major research areas: climate variability and change; atmospheric composition and processes; the cycling of carbon through different parts of the Earth system; and the global water cycle.

"The new support from NASA enhances our ability to study the planet we live on as a coupled system from the unique perspective afforded by space-based observations. Together with our NOAA partners, we are now positioned to move into a new era of climate observations and services where our science is serving the needs of society&," said ESSIC director and professor Antonio Busalacchi of the University of Maryland.

From Global Change to Local Impact

"We know that as more energy is put into the Earth system through global warming, this energy eventually will be projected through and manifested by our planet's natural climate cycles, and it's these cycles that influence regional weather," said Busalacchi. "Improving our understanding of these natural cycles and how they interact will allow us to improve our models of these cycles, which, in turn, improves our forecasting of the regional and global impacts of global climate change."

Driven by energy from the sun, climate cycles are a function of the Earth system and the interaction between its four components: atmosphere, oceans, land and living things, explained Busalacchi. At ESSIC we are discovering how the parts of the Earth system couple together to produce and change climate cycles."

Every day at ESSIC, nearly 90 faculty, research assistants and graduate students work with collaborators around the world to piece together and analyze data from a variety of sources. Measurements and observations of recent and on-going climate change are obtained from Earth-observing satellites and on-land and at-sea measuring devices. Evidence of past changes in climate comes from ancient rocks, ice cores and rainfall records.

Partnering with Federal Agencies

Noting the importance of the universitys research strengths in climate and earth science, NOAA in 2004 announced it would build its new National Center for Weather and Climate Prediction in the University of Marylands research park, M Square, adjacent to campus. This new NOAA center is expected to open in 2009.