The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research and the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) cooperative agreement supports fundamental climate science research for the DOE U.S. Global Change Research Program as part of the DOE Climate Change Prediction Program. The DOE/NCAR cooperative agreement calls for research in four coordinated domains related to understanding and improving the simulation of the earth’s climate system:

1. Modeling Future Climate Change: Effects of Increased Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide and Climate Forcings. PIs: Warren Washington and Jerry Meehl
2. Evaluation of and Improvements to Components of Climate System Models. PIs: David Williamson and James Hack
3. Physical Parameterization Development and Process Studies Using a Hierarchy of Modeling Frameworks. PIs: James Hack and Jeffrey Kiehl
4. Climate Dynamics Applied to Climate Change. PI: Grant Branstator.

This research is a strong contributor to the federal Climate Change Science Program in several high priority areas as well as providing the largest set of simulations to the CMIP3 multi-model dataset that was assessed for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report (AR4). We are currently preparing to participate in an upcoming set of coordinated experiments to address short term climate change and new long term mitigation/adaptation scenarios that would be assessed for a possible IPCC Fifth Assessment Report.