The University of Colorado Boulder has received a N.O.A.A. award to continue the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), pictured here on the university campus, for at least 5 more years. CIRES research helps enhance our knowledge of climate change, enhance weather models, and better predict how solar storms can disrupt communication and navigation technologies.
High resolution (Credit:CIRES/University of Colorado.)
N.O.A.A. has selected the University of Colorado-Boulder to continue a federal/academic partnership that extends NOAA's ability to study climate change, enhance weather models, and better predict how solar storms can disrupt communication and navigation technologies.
The selection means that N.O.A.A. will continue backing the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), which was established at the University of Colorado in 1967, for at least 5 and up to ten more years.
The amount of the award is contingent on the availability of backing in the federal budget, but N.O.A.A. anticipates that up to $32 million may be accessible annually. Total N.O.A.A. backing is variable from year to year and is based on the number of plans the university suggests and N.O.A.A. approves.
Following a competitive process, N.O.A.A. selected the University of Colorado to administer the CIRES partnership which leverages university resources to expand understanding of the Earth system-the interrelationships between the atmosphere, oceans, land, living things, and the sun's energy.
"Improving our understanding of the Earth system is critically important as the build up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is forcing changes in all of its processes," said Robert Detrick, Ph.D., assistant N.O.A.A. administrator for the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research and chairman of the N.O.A.A. Research Council. "The University of Colorado has been an excellent partner to N.O.A.A. in pursuing this mission."
NOAA's 1st cooperative institute, CIRES is marking its 45th anniversary this year and is now one of 18 N.O.A.A. cooperative institutes nationwide. N.O.A.A. competitively funds cooperative institutes at universities with strong research programs relevant to NOAA's mission. These institutes provide resources and opportunities that extend beyond the agency's own research capacity.
"With pressing issues like air quality, climate change and space weather now at the forefront globally, the University of Colorado Boulder is eager to continue this crucial partnership with NOAA," said University of Colorado Boulder Vice Chancellor for Research Stein Sture. "CIRES is known around the world for advancing our understanding of the complex Earth system and as a premier institution in educating the next generation of environmental scientists."
The partnership allows researchers at the University of Colorado to gain support for research plans that may involve N.O.A.A. scientists, primarily at the Earth System Research Lab in Boulder, Colo., as well as other N.O.A.A. cooperative institutes.
The CIRES partnership will focus on 9 research themes:
- Air quality in a changing environment
- Climate change mechanisms and analysis
- Earth systems dynamics, variability and change
- Management and exploitation of geophysical data
- Regional science and applications
- Scientific outreach and education
- Space weather understanding and predictability
- Stratospheric processes and trends
- Computer model development
N.O.A.A. supports cooperative institutes to conduct research, education, training, and outreach aligned with its mission. Cooperative institutes also promote the involvement of students and post-doctoral scientists in NOAA-funded research. This unique setting provides N.O.A.A. the benefit of working with complimentary capabilities of a research institution that contribute to NOAA-related sciences ranging from satellite climatology and fisheries biology to atmospheric chemistry and coastal ecology. For more information, visit http://nrc.noaa.gov/ci/.
NOAA's mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Join us on Facebook, Twitter and our other social media channels. More information about N.O.A.A. is accessible at: http://www.noaa.gov.
