The Center for Global Change Science (CGCS) at MIT was founded in January 1990 to address fundamental questions about climate processes with a multidisciplinary approach. In July 2006 the CGCS became an independent Center in the School of Science. The Center’s goal is to improve the ability to accurately predict changes in the global environment.
CGCS seeks to better understand the natural mechanisms in ocean, atmosphere and land systems that together control the Earth’s climate, and to apply improved knowledge to problems of predicting climate changes. The Center utilizes theory, observations, and numerical models to investigate climate phenomena, the linkages among them, and their potential feedbacks in a changing climate.
The Center builds on existing programs of research and education in the Schools of Science and Engineering at MIT. The interdisciplinary organization fosters studies on topics as varied as, for example, oceanography, meteorology, hydrology, atmospheric chemistry, ecology, biogeochemical cycling, paleoclimatology, applied math, data assimilation, computer science, and satellite remote sensing.
CGCS sustains a program of basic scientific research on the natural processes controlling global climate, with a concentration on the cycles, circulations and interactions of water, air, energy, and nutrients in the Earth system.
Parallel CGCS activities incorporate the insight gained from research into climate prediction models, and climate policy analysis, and provide it in a useful way to decision-makers in domestic and international climate policy-making arenas. The CGCS also interacts closely with complimentary MIT activities in the Earth System Initiative, the Energy Initiative, and the Earth Resources Laboratory.
