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. The Center’s research effort is focused primarily on five fundamental components of the global climate system:
Convection, Atmospheric Water Vapor, and Cloud Formation
Concern about global change has focused attention on the temperature of the Earth’s surface-or, equivalently, the heat budget of the Earth’s surface. The effect of clouds on this heat budget is immense. The major radiatively active components of the atmosphere are water vapor and so-called layer clouds. The latter contribute to cooling by reflecting sunlight …
Oceans, Ocean-Atmospheric Coupling, and Carbon Cycling
Understanding the circulation and CO2 biogeochemistry of the oceans is key to our ability to predict and assess the future evolution of climate. The ocean is important in the regulation of heat and moisture fluxes, and oceanic physical and biogeochemical processes are major regulators of natural atmospheric carbon dioxide (as well as being an important …
Land Surface Hydrology and Hydrology-Vegetation Coupling
Water plays a central role in many of the physical, chemical, and biological processes regulating the global environment. It is the working fluid of the atmospheric heat engine, sculptor of the land surface, and agent of chemical element cycling. Finally, it is necessary and limiting for life. The effects on society of global climate change …
Biogeochemistry of Greenhouse Gases and Reflective Aerosols
Current concerns about future climate change are driven in large part by the observational evidence that several long-lived greenhouse gases are increasing at significant rates. However, the detailed biogeochemical and physical knowledge of individual sources and sinks needed to explain quantitatively the greenhouse gas trends, and to project them accurately into the future, is lacking. …
Atmospheric Chemistry and Large-Scale Circulation
Theoretical studies of the greenhouse effect indicate that a rise in the level of the greenhouse gases will tend not only to warm the Earth’s surface and the lower atmosphere but also to cool the stratosphere. This cooling of the stratosphere is expected to affect the ozone layer by decreasing ozone destruction in equatorial regions …