Welcome to Climate Change Research
Welcome to CGD's Climate Change Research
Using climate system models
The Climate Change Research Section (CCR) is part of the Climate and Global Dynamics (CGD) Division at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado.
The CCR section makes extensive use of state-of-the-art coupled climate system models to study the sensitivity and stability of the Earth system to a variety of forcings, including changes of greenhouse gases, aerosols, solar irradiance, volcanic forcing, land characteristics, and land use change. CCR is a focal point for NCAR and university paleoclimate research and serves as a resource to the paleoclimatic and climate change research community in the use of the Community Climate System Model (CCSM). CCR scientists collaborate closely with major U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) laboratories in developing and using high-performance coupled climate models to address national climate research and policy questions.
CCR Research
Climate Change Predication
CCR's Climate Change and Prediction (CCP) research focuses the sensitivity and stability of the Earth system to a variety of forcings, including changes of greenhouse gases, aerosols, solar irradiance, volcanic forcing, land characteristics, and land use change. In addition, CCP continues to conduct centuries long simulations and ensembles.
Climate Process Team
CCR's Climate Process Team (CPT) is a group of scientists (i.e. modelers, observationalists, theoreticians) work closely together to improve the parameterization of a particular process in climate models.
Paleoclimate
CCR's Paleoclimate studies climates of the prehistoric past. The largest climate changes that have occurred on Earth, such as the Ice Ages, are those recorded in the geologic record. Understanding the causes of such past climate changes is an essential part of developing and validating models of future climate change.
News & Features
IPCC Report on Climate Change. The assessment reported on observed changes in temperature, rainfall, storms, ice cover, and other climate features. [IPCC Webcast]
Arctic, Antarctic Melting May Raise Sea Levels. Scientists blend computer modeling with paleoclimate records to show that Arctic summers by 2100 may be as warm as they were nearly 130,000 years ago, when sea levels eventually rose up to 20 feet (6 meters) higher than today.
Most of Arctic's Near-Surface Permafrost May Thaw by 2100. Global warming may decimate the top 10 feet (3 meters) or more of perennially frozen soil across the Northern Hemisphere, altering ecosystems as well as damaging buildings and roads across Canada, Alaska, and Russia.
Warmer Seas, Wetter Air Make Harder Rains as Greenhouse Gases Build. Storms will dump heavier rain and snow around the world as Earth's climate warms over the coming century, according to several leading computer models.
Climate Model Links Higher Temperatures to Prehistoric Extiction. Scientists have created a computer simulation showing Earth's climate in unprecedented detail that gives support to a theory that an abrupt and dramatic rise in atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide triggered the massive die-off 251 million years ago.