Program on near-term climate variability
To help anticipate the risks of near-term climate change, in 2012 bp agreed to sponsor a new research program at Princeton entitled “Climate Variability Over the Next 25 Years.” Headed by Steve Pacala and Elena Shevliakova, the program will involve collaborative research among bp, CMI, GFDL and the bp-sponsored team at Imperial College (IC). The researchers will use high-resolution climate models to predict climate variability, changes in climate variability and impacts of climate variability over the next quarter century. These studies will include hydrologic variability (i.e. rainfall, evapotranspiration, soil moisture, drought, river flow and flooding) and variability in natural and agricultural ecosystems (i.e. crop, biofuels, and forest production, carbon storage by ecosystems and carbon offsets, including effects of drought-induced fire). The first postdoc has been hired for this project and an offer has been extended to a second.
Proposed Center for Southern Ocean Biogeochemical Observations and Modeling
In the past 20 years, observational analysis and model simulations have transformed our understanding of the Southern Ocean, suggesting that the Ocean south of 30°S, occupying just 30% of the surface area, has profound influence on the Earth’s climate and ecosystems. The model studies underlying these results, however, are highly controversial and observational data is sparse in comparison to other areas of the world’s oceans.
To address this critical gap in understanding, the Sarmiento group has been involved in a major proposal for the National Science Foundation to form a Center for Southern Ocean Biogeochemical Observations and Modeling (C-SOBOM). If successful, the Center’s observations team will deploy over a hundred autonomous floats with biogeochemical sensors to gather data and provide unprecedented observations of the Southern Ocean, while the modeling team develops metrics to test and improve computer simulations of this region. The proposed center would involve researchers from Princeton, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the University of Arizona, Rutgers, the University of Washington, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, and both U.S. and international collaborators – Center awards will be announced in April 2013.