NOAA awards grant to enhance decision-ready climate projections for diverse stakeholders

(Press-News.org) Researchers at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science were recently awarded $2.8 million of a $5.8 million grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate Program Office to support a groundbreaking four-year project aimed at developing best practices for decision-ready climate projection information. This work will address increased demand by public and private sectors for reliable, long-term extreme weather climate information.

This initiative, led by the Rosenstiel School and including partners from the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Colorado State University, and Florida International University, will engage a wide array of stakeholders across five key themes: western water resources, heat waves, coastal flood risk, wildfire risk, and extreme wind events. It aims to provide access to crucial datasets and analysis procedures while promoting education for the next generation of climate projection translators.

"This is a challenging research project that brings a large team of scientists together focused on developing climate change projections of extreme heat, rainfall, flooding, fire risk, and other environmental hazards for the mid-century and beyond that can be used to support local adaptation and resilience planning by governmental organizations, businesses, and individuals,” said the project’s principal investigator Ben Kirtman, the William R. Middelthon III Endowed Chair of Earth Sciences at the Rosenstiel School. Kirtman is also the director of the University’s NOAA Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies and the deputy director of the Frost Institute for Data Science and Computing. 

Climate change is already affecting communities across the U.S., with impacts expected to intensify in the coming decades. Mid-to-long-range forecasts on coastal inundation, extreme heat, flooding, and drought are crucial for infrastructure planning and anticipating climate effects. Demand for this information is rising among governmental and private entities, yet it is often met through disjointed researcher-stakeholder relationships or generic online graphics that fail to address specific needs.

The project, titled “Developing Decadal Climate Projection Services Through Stakeholder Guidance and Foundational Science,” will develop the scientific understanding to underpin authoritative climate projection services. The team led by Kirtman will conduct the research necessary to support reliable and scientifically robust climate projection services, ensuring that approaches are state-of-the-art, thoroughly and transparently documented, and developed in collaboration with stakeholders.

Project updates and results will be communicated to a broad audience via a website, blogs, and interaction with NOAA’s climate.gov.

About the University of Miami and Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science

The University of Miami is a private research university and academic health system with a distinct geographic capacity to connect institutions, individuals, and ideas across the hemisphere and around the world. The University’s vibrant and diverse academic community comprises 12 schools and colleges serving more than 19,000 undergraduate and graduate students in more than 180 majors and programs. Located within one of the most dynamic and multicultural cities in the world, the University is building new bridges across geographic, cultural, and intellectual borders, bringing a passion for scholarly excellence, a spirit of innovation, a respect for including and elevating diverse voices, and a commitment to tackling the challenges facing our world. With more than $413 million in research and sponsored program expenditures annually, the University of Miami is a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities (AAU).

Founded in 1943, the Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science is one of the world’s premier research institutions in the continental United States. The school’s basic and applied research programs seek to improve understanding and prediction of Earth’s geological, oceanic, and atmospheric systems by focusing on four key pillars:

*Saving lives through better forecasting of extreme weather and seismic events. 

*Feeding the world by developing sustainable wild fisheries and aquaculture programs. 

*Unlocking ocean secrets through research on climate, weather, energy and medicine. 

*Preserving marine species, including endangered sharks and other fish, as well as protecting and restoring threatened coral reefs.

www.earth.miami.edu

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