Cooperative Institute for Climate & Satellites

About CICS

The Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites (CICS) was formed through a national consortium of academic, non-profit and community organizations with leadership from the University of Maryland College Park (UMCP) and the University of North Carolina (UNC) System through North Carolina State University (NCSU). This partnership includes Minority Serving Institutions as well as others with strong faculties who will enhance CICS’ capability to contribute to NOAA’s mission and goals.

Additional Information

CICS Principal Locations

CICS consists of two principal locations, referred to as CICS-MD, located in College Park MD, and CICS-NC, located in Asheville NC.

CICS-MD derives from the experience gained by UMCP through our leadership of the Cooperative Institute for Climate Studies in collaboration with NOAA beginning in 1983. The Earth Systems Science Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC) has managed this earlier Cooperative Institute since 2002 and has successfully shepherded it though a period of dramatic growth in both funding and activity levels. CICS-MD focuses on the collaborative research into satellite observations and Earth System modeling conducted by the Center for Satellite Applications and Research (STAR) of NOAA/NESDIS and the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) of NOAA/NWS.

CICS-NC is an Inter-Institutional Research Center (IRC) of the UNC System, administered by North Carolina State University and affiliated with several of the UNC academic institutions as well as a number of other academic and community partners. CICS-NC focuses primarily on the collaborative research into the use of lune satellite de la Terre observations in climate research and applications that will be led by the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) of NOAA/NESDIS.

CICS Consortium Partners

• The CICS Consortium includes scientists from many institutions who share a common interest and expertise in the CICS Research Themes. In addition to ESSIC, it includes the UMCP Departments of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science (AOSC), Geography (GEOG) and Geology (GEOL), the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS), and the Joint Global Change Research Institute (JGCRI), a collaboration between UMCP and the DoE Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
• The Consortium also includes scientists at Princeton University, Howard University, the University of California at Irvine, Columbia University, the City University of New York, Duke University, the University of Miami, Oregon State University, Colorado State University and Remote Sensing Systems.
• Scientific computing expertise is provided for the Consortium by the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) of the UNC System, and the DoE Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).
• Additional capability in outreach is provided through a partnership with Climate Central©, a non-profit organization that facilitates communication between the scientific communities involved in climate research and decision-makers and the general public, as well as the North Carolina Arboretum, an affiliate member of the UNC System, and by CECI, the Centers for Climate Interaction, an Asheville NC-based organization of academic, non-profit, community and private organizations with a common interest in advancing the capabilities represented by CICS.

CICS Scientific Vision

CICS performs collaborative research aimed at enhancing NOAA’s ability to use satellite observations and Earth System models to advance the national climate mission, including monitoring, understanding, predicting and communicating information on climate variability and change.

CICS Mission

CICS conducts research, education and outreach programs in collaboration with NOAA to:

• Develop innovative applications of National and international satellite observations and to advance transfer of such applications to enhance NOAA operational activities;
• Investigate satellite observations and design information products and applications to detect, monitor and understand the impact of climate variability and change on coastal and oceanic ecosystems;
• Identify and satisfy the satellite climate needs of users of NOAA climate information products, including atmospheric and oceanic reanalysis efforts;
• Improve climate forecasts on scales from regional to global through the use of satellite-derived information products, particularly through participation in the NOAA/NWS/NCEP Climate Test Bed;
• Develop and advance regional ecosystem models, particularly aimed at the Mid-Atlantic region, to predict the impact of climate variability and change on such ecosystems; and
• Establish and deliver effective and innovative strategies for articulating, communicating and evaluating research results and reliable climate change information to targeted public audiences.

CICS Research Themes

The Research Themes for CICS are:

• Theme 1: Climate and Satellite Research and Applications.

• Theme 2: Climate and Satellite Observations and Monitoring.

• Theme 3: Climate Research and Modeling.

  CICS Science Meeting 2010

The first CICS (Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellite) Science Meeting was held at the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, which hosts CICS-MD, on September 8-9, 2010. The goals of the meeting were to enable CICS scientists to describe ongoing and potential research projects, to learn about potential collaborative research activities from NOAA scientists, and to facilitate interaction among the participants. CICS scientists described ongoing and potential projects in nineteen presentations and NOAA senior managers provided ten programmatic presentations explaining activities and opportunities relevant to CICS. (Presentations from the meeting can be found here.) The meeting was attended by about 50 scientists and managers from CICS and NOAA. The meeting certainly accomplished its specific goals, and based on the discussion and informal conversations during and afterward was worthwhile for many of the attendees. Discussion focused on three questions:

1. Was the meeting useful enough to make similar future meetings desirable? If so, what format changes should be considered?
2. What methods for enhancing interactions among CICS scientists should be encouraged?
3. What methods should be implemented to improve communication between CICS scientists and NOAA scientists and program managers?

Future meetings appeared to be favored by the group. Annual repeats of the programmatic presentations do not seem warranted, since the material doesn�t change very much on that time scale. However, many opportunities for scientific presentations and discussions were mentioned, including presentations from NOAA PIs, the selection of specific topics, and focus on specific CICS Science Themes. The use of small roundtable discussion groups to enhance interactions was suggested. Several methods for enhancing interactions both within CICS and between CICS and NOAA scientists were suggested. Examples include participation of CICS scientists in NOAA seminar series, such as those listed on the OneNOAA Science Seminars list, the use of videoconferencing and WebEx to permit remote participation in seminars at CICS locations, and the use of a periodic newsletter or similar informal publication

Reports

• CICS 2011 Annual Report (Final)
• CICS 2010 Annual Report (Final)

Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites

Dr. Phillip Arkin, Institute Director

CICS-MD: Dr. Phillip Arkin, Director

5825 University Research Court, Suite 4001
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20740-3823
Tel: (301) 405-2147
Fax: (301) 405-8468
E-mail: parkin@essic.umd.edu

CICS-NC: Dr. Otis Brown, Director

Veach-Baley Federal Building, Room 420
151 Patton Avenue
Asheville, NC 28801-5001
Tel: (828) 257-3001
Fax: (828) 271-4328
E-mail: Otis_Brown@ncsu.edu