CLIMATE SCIENCE INITITATIVE, IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY ISU Climate Science Initiative Eugene S. Takle...

CLIMATE SCIENCE INITITATIVE, IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY

ISU Climate Science Initiative

Eugene S. TakleProfessor of Atmospheric Science

Department of Geological and Atmospheric SciencesProfessor of Agricultural Meteorology

Department of AgronomyIowa State University

Ames, Iowa [email protected]

Combined Faculty MeetingAgronomy and GEAT

24 January 2008


Outline Status of climate science

– Climate change and climate variability– Understanding and prediction regional-scale climate change and variability and their

impacts– Time scales for future climate scenarios

What do we do now? ISU’s role– NARCCAP– MiCCA– MRED– Climate Science Initiative

Brief history Current status Developing linkages, faculty engagement Future visions


CO2, CH4 and temperature records from Antarctic ice core data


“Business as Usual”

950 ppm

?

Carbon Dioxide and Temperature

CLIMATE SCIENCE INITITATIVE, IOWA STATE UNIVERSITYIPCC Fourth Assessment Report Summary for Policy Makers

Reduced ConsumptionEnergy intensive

Energy conserving


The planet is committed to a warming over the next 50 years regardless of political decisions

Energy intensive

Energy conservingReduced Consumption


Reduced ConsumptionEnergy intensive

Energy conserving

AdaptationNecessary

MitigationPossible

IPCC Fourth Assessment Report Summary for Policy Makers

Observed summer (June-July-August) daily maximum temperature changes (K) between 1976-2000 (Adapted from Folland et al. [2001]).

D. Herzmann, Iowa Environmental Mesonet


What To Do Now? North American Regional Climate

Change Assessment Program Midwest Consortium for Climate

Assessment (MiCCA) (proposed to NOAA)

Multi-RCM Downscaling of CFS Seasonal Forecasts (MRED) (proposed to NOAA)




Change Assessment Program (WJG lead)

Midwest Consortium for Climate Assessment (MiCCA) (proposed to NOAA)



North America Regional Climate Change Assessment Program

Global models do not have sufficient spatial resolution to provide climate information at scales needed for decision-making on adapting to climate change

Use results of global climate models of future scenario climates as boundary conditions for regional climate models

Develop scenarios of contemporary and future climate at spatial scales of 50 km for use in assessing impacts of climate change

Terrain and land-sea boundaries in the Hadley Centre global climate model

Example Regional Model Example Regional Model DomainDomain

North America Regional Climate Change Assessment Program: Participants

Lead agency: NSF, with contributions from NOAA and DOE

R. Arritt, D. Flory, W. Gutowski, E. Takle, Iowa State University, USAR. Jones, E. Buonomo, W. Moufouma-Okia, Hadley Centre, UKD. Caya, S. Biner, OURANOS, CanadaD. Bader, P. Duffy, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, USAF. Giorgi, ICTP, Italy I. Held, NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, USAR. Leung, Y. Qian, Pacific Northwest National Laboratories, USAL. Mearns, D. Middleton, D. Nychka, S. McInnes, NCAR, USAA. Nunes, John Roads, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, USAS. Sain, Univ. of Colorado at Denver, USAL. Sloan, M. Snyder, Univ. of California at Santa Cruz, USA




Assessment (MiCCA) (proposed to NOAA) (EST lead)




How Will New Trends and Variability of Regional Climate Change Affect

Crop & horticulture production

Soil erosion Conservation practices Water supplies Streamflow Water quality Beef and pork daily gains Livestock breeding success Milk and egg production Crop and livestock pests and

pathogens

Agricultural tile drainage systems

Natural ecosystem species distributions

Human health Building designs Recreation opportunities River navigation Roads and bridges

Who will provide authoritative information?How will it be delivered?

Proposed new Midwest Consortium for Climate Assessment (MiCCA)

Midwest Consortium for Climate Assessment (MiCCA)

MiCCA’s mission is to translate and enhance the latest NOAA climate forecast products to maximize economic gains for agricultural producers and their agribusiness service providers in the U.S. Midwest through use of advanced regional models, interactive web-based decision-making tools, and high-volume customized delivery and feedback through the existing integrated regional, state, and county level extension service network throughout the 9-state region (MN, IA, MO, WI, IL, MI, IN, OH, KY).


Midwest Consortium for Climate Assessment (MiCCA)

Create seasonal climate forecasts for the Midwest

Use ensembles of advanced regional climate models interactive web-based decision-making tools,

Translate and enhance the latest NOAA climate forecast products to maximize economic gains

Use high-volume customized delivery and feedback through the county level extension service network





Multi-RCM Downscaling of CFS Seasonal Forecasts (MRED) (proposed to NOAA) (RWA lead)



Seasonal Forecasting (MRED project)

Weather forecasting is short-term (few days to 2 weeks)

Climate projection is for decades Seasonal forecasting has had less

attention, despite practical needs:– agriculture, construction

and repair, transportation, etc.


Seasonal Forecasting (MRED project)

MRED project is patterned after NARCCAP:– uses output from the National Centers for

Environmental Prediction (NCEP) global model as input to fine-scale regional models

– many of the same participants as NARCCAP

ISU has done some exploratory work using a similar approach.

Project has been proposed to NOAA.






ISU Climate Science Initiative (EST lead)


ISU Climate Science Initiative Launched by Vice President Brighton Colleges of Agric, Engr, LAS have taken

leadership, but broad campus research participation will be emphasized

Build on research strengths in regional climate modeling, agriculture, water, landscapes, engineering

Vision: That Iowa State will be the leading US university in forecasting climate at regional scales with lead times of two weeks to multi-decadal for use in decision-making. A major component of the nation’s food supply and renewable fuel supply is vulnerable to both natural cycles of climate and changes due to increases in atmospheric greenhouse gases. Failure to anticipate major floods and droughts of regional scale will create profound shocks to the nation’s economy. Recent advances in forecasting global climate out to nine years by use global climate models initialized with new measurements of “ocean heat content” as reported in Science raise prospects for increased predictability on seasonal and longer time scales for the Midwest region.

Climate Science Initiative

Climate Science Initiative:Progress So Far

Held informational meeting Nov 26– 75 attended (additional 20 sent regrets)– 59 faculty, 16 staff/admin– 22 departments, 5 colleges

Reported back to VPRED advisory team– VP Brighton, Deans Wintersteen, Whiteford, Kushner– Approval to move forward– Hired web master, invite speakers

Forming Climate Science Initiative Council Forging linkages with other programs


Bioeconomy Institute Plant Sciences Institute CyberInnovation Institute Center for Carbon-Capturing Crops Center for Computational Intelligence, Learning, and

Discovery Research Computing Council Ames Laboratory CARD ISU Extension Service Great Lakes Consortium for Petascale Computing

Build Links to other Institutes and Centers


Examples of Studying Impacts of Climate Change

Impact of land-use and climate change on future landscape change (C. Kling, CART)

Impact of climate change on stream flow in UMRB (C. Kling, P. Gassman, M. Jha, CARD)

Impact of climate change on tile drainage flow (A. Kaleita, M. Helmers, A&BE)

Pavement performance under climate change (C. Williams, CCEE)

Changes in wind speed and wind power under climate change (S. Pryor, Indiana U)


“…leadership in cyberinfrastructure may well become the major determinant in measuring pre-eminence in higher education among nations.”

Future Role of Cyberinfrastructure in Universities

Arden L. Bement, Jr.Director, National Science Foundation


Virtual Environmental Observatories

Assemble comprehensive historical databases on environmental measurements– Meteorological– Streamflow– Ground water– Soil moisture– Soil carbon– Crop growth– Water quality– Air quality


Virtual Environmental Observatories: Assemble comprehensive historical databases on

environmental measurements Meteorology, streamflow, ground water, soil

moisture, soil carbon, crop growth, water quality, air quality

Landscape information (elevations, soil types, land-use, land cover, animal/bird populations, drainage, tillage, cropping patterns, chemical application, conservation practices, ownership, etc.)

Human demographics (population, built environment, pollutant sources, etc.)


Virtual Environmental Observatories:

Assemble dynamical models for imposing physical constraints and consistency

Physical laws Balances Consistency


Virtual Environmental Observatories:

Forecast future conditions with applications to

Extreme weather events Flood/drought impacts Roadway safety Emergency management Advance preparedness Toxic releases Crop development Agriculture decision-making

– purchase, tillage, planting, marketing Recreational opportunities


Continue to solicit faculty participation Form Council Build off-campus partnerships Seek funding opportunities Establish grants facilitation Prepare to compete for a presidential

initiative Prepare to compete for a

federally funded center

Where Do We Go From Here?

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