NASA Contributions to the Development and Testing of Climate Indicators

Abstract:

NASA is a major contributor the U.S. National Climate Assessment (NCA), a central component of the 2012-2022 U.S. Global Change Research Program’s Strategic Plan. NASA supports a range of global climate and related environmental assessment activities through its data records, models, and model-produced data sets, as well as through involvement of agency personnel. These assessments provide important information on climate change and are used by policymakers, especially with the recent increased interest in climate vulnerability, impacts, and adaptation.

Climate indicators provide a clear and concise way of communicating to the NCA audiences about not only status and trends of physical drivers of the climate system, but also the ecological and socioeconomic impacts, vulnerabilities, and responses to those drivers. NASA is enhancing its participation in future NCAs by encouraging the developing and testing of potential indicators that best address the needs expressed in the NCA indicator vision and that leverage NASA’s capabilities. This presentation will highlight a suite of new climate indicators that draws significantly from NASA -produced data and/or modeling products, to support decisions related to impacts, adaptation, vulnerability, and mitigation associated with climate and global change.