Overview of ESSL Research

The Earth/Sun System

The Earth-Sun System (ESS) extends upward from the planetary core, through several layers of atmosphere, and beyond the magnetosphere to meet with solar wind and the Sun. This vertical coupling includes the interactions of the atmosphere with oceans, land and ice masses, and the natural biosphere, together with forcings that are specifically anthropogenic. The understanding of these subsystems and their collective coupled behaviors make up the science of the Earth as a natural system in which we live.

Research developments of the past two decades have brought about a distinct maturation of the atmospheric sciences that has created new scientific opportunities and directions across a broad spectrum of physical and biological sciences. Our strategy is to accelerate the growth of multidisciplinary partnerships with and among our university and laboratory colleagues. In so doing, we will advance to the next level of ESS understanding by means of pivotal conceptual breakthroughs and key scientific discoveries across disciplines. NCAR research in weather, climate, biogeosciences, chemistry, upper atmosphere and solar physics has matured to fully embrace an integrated view. NCAR and its partners will tackle and tame the issues posed by processes across scales that are fundamental to predictive skill in weather, space weather and climate change.

Pillar coral image from TIIMES page about the Workshop on the Impact of Carbon Dioxide on Marine Life. (Photo courtesy Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary; NOAA Photo Library)