NOAA Climate Goal:
Climate Forcing Component

Climate Forcing is one of the components of NOAA's Climate Program. This component addresses the information needs associated with the atmospheric species whose human-caused changes in atmospheric abundance force the climate system to change. Changes in climate forcing by greenhouse species is the input to global climate models (Component 3) required to predict what climate will result from policy choices.

The Climate Forcing program component will:

1. Monitor globally the atmospheric concentration changes of greenhouse gases and the ability of the oceans and terrestrial biosphere to sequester carbon dioxide (CO₂) (with emphasis on North America), providing decision support for U.S. carbon management

2. Study the atmospheric chemical processes that produce aerosol particles, improving our inadequate knowledge of their radiative climate forcing properties

3. Study atmospheric chemical processes that produce and remove tropospheric ozone and other non-CO2 greenhouse gases, broadening the suite of non-carbon options available for policy decisions

Work in this component is carried out at various NOAA OAR laboratories, including the Aeronomy Laboratory (AL), Climate Modeling and Diagnostic Laboratory (CMDL), Environmental Technology Laboratory (ETL), Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL), and Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL). In addition, extramural grants are an integral part of this component. NOAA OAR Office of Global Programs administers these grants.

The various URLs related to this work are listed below and provide further information about this program.

• Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory: http://www.cmdl.noaa.gov/
• Mauna Loa Observatory: http://www.mlo.noaa.gov/
• Atmospheric Research Observatory: http://www.cmdl.noaa.gov/obop/spo/observatory.html
• Samoa Observatory: http://www.cmdl.noaa.gov/obop/smo/
• Trinidad Head: http://www.cmdl.noaa.gov/obop/thd/
• Point Barrow Alaska: http://www.cmdl.noaa.gov/obop/brw/
• Interactive Atmospheric Data Visualization: http://www.cmdl.noaa.gov/ccgg/iadv/
• Aeronomy Laboratory: http://www.al.noaa.gov/
• International Consortium for Atmospheric Research on Transport and Transformation (ICARTT): http://www.al.noaa.gov/ICARTT/
• Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory: http://www.gfdl.noaa.gov/
• Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory - Atmospheric Chemistry: http://saga.pmel.noaa.gov/
• Environmental Technology Laboratory: http://www.etl.noaa.gov/