GMRC - GEOENGINEERING MODELING RESEARCH CONSORTIUM

[Andrew Lockley]

http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/projects/gmrc/

 

CLIMATE & GLOBAL

DYNAMICS

 

Research

Interdisciplinary Projects

GMRC

GEOENGINEERING MODELING RESEARCH CONSORTIUM

Mission

The mission of the Geoengineering Modeling Research Consortium (GMRC) is to identify and prioritize critical research gaps in climate modeling with specific significance to geoengineering, and to coordinate amongst U.S. researchers to close those gaps through collaborative model assessment and development efforts.

Vision

Solar geoengineering is rapidly gaining interest in research and policy arenas, yet there are numerous critical gaps in our understanding of the physical effects of solar radiation management on the climate. Solar geoengineering acts on the climate in a way which is somewhat different from greenhouse gases or other more commonly-modeled or observed climate forcers. As such, these gaps might not be addressed by existing climate modeling efforts. Responsible decision support requires that these gaps be closed. Computer modeling can not only aid in closing these gaps, but also in identifying future priorities for additional research avenues, such as laboratory or field experiments.

Through the GMRC, we aim to build a collaborative environment amongst U.S. researchers interested in solar geoengineering whereby these key uncertainties can be identified and addressed through modeling. This has the added advantage that any single researcher or group may have limited time and multiple competing priorities, but by pooling resources on high priority problems, steady progress can be made in answering critical questions about solar geoengineering. GMRC activities will complement and interface with existing solar geoengineering research efforts, such as the Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project (GeoMIP), with each project informing others for mutual benefit.

Scope

The GMRC will coordinate modeling efforts by U.S.-based research teams to reveal — and close — gaps in process-level and climatic understanding of the effects of stratospheric aerosol geoengineering. Collaborations with non-U.S. researchers will be pursued as needed. The ultimate aim is that findings produced by GMRC researchers will enable society-relevant applications such as policy development and impacts studies, although the GMRC will not directly conduct research in those areas.

Steering Committee

Sebastian Eastham, MIT [ seas...@mit.edu ]

David Keith, Harvard University [ david...@harvard.edu ]

Ben Kravitz, Indiana University [ bkra...@iu.edu ]

Jadwiga (Yaga) Richter, NCAR [ jric...@ucar.edu ]

Karen Rosenlof, NOAA [ Karen.H....@noaa.gov ]

Lili Xia, Rutgers University [ lil...@envsci.rutgers.edu ]

Jean-Francois Lamarque, NCAR *ex-officio

Members

American University, Valentina Aquila

California Institute of Technology, Tapio Schneider

Colorado State University, Jim Hurrell, Jeff Pierce

Cornell University, Doug MacMartin, Daniel Visioni

Harvard University, Coleen Golja, Peter Irvine, David Keith, Debra Weisenstein

Indiana University, Ben Kravitz

MIT, Sebastian Eastham

NASA, Peter Colarco

NCAR, Katie Dagon, John Fasullo, Jean-François Lamarque, Gerald Meehl, Mike Mills, Jadwiga (Yaga) H. Richter, Isla Simpson, Simone Tilmes, Joe Tribbia

NOAA, Amy Butler, David Fahey, Larry Horowitz, Vaishali Naik, Karen Rosenlof

PNNL, Phil Rasch

Princeton University, Gabe Vecchi

MIT, Sebastian Eastham

Rutgers University, Alan Robock, Lili Xia

Meetings & Workshops

1st GMRC Workshop: May 20-21, 2019, NCAR Boulder, CO [ Meeting Synthesis PDF ]

2nd GMRC Workshop: Fall 2019, Harvard University, Boston, MA