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Chapter 7. Atmospheric and Oceanic Research in CIRES:
Atmospheric Physics, Cryospheric and Polar Processes,and Climate Dynamics
Genesis of the Climate Program
It is somewhat ironic that the origins of the tropical climate research program at CIRES can be traced directly to a scientist whose first interest was the polar regions. Joe Fletcher even had an Arctic ice island named after him, but the long-term focus of what is now CIRES/NOAA Climate Diagnostics Center on the behavior of El Niño/La Niña cycles grew from his early vision and leadership. And because the ocean's behavior during these cycles can be described elegantly using wave theory, the tropical climate research also had its genesis in the early atmospheric wave physics research at CIRES.
The climate program began to develop in the late 1970s when Fletcher was director of the Office of Polar Programs (OPP) at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and later deputy director of NOAA's Environmental Research Laboratories (ERL). He recognized the need for NOAA to develop a research capability in this field to complement the work of the major laboratories involved in ocean research. The framework of a National Climate Plan had been developed during 1973 to 1975 (National Academy of Sciences: Understanding Climate Change-a Program for Action, 1975). The origins of this document can be traced to the outcome of a 1972 conference held at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, entitled "The present interglacial: how and when will it end?" at which CU was represented by Roger Barry. The conference proceedings are summarized in the November 1972 issue of Quaternary Research. The meeting organizers, George Kukla and Robert Matthews, subsequently wrote to President Nixon about the need to recognize and, if possible predict, climatic fluctuations that might signal the onset of renewed glaciation. Also during 1971 to 1973, a series of weather extremes had major impacts on food reserves in many countries around the world, so, from a political perspective, the time was right for a new initiative.
As part of NOAA's contribution to the national climate program, it was agreed that CIRES would organize a research program in climate dynamics. Fletcher recruited Uwe Radok, on leave from the University of Melbourne, Australia, and serving as an advisor to the NSF Office of Polar Programs (OPP), to take a position there. Fletcher, with Radok's assistance, was instrumental in the development of NSF's Office of Climate Dynamics (OCD). Correspondence between Fletcher and Radok during 1975 addressed the goals of the future CIRES program via NOAA Program Development Plans (PDPs). An invitation from Carl Kisslinger brought Radok to CIRES in September 1977 to lead the activity. Radok had planned to focus on climate quanta, significant storm episodes which cumulatively account for the mean temperature and precipitation of a month or season. These can also be used to characterize climate anomalies, including the differences between observed and model-predicted features. However, the initial climate efforts focused on the NOAA PDPs. A research plan on "Variations in Atmospheric Composition and Solar Radiation as Factors in Climate" was issued in September 1978, and the CIRES program began to contribute to this effort.
Collaboration with scientists at NOAA's Atlantic Ocean Marine Laboratory (AOML) and Pacific Marine Laboratory (PMEL) led to PDPs on Ocean Climate (August 1979) and on Ocean Heat Transport and Storage (September 1979). Then plans and reports were prepared for the Equatorial Pacific Ocean Climate Studies (EPOCS). The CIRES Climate Office co-ordinated the project, which initially involved an array of buoys moored on the equator near 110 degrees W and many drifting buoys. The measurements of ocean currents, temperature, and winds stimulated research in tropical oceanography and meteorology, some of it by CIRES visiting fellows, National Research Council fellows, and other shorterterm visitors. During 1979-1982 the CIRES group undertook projects involving: development of a marine data base; preparation of an atlas of highly reflective clouds; diagnostic studies of the Asian monsoon; analysis of teleconnections between the tropical North Pacific and North America; studies of mass balance of the Greenland ice sheet; and dynamic modeling of the Antarctic and Wisconsin-age North American ice sheet.
