Global Warming: The NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies at Columbia University

I keep meaning to delve a lot more deeply into the issue of Global Warming, Climate Change, and the so-called Climate Crisis. I'm more than a little skeptical of some of the wilder claims that are being made, especially since Al Gore is spouting a lot of them. My efforts will be to try to zoom in on some of the actual data behind the conclusions as well as to identify some of the organizational and political agendas behind some of the so-called "science."

One of the more prominent personalities in the discussion of Global Climate Change is Dr. James Hansen who directs research at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) at Columbia University in New York City. Here's a brief synopis of GISS from their web site:

Current research, under the direction of Dr. James Hansen, emphasizes a broad study of Global Change, which is an interdisciplinary initiative addressing natural and man-made changes in our environment that occur on various time scales (from one-time forcings such as volcanic explosions, to seasonal/annual effects such as El Niño, and on up to the millennia of ice ages) and affect the habitability of our planet. Program areas at GISS may be roughly divided into the categories of climate forcings, climate impacts, model development, Earth observations, planetary atmospheres, paleoclimate, radiation, atmospheric chemistry, and astrophysics and other disciplines. However, due to the interconnections between these topics, most GISS personnel are engaged in research in several of these areas.

A key objective of GISS research is prediction of atmospheric and climate changes in the 21st century. The research combines analysis of comprehensive global datasets, derived mainly from spacecraft observations, with global models of atmospheric, land surface, and oceanic processes. Study of past climate change on Earth and of other planetary atmospheres serves as a useful tool in assessing our general understanding of the atmosphere and its evolution.

The perspective provided by space observations is crucial for monitoring global change and for providing data needed to develop an understanding of the Earth system. As the principal NASA center for Earth observations, Goddard Space Flight Center plays a leading role in global change research. Global change studies at GISS are coordinated with research at other groups within the Earth Sciences Division, including the Laboratory for Atmospheres, Laboratory for Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences, and Earth Observing System science office.

GISS works cooperatively with area universities and research organizations, most especially with Columbia University. Close to half of our personnel are members of Columbia's Center for Climate Systems Research (CCSR) and we also work with researchers at Columbia's Earth Institute and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

My first big question: Why is this research under the aegis of NASA, the rocket and satellite and aerospace people, rather than NOAA, the ocean and atmosphere people? This seems rather odd. How does Hansen's agenda for studying climate change fit in with NASA's true mission? NASA should certainly be providing vehicles in support for space-based observation, but getting involved in the science-side of earth studies seems like a clear conflict of interest, to me. The proper term is "mission creap", and that is not a good thing.

In any case, there is a lot of interesting data on the GISS web site. Whether that data truely does justify some of Hansen's wilder conclusions remains to be seen.

In any case, this is one of the important web sites in the Climate Change discussion.

-- Jack Krupansky