Climate Program Office for FY 2012

Changing climate confronts society with significant economic, health, safety, and national security challenges. NOAA advances scientific and technical programs to help society cope with, and adapt to, today's variations in climate and to prepare for tomorrow's. Toward this end, the agency conducts and supports climate research, observations, modeling, information management, assessments, interdisciplinary decision support research, outreach, education, and stakeholder partnership development. These investments are key to NOAA's mission of "Science, Service, and Stewardship" and are guided by the agency's vision to create and sustain enhanced resilience in ecosystems, communities, and economies, as described in NOAA's Next Generation Strategic Plan (NGSP) . Fostering climate adaptation and mitigation, and, specifically, the development of an informed society anticipating and responding to climate and its impacts - is one of the primary pathways through which NOAA plans to advance its mission. The NGSP outlines NOAA's five-year climate objectives: 1) Improved scientific understanding of the changing climate system and its impacts; 2) Assessments of current and future states of the climate system that identify potential impacts and inform science, service, and stewardship decisions; 3) Mitigation and adaptation choices supported by sustained, reliable, and timely climate services; and 4) A climate-literate public that understands its vulnerabilities to a changing climate and makes informed decisions. NOAA works in partnership with Federal, academic, private, and international research entities, and places a substantial emphasis on productive partnerships and interactions with decision makers and other stakeholders.Within this context, NOAA's Climate Program Office (CPO) manages competitive research programs conducted in regions across the United States, at national and international scales, and globally. The CPO also provides strategic guidance and oversight for the agency's climate science and services programs and helps to integrate capabilities from across the agency to provide enhanced services to its constituents. Achieving the first of the NGSP climate objectives, an improved scientific understanding of the changing climate system and its impacts, requires a number of core capabilities be supported. These core capabilities can be broadly categorized to include: (a) understanding and modeling, (b) observing systems, data stewardship, and climate monitoring, (c) predictions and projections, and (d) integrated service development and decision support.The…