Draft SEARCH Implementation Strategy available at the SEARCH Website:
http://psc.apl.washington.edu/search/index.html
For more information about the SEARCH program see:
http://psc.apl.washington.edu/search/
or contact Jamie Morison, SEARCH SSC chair (morison [at] apl.washington.edu)
SEARCH Develops Implementation Strategy
A broad, interdisciplinary program, the Study of Environmental Arctic
Change (SEARCH) seeks to understand the complex of significant,
interrelated changes that have occurred in the Arctic in recent decades.
To describe this complex of atmospheric, oceanic, and terrestrial
changes, SEARCH uses the term Unaami, from the Yup'ik word for
"tomorrow". SEARCH is envisioned as a long-term interagency effort of
observations, modeling, process studies, and applications devoted to
understanding Unaami, its relation to global climate, and its impacts on
ecosystems and society. Following the 2001 publication of the SEARCH
Science Plan, SEARCH is beginning implementation with the funding of the
first SEARCH projects and release of a draft implementation strategy.
NSF announced the first major SEARCH funding opportunity, the Freshwater
Initiative, in February 2002. 17 projects examining the arctic
freshwater cycle, including hydrology, Arctic Ocean freshwater pathways,
and freshwater fluxes to and impacts on the sub-Arctic seas have been
awarded funding totaling $35 million over 5 years.
The SEARCH Science Steering Committee (SSC), Interagency Working Group
(IWG), and Project Office have developed a draft implementation strategy
based on the science plan, community input, and the IWG's FY 2003
Funding Implementation Framework. Contributions to the SEARCH
implementation strategy came from discussions at many community meetings
and workshops, including:
- the 2000 Hydrology Workshop,
- the 2001 Atmospheric and Cryospheric Change in the Arctic (ACCA)
Workshop,
- the June 2002 Arctic Ocean Measurements and Modeling Workshop,
- the September 2002 Bering Sea -Workshop,
- the October 2002 SEARCH Terrestrial and Marine Ecosystem Workshop,
- the October 2002 SEARCH Human Dimension Workshop, and
- two joint SEARCH IWG-SSC meetings.
The Draft SEARCH Implementation Strategy is available for community
comment on the SEARCH web site. The strategy includes a description of
science questions arising from the key SEARCH hypotheses, an
organization plan, a detailed list of activities required to address the
SEARCH goals, priority and schedules for these activities, and summary
recommendations. The activities are grouped into eight areas. These are:
- Arctic System Reanalysis will assimilate data into models of various
components of the arctic system to produce optimum estimates of key
variables.
- Detecting and Quantifying Unaami and Related Modes of Variability will
use paleoclimate, historical, and archeological records as well as more
recent observations to better define the scope of Unaami and its
relation to other decadal modes of variability.
- Social and Economic Interactions will examine the interactions of the
physical and biological elements of Unaami with social and economic
systems.
- Large-scale Atmospheric Observatories will make large-scale
atmospheric observations.
- Distributed Marine Observatories will make large-scale surface
atmospheric, oceanographic, sea ice, and ecosystem observations in the
marine environment.
- Distributed Terrestrial Observatories will make large-scale surface
atmospheric, hydrological, glaciological, and ecosystem observations in
the terrestrial environment.
- Linkages and Global Coupling will use modeling and analysis to
elucidate the connections between Unaami and global climate and the
connections within the arctic system as they pertain to Unaami.
- Social Response will research social and economic adaptation to
climate change in the past and apply research on Unaami to economic and
social concerns in the future.
Given the decline of several historically important observing systems,
highest implementation priority has always been to establish a program
of long-term observations. The Implementation Strategy establishes a
three-tiered scheduling guideline. The Strategy recommends that the
earliest first-tier efforts include:
- establishing the operational organizational structure of SEARCH,
- maintaining existing observational programs of the Large-scale
Atmospheric, Distributed Marine, and Distributed Terrestrial
Observatories, and
- beginning the Arctic System Reanalysis and elements of Detecting and
Quantifying Unaami and Social and Economic Interactions (SEI).
These actions will provide overarching SEARCH activities to keep future
activities coordinated and spur further work.
The second-tier actions focus on closing observational gaps by building
up the Large-scale Atmospheric, Distributed Marine, and Distributed
Terrestrial Observatories. The highest priority activities in this tier
mainly seek to augment existing programs and extend observations into
strategic areas that will allow us to learn the full scope of Unaami and
begin to understand linkages within the arctic system and with global
climate.
The third-tier actions include beginning the Linkages and Global
Coupling and Social Response activities. The Linkages and Global
Coupling activity area will test key hypotheses by undertaking analysis
and modeling efforts aimed at the various linkages within the arctic
system and with global climate. These efforts will take advantage of the
analysis and observational activities in tiers 1 and 2. The Social
Response (SOR) activity area will investigate social and economic
adaptation to climate change in the past and apply this knowledge to the
future. To do this, SEI and SOR will establish a system of coordinated
local and traditional knowledge co-ops and community data networks to
connect with communities and industries.
For more information, including copies of the SEARCH science plan and
draft implementation strategy, see the SEARCH web site at:
http://psc.apl.washington.edu/search/
or contact:
Jamie Morison, SEARCH SSC chair
University of Washington
Phone: 206/543-1394
Fax: 206/616-3142
Email: morison [at] apl.washington.edu