Climate and climatology constitute an integral interdisciplinary theme throughout the Division and DRI. DAS faculty who work in climate and climatology have interests in climate variability and change, both historical and future projected climates, physical climatology, applied climatology and climate services. While the primary geographic focus is on the western United States and Nevada, projects span the globe. Two major research groups are active in these topics: NOAA Western Regional Climate Center and the Climate Modeling group. Additionally, a number of DAS faculty engage in theoretical and observational studies relevant to climate forcing and change, including dynamic meteorology, and in-situ and remote sensing studies of aerosols and clouds. Within the modeling group, downscaling of present and future climate simulations is performed for the Western U.S. towards the goals of assessing future changes in climate indices and providing projections for climate impacts studies. The capacity for global climate modeling at DRI is under development. At the WRCC primary areas of current research include monitoring of climate and climate change, and applications of climate data and information for stakeholder and user groups. Through collaborations with the other divisions of DRI, and external to DRI, these data stewardship, analysis, and modeling activities will serve as a basis for interdisciplinary studies of climate impacts on water resources and ecology.

Please select a DAS research project for more information.