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Welcome to the ESSC Web page...
Founded within the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences in 1986, the Earth System Science Center (ESSC) maintains a mission to describe, model, and understand the Earth's climate system. ESSC is one of seven centers supported by the Earth & Environmental Systems Institute.
The climate can be viewed as a complex interacting set of components including the oceans, atmosphere, cryosphere, and biosphere. Within the ESSC, we are engaged in studies that aim to understand both these individual components, and the interactions between them.
Our approach involves:
- Employing a hierarchy of theoretical climate system models to perform long-term, high resolution climate model integration experiments aimed at understanding internal and forced changes in the climate system, including modern human or "anthropogenic" impacts on climate
- Emphasis on "process" to bridge problems on multiple timescales: Examining the interactions in the North Atlantic coupled ocean-atmosphere-cryosphere system, the dynamics of the tropical Pacific coupled system, the role of the hydrologic cycle and freshwater in climate change, the relationship between climate variability and synoptic-scale dynamics, and the relationship between ocean biogeochemistry and climate change
- A combination of modeling, empirical analysis, and exploration of fundamental processes to investigate the behavior of the climate system. This includes coupled ocean-atmosphere climate modeling, reconstruction of past climate using paleoclimate data, the comparison of models and observations, and the study of fundamental processes in the earth system
- Development of new educational tools including interactive climate modeling tools tools to service both Penn State and the broader community
Highlights...
Subscribe to the ESSC Newsletter: send a blank email to: ESSC-newsletter-L-subscribe-request@lists.psu.edu |
| ESSC Director responds to RA-10 Investigation findings (1 July 2010) Penn State's RA-10 Investigation into Dr. Michael E. Mann has concluded. He responds, "I am pleased that the last phase of Penn State's investigation has now been concluded, and that it has cleared me of any wrongdoing. These latest findings should finally put to rest the baseless allegations against me and my research." Read entire statement >> Read RA-10 Final Report >> |
| Mann and Kozar release 2010 Atlantic hurricane season prediction ESSC director Dr. Michael Mann and graduate student Michael Kozar have recently released their prediction for the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from 1 June to 30 November. Mann and Kozar predict an extremely active season due to warmer than average sea surface temperatures in the tropical Atlantic Ocean and projections of near-neutral or slightly cool ENSO conditions. Read more >> |
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Alley elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences