SEARCH Projects

Planning and Assessment For a Study of Environmental Arctic Change (SEARCH)

PI: Morison, U of Washington

Abstract

The Arctic is predicted to be the first place to sense global warming due to the climate feedbacks created from melting of snow and ice cover at high latitudes. This project establishes an office that will facilitate collection of information from a multidisciplinary group of Arctic researchers who have individually determined that a significant warming of the Arctic environment has been underway for at least a decade. The office will gather information and conduct planning activities for the Study of Environmental Arctic Change (SEARCH) project in order to assess the cause and effects for a warming of the Arctic that may be related to initiation of greenhouse warming. The SEARCH office will serve as the focus for scientific planning of a research program that will be designed to support a coordinated, interagency effort to gather enough information to assess the causes of the current warming and predict the likely progress of the warming trend and its potential impacts on the environment and society.