CCSP GOALS AND ANALYSIS OF PROGRESS TOWARD THESE GOALS. OUR CHANGING PLANET The U.S. Climate Change Science

O U R C H A N G I N G P L A N E Tsystem (e.g., the Climate Research Committee and the Committee on the HumanDimensions of Global Change). CCSP will continue to rely on scientific advisorygroups that support individual agencies, scientific steering groups organized tocoordinate different CCSP research elements, and open dialog with the domestic andinternational scientific and user communities interested in global change issues. CCSP GOALS AND ANALYSIS OF PROGRESSTOWARDTHESE GOALSThe Climate Change Science Program focuses on five goals that address the full rangeof global change research, observations, and decision support. These goals addressunderstanding the components of the Earth’s varying environmental system, with aparticular focus on climate; understanding how these components interact to determinepresent conditions; understanding what drives these components; understanding thehistory of global change and projecting future change; and understanding howknowledge about global environmental variability and change can be applied topresent-day and future decisionmaking.This section provides an overview of the progress made toward achieving these goals inthe 12 to 18 months prior to the preparation of the FY 2009 edition of Our ChangingPlanet. Because of the breadth of climate research funded by the U.S. Government, thisoverview only provides a general summary of some of the many climate change researchactivities covered under the CCSP umbrella.In the ...