HR: 1340h
AN: PP53A-1387    [Abstracts]
TI: NSF-PARCS: A Case Study in Proxy Climate Syntheses for the CCSP Assessment
AU: * Duvall, M
EM: mduvall@bates.edu
AF: Department of Geology Bates College, Carnegie Science, Lewiston, ME 04240 United States
AU: Kaufman, D
EM: Darrell.Kaufman@nau.edu
AF: Northern Arizona University Department of Geology, Frier Hall, Knoles Ave, Flagstaff, AZ 86011-4099 United States
AU: MacDonald, G
EM: macdonal@geog.ucla.edu
AF: Department of Geography University of California, Los Angeles, 405 Hilgard Ave.,, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1524 United States
AB: The research agenda of the NSF-funded Paleoenvironmental Arctic Sciences (PARCS) program has focused recently on high-resolution records that provide quantifiable estimates of past climates. Syntheses of this research are planned to meet the needs of both the research community and the US Climate Change Science Program. PARCS provides a case study into how proxy climate data generated by a group of collaborating scientists have input into a broader assessment. PARCS was founded in 1999 as an NSF initiative straddling the Arctic System Science (ARCSS) and the Earth System History (ESH) programs to foster a wide range of research on paleoenvironmental change in the Arctic. In March 2001, the PARCS scientific community met to focus its research agenda with the goal of more directly contributing to global-change assessments by providing high-resolution, quantified estimates of past climate. The result was the science plan, "Modes of Arctic Climate Variability and Warmth," an area of research interest under the ESH Program. The plan identified a suite of deliverables that mesh with products now identified by the 2003 CCSP. PARCS has organized workshops addressing this suite of deliverables on the subjects of warm Arctic scenarios (the last interglacial and the Holocene thermal maximum) and variability in Arctic summer temperatures (annual to decadal scale resolution) to review and assemble proxy climate data in preparation for peer-reviewed summaries and for broader dissemination of data syntheses. The goal is to generate data related to these specific themes, and to integrate these data with records currently being produced by other groups nationally and internationally. The data will be assembled, analyzed, and presented as part of a searchable geo-referenced database. PARCS' vehicle for presenting these syntheses beyond peer-reviewed publication is a web-enabled database. The database is being assembled by a PARCS-dedicated data manager whose duties include creation of data-visualization products. Initial PARCS data syntheses and presentations were accomplished by combining the synthesis results with methods, visualizations, and primary data accessible through static html pages on the World Wide Web. With the most recent PARCS efforts, we are expanding our approach by co-developing a single, multi-proxy database with the World Data Center for Paleoclimatology (WDCP) to house these and other non-PARCS projects. One goal of this database, termed "Open", is to meet the data needs of global-change assessments at the national and international levels. Open will maintain links between primary and synthesized data, allow expanded searches (e.g. searching in spatial, temporal, and/or structural contexts across proxies) and provide improved data viewing via maps, animations and time series. In short, Open includes both the database, and the tools to help the user explore the proxy climate data. An up-dated version of PARCS data will be available through Open by August 2005 and will contribute to the "two-year" goals of the 2003 CCSP.
UR: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/parcs
DE: 1699 General or miscellaneous
SC: Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology [PP]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting