The Earth System Research Laboratories (ESRL) is an alliance of four

NOAA The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, charting the seas, conducting deep-sea exploratio ...

scientific labs, all located in the David Skaggs Research Center on the

Department of Commerce The United States Department of Commerce (DOC) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government. It is responsible for gathering data for business ...

campus in

Boulder, Colorado Boulder is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule city in Boulder County, Colorado, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the most ...

. Organized under NOAA's

Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) is a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). OAR is also referred to as NOAA Research. NOAA Research is the research and development arm of NOAA and is the driving force beh ...

, ESRL's main goal is to advance the scientific understanding of

weather Weather is the state of the atmosphere, describing for example the degree to which it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloud cover, cloudy. On Earth, most weather phenomena occur in the lowest layer of the planet's atmo ...

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in a region, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteoro ...

air quality Air pollution is the presence of substances in the Atmosphere of Earth, air that are harmful to humans, other living beings or the environment. Pollutants can be Gas, gases like Ground-level ozone, ozone or nitrogen oxides or small particles li ...

water resources Water resources are natural resources of water that are potentially useful for humans, for example as a source of drinking water supply or irrigation water. These resources can be either Fresh water, freshwater from natural sources, or water produ ...

, and other Earth system components. The four labs’ intersecting missions have generated a legacy of accomplishment over the past 50 years. Backed by scientists from cooperative research institutes at the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, the University of Colorado Denver, and the U ...

and

Colorado State University Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado, United States. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University Syst ...

, ESRL has been an engine of scientific discovery, producing environmental models and products, along with forecasting and decision-support tools to protect life and safety, and support commerce at local to global scales. Together with its university partners and the nearby

National Center for Atmospheric Research The US National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR ) is a US federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) managed by the nonprofit University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) and funded by the National Science Foundat ...

, ESRL has helped Boulder earn a reputation as one of the premier global centers for atmospheric research.

Laboratories

The Chemical Sciences Laboratory (CSL) advances scientific understanding of the chemical and physical processes that affect Earth's atmospheric composition and climate. The Global Monitoring Laboratory (GML) researches

greenhouse gas Greenhouse gases (GHGs) are the gases in the atmosphere that raise the surface temperature of planets such as the Earth. Unlike other gases, greenhouse gases absorb the radiations that a planet emits, resulting in the greenhouse effect. T ...

and

carbon cycle The carbon cycle is a part of the biogeochemical cycle where carbon is exchanged among the biosphere, pedosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere of Earth. Other major biogeochemical cycles include the nitrogen cycle and the water cycl ...

feedbacks, changes in

cloud In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles, suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may ...

aerosol An aerosol is a suspension (chemistry), suspension of fine solid particles or liquid Drop (liquid), droplets in air or another gas. Aerosols can be generated from natural or Human impact on the environment, human causes. The term ''aerosol'' co ...

s, and surface radiation, and the recovery of

stratospheric ozone The ozone layer or ozone shield is a region of Earth's stratosphere that absorbs most of the Sun's ultraviolet radiation. It contains a high concentration of ozone (O3) in relation to other parts of the atmosphere, although still small in rela ...

. The Global Systems Laboratory (GSL) develops next-generation

weather forecast Weather forecasting or weather prediction is the application of science and technology to predict the conditions of the atmosphere for a given location and time. People have attempted to predict the weather informally for thousands of years an ...

models, decision support tools, visualization systems, and uses high-performance computing technology to support a Weather-Ready Nation. The Physical Sciences Laboratory (PSL) conducts weather, climate, and

hydrologic Hydrology () is the scientific study of the movement, distribution, and management of water on Earth and other planets, including the water cycle, water resources, and drainage basin sustainability. A practitioner of hydrology is called a hydro ...

research to effectively anticipate and respond to the challenges of hydrologic extremes.

History

On October 1, 2005, NOAA's Aeronomy Laboratory, Climate Diagnostics Center, Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory, Environmental Technology Laboratory, and Forecast Systems Laboratory were merged into four divisions of the newly formed Earth System Research Laboratory. These were the Chemical Sciences Division, Global Monitoring Division, Global Systems Division, and Physical Sciences Division. On April 2, 2020, NOAA designated the four divisions of the Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder as full laboratories within the NOAA Oceanic and Atmospheric Research line office to meet recent shifts in mission-essential priorities. The four laboratories retained their core research missions and continue to collaborate closely with each other and other NOAA Research laboratories to improve understanding and ability to predict changes in Earth's atmosphere, climate, and weather.

References

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External links

* {{Authority control Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research Climate change organizations based in the United States Earth system sciences