This announcement serves as a supplemental information sheet to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration FY 1997 Climate and Global Change Program Announcement of Opportunity. PACS is jointly sponsored by the NOAA Office of Global Programs and Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research.
Program Scope
The Pan American Climate Studies program (PACS) is a component of the U.S. GOALS program in the 1995-2004 time frame which provides a phenomenological context and regional focus for GOALS research objectives. The overall goal of PACS is to extend the scope and improve the skill of operational seasonal-to-interannual climate prediction over the Americas. Particular emphasis is placed on understanding the mechanisms associated with warm season rainfall and its potential predictability. PACS is concerned not only with seasonal mean rainfall and temperature, but also with the frequency of occurrence of significant weather events over the course of a season or seasons.
The scientific objectives of PACS are to promote a better understanding and more realistic simulation of i) the boundary forcing of seasonal-to-interannual climate variability over the Americas, ii) the evolution of tropical SST anomalies, iii) the seasonally varying mean climate over the Americas and adjacent ocean regions, iv) the structure of the ITCZ/cold tongue complex, and v) the relevant land surface processes that shape the distribution of continental precipitation.
PACS is being implemented through a balanced program of pilot field observations, dataset development, and empirical and modeling studies. During the first five years of the program,, field studies are focusing on the tropical eastern Pacific, with emphasis on air-sea interaction within the ITCZ cold tongue-stratus deck complex and its relation to continental rainfall on the seasonal-to-interannual time scale. Pilot field studies have been selected to provide improved measurements of atmospheric planetary boundary-layer structure, rainfall, surface fluxes, and upper ocean vertical velocities in the tropical eastern Pacific. Data from these field efforts should be begin to be available in late 1997.
Beginning in FY 1997, PACS anticipates development of an integrated program with the GEWEX Continental-Scale International Project (GCIP) focusing on warm season rainfall over North America. In this collaboration, PACS will supply the larger-scale ocean/atmosphere modeling and diagnostics expertise and GCIP will provide the more locally focused land/atmosphere modeling and diagnostics. This research will require the use of mesoscale models applied in a climatological setting. Start-up proposals in this emerging research area are invited under this announcement.
Program Priorities
The FY 1997 PACS Program Announcement invites proposals in the following areas:
Those interested in submitting a letter of intent are strongly encouraged to review the PACS Scientific Prospectus, the draft PACS Implementation Plan, the draft prospectus for joint PACS/GCIP studies centered on the North American monsoon system, and abstracts of funded field projects, all found on the PACS web site or by contacting the Office of Global Programs (301-427-2089 ext. 14).
Funding Availability
Consistent with the NOAA Climate and Global Change Announcement of Opportunity, this Program Announcement is for projects to be conducted by investigators both inside and outside of NOAA, over a period of up to three years. Current plans anticipate resources totalling $2.0 million available to support new (or renewing) PACS awards. The actual funding level is subject to change depending on the final FY 1997 budget appropriation for the Climate and Global Change Program. For federal government investigators, funding will be provided through intra- or interagency transfers, as appropriate. For nonfederal investigators, the funding instrument will be a grant, unless it is anticipated that NOAA will have substantial involvement in the project and NOAA determines it appropriate to use a cooperative agreement.
Schedule and Proposal Submission
The following deadlines for submission to this Announcement should be strictly followed.
Letters of intent must be received at OGP no later than July 19, 1996. Full proposals, if encouraged, must be received no later than September 20, 1996.
Applicants should receive a response to their letter of intent by August 9, 1996. Investigators who have not received notification by that date should contact the program office. We anticipate the review will occur during the fall of 1996 and funding should begin during the spring of 1997 for most approved projects. May 1, 1997 should be used as the proposed start date on proposals, unless otherwise directed by a Program Manager. Applicants should be notified of their status within six months. All proposals must be submitted in accordance with the guidelines provided in the FY 1997 NOAA Climate and Global Change Program Announcement. Failure to heed the guidelines may result in proposals being returned without review.
Proposals should be submitted to:
Office of Global Programs
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
1100 Wayne Avenue, Suite 1225
Silver Spring, MD 20910-5603
Attn: Irma duPree
For further information contact Michael Patterson at the above address, 301- 427-2089 ext. 12, (patterson@ogp.noaa.gov) or Andrea Ray, NOAA/Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, 1315 East-West Highway, Mail Code R\PDC, Silver Spring, MD 20910, 301-713-2465, ext. 126, (aray@oar.noaa.gov).