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NOAA Names the University of Maryland to Host Cooperative Institute for Satellite Earth System Studies (CISESS)

M Square Building - ESSICNOAA Center for Weather and Climate Prediction

31 May 2019 - The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced on May 24, 2019 that it has selected the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland, to host NOAA's cooperative institute focused on the use satellite data, in situ observations, and Earth System models to enhance our understanding of how the atmosphere-ocean-land-biosphere components of Earth interact with each other and human activities as a coupled system.

The Cooperative Institute for Satellite Earth System Studies (CISESS) is a national consortium of academic and nonprofit institutions, with leadership from the University of Maryland College Park (UMD) and North Carolina State University (NCSU).

CISESS will contribute to NOAA mission-directed research leading to greater observation, understanding, and prediction of the global Earth System. CISESS will provide the capabilities and expertise to improve systems for data access, quality, management, processing, analysis, assimilation, modeling, dissemination, visualization and stewardship. CISESS will help NOAA apply advances in high performance computing, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and social sciences related to the physical science efforts, as well as continue topics such as satellite calibration, algorithm development and maintaining long-term data records from satellites and in-situ measurements.

The selection comes with an award of up to $175 million over the course of the five-year award, with the potential for renewal for another five years based on successful performance. NOAA made the selection after an open, competitive evaluation. The new cooperative institute continues the heritage of the Cooperative Institute for Climate Studies (CICS) that was first created as a NOAA cooperative institute in 1984, renamed to the Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites (CICS) in 2009.