The overriding objective of all projects conducted at CCSR is to provide an enhanced understanding of the Earth's climate sensitivity and variability, as well as the forcing and feedback mechanisms that control them. The center is especially concerned with aspects of the climate system that have the potential to impact human populations and environmental stability.

As with all change, climate change can be viewed as a problem to avoid or a challenge requiring adaptation. One of our main objectives is to better delineate the types of climate-related changes that societies will face during the coming decades to help determine the severity of the impacts. Our goal is to provide information that will help governments, industries and citizens prepare for future climate-related problems or to seize the opportunities that may be presented if environmental changes can be rendered more predictable.

The focus of the collaborative research is to bring together the necessary expertise required to tackle multi-faceted problems involving the observation and modeling of climate variability, climate change, and climate impacts. CCSR and GISS scientists utilize observations and modeling techniques to advance the study of climate variability and the sensitivity of climate to natural and anthropogenic forcings. In this way we steadily advance in our abilities to provide the much-needed predictability that societies need to adapt to the impact of future climate change.