UC San Diego Annual Financial Report, 06–07

• Introduction
• Rankings
• Letter from the Chancellor
• Letter from the Vice Chancellor for Business Affairs
• UCSD Facts
• Addressing Community Needs
• Real World Impact
• Jacobs School of Engineering
• Health Sciences
• Biological Sciences
• UCSD Libraries
• Rady School of Management
• Arts and Humanities
• Scripps Institution of Oceanography
• Physical Sciences
• San Diego Supercomputer Center
• Social Sciences
• International Relations and Pacific Studies
• CalIT2
• Student Affairs
• Extension
• Preuss School
• Financial Highlights
• Regents & Officers
• About this Report

A number of Scripps scientists are exploring how global climate change will extend to California. Scripps is collaborating with the city of San Diego to assess which areas of the city are most prone to flooding under a variety of climate change scenarios. The work builds on the efforts of the California Climate Action Team created by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2005 to develop strategies for reaching his greenhouse gas-reduction targets. Dan Cayan, Ph.D., of Scripps was a contributing author of the action team’s initial report, and several other institution scientists participated in the research.

Atmospheric chemistry professor V. Ramanathan and his team are studying the effects of black carbon particles such as soot that travel from Asia across the Pacific Ocean to the West Coast. The team is assessing the effects of giant plumes of the pollutants on the climate of the Pacific and how it might be influencing snow melt in the Sierra Nevada and by extension, the state’s water supply.

HELPING SAN DIEGO COPE WITH CLIMATE CHANGE

With more than a century of exploration and discovery in global sciences, Scripps is the world’s preeminent center for ocean and earth research, teaching, and public education. Scripps scientists and students take advantage of the institution’s proximity to Mexico by developing partnerships with Mexican research institutions. Researchers have collaborated with their counterparts at the Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education of Ensenada (CICESE) and Universidad Autónoma de México, among others, on projects ranging from ecosystem studies in the Gulf of California to marine mammal acoustics.

Four Scripps researchers served as authors or reviewers of the Fourth Assessment Report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The first component of the United Nations-sponsored report, a summary for policymakers, was released in February 2007 and contained several key findings and revised estimates about climate change—ranging from temperature increase to sea level rise.

Project Atmospheric Brown Clouds (ABC), another international collaboration, is sponsored by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and based at Scripps. Researchers are investigating how dust and pollution particles are transported, and how they affect environment, climate, agricultural cycles, and quality of life.