Climate

Climate Security

The Climate Security program works to understand and prepare the nation for the national security implications of climate change.

National security is Sandia National Laboratories’ foundational mission. Our nation’s security can only be achieved in a stable international environment. Sandia maintains close working relationships within the many agencies of the intelligence community and the DoD. There is a growing recognition of the importance of the impact of climate change on emergent security dynamics and intervention capabilities as documented in a series of reports. The UK Ministry of Defense previously devoted more than one-third of its analysis on threats due to climate change (Global Strategic Trends: 2007–2036). The climate instability we now anticipate will produce conditions that increase border tensions, reduce the abilities of allies to respond, and provide an environment ripe for breeding terrorism and extremism. Most importantly, the DoD report, “Impacts of Climate Change,” notes the critical need to substantiate climate concerns by developing analytical tools to ensure self consistency, realism, validation, and a concrete foundation for strategic/tactical and operational execution.

Sensing and Monitoring

The Atmospheric Radiation Monitoring (ARM) program is the Department of Energy’s largest global climate-change research effort. Created in 1989 to help resolve scientific uncertainties related to global climate change, the ARM program focuses on the role of clouds and aerosols.

Modeling and Analysis

The uncertainty in climate change and its impacts is of great concern to the international community. While the ever-growing body of scientific evidence substantiates present climate change, the driving concern about this issue lies in the consequences it poses to humanity. Policy makers will most likely need to make decisions about climate policy before climate scientists have quantified all relevant uncertainties about the impacts of climate change. Sandia scientists seek to develop a risk-assessment methodology to evaluate uncertain future climatic conditions.

• Systems Modeling

Carbon Management

A growing consensus exists among climate scientists, economists, and policy makers that the link between man-made emissions of greenhouse gasses (GHGs) and climate instability is sufficiently likely to motivate global actions. Energy use and energy generation are at the heart of the problem, with the International Energy Agency (IEA) forecasting that global electricity generation will nearly double from 2005 to 2030.

• Carbon Management Systems
• Molecular Geochemistry
• Geomechanics Laboratory
• Earth Science
• Bureau of Land Management
• Fossil Energy
• Liquid Natural Gas (LNG)
• Clean Coal

Water Security

The safety, security, and sustainability of our fresh/potable water supply are national security issues. Nationally, water is a critical part of our economy through the connection to energy production and to our economic prosperity and security.

• Energy-Water Nexus
• Energy and Water in the Western and Texas Interconnects

Climate Publications

• EERE Security Overview 3.13 MB
• Analysis of Drought Impacts on Electricity Production in the Western and Texas Interconnections of the United States 2.86 MB
• A Model for the Nation: Promoting Education and Innovation in Vermont’s Electricity Sector 6.83 MB
• A Reliability and Availability Sensitivity Study of a Large Photovoltaic System 935.89 kB
• Economic and Policy Analyses Provide Key Perspectives on Energy 466.91 kB

Upcoming Climate Events

• TedxABQ 2012: Engage Your Passion
  September 8, 2012 to September 8, 2012, Albuquerque, NM
  

  Mark Boslough will be giving a presentation at the TedxABQ 2012: Engage Your Passion called, “Betting on Global Warming.”

• ECIS Climate Change and National Security Speaker Series
  May 1, 2013 to May 1, 2013,
  

  Dr. Richard Alley is the Evan Pugh Professor at the Department of Geosciences, and Earth and Environmental Systems Institute, at the Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Alley has traveled from Antarctica to Greenland to help learn the history of Earth's climate and whether the great ice sheets will fall in the ocean and flood our coasts. With over 225 scientific publications, he has been asked to provide advice to the highest levels of government, and been recognized with numerous awards including election to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. He hosted the recent PBS miniseries “Earth: The Operators' Manual,” and has been compared to a cross between Woody Allen and Carl Sagan for his enthusiastic efforts to communicate the excitement and importance of the science to everyone.

• PV Performance Modeling Workshop
  May 1, 2013 to May 2, 2013, Biltmore Hotel
  

  This symposium co-hosted by Sandia National Laboratories and the Electric Power Research Institute includes three separate workshops organized over one week.

See All Upcoming Events

Climate News

Louisiana Blue Ribbon Commission on Bayou Corne SafetySecretary Stephen Chustz, from the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources (LADNR), asked David Borns (in Sandia’s Geotechnology and Engineering Dept.) to serve on the blue ribbon commission (BRC) that was formed by Governor Bobby Jindal to provide science-based public safety recommendations regarding the sinkhole in the Bayou Corne area. The BRC will help LADNR continue [...]

Implemented “Vertically Lagrangian” Option in the Community Atmosphere ModelThe Community Earth System Model (CESM) is a state-of-the-art global climate model being developed with the support of the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy and used for climate-change science and assessments. Sandia has been leading a multilaboratory effort to develop a new “dynamical core” for CESM’s atmospheric component. This new dynamical core [...]