CSC, DOE Team on Climate Innovation

Read the full Spring 2012 issue.

CSC and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have agreed to collaborate on solutions that will help customers address the potentially adverse effects of climate change by using climate knowledge, data and tools.

Through the arrangement, CSC and ORNL, which is the DOE’s largest science and energy laboratory, will explore projects of mutual interest, applying climate science and technologies to model the Earth system, analyze climate and environmental data, and develop decision support tools and actionable information. (See also: Supercomputing the Climate: NASA's Big Data Mission)

CSC will work with ORNL’s Climate Change Science Institute (CCSI), based in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The institute houses ORNL’s significant expertise in climate change science, modeling and data systems, while CSC brings expertise in application and decision-support tool development, Big Data management and network integration.

“Partnering with companies such as CSC, which has a broad list of clients and understands their decision and information needs, enhances our ability to translate our world-class climate science findings into analyses and products that the public and private sectors need to be competitive in a changing business climate,” says Jim Hack, CCSI director.

Changes in climate, which can cause rising sea water levels and drought, for example, will ultimately affect decisions made in a variety of industries, ranging from agriculture to civil construction. Both the public and private sectors are looking to determine the short- and long-term risks brought about by natural climate variability and long-term climate change.

In addition to serving as a major climate-modeling center, ORNL has considerable expertise in applied research, climate decision support and risk management, and supports DOE missions in scientific discovery and innovation, clean energy and nuclear security.

CSC’s climate services span research and operations, including data collection, management, analysis and application solutions. The company also has a broad range of expertise in key fields related to climate impacts, such as air quality modeling, toxicology, chemistry, microbiology, geology, oceanography, and chemical, environmental and infrastructure engineering.

This new cooperative agreement enhances CSC’s efforts to help its clients, such as those in the financial services and process manufacturing industries, make greater use of the deep expertise and information developed by federal and academic scientists in their study of extreme climate and weather conditions.