Twenty-seven projects have been awarded $15.6 million in Department of Energy (DOE) funds to study the interaction between aerosols and clouds for the DOE's Atmospheric System Research (ASR) program.
Awardees will conduct studies over a three-year period with the goal of modeling climate systems and developing weather prediction tools to help the federal government tackle climate emergencies, DOE said Thursday.
Funding recipients will use data from the department's ground-based Atmospheric Radiation Measurement facility to look at how aerosol affects the cloud-forming process in the atmosphere and how clouds change the chemistry of aerosols.
"The Earth’s atmosphere holds the answers to how our planet is changing in the face of the climate crisis, as well as how we can predict and mitigate the effects,” said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.
The department issued the competitive grants following a peer review of the projects through the ASR Program backed by its biological and environmental research office.
On Wednesday, DOE opened a $27 million funding opportunity for research into ocean wave energy converters.