CIRES

CIRES, the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, is a research institute at the University of Colorado Boulder in Boulder, Colorado. It is a long-standing partnership between the university and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that brings together scientists from both organizations to study the Earth system. The institute was established to foster interdisciplinary collaboration, advance environmental science, and support NOAA’s mission through joint research, education, and data services.

CIRES covers a broad range of scientific disciplines, including atmospheric chemistry and physics, climate variability and change, weather forecasting and prediction, hydrology and water resources, cryospheric science, geophysics, space physics, and data and computational sciences. Researchers investigate processes across the atmosphere, oceans, land surface, ice, and the biosphere, as well as interactions with solar and geomagnetic activity. The institute also provides training opportunities for graduate students and early-career scientists, and administers or coordinates NOAA-funded research programs at CU Boulder.

Facility and ecosystem: CIRES operates on the CU Boulder campus, bringing together faculty, researchers, postdocs, and students from multiple departments, together with NOAA scientists who hold appointments through CIRES. Its work often involves field campaigns, laboratory studies, satellite observations, computer modeling, and data synthesis. CIRES collaborates with other research organizations, including the National Center for Atmospheric Research and international partners, to advance understanding of environmental processes and to improve weather and climate information for decision makers.