More than three decades of US - supported scientific research together with the body of work produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have allowed for
an increasingly accurate understanding of the complex dynamics of the Earth's climate system as it responds to escalating human - induced emissions of greenhouse gases.
The need to adapt to a changing climate and eventually to mitigate climate change
increasingly requires more
accurate information on fluxes across the traditional domains atmosphere, ocean, land in order to improve our
understanding of the major climatic cycles, carbon, water and energy.