Goddard Institute for Space Studies
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The NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), at Columbia University in New York City, is a component laboratory of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Earth-Sun Exploration Division and a unit of The Earth Institute at Columbia University. Current research at GISS emphasizes a broad study of global climate change.

GISS was established in May 1961 by Robert Jastrow to do basic research in space sciences in support of Goddard programs. It was then called the Goddard Space Flight Center Institute for Space Studies but quickly became generally known as the Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

GISS is currently directed by James Hansen.

News

In November 2008 the institute published their monthly heat maps indicating that October 2008 had been exceptionally hot, mostly due to an warm temperature anomaly in Russia. The anomaly was caused by the mistaken repeated use of September's data for many Russian, UK, and other surface stations, instead of October's.

Climatologists Drew Shindell and Gavin Schmidt of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, have received Scientific American magazine's Top 50 Scientist award¹ in November 2004.

In 2005 and 2006, Institute Director James Hansen stated in interviews with the Washington Post ² and The New York Times³ that NASA administrators have tried to influence his public statements about the causes of climate change. Hansen stated that NASA public relations staff were ordered to review his public statements and interviews after a December 2005 lecture at the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.

James Hansen has also appeared on 60 Minutes ⁴ claiming that the George W. Bush administration edited climate-related press releases reported by federal agencies to make global warming seem less threatening.³ Hansen said he is unable to speak "freely", without the backlash of other government officials. "In my more than three decades in the government I've never witnessed such restrictions on the ability of scientists to communicate with the public," he said. ⁴

NASA's inspector general investigated this, and concluded that a pattern of distortion and suppression of climate science by political appointees had indeed occurred.

Climate change research

A key objective of GISS research is prediction of atmospheric and climate changes in the 21st century. The research combines analysis of comprehensive global datasets, derived mainly from spacecraft observations, with global models of atmospheric, land surface, and oceanic processes.

As the principal NASA center for Earth observations, Goddard Space Flight Center plays a leading role in global change research. Global change studies at GISS are coordinated with research at other groups within the Earth Sciences Division, including the Laboratory for Atmospheres, Laboratory for Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences, and Earth Observing System science office.

Trivia

• The institute is housed at the corner of West 112th St. and Broadway in New York City in Columbia University's Armstrong Hall. The building houses Tom's Restaurant, which was the exterior for the restaurant in Seinfeld and the subject of the Suzanne Vega song Tom's Diner.
• The term black hole was coined in 1967 during a talk John Archibald Wheeler gave at the NASA Goddard Institute of Space Studies (GISS).⁵

Notes

See also

• EdGCM
• National Center for Atmospheric Research
• Earth Simulator

External links

• Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) - Official Site