Overview
The Water and Energy Cycle focus area (WEC) works to define, quantify, and model the different components of the water cycle that take place on land, including precipitation, snow, soil moisture, surface water and groundwater, and their interactions with other Earth systems. This research helps improve our understanding of how much water exists on Earth, how it’s changing over time, and what quality it’s in. It also helps us understand the energy that is transferred when water moves around the Earth and changes phase from liquid water to water vapor to snow. WEC uses observations from satellites and aircraft to help inform this research, and they partner with other Research and Analysis Program focus areas on crosscutting topics like ocean dynamics and cloud formation.
