AE About
Cal-Adapt
Cal-Adapt encompasses a range of research and development efforts designed to provide access to California climate data. Each component of Cal-Adapt serves a specific purpose within the broader mission. As Cal-Adapt evolves and expands, it aims to support California’s Climate Change Assessments and offer a more comprehensive and powerful solution for technical and data-intensive needs. Cal-Adapt includes two distinct but interrelated products: Cal-Adapt: Analytics Engine and Cal-Adapt: Climate Explorer.
This graphic shows how Cal-Adapt is broken down into its two distinct but interrelated products: Cal-Adapt: Analytics Engine and Cal-Adapt: Climate Explorer.
Cal-Adapt: Analytics Engine
The Cal-Adapt: Analytics Engine is designed for complex and detailed analyses, requiring extensive data and technical or scientific expertise. Energy-sector stakeholders can utilize cloud computing resources through the Analytics Engine, while the underlying data is accessible to anyone via an array of data access methods. The Analytics Engine is intended to support in-depth understanding of climate data, offering analyses often obscured in other climate tools. It is particularly valuable for informing technical decisions, such as planning future infrastructure investments or assessing vulnerabilities to various climate hazards. Access to the Analytics Engine JupyterHub is restricted to energy sector stakeholders as this project is funded by the California Energy Commission. Please visit the Analytics Engine’s Data page or Notebooks GitHub to access the open source items available.
Cal-Adapt: Climate Explorer
The Cal-Adapt: Climate Explorer is a publicly available resource for exploring climate projections and accessing data and analytics with a targeted scope. This focus emphasizes understanding trends and gaining a holistic view of specific locations, rather than performing in-depth analyses across data sets. The Cal-Adapt: Climate Explorer is particularly useful for quick access to interactive maps and tools, providing a valuable overview of how climate change may impact various regions of the state.
The Climate Explorer is actively updating its resources to align with California’s Fifth Climate Change Assessment. The current site is primarily focused on the Fourth Climate Change Assessment. For more details, please follow the Cal-Adapt Blog.
| Cal-Adapt: Analytics Engine | Cal-Adapt.org (Climate Explorer) |
|---|---|
| Detailed data analysis | Interactive maps and tools |
|
Fifth Climate Change Assessment Data: CMIP6 downscaled climate data • Sub-daily (~hourly) temporal resolution • ~3km spatial resolution |
Fourth Climate Change Assessment Data: CMIP5 downscaled climate data • Daily temporal resolution • ~6km spatial resolution |
| Optimized for big data computation analysis using the cloud | Optimized for fast interactive data visualization on a web browser |
| Available to California energy sector users only | Available to everyone |
This graphic illustrates Cal-Adapt and the integration of climate change research products, historical observation data, and web tools, alongside the enhanced analytics tools and computational resources of the Analytics Engine.
Ongoing CEC-funded Climate Research
Cal-Adapt’s foundation includes research grants that generate extensive downscaled data. This data supports the planning and execution of applied research, including the development of climate projections, wildfire and hydrologic scenarios, quality-controlled historical weather data, and analyses that contribute to a resilient transition to a 100 percent clean energy system. Details about these grants are linked below:
- A Co-Produced Climate Data and Analytics Platform to Support California's Electricity Resilience Investments (EPC-20-007)
- Cal-Adapt: Analytics Engine
- Development of Climate Projections for California and Identification of Priority Projections (EPC-20-006)
- Development and Evaluation of a High Resolution Historical Climate Dataset over California (PIR-19-007)
- Climate Analytics to Support Natural Gas Sector Utilities: Actionable, Responsive and Open Solutions for Historical Climate Needs in California (PIR-19-006)
- Climate-Informed Energy Sector Adaptation Planning Web Application via Cal-Adapt (EPC-21-038)
- Advancing California’s Electricity Resource Planning Tools to Assess and Improve Climate Resilience (EPC-22-001)
- Climate-Informed Load Forecasting & Electric Grid Modeling to Support a Climate Resilient Transition to Zero-Carbon (EPC-21-041)
- Climate-Informed Generation Capacity Modeling to Support a Climate Resilient Transition to a Clean Electricity System (EPC-21-037)
- Developing Next-generation Cal-Adapt Features to Support Natural Gas Sector Resilience (PIR-17-012)
- Comprehensive Open Source Development of Next Generation Wildfire Models for Grid Resiliency (EPC-18-026)