Overview

Launched in the summer of 2008, Scripps Partnership for Hazards and Environmental Applied Research (SPHEAR) seeks cutting-edge research in weather phenomena, natural hazards, climate change, and ocean biology.  SPHEAR is designed to provide member companies an opportunity to work directly with today’s leading scientific minds. Corporate partners expect a return-on-investment and academic partners expect to break new scientific ground. Both sides work closely together to set a research direction then, in return for their capital contribution, corporate partners interact directly with teams of earth, ocean, and atmospheric scientists throughout the entire scientific process. Corporate partners seek to enhance their risk management practices, investing strategies, product lines, product pipelines, and corporate governance practices by applying Scripps research findings.

In the first quarter of 2009, a group of SPHEAR corporate partners teamed with Scripps researchers to launch a pilot project that will deliver insights on weather extremes as applied to energy trading.  Scripps is proud to be working with Chesapeake Energy, Susquehanna International Group, and Citadel Investment Group on our first project that focuses on cold weather outbreaks and their impact to the energy complex. Dr. Alexander (Sasha) Gershunov is the lead Scripps scientist for the project which: (1) uses a comprehensive definition to examine the variability of regional cold extremes; (2) uses powerful statistical tools to investigate causality and demonstrate skillful seasonal-to-interannual predictability of the seasonal probability and other features of regional cold outbreaks; (3) examines synoptic causes and precursors of individual regional cold events; and (4) expects to use this information to improve the lead-time and skill of their extended range weather forecasts by tapping into relevant precursor weather information and conditioning the weather forecast on contemporaneous large-scale climate information.

In its full capacity (after completion of the pilot research), SPHEAR members are expected to represent multiple industries such as energy, recreation, insurance and reinsurance, agriculture, technology, and financial services and trading. 

Vision

Scripps scientists work with researchers from within the University of California system and across the globe on projects of interest to partner businesses. This includes research in:

• Atmospheric sciences --  including temperature and precipitation extremes, seasonal weather patterns, and hurricanes
  
• Climate change -- as it relates to the entire Earth system, including ocean biology
  
• Geophysics -- as it relates to catastrophic earthquakes and other natural hazards
  
• Oceanography -- as it relates to global weather patterns and climate change
• Ocean Biology -- as it relates to the production of alternative fuels, petroleum products, and pharmaceuticals.