CROCUS is an Urban Integrated Field Laboratory led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory in partnership with academic and community organizations and civic and industry champions.
Funded by the DOE’s Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research program, CROCUS studies urban climate and its implications for the Chicago region. The CROCUS team conducts novel, multi-scale observational science and creates highly accurate climate models. This information leads to new insights on extreme weather, supports the development of applicable tools and informs future actions for economic prosperity, human health, infrastructure and overall quality of life in Chicago and across the country. Our research supports new curriculum and programs at academic partner institutions and provides workforce development opportunities.
Extreme weather doesn’t limit itself to an exact location. Every city, every region, is a collection of microclimates and all of those microclimates impact and feed off each other. We want to understand how the atmosphere and urban systems interact at increasingly detailed scales. We want to build stronger tools for predicting and understanding extreme weather. For that, we need the best and most complete data possible. That is the goal of CROCUS.
Cristina Negri
CROCUS Project Director and Lead Principal Investigator
