Section on the special year for mathematics of planet earth (MPE 2013)

Dozens of research centers, foundations, international organizations and scientific societies, including the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, have joined forces to celebrate 2013 as a special year for the Mathematics of Planet Earth. In its five-year history, the Annals of Applied Statistics has been publishing cutting edge research in this area, including geophysical, biological and socio-economic aspects of planet Earth, with the special section on statistics in the atmospheric sciences edited by Fuentes, Guttorp and Stein (2008) and the discussion paper by McShane and Wyner (2011) on paleoclimate reconstructions [Stein (2011)] having been highlights.