PACO is an acronym for the phrase 'Project for the Analysis of Climate Variability and its Origins'. It is a research project that was established in 1995 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to study the causes of climate variability. The project is based at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. ALPACA is an acronym for the phrase 'Atmospheric and Land Processes Atmospheric Chemistry Analysis'. This project is a collaboration between NOAA and the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, and it focuses on the study of atmospheric chemistry and land processes.