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Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research
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NOAA Strategic Goal: Crosscutting

NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL), headquartered in Seattle, carries out interdisciplinary scientific investigations in oceanography, marine meteorology, climate change, and fishery recruitment variability. PMEL programs focus on open ocean observations in support of long-term monitoring and prediction of the ocean environment on time scales from hours to decades. The laboratory is at the forefront of El Nino/La Nina research through the development and maintenance of the TAO/TRITON Array of moored buoys in the equatorial Pacific. Early detection of the 1997-98 El Nino event provided by this observing system averted millions of dollars in economic losses across the nation. PMEL's research into ocean-atmosphere exchanges takes place through the Global Carbon Cycle Program, which assesses the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and oceans, and the Atmospheric Chemistry Program, which conducts field measurements to understand the distribution of climatically important trace gases and aerosols in the marine atmosphere. The Chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) Tracer Program uses dissolved CFCs as tracers of ocean circulation, for observations used to improve prediction of long-term climate variations such as those that give rise to persistent drought and recurrent flooding. Through the PMEL Vents Program, scientists assess the chemical, thermal, and biological changes to the ocean environment caused by hydrothermal venting near ocean seafloor spreading centers, for improved predictions of the impact of seafloor volcanism on global climate change. The PMEL Fisheries-Oceanography Coordinated Investigations (FOCI) Program is a joint research effort of PMEL scientists, researchers at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, and others to understand recruitment variability of commercially valuable fish and shellfish stocks in the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea, to reduce uncertainty in commercial fishery allocation decisions. In recent years, FOCI scientists have been involved in determining the effects of climate change on endangered Steller Sea Lion populations in the Aleutian Islands and along the Alaska Peninsula. The PMEL Tsunami Project seeks to mitigate tsunami hazards in Hawaii, Alaska, California, Oregon, and Washington through improved tsunami warnings, hazard assessment, and education activities.

JISAO is a NOAA Cooperative Institute sponsored by NOAA’s Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research at the University of Washington. JISAO has fostered collaborative research between NOAA scientists and university scientists and students since its inception in 1977, and conducts outstanding research, primarily with scientists at NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory. In recent years, JISAO has expanded their collaborations to include scientists at the NOAA Ocean Service, and NOAA Fisheries. JISAO conducts research under four themes: climate, environmental chemistry, marine ecosystems, and coastal oceanography.

NOAA Strategic Goal: Climate Variability and Change

NOAA is installing the U.S. Climate Reference Network across the country, to measure weather and climate. About 110 stations are envisioned for the network and more than 80 stations are presently operating in 40 states, including Washington. The network is intended to operate for many decades, providing highly accurate and well-documented measurements of key variables such as air temperature and precipitation. Data is used operationally to put climate anomalies into historical perspective and to detect climate change. The effort is supported by the NOAA Research Climate Observation and Services Program and the Air Resources Laboratory, which designed the stations and has been assembling, calibrating, deploying, and maintaining the network sites in collaboration with NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite and Data Information Service. A list of the operational sites and links to their data are available at this URL: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/crn/hourly.

To carry out NOAA’s mission to provide climate forecasts and products, the Climate Program Office supports research projects across the nation conducted by investigators outside the federal government, within the federal government, and in NOAA Cooperative Institutes. This research is accomplished through the strong support of the academic and private sectors, as well as NOAA and other federal laboratories. The research contributes to improved predictions and assessments of the effects of climate variability over a range of time scales from season to season, year to year, and over the course of a decade and beyond. Grants Recipients: Northwest Research Associates, University of Washington

The Earth System Research Laboratory operates nine stations as part of its integrated surface irradiance study (ISIS). The stations perform long-term, accurate measurements of the down welling broadband solar and ultraviolet-B radiation. Solar radiation is the driving energy for geophysical and biological processes that control weather and affect planetary life. One of these stations is located near Seattle, Washington. Information about these stations can be found at http://www.srrb.noaa.gov

NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) contributes to a consensus seasonal forecast and other products for the fire season for Washington and other states. This new climate decision-support tool provides information for a seasonal fire danger outlook, used by the National Interagency Coordination Center for fires to make proactive short- and long-range decisions for strategy development and resource allocation, and to improve efficiency and firefighter safety.

NOAA Strategic Goal: Weather and Air Quality

Computer systems developed by the NOAA Research Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) are in operation at all NOAA National Weather Service (NWS) field offices, two of which are located in Washington. ESRL has been the prime developer of the data ingest and display components of the NWS weather display and text generation system known as AWIPS (Advanced Weather Information Processing System). This system integrates meteorological, hydrological, satellite, and radar data. ESRL also developed the Interactive Forecast Preparation System Graphical Forecast Editor, a system that allows forecasters to display and manipulate forecast depictions of sensible weather (temperature, wind, precipitation, etc.), and use these to generate text and graphical forecasts for the public and other customers. NWS field offices are using this system to produce gridded forecast products, which allows forecasters to convey more information to the customers than they did in the past.

The Tsunami Research Program at the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL), headquartered in Seattle, Washington, seeks to mitigate tsunami hazards to Washington, Oregon, California, Hawaii, and Alaska. A tsunami is a series of very large ocean waves caused by underwater earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions, explosions, and even meteor impacts. Capable of flooding hundreds of meters inland past the typical high-water level, the fast-moving water associated with an inundating tsunami can crush homes and other coastal structures. More common occurrences, and devastating in an economic sense, are false alarms that lead to expensive evacuations of coastal areas. Research and development activities focus on improved tsunami warning information, including inundation maps for coastal communities and advanced observation and modeling technology to increase the speed and accuracy of tsunami forecasts and warnings. PMEL has developed and deployed an array of early warning buoys in the Pacific to increase the reliability of tsunami warnings. This array consists of six moored buoys located at key deep water sites to improve risk assessment from tsunamis associated with major earthquake hazard areas around the Pacific Basin. Responsibility for maintaining the buoys has now been transitioned to the National Weather Service National Data Buoy Center. These activities are undertaken as part of the National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program, a state/federal partnership created to reduce the risks of tsunamis to U.S. coastal areas.

NOAA Strategic Goal: Ecosystems

NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory is using Fish Lidar to conduct sardine surveys off the coast of Oregon and Washington. LIDAR is an acronym for Light Detection And Ranging. Fish Lidar uses pulses of laser light to measure schools of fish swimming in the ocean. The per kilometer cost of a survey using Lidar from a small aircraft is less than 10% of a ship survey, and the depth penetration is more than 3 times that of a visual survey. This study is using one of the NOAA aircraft flying out of Astoria, Oregon in 1995 and 1996. It is a collaborative project that also includes scientists from Oregon State University and the University of Washington. For more information see http://www.etl.noaa.gov/fishlidar/.

NOAA’s National Sea Grant College Program is a federal-university partnership that integrates research, education, and outreach (extension and communications). Sea Grant forms a network of 32 programs in all U.S. coastal and Great Lakes states, Puerto Rico and Guam. Washington Sea Grant serves communities, industries and the people of Washington state, the Pacific Northwest and the nation through marine research, education and outreach. Current research projects focus on ecosystem health, living marine resources, economic and community development, and new technologies for study and development of marine products and marine applications. Washington universities and institutions that have received research and education funding through Sea Grant include University of Washington, University of Washington-Tacoma, Washington State University, Western Washington University, Seattle Pacific University, Bellingham Technical College, Grays Harbor College, Eastern Washington University, Pacific Science Center, Seattle Aquarium, Seattle Central Community College, Shoreline Community College, Pacific Lutheran University, and the University of Puget Sound. For more information see http://www.wsg.washington.edu.

NOAA's Undersea Research Program (NURP) is a unique national service that provides undersea scientists with tools and expertise that they need to work in the undersea environment, from the shoreline to the deep sea. Each year, the program supports 200 or more undersea research projects related to NOAA's mission as steward of oceanic resources and environments, including research to support NOAA's management responsibilities in fisheries (stock assessment validation, understanding essential fish habitat), corals, and other coastal resources. NURP is comprised of a network of six regional centers and a national technology institute. Based at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, NOAA's Undersea Research Center for the West Coast and Polar Regions (WCPR) supports undersea research and scientific investigation along the western coast and the polar regions of the United States. Developing a greater understanding of the habitats and life cycles of fisheries, which are a tremendously important resource in these regions, is a priority at WCPR. Other significant areas of research include 1) the sea floor ridges off California, Oregon and Washington, which are the closest of any spreading ridges to US ports and 2) polar regions, which hold great economic and strategic importance and are likely to be strongly impacted as a result of global climate change. For more information see http://www.nurp.noaa.gov/westpola.html.

NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration (OE), headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland, supports activities that search and investigate the oceans for the purpose of discovery. OE missions fit into four areas: (1) mapping the physical, biological, chemical and archeological aspects of the ocean; (2) understanding ocean dynamics at new levels to describe the complex interactions of the living ocean; (3) developing new sensors and systems for ocean exploration, and; (4) reaching out to the public to communicate the benefits to current of future generations of unlocking the secrets of the ocean. In 2005-2008, OE is providing funding to the University of Washington for a project to investigate the utility of sonar to detect, enumerate, and identify fish distributions.

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Updated June 8, 2006