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Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research
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NOAA Strategic Goal: Crosscutting

CIFAR is a cooperative institute between NOAA and the University of Alaska, sponsored by NOAA Research. CIFAR conducts research in collaboration with NOAA on a wide variety of issues critical to the Arctic, including fisheries oceanography, hydrographic studies and sea ice dynamics, atmospheric research, climate dynamics and variability, tsunami research and prediction, and environmental assessment and monitoring. CIFAR works closely with researchers from the eight countries of the Arctic Council on climate impact assessments, and is planning joint oceanographic cruises with Russia.

NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration (OE) 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, OE provided funding to the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and Alaska State for ocean exploration missions. These projects will use the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker ship HEALY to examine the flora and fauna in the Arctic's deep Canada Basin.

The Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL), headquartered in Seattle, Washington, conducts Fisheries-Oceanography Coordinated Investigations (FOCI) in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska, in conjunction with the Alaska Fisheries Science Center of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). The goal of FOCI is to understand the influence of the ecosystem and climate variability on the abundance of commercially valuable fish and shellfish stocks in Alaskan waters. The Cooperative Institute for Arctic Research, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and other institutions are participants in FOCI studies. Early FOCI research was directed at walleye pollock, leading to improved forecasts of pollock recruitment. In recent years FOCI has taken a broader view of studying the greater ecosystem in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska. FOCI is funded primarily by NOAA Research, NMFS, the National Ocean Service, the International Arctic Research Program, and the North Pacific Marine Research Program.

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 Alaska. 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.

The Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) operates an ultraviolet radiation (UV) monitoring network in Alaska with sites at the Barrow Observatory, Nome, and St. Paul Island. These measurements are done as part of the ESRL Solar and Thermal Atmospheric Radiation group's research on the Earth's surface radiation budget. Research efforts are devoted to the extent and cause of observed variations in long-term radiation and meteorological measurements, using satellite observations and climate model calculations. In addition, observations of spectral solar radiation are made for the purpose of remote sensing of certain atmospheric constituents and spectral solar UV is measured for the investigation of the interaction of ozone and solar radiation.

NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory contributes to a consensus seasonal forecast and other products for the fire season for Alaska 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’s (ESRL) operates a Cooperative Global Air Sampling Network to measure the distribution and trends of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4), the two gases most responsible for human-caused climate change. Samples are collected weekly at 45 fixed locations and on several commercial ships. The air samples are delivered to the ESRL laboratory, located in Boulder, CO. The observed geographical patterns and small but persistent spatial gradients are used to better understand the processes, both natural and human induced, that underlie the trends. Air samples have been collected at Shemya Island, Alaska, since 1985. The samples were initially collected by U.S. Air Force personnel and are now collected by weather observers employed by Chugach Eareckson Support Services. Shemya is a very remote location that samples air coming from the Asian continent. These measurements help determine the magnitude of carbon sources and sinks at northern latitudes in Asia.

NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) takes column measurements of the amount of ozone between the earth's surface and the top of the atmosphere at a number of locations in the United States, including Fairbanks, AK. The observations are obtained with ground-based spectrometers that measure the attenuation by ozone of ultraviolet light. These measurements are used to determine the amount of ultraviolet radiation reaching the earth's surface. Excess ultraviolet radiation is responsible for human skin cancer and is also harmful to other biogenic organisms. Column ozone measurements monitor changes in the stratospheric ozone layer resulting from human-produced chlorine and bromine compounds that destroy ozone. With controls now in place on the manufacture and use of these ozone destroying compounds it is important to monitor the ozone layer for the expected recovery and to determine whether other factors such as long-term climate change are influencing this recovery.

NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory is participating in several long-term climate research programs near Barrow. Radiometers and cloud radars routinely measure important properties of clouds that affect climate such as cloud height, thickness, particle type (ice or water), water content, and ice content. These measurements also help improve and validate similar measurements made from space by environmental satellites. Ultimately the knowledge of how arctic clouds affect the global climate system will be improved so that better predictions can be made of how man and nature might change climate.

NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory (ERSL) operates a new and growing small aircraft-based North American network of sampling sites (Carbon America) to measure vertical profiles of important greenhouse gas concentrations. Air is sampled above the surface up to approximately 25,000 feet above sea level using a reasonably small, light, and economical automated system developed by ESRL researchers. These air samples are delivered to the ESRL laboratory in Boulder, Colorado for measurements of CO2, CH4, and other greenhouse gasses. This data will improve global carbon cycle models. Weekly sampling is conducted from Fairbanks, AK. The Fairbanks site is operated in coordination with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Measurement of Pollution in the Troposphere experiment.

The Barrow Observatory is one of five baseline observatories supported by NOAA's Climate Observations and Services Program and operated by the NOAA Research Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory, located in Boulder, CO. The observatories are part of a global network of observatories monitoring atmospheric constituents that cause climate change and depletion of the ozone layer. The observatories are located in Barrow, Alaska; Mauna Loa, Hawaii; South Pole, Antarctica; Trinidad Head, California; and cape Matatula, Island of Tutuila, American Samoa. The Barrow Observatory measures ozone in the total column above the observatory and monitors air pollution (Arctic haze) flowing across the Arctic from Eurasia to Alaska which has been decreasing since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Barrow Observatory is host to 25 cooperative research projects from various universities and government agencies from around the nation. For more information, please visit http://www.cmdl.noaa.gov/obop/index.html.

NOAA Strategic Goal: Weather and Air Quality

Volcanic ash is an extreme hazard to aircraft, having caused more than $250M in damage to aircraft during the past 20 years. The NOAA Research Earth System Research Laboratory, in collaboration with other federal and state agencies, has developed and installed the Volcanic Ash Coordination Tool (VACT). The tool enables organizations, such as the Anchorage Volcanic Ash Advisory Center, that generate forecasts for ash to view identical information (e.g., satellite images and results of ash dispersion models) for diagnosing eruptions and forecasting presence of ash. VACT also enables users to collaborate in real-time via display interactions and audio connections. The benefit is more timely forecasts that are fully consistent across and between domains of responsibility.

Computer systems developed by the NOAA Research Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) are in operation at all NOAA National Weather Service (NWS) field offices, three of which are located in Alaska. 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 NOAA Profiler Network (NPN) consists of 35 unmanned Doppler Radar sites located in 18 U.S. states. Three NPN sites are in Alaska. The NPN provides critical upper-air wind and temperature data to the National Weather Service, other NOAA entities, the military, universities, researchers and forecasters in the private sector. The NPN has been fully operational since 1992. Data from the NPN are directly associated with improved weather forecasting which saves lives and helps protect property. The NPN is particularly important in forecasting tornadoes and NPN data is also used to route aircraft for increased safety and fuel economy. The NPN continuous measurement of winds are used by the U.S. Departments of Defense, Energy, and Homeland Security. For more information visit www.profiler.noaa.gov

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 doing numerous surveys in the Alaskan coastal waters using NOAA Fish Lidar. 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. The most recent study was a survey of forage species in the SE Bering Sea. For more information, please visit 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. Alaska Sea Grant addresses priority coastal and marine issues affecting 54% of the U.S. general coastline through research, education, and information transfer. Current research and outreach projects address impacts on the salmon industry, wiser utilization of fisheries, marine environmental issues, economic leadership and diversification of Alaska’s marine economy. Alaska Sea Grant supports formal graduate education associated with funded research projects throughout the University of Alaska system. Alaska Sea Grant encourages faculty to share logistics and expertise with government, industry, and other concerned constituent groups so that Sea Grant's investment benefits a larger context of regional concerns. For more information see http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant.

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.

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Updated June 8, 2006