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NOAA Strategic Goal: Crosscutting

The Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) maintains a number of facilities in support of NOAA's operational and information services. ESRL is organized as four Divisions - Global Monitoring, Physical Sciences, Chemical Sciences, and Global Systems. The work of these Divisions includes: understanding climate processes and trends, providing climate information related to water management decisions, improving weather prediction, understanding the recovery of the stratospheric ozone layer, and developing air quality forecast models. ESRL researchers support the deployment and operation of observational networks to improve our understanding of regional weather, water and climate processes, to advance the development of new sensor techniques, and to provide a critical, long-term history of the Earth system necessary for assessment of global trends. The former Aeronomy Laboratory, Climate Diagnostics Center, Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory, Environmental Technology Laboratory, Forecast Systems Laboratory and the Surface Radiation Research Branch of the Air Resources Laboratory were consolidated in 2005 as ESRL. The consolidation allows for better integration of science through the development of research and technology themes across Divisions. For more information on ESRL, please visit: http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/

CIRES is a cooperative institute between NOAA and the University of Colorado. The Institute conducts research in environmental chemistry and biology, atmospheric and climate dynamics, cryospheric and polar processes, and the solar-terrestrial environment, and brings together government and university researchers, post docs, and students from eight university departments and several NOAA laboratories in a wide-ranging array of scientific collaborations and interdisciplinary research.

CIRA is a cooperative institute between NOAA and Colorado State University. The Institute conducts research involving global and regional climate, local and mesoscale area weather forecasting and evaluation, applied cloud physics, applications of satellite observations, air quality and visibility, societal and economic impacts, numerical modeling, and education, training and outreach. The Institute provides an interdisciplinary forum for research collaboration among university scientists, postdocs, staff, students and several NOAA laboratories and line offices.

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 Colorado. 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: University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, University of Colorado, Stratus Consulting Inc.

The Earth System Research Laboratory operates seven stations as part of its surface radiation measurement network (SURFRAD). The station measurements support regional and global weather and climate research with accurate, continuous, long-term measurements of the surface radiation budget over the United States. Solar radiation is the driving energy for geophysical and biological processes that control weather and affect planetary life; understanding the global surface energy budget is therefore key to understanding climate and the environmental consequences to agriculture and other statewide concerns. Because it is impractical to cover the whole earth with monitoring stations, the answer to global coverage lies in reliable satellite-based observations. Accurate and precise ground-based measurements across a range of climate regions are essential to refine and verify the satellite observations. One of these stations is located near Boulder, Colorado. These ground-based measurements also support special research projects on radiation and climate processes in the Colorado region and serve as important verification for weather forecasts. Information about these stations can be found at http://www.srrb.noaa.gov/

NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory contributes to a consensus seasonal forecast and other products for the fire season for Colorado and other states in the U.S. 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 Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) scientists, in partnership with the University of Colorado Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), has been working with the NOAA Colorado Basin River Forecast Center (in Salt Lake City, Utah) to develop new river forecast products that incorporate longer-term weather forecasts and seasonal climate forecasts. The resulting improved outlooks of river flows and reservoir inflow volumes products is intended to help Colorado River water and reservoir managers more effectively manage water supplies for droughts and floods. For example, in the past, ESRL has co-sponsored one-day Colorado River Basin Outlook briefings in Salt Lake City, Utah for water managers, decision makers, and planning groups in the region to provide an assessment of current and projected climate conditions and water availability impacting the lower and upper Colorado River Basins.

NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) scientists, in partnership with the University of Colorado Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), has been working with the NOAA Colorado Basin River Forecast Center (in Salt Lake City, Utah) to develop new river forecast products that incorporate longer-term weather forecasts and seasonal climate forecasts. The resulting improved outlooks of river flows and reservoir inflow volumes products is intended to help Colorado River water and reservoir managers more effectively manage water supplies for droughts and floods. ESRL scientists are also working with U.S. Bureau of Reclamation reservoir managers in the state to develop ways to use climate information in management of the Colorado River and its large reservoirs. For example, in the past, ESRL has co-sponsored one-day Colorado River Basin Outlook briefings in Salt Lake City, Utah for water managers, decision makers, and planning groups in the region to provide an assessment of current and projected climate conditions and water availability impacting the lower and upper Colorado River Basins.

NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory in partnership with the University of Colorado Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), is conducting a user study to identify critical Front Range water problems that are sensitive to climate variability and change, document current use of climate and weather products, and identify potentially useful climate and weather products including tree ring and other paleoclimate data. Interviews are being conducted with operating and planning personnel from large water providers, and knowledgeable individuals and organizations concerned about Front Range water issues including: environmental groups, regional and state organizations, and current information-providers, such as the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Colorado Climate Center.

NOAA’s Climate Diagnostics Center in partnership with the University of Colorado Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) is conducting research on the economic impacts of drought in different western states, including Colorado, on sectors such as agriculture, recreation, municipalities, and energy. This project will create a more accurate quantitative estimate of the economic costs of drought cognizant of estimation problems in previous studies. For more information see http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/wwa/themes/regional_economics_drought_impact.html.

NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory (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 3475 meter elevation on Niwot Ridge, Colorado since 1968. The samples are collected by researchers at the Mountain Research Station operated by the University of Colorado’s Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research. Samples collected at Niwot Ridge represent free tropospheric air that has passed over the western U.S. and possibly Canada. These measurements help determine the magnitude of carbon sources and sinks in North America.

NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) 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 carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gasses. This data will improve global carbon cycle models. Weekly sampling is conducted from Longmont, CO. The Longmont site is operated in coordination with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Measurement of Pollution in the Troposphere experiment.

The Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) has been involved in extensive collaboration with the National Center for Atmospheric Research, located in Boulder, CO. GFDL has collaborated with the center in the development, construction and testing of the Community Climate System Model (CCSM). Sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy, the CCSM is a numerical climate modeling system that scientists worldwide will use to study climate processes, prediction and change. For more information see http://www.ccsm.ucar.edu.

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, three of which are located in Colorado -- Boulder, Grand Junction, and Pueblo. 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. Two NPN sites are in Colorado. 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

NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory scientists are developing a Real-Time Verification System (RTVS) to support the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) goal of delivering improved aviation forecasts to the National Weather Service. The RTVS gives users flexible and user-friendly access to on-going statistical results and graphical displays. ESRL scientists are also developing state-of-the-art verification technologies that allow for on-going evaluation of aviation forecasts. As a result of this work, the RTVS has become the cornerstone of the FAA's Aviation Weather Research Program for providing an interactive and easy-to-use verification tool that provides immediate feedback to forecasters, decision-makers, and managers. For more information, please visit http://www-ad.fsl.noaa.gov/fvb/rtvs/index.html

The United States Weather Research Program (USWRP) brings together Federal agencies with the academic and private sectors to move research ideas and technologies into operational weather forecasts. The USWRP transfers funds to the National Center for Atmospheric Research, located in Boulder, Colorado, to support the development and testing to advance the accuracy of a community numerical weather prediction model within the Developmental Testbed Center. The Developmental Testbed Center is a facility where the numerical weather prediction research and operational communities, including university and Federal partners, interact to accelerate testing, evaluation, and operational implementation of new models and techniques.

The United States Weather Research Program (USWRP) brings together Federal agencies with the academic and private sectors to move research ideas and technologies into operational weather forecasts. As part of the Joint Hurricane Testbed project, the USWRP provides grant funding to the Science Applications International Corporation (Mclean, Virginia), the Naval Research Laboratory (Monterey, California), University of Rhode Island (Kingston, Rhode Island), University of Miami (Miami, Florida), the National Center for Atmospheric Research (Boulder, Colorado), Colorado State University (Boulder, Colorado), and the University of Western Ontario (Canada). The Joint Hurricane Testbed Project is working to upgrade the hurricane numerical model prediction system and improve hurricane analysis and prediction.

THORPEX is an international research program to accelerate improvements in the accuracy of 1 to 14 day weather forecasts. Such projects encompassed improving weather model errors, development of ensemble global numerical weather models, and THORPEX mission planning. Through grants that support THORPEX, NOAA's U.S. Weather Research Program provides funding to the Science Applications International Corporation (Mclean, Virginia), Colorado State University (Boulder, Colorado), University of Wisconsin (Madison, Wisconsin), University of Maryland (College Park, Maryland), and the Naval Research Laboratory (Monterey, California).

The United States Weather Research Program (USWRP) brings together Federal agencies with the academic and private sectors to move research ideas and technologies into operational weather forecasts. The USWRP provides funding to support the Societal Impacts Program at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), located in Boulder, Colorado. The Societal Impacts Program is a joint NOAA and NCAR project providing applied research on societal and social impacts and human behavioral aspects of weather as well as research on the communication of weather information to users.

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Updated June 8, 2006