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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 Louisiana. 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.

NOAA Strategic Goal: Weather and Air Quality

The Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory's Hurricane Research Division (HRD), located in Miami, FL, conducts research to advance the understanding and prediction of hurricanes and other tropical weather, benefiting the Louisiana coastal region. HRD’s research is based on a combination of models, theories, and observations, with particular emphasis on data obtained with research aircraft. These observations are primarily collected in our annual field program using the two NOAA turboprop aircraft and jet operated by the NOAA Aircraft Operations Center. The goals of this research are to: advance the prediction of tropical cyclone intensity change, improve the prediction of tropical cyclone tracks, improve the understanding of and ability to predict tropical cyclone frequency and intensity, and enhance the ability to diagnose and predict the impact of tropical cyclones on life and property. For more information please visit http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/index.html.

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 Louisiana. 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. One NPN site is in Louisiana. 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 Strategic Goal: Ecosystems

A Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL) scientist is pursuing collaborative work with the Ecology and Oceanography of Harmful Algal Blooms research program, a program led by NOAA and run cooperatively with the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies. The collaborative work that GLERL is involved in examines the factors contributing to red tide blooms in the Gulf of Mexico.

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. Louisiana Sea Grant promotes the wise use of marine and coastal resources through research, education, advisory services, and technology transfer. Based at Louisiana State University (LSU), Louisiana Sea Grant was instrumental in the establishment and development of LSU's M.S. and Ph.D. programs in the marine sciences and also played a key role in the creation and nurturing of LSU research groups now known as the School of the Coast and Environment. Current research projects address problems or issues in four major categories that have been identified as especially pertinent to state, regional, and national needs: seafood harvesting and production, water resources, wetland restoration and sustainable coastal communities. Examples include oyster and fish diseases, essential fish habitat, seafood safety and processing, coastal ecosystem management, coastal economic development, and freshwater diversion for coastal restoration. The program provides information and outreach services to a variety of users, including coastal communities, seafood processors, aquaculturists, fishermen, educators, legislators and coastal policy makers, coastal tourism and recreation interests, and a wide cross-section of Gulf of Mexico-region citizens whose livelihoods depend on coastal and marine resources. The program's technology transfer activities bring the results of Sea Grant research to the private sector for commercial application. For more information see http://www.laseagrant.org.

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. NOAA's Undersea Research Center for the South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico (SEGM), one of the six NURP regional centers, is based at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. The SEGM Center focuses on undersea research off the coasts of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida and in the Florida Keys and Gulf of Mexico. The Center operates the world’s only undersea research laboratory, Aquarius, located 8 miles off the coast of Florida and capable of housing scientists for 10 day missions. Center facilities are located in Wilmington, NC, and Key Largo, FL, near the site of Aquarius. Areas of research include hydrocarbon exploration and development; management of fisheries resources; conservation of the Florida Keys' coral reefs; anthropogenic and natural processes that impact coastal resources, including beach erosion and the introduction of excess nutrients to near shore habitats; and detection of current global climate conditions through long-term monitoring and assessment of past changes. The center’s research goals evolve to meet changing national and regional needs. For more information see http://www.nurp.noaa.gov/southatl.html.

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 2005-2006, OE is providing funding to the Louisiana State University for a project that will employ industrial remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to explore plankton diversity in the Northern Gulf of Mexico and Eastern South Atlantic.

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Updated June 8, 2006