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Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research
1315 East-West Highway
Silver Spring, MD 20910
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NOAA Strategic Goal: Crosscutting

CICOR is a cooperative institute between NOAA and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The research activities of CICOR will be organized around three themes: the coastal ocean and near shore processes, the ocean's participation in climate and climate variability and marine ecosystem processes analysis. These theme areas, each of which has significant implications for human society, are interrelated and scientific progress will require collaborations by scientists within and between disciplines. For additional information on CICOR, please visit: http://www.whoi.edu/science/cicor

NOAA Strategic Goal: Climate Variability and Change

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: Harvard University, Atmospheric and Environmental Research Inc., Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Boston University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Aerodyne Research Inc., University of Massachusetts, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory 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 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 North Andover, MA. The North Andover site is operated in coordination with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Measurement of Pollution in the Troposphere experiment.

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 North Andover, MA. The North Andover site is operated in coordination with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Measurement of Pollution in the Troposphere experiment.

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, one of which is located in Taunton, Massachusetts. 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.

NOAA Strategic Goal: Ecosystems

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. Massachusetts is served by two Sea Grant Programs, both of which are part of NOAA's National Sea Grant College Program and together make up a statewide network of research, education, and extension services that promote the sustainable use of marine and coastal resources. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sea Grant College Program sponsors marine research guided by local and national research needs. For maximal potential impact, research is focused on specific theme areas, including marine biotechnology, coastal management and utilization, technology development, non-indigenous species, and coupled ocean observation and modeling. Recent research efforts include underwater acoustic sensing techniques, autonomous underwater vehicles to study organic compounds in the marine environment and deepwater archaeology; contaminated sediments in Boston Harbor; endocrine disrupters in coastal waters; sea scallop mariculture, and an artificial version of fish skin using tissue engineering techniques. The MIT program also has continuing research, education, and advisory efforts in coastal management and its utilization. For more information see http://web.mit.edu/seagrant. Massachusetts is also served by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) Sea Grant Program. Current research projects target estuarine and coastal processes, fisheries and aquaculture, and environmental technology. Projects in those themes include: phytoplankton blooms, groundwater inputs to estuaries, enhanced management of the squid fishery through molecular genetics, and species differences in contaminant susceptibility. Recent educational efforts include updating the successful national Sea Grant marine science careers web site, www.marinecareers.net. Together with MIT Sea Grant, WHOI Sea Grant publishes the newsletter Two if by Sea. For more information see http://www.whoi.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. NOAA's Undersea Research Center for the North Atlantic and Great Lakes (NAGL), one of the six NURP regional centers, is housed at the University of Connecticut. The NALG Center supports undersea research off the U.S.’s northeastern coast (i.e., Gulf of Maine, Georges Bank and the Southern New England Coast including Long Island Sound) and in the Laurentian Great Lakes. The center’s research focuses on ecosystem response to human induced stress such as fishing and pollution and the role of habitat in sustaining fisheries and biological diversity. Underwater diving technologies available through NAGL include occupied submersibles, remotely operated vehicles (ROV's), and Nitrox scuba. For more information see http://www.nurp.noaa.gov/natlan.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 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for a ocean exploration missions.

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Updated June 8, 2006