skip to content

SEARCH  |  SITEMAP

Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research
1315 East-West Highway
Silver Spring, MD 20910
301-713-2458

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 Maine. 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 of Maine

NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory operates trace gas monitoring sites at tall television transmitter towers in Wisconsin, Maine, and Texas. The sites were established to extend ESRL's monitoring network into the interior of North America in order to provide data to aid estimation of the net carbon balance of the continent. Variations of trace gases, especially carbon dioxide, are largest near the ground, so we utilize existing tall (> 400 meter) transmitter towers as platforms for in situ and flask sampling for atmospheric trace gases.

NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) makes measurements of the column amounts of ozone between the earth's surface and the top of the atmosphere at a number of locations around the United States, including Caribou, ME. The observations are obtained with ground-based spectrometers that measure the attenuation by ozone of ultraviolet light. This integrated ozone amount is critical in determining 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 will be important to monitor the ozone layer for the expected recovery and determine whether other factors such as long-term climate change are influencing this recovery.

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 Maine. 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. Maine Sea Grant is the newest official Sea Grant College. The Program provides statewide research, education, and extension services and plays a leadership role in marine science research and education to promote the sound development, management, and stewardship of marine and coastal resources. Current research focuses on ecosystem health, aquaculture, Maine oil spill advisory, and fisheries issues. The public, industry, and policy-makers are kept informed on issues related to commercial fisheries and aquaculture, coastal resource development, and marine science education through the Marine Extension Team, a collaboration between the University of Maine Sea Grant and Cooperative Extension programs. For more information see http://www.seagrant.umaine.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. 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 NAGL 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.

CONTACT US  ·  PRIVACY POLICY  ·  DISCLAIMER

Updated June 8, 2006