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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 Minnesota. 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

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 Minnesota. 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 Minnesota. 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

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. Minnesota Sea Grant is a statewide program that works with people and communities to help maintain and enhance the environment and economies along Lake Superior and Minnesota's inland waters by identifying needs, funding research, and translating results. Current research priorities include coastal ecosystems, new technologies, fisheries resource management, communities and economies, and integrating science into policy for coastal resource management. The public, industry, and policy makers are kept informed on issues related to aquaculture, exotic species, fisheries, aquatic education, contaminants, and fisheries through a series of publications including Minnesota Sea Grant's newsletter the "Seiche." For more information see http://www.seagrant.umn.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 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.

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Updated June 8, 2006