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NOAA Strategic Goal: Climate Variability and Change

NOAA has several observational sites that support the World Climate Research Programme’s Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX). One of NOAA’s GEWEX sites is located near Wolf Point, Montana. GEWEX sites were established to provide detailed measurements and information about the physical and biological processes that occur at the land/surface interface. Observations from these sites are being used to test and improve the current generation of land surface models that are used for both regional and global climate prediction. Key observations from these sites include the turbulent fluxes of heat, water vapor, momentum, carbon dioxide, air temperature, and relative humidity. Support for this Air Resources Laboratory effort comes from the GEWEX Americas Prediction Project, which is jointly administered by the NOAA Climate Program Office and NASA. See www.ceop.net for details.

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 Montana. 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 Montana

NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) contributes to a consensus seasonal forecast and other products for the fire season for Montana and other states. 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) contributes to mountain science research with Montana State University and the Big Sky Institute. Information on climate variations is developed for use by the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Forest Service and other agencies in their decision support activities.

NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) collaborates with scientists from the Big Sky Institute and Montana State University to study the impact of climatic changes on the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem, and specifically on threats to the long-term survival of grizzly bears in the region. Habitat changes resulting from climate changes may reduce or eliminate key food sources for grizzlies. Applying existing knowledge and best practices principles to the problem of grizzly bear conservation in the context of recent and future environmental changes is a challenge. ESRL scientists are helping scientists and resource managers in the northern Rocky mountain region to assess likely climate change-induced habitat changes and are assisting in climate monitoring activities in the state by furnishing climate data and information products.

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 Fort Peck, Montana. These ground-based measurements also support special research projects on radiation and climate processes in the Montana region and serve as important verification for weather forecasts. Information about these stations can be found at http://www.srrb.noaa.gov.

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, four of which are located in Montana. 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.

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Updated June 8, 2006