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NOAA Strategic Goal: Climate Variability and Change

NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) works in cooperation with the Western Regional Climate Center in Reno on developing regional climate analysis products. ESRL has developed a web site with links to regional climate resources to monitor drought conditions and other significant climate impacts. For more information, please visit http://www.cdc.noaa.gov/ClimateInfo/drought.html

NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) scientists work in collaboration with the Desert Research Institute Program for Climate, Ecosystems and Fire Applications (Reno) to develop a consensus seasonal forecast and other products for the fire season for Nevada 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) scientists are working with U.S. Bureau of Reclamation reservoir managers in Nevada to develop ways to use climate information in management of the Colorado River and its large reservoirs. For example, in the past, ESRL has co-sponsored one-day Colorado River Basin Outlook briefings in Salt Lake City, Utah for water managers, decision makers, and planning groups in the region to provide an assessment of current and projected climate conditions and water availability impacting the lower and upper Colorado River Basins.

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 Desert Rock, Nevada. These ground-based measurements also support special research projects on radiation and climate processes in the Nevada 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

The Division’s primary mission is to provide NOAA technology and science to national defense projects conducted at the Department of Energy’s Nevada Test Site. Technical services include transport, diffusion, and dry deposition calculations for potential releases of high hazard materials, air quality research in a desert, urban environment, emergency response modeling, and mesoscale meteorological network design. For additional information on the Special Operations and Research Division, please contact: http://www.sord.nv.doe.gov/

CIASTA is a cooperative institute between NOAA and the Desert Research Institute of the University and Community College System of Nevada. CIASTA brings a formalized focus to a number of research projects and programs encompassing weather research, climate, air quality and terrestrial ecosystems studies related to global change and hydrology and water supply in the arid regions typical of the intermountain West. CIASTA supports university researchers, postdocs and students.

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 Nevada. 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

In collaboration with scientists from the Tahoe Limnological Laboratory, a Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory scientist is developing models of Lake Tahoe sediment accumulation, mixing and geochemistry as a means of chronicling the impact of watershed alteration and recent accelerated nutrient additions to this fragile ecosystem.

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Updated June 8, 2006