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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. 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: Oregon State University, Portland State University

NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory contributes to a consensus seasonal forecast and other products for the fire season for Oregon 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) 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 Brookings, OR.

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, three of which are located in Oregon. 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 uses 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 Tsunami Research Program at the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL), headquartered in Seattle, Washington, seeks to mitigate tsunami hazards to Oregon, Washington, California, Hawaii, and Alaska. A tsunami is a series of very large ocean waves caused by underwater earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions, explosions, and even meteor impacts. Capable of flooding hundreds of meters inland past the typical high-water level, the fast-moving water associated with an inundating tsunami can crush homes and other coastal structures. More common occurrences, and devastating in an economic sense, are false alarms that lead to expensive evacuations of coastal areas. Research and development activities focus on improved tsunami warning information, including inundation maps for coastal communities and advanced observation and modeling technology to increase the speed and accuracy of tsunami forecasts and warnings. PMEL has developed and deployed an array of early warning buoys in the Pacific to increase the reliability of tsunami warnings. This array consists of six moored buoys located at key deep water sites to improve risk assessment from tsunamis associated with major earthquake hazard areas around the Pacific Basin. Responsibility for maintaining the buoys has now been transitioned to the National Weather Service National Data Buoy Center. These activities are undertaken as part of the National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program, a state/federal partnership created to reduce the risks of tsunamis to U.S. coastal areas.

NOAA Strategic Goal: Ecosystems

NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory is using Fish Lidar to conduct sardine surveys off the coast of Oregon and Washington. LIDAR is an acronym for Light Detection And Ranging. Fish Lidar uses pulses of laser light to measure schools of fish swimming in the ocean. The per kilometer cost of a survey using Lidar from a small aircraft is less than 10% of a ship survey, and the depth penetration is more than 3 times that of a visual survey. This study is using one of the NOAA aircraft flying out of Astoria, Oregon in 1995 and 1996. It is a collaborative project that also includes scientists from Oregon State University and the University of Washington. For more information see http://www.etl.noaa.gov/fishlidar/.

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. Oregon Sea Grant is a network of researchers using science to probe basic questions about ocean and coastal life and processes. The program has a coast-long network of Extension Sea Grant agents and specialists who bring the results of that research to the people and communities who can put it to work. Oregon Sea Grant also supports a network of communicators who use print, audio, video, and new technologies to inform people about marine and coastal issues. Headquartered at the Oregon State University campus in Corvallis, Oregon Sea Grant staff work the length of the coast and along the Columbia River, from county offices of the OSU Extension Service, at the Hatfield Marine Science Center (HMSC) in Newport and at the OSU Seafood Lab in Astoria. Sea Grant also manages the HMSC's Visitor Center. Recent research topics at Oregon Sea Grant have targeted the decline of once-abundant fisheries, the challenges posed by coastal population growth, the heightened awareness of invasive species, meeting the information needs of fishing families, businesses, and communities, wild salmon survival, fisheries connections to watershed restoration, ecosystem sustainability and global climate change. For more information see http://seagrant.oregonstate.edu.

NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration (OE), headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland, 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 University of Oregon for ocean exploration missions.

The Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL), headquartered in Seattle, Washington, conducts research on the oceanic impacts of submarine volcanoes and hydrothermal venting through the PMEL Vents Program. The program focuses on understanding the chemical and thermal effects of venting along the northeast Pacific Ocean seafloor spreading centers, which provides the foundation for prediction of the global-scale impact of seafloor hydrothermal systems on the ocean. Research results continue to support the hypothesis that hydrothermal venting at seafloor spreading centers has global significance in terms of the chemical and thermal state of the ocean. In 1998, Vents scientists established the New Millennium Observatory (NeMO) on the sea floor at the summit of a mile-deep volcano about 300 miles off the northern Oregon coast. NeMO monitors an active sea floor venting site on the Juan de Fuca Ridge for hydrothermal and seismic activity. NeMO sends real-time data to shore and plans to accommodate an autonomous underwater vehicle to respond to events detected within the observatory. Vents Program scientists, along with colleagues from the Oregon State University and other institutions, are actively studying the microbial biosphere, the living organisms that thrive beneath the ocean's crust independent of the sun. Some of these bacteria live at temperatures above 100 degrees C. These bacteria and their metabolic by-products have great potential for use in biotechnical and medical applications. Acoustic technology developed by the PMEL Vents Program to locate underwater earthquakes has been adapted in recent years to provide information on the migration patterns of large whales in the Northeast Pacific. For more information see http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/vents/home.html.

The Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL), headquartered in Seattle, Washington, maintains a satellite research facility at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Oregon. PMEL carries out interdisciplinary scientific investigations in oceanography, marine meteorology, and related subjects fundamental to NOAA's mission. The research activities in Newport 1) improve the understanding of the complex physical and geochemical processes operating in the world oceans; 2) define the forcing functions and the processes driving ocean circulation and the global climate system; and 3) improve environmental forecasting capabilities and other supporting services for marine commerce and fisheries. PMEL research and operations are carried out in coordination with other centers in the Pacific region, such as Oregon State University.

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Updated June 8, 2006