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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 Virginia. 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 Virginia, Science Applications International Corporation, George Mason University

The Earth System Research Laboratory operates nine stations as part of its integrated surface irradiance study (ISIS). The stations perform long-term, accurate measurements of the down welling broadband solar and ultraviolet-B radiation. Solar radiation is the driving energy for geophysical and biological processes that control weather and affect planetary life. One of these stations is located near Sterling, Virginia. Information about these stations can be found at http://www.srrb.noaa.gov.

NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory 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 Wallops Island, VA. 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

The Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory's Hurricane Research Division (HRD), located in Miami, FL, conducts research to advance the understanding and prediction of hurricanes and other tropical weather, benefiting the Virginia coastal region. HRD’s research is based on a combination of models, theories, and observations, with particular emphasis on data obtained with research aircraft. These observations are primarily collected in our annual field program using the two NOAA turboprop aircraft and jet operated by the NOAA Aircraft Operations Center. The goals of this research are to: advance the prediction of tropical cyclone intensity change, improve the prediction of tropical cyclone tracks, improve the understanding of and ability to predict tropical cyclone frequency and intensity, and enhance the ability to diagnose and predict the impact of tropical cyclones on life and property. For more information please visit http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/index.html.

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 Virginia. 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 United States Weather Research Program (USWRP) brings together Federal agencies with the academic and private sectors to move research ideas and technologies into operational weather forecasts. As part of the Joint Hurricane Testbed project, the USWRP provides grant funding to the Science Applications International Corporation (Mclean, Virginia), the Naval Research Laboratory (Monterey, California), University of Rhode Island (Kingston, Rhode Island), University of Miami (Miami, Florida), the National Center for Atmospheric Research (Boulder, Colorado), Colorado State University (Boulder, Colorado), and the University of Western Ontario (Canada). The Joint Hurricane Testbed Project is working to upgrade the hurricane numerical model prediction system and improve hurricane analysis and prediction.

THORPEX is an international research program to accelerate improvements in the accuracy of 1 to 14 day weather forecasts. Such projects encompassed improving weather model errors, development of ensemble global numerical weather models, and THORPEX mission planning. Through grants, NOAA provides funding to the Science Applications International Corporation (Mclean, Virginia), Colorado State University (Boulder, Colorado), University of Wisconsin (Madison, Wisconsin), University of Maryland (College Park, Maryland), and the Naval Research Laboratory (Monterey, CA).

NOAA Strategic Goal: Ecosystems

Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL) scientists are involved in two studies in Virginia. GLERL scientists collaborate with the University of Maryland Center for Environmental and Estuarine Studies in Chesapeake Bay Land Margins Ecosystem Research: Trophic Interactions in Estuarine Research. This project investigates mechanisms affecting secondary production of the Bay’s estuarine ecosystems. GLERL scientists are also collaborators in the Complexity and Stressors in Estuarine Systems (COASTES), a multidisciplinary program designed to improve the understanding of the effects of multiple stressors in coastal systems and the role that the complexity of natural systems plays in influencing responses to anthropogenic stress, which is stress resulting from the influence of human beings. COASTES focuses on the Patuxent River as a model ecosystem. The Academy of Natural Sciences Estuarine Research Center is the lead institution for COASTES.

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. Virginia Sea Grant focuses on stewardship of the nation's marine, coastal, and Great Lakes resources. Sea Grant institutions collaborate closely to respond to issues of regional and national importance in areas such as marine biotechnology, fisheries, and enhanced coastal development. The Virginia Sea Grant Program is based in Charlottesville and is administered through the Virginia Graduate Marine Sciences Consortium which includes the College of William and Mary's Virginia Institute of Marine Science, the University of Virginia, Old Dominion University, and Virginia Tech. Key research topics include cobia aquaculture, enhanced seafood safety through hazard analysis critical control point principles, and ballast water treatment. Virginia Sea Grant also works with Maryland Sea Grant and other organizations to understand and restore the Chesapeake Bay, including an ongoing study focusing jointly on the environmental effects of contaminated sediments on living organisms as well as mitigation of these effects through habitat restoration. For more information see http://www.virginia.edu/virginia-sea-grant.

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 Mid-Atlantic Bight (MAB), one of the six NURP regional centers, supports undersea research along the mid-Atlantic states, from south of Long Island to Virginia, including Chesapeake Bay. The MAB Center is administered by Rutgers University in New Jersey, and Stony Brook University in New York. The MAB Center provides advanced undersea research platforms such as a REMUS Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) and LEO-15, the Long-term Ecosystem Observatory located at 15 meter depth offshore of New Jersey. LEO-15 is able to collect data on various ocean parameters over long time periods, which may be used to distinguish between changes in the marine environment induced by natural versus anthropogenic events. LEO-15 serves as the core element of a shelf-wide ocean observation network that will increase understanding of episodic events such as storms, upwelling and hypoxia, that are poorly studied by conventional methods. For more information see http://www.nurp.noaa.gov/midatlan.html.

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, OE provided funding to Virginia based Enteracked, LLC and Blue Land Media for support for ocean exploration education projects.

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Updated June 8, 2006