EARTH SYSTEM MONITOR MONITOR 1 NOAA’S Offi Ce of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research: a Vehicle for Improving NOAA Services a Guide to NOAA’S Data and Richard W
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Vol. 17, No. 2 · November 2008 E NovemberARTH 2008 SYSTEMEARTH SYSTEM MONITOR MONITOR 1 NOAA’s Offi ce of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research: A Vehicle for Improving NOAA Services A guide to NOAA’s data and Richard W. Spinrad, Ph.D., CMarSci, Assistant hicles to explore the ocean and conduct research, information Administrator for Oceanic and Atmospheric including ships, buoys, high-tech remotely oper- services Research ated vehicles (ROVs), fl oats, gliders, and autono- mous underwater vehicles (AUVs). INSIDE In the decades and century to come, In August, NOAA launched the world’s only mankind will experience—and thus benefi t and vessel dedicated to ocean exploration and re- 2 potentially suffer from—extraordinary changes search, the NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer. This Letter from the ship will allow scientists and students real-time NODC Director in our world’s climate, atmosphere, and oceans. These changes will impact our lives. NOAA’s access to ocean exploration through the Internet. This technology will allow a “scientists on call” 4 research to understand the interactions between Ocean Acidifi cation the ocean, atmosphere, and land is critical for approach to ocean exploration and will bring the reducing uncertainty in ocean into the classroom, allowing 5 climate forecasts, predicting students to participate in undersea The NOAA severe weather, and sustain- exploration. Okeanos Explorer is CoastWatch ably managing ecosystems. equipped with a variety of sensors Program Research conducted and systems, including modern through the Offi ce of Oceanic hull-mounted multibeam sonar for 6 seafl oor mapping. These maps will NOOSS Optimization and Atmospheric Research (OAR) will continue reduc- identify features for further investi- gation using tether-attached ROVs 7 ing the human costs—in both Unmanned Aircraft lives and dollars—of hazard- that can venture up to 6,000 meters Systems for ous weather and other ex- below the surface. Hurricane Research treme events. OAR conducts NOAA uses buoys and satellites research at seven laborato- simultaneously to obtain a more 8 ries around the country and complete picture of the ocean and News Briefs with our partners (mostly gain faster access to data. OAR in academia, at Coopera- ▲ Richard W. Spinrad, Ph.D. researchers designed, built, and 10 deployed Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting Live from Seafl oor to tive/Joint Institutes and individual universities) ® Scientists Ashore through our sponsored research programs (e.g., of Tsunamis (DART ) buoys, a vital component the Climate Program Offi ce, National Sea Grant of the recently-completed warning network for ® 12 College Program, and Ocean Exploration and the United States. DART buoys will dramati- Sant Ocean Hall Research Program). Through tools that observe, cally increase warning times and decrease the track, and predict the concentrations and move- loss of life. In October 2008, Dr. Eddie Bernard, ment of carbon, we are shrinking the probabili- Director of NOAA’s Pacifi c Marine Environ- ties of error in climate models. Ultimately, our mental Laboratory, was honored with a Service preeminent research is a vehicle for improving to America Medal in Homeland Security for his ® products and services used by decision makers leading work on DART . to prevent the loss of human life, manage natural In 2003, just a month after the system was resources, gain a greater understanding of the transferred from research to operational mode, ® Earth-system, and maintain a strong economy. the value of DART was demonstrated when Hawaii cancelled a tsunami warning because ® Ocean Exploration, Observation, and Monitoring real-time DART data showed that the tsunami The ocean covers more than 70 percent of would not be damaging. This saved the state an U.S. Department the Earth’s surface, yet more than 90 percent estimated $68 million. The latest generation of of Commerce ® remains unexplored. NOAA uses different ve- DART has two-way satellite communications National Oceanic (continued on page 3) and Atmospheric Administration 2 EARTH SYSTEM MONITOR November 2008 EARTH SYSTEM MONITOR Letter from the NODC Director The Earth System Monitor (ISSN 1068-2678) is published quarterly by the NOAA National Environmen- considerable improvement over the previous tal Satellite, Data, and Information multi-year updates. Service. Past issues are available Also, we acquired and archived over online and are syndicated by an 11,600 datasets from over 70 oceanographic RSS feed. See: organizations and offi ces. We increased the www.nodc.noaa.gov/ESM number of users of the Global Ocean Data Assimilation Experiment High Resolution Comments should be directed to Sea Surface Temperature product by 20 Andrew Allegra, Managing Editor. percent, which translates to over a 300 per- Email: [email protected] cent increase in data distributed. NODC in- Phone: 301-713-3277 x152 creased the amount of historical data as well Fax: 301-713-3302 as modern profi le data in the World Ocean Database. Data from approximately 200,000 Editing and Layout ▲ Margarita Conkright Gregg, Ph.D. Ocean Station Data casts and approximately Mindy Gaines, Tara Mairs, 200,000 Conductivity-Temperature-Depth Marc Pulliam, Kelly Logan As we start a new fi scal year at casts were processed for inclusion into the upcoming World Ocean Database 2009. The The mailing address for the NOAA, it is exciting to look back and see Earth System Monitor is: what the National Oceanographic Data Cen- number of visitors accessing the online Photo National Oceanographic ter (NODC) accomplished in the past year. Library, Climate Data Modernization web- Data Center This was an active, productive, and exciting sites and collections, and our online legacy NOAA/NESDIS E/OC year at the center. We initiated a series of databases surpassed all previous records. SSMC3, 4th Floor activities to communicate to our customers During 2009, we will continue to com- 1315 East-West Highway the multitude of NODC products and servic- municate NODC’s mission and vision that Silver Spring, MD 20910-3282 es, at the same time receiving input on what refl ects the core capabilities of the center Disclaimer ocean data and information are required by and deals with the growing requirements for ocean data and information. We will also Mention in the Earth System Monitor the community we serve. We also developed of commercial companies or com- tools and services that will facilitate the ex- continue to plan for products and services mercial products does not constitute change of ocean data and information. This our customers will require in the future. Our an endorsement or recommenda- is essential since understanding the oceans success relies on national and international tion by the National Oceanic and and coasts in a changing climate requires partnerships, and we judge our accomplish- Atmospheric Administration or the historical as well as real-time ocean data and ments by the usefulness of our data and in- U.S. Department of Commerce. Use information. NODC, in its role as the nation- formation products. for publicity or advertising purposes al steward for ocean data and information, is In 2008, the Earth System Monitor fo- of information published in the Earth System Monitor concerning propi- working with the national and international cused on the NOAA mission goals “Weather and Water” and “Commerce and Trans- etary products or the tests of such communities to provide products essential to products is not authorized. addressing these issues. portation” and on the “Satellite” subgoal. In meeting our goal to provide access to This issue focuses on “Ships, Satellites, the Nation’s coastal and ocean data and infor- and Buoys.” Dr. Richard Spinrad, Assis- mation, NODC integrated disparate datasets tant Administrator of NOAA in the Offi ce of through its Regional Ecosystem Data Manage- Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR), ment (REDM) portal; implemented the Coral leads the issue with a description of how the Reef Information System (CoRIS) Regional research conducted at OAR is critical for Portal, which enables a broad audience of us- “reducing uncertainty in climate forecasts, predicting severe weather, and sustainably ers to discover NOAA-funded coral ecosys- U.S. DEPARTMENT OF tems data and information products; and en- managing ecosystems.” Other articles in COMMERCE hanced NODC’s Coastal Water Temperature this issue support his views on the transition Carlos M. Gutierrez, Secretary Guide to include an interactive Google MapsTM of research-to-operations, and the key role interface. An internal application known as OAR plays in exploration and discovery that National Oceanic and World Ocean Database Select was enhanced lay the foundation for NOAA’s services of Atmospheric Administration by scientists at NODC to provide public ac- the future. ■ William J. Brennan, Ph.D., cess to ocean profi les every three months, a Acting Under Secretary Margarita and Administrator November 2008 EARTH SYSTEM MONITOR 3 (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research continued from page 1) saving $640,000 per coastal mile when evacuations and other between the anchored seafl oor bottom pressure recorder, Tsu- preparedness measures are not necessary. nami Warning Centers (TWC), and the National Data Buoy Center. This allows TWCs to set stations in event mode in Changing Climate anticipation of possible tsunamis or retrieve the high-resolution Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our (15-s intervals) data in one-hour blocks for detailed analysis. time. NOAA researchers are working to improve our under- NOAA researchers are also improving ocean observa- standing and prediction of natural climate variability, as well tions through an innovative use of ocean “robots” called the as to identify and predict human-caused, or anthropogenic, Argo array. NOAA helped lead the international Argo effort climate change. Scores of NOAA scientists contributed to in the year 2000 to deploy 3,000 free-drifting fl oats around the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) the globe. There are now nearly 3,200 drifters throughout Fourth Assessment Report, which shared the 2007 Nobel the world’s oceans.