NOAA NATIONAL CLIMATE SERVICES - - ALASKA NWS

Gary Hufford Regional Scientist

Sustaining ObservationsPlanned Arctic Activities

• Alaska– 29 Climate Reference Network (CRN)– 40 Historical Climate Network (HCN)– COOP 21st Century – 200 stations

• 330 Canadian CRNs – in coordination with NOAA

U.S. Climate Reference Network (USCRN) Alaska Locations

GCOS single sites installed (2): Sitka & St. Paul Island

Single sites installed (2): Pt. Barrow & Fairbanks

Single sites to be installed: FY 10-14 (27 locations)

NOAA’s NWS Climate ServicesClimate Record Stewardship through COOP

• COOP Paperless Initiative– Electronic Ingest of Manual Observations - Upfront QC

• COOP 21st Century Transition Plan– Remedial actions to ensure maximum quality data

• HCN Modernization– Automating our longest-record stations

• Fisher/Porter Automated Rain Gauge Upgrade – Comprehensive hourly precipitation network

NOAA CLIMATE INFORMATION AND SERVICES

ALASKA REGIONAL CLIMATE CENTER

REGIONAL INTREGRATED SCIENCE ASSESMENT

NWS LOCAL PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

Outline

Local Climate Forecast Products

Local 3 Month Temperature Outlooks (Jan 2007):

~1200 sites

Local information

Multiple user centric formats

Dynamic text interpretation

Benefits and limitations

Long term forecast evaluation

Trained staff support

Climate Services Focal Points

• Serve as customer interface– Provide customer service – Conduct climate outreach and education– Develop partnerships– Utilize available tools for customer interface

NOAA Climate Services (Overview)

• Forecasts • Monitoring • Analysis • Data archive • Policy • Training • Outreach • Partnership Development • International • Flood and flow

• Customer interface• Forecast improvements• Decision support tool development• Coastal climatologies• Applications research• Regional and local expertise • Policy support• Data integration• Data quality control

What we have now

NOAA

NWS

OAR

NESDIS

NOS

RISA SCRegional

CollaborationEfforts

RCC Sea Grant

Under Development

NOAA Partners

NOAA

Regional Initiatives

13

Future Directions• Establishment of a NWS Climate Services Program

Plan

• Enhance coordination of the user requirements process for all NWS climate services

• Enhance the linkages between NWS climate and hydrologic services and NIDIS

• Execute pilot projects for climate and coasts

• Support regional collaboration efforts established by NOAA

• Support the efforts to establish the National Climate Service

Economic Stimulus Bill• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Satellites and Sensors: $600 million for satellite development and acquisitions, including climate sensors and climate modeling.

• NASA: $400 million to put more scientists to work doing climate change research, including Earth science research recommended by the National Academies, satellite sensors that measure solar radiation critical to understanding climate change, and a thermal infrared sensor to the Landsat Continuing Mapper necessary for water management, particularly in the western states;