NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center
Deke ArndtChief, Climate Monitoring Branch
NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center
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NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center
Jay Lawrimore sends his best regards
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NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center
Tasked to NCDC / Jay at the initial meeting
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NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center
To aid capacity-building, provide resources on the ET2.2 web site to demonstrate global monitoring efforts
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NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center
Produce a pamphlet to support ET2.2 Outreach.
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NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center
Publish article to describe how BAMS SotC authorship is determined and how the document is published
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WMO Bulletin 57(2)
NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center
2008 Chapter Editors diverse organizationally and internationally
Dealing with the “problems” of increased content now!
Diamond: USA NOAA-NESDIS
Fogt: USA NOAA-NWS Levy: USA NOAA-OAR Richter-Menge, USA
Army CoE Thorne: UK Met Office Vincent, Met Service
of Canada Watkins, Australia
Bureau of Met
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NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center
Goal: Translate BAMS State of the Climate so that all six WMO languages are represented.
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NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center
Translations for 2008 document:◦ Abstract◦ Chapter
Introductions◦ All figure captions
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NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center
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NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center
NCDC
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NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center
ECVs reported in the Annual BAMS State of the Climate Report for 2008
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NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center
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NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center
US CLIMAT messages
New GHCN version coming
Many internal improvements
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NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center
Mission: “monitor and assess the state of the climate”◦ Products and information, not necessarily datasets
Near the end of the pipeline … lots of work upstream from us:
Data & Observing Systems Research Product Development Data Ingest Quality Assurance
Also near the beginning of another pipeline.◦ Our work brings us into contact with stakeholders
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U.S. Report Global Report
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NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center
Issued each month, season (DJF, MAM, JJA, SON) and year.
Each report (U.S. & Global) provides◦ Headlines◦ Narrative◦ Graphics◦ Insight into
components of the climate system
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NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center
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NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center
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NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center
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NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center
Drought Wildfire Severe Weather Tropical Cyclones Winter Weather
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NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center
Global Report assesses the global / regional behavior of:◦ Surface Temperature
Land, Ocean and Both
◦ Precipitation◦ Sea Ice◦ ENSO (El Nino / La Nina)◦ Upper Atmospheric
Temperature
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NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center
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NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center
Reorganization of:◦ U.S. National Priorities◦ NOAA’s Climate Services function◦ NCDC’s organization chart
Means that the “Climate Monitoring” function is much more closely tied to Climate Service, as well as traditional ties to Climate Science
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NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center
Will play out as NOAA’s climate services May play out as a lead in a National Climate
Service, should one occur Several options/plans, based upon the
Nation’s expressed needs/priorities Strong focus on regional and sectoral
issues
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NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center
Now designed to be served out so others can incorporate components into their reports.◦ RSS feed, Portals
Includes much more educational / informational material
Incorporates much more content from local/regional climatologists
Beginning to add focus to events and impacts, not just variables
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NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center
Narrative reports of major climate-scale occurrences◦ Drought◦ Heat◦ Floods◦ Severe Weather◦ Tropical Cyclones◦ Winter Weather
By necessity, this product has many editorial decisions
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NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center
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Actual values (not just vs. normal) for any month, season, year since 1900.
Tulsa Springs since 1948.
NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center
Provides time series of trends in variables
Also make maps (this map is “How has JFM changed since 1900?”)◦ Can click on a dot to
get the time-series for that dot.
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NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center
Some impacts of air pollution:◦ reduced visibility, respiratory
issues Pollutant types:
◦ Gaseous: ozone, SO2, NOXs◦ Particulates: soot, dust, smoke
ASI monitors stagnation component (buildup over time).◦ Does not monitor pollution
sources. Factors:
◦ Light winds (low horiz. dispersion)
◦ Stable lower atmosphere (prevents vertical escape)
◦ Lack of precipitation (to cleanse lower atmosphere).
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NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center
How often does heat index exceed a threshold value at a particular station?
Values specific to the station’s overall climatology◦ (Texas will have a
higher threshold than Maine)
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NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center
US Drought Monitor is an example of cross-community climate services◦ Ag + Water + etc. experts◦ Climatologists
US Drought Portal brings communities together around a phenomenon◦ http://www.drought.gov
Expressed needs: air quality issues and heat waves associated with drought.
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NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center
Joint effort: Canada, Mexico and the U.S.
Part of extended Canada-U.S. GEO collaboration
NADM Workshop: April 2010, Asheville, NC, USA. To explore international drought issues beyond North America
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NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center
CEI = five indicators illustrate extremes in:◦ monthly mean maximum and minimum
temperature◦ extreme 1-day precipitation◦ the number of days with/without precipitation◦ the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI)
Area of the CONUS with extreme conditions is compared with the remainder of the CONUS to yield a fraction for a given period
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NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center
Notable upward CEI trend from 1970 to present
Mostly from max and min temps, 1-day precipitation and PDSI (drought)
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NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center
CEI Annual Seasonal Recently added a tropical system
component, calculated for multiple seasons Additions and modifications are explained in
“A Revised U.S. Climate Extremes Index” (Gleason et al. 2008)
Underway: pilot project for southeast US. If successful, more regional applications expected.
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NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center
Designed to capture status and changes of extreme and threshold behavior of the climate system
How often does something happen?
Is the frequency changing?
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NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center
NACEM Field Definition: “Annual count/percent of days …”
No. of Frost Days … with daily min temp < 0°C
No. of Summer Days … with daily max temp > 25°C
No. of Icing Days …with daily max temp < 0°C
No. of Tropical Nights …with daily min temp > 20°C
Growing Season Length … between first 6-day span with daily avg temp >5°C and first 6-day span with avg temp <5°C
Much below average lows
… when daily min temp was < 10th percentile (%)
Much below average his … when daily max temp was < 10th percentile (%)
Much above average lows
… when daily min temp was > 90th percentile (%)
Much above average his … when daily max temp was > 90th percentile (%)
Greatest 5-day Rainfall Max rain falling in any consecutive 5-day period
Precip Intensity Index Amount that fell on days with precip
Length of Dry Spell Max # of consecutive days without precip
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