NOAA: WHERE SCIENCE CREATES VALUE
FOR AMERICA
March
15, 2004 — NOAA is a multi-faceted
science agency with nearly 12,500 employees across the nation. The agency
conducts research and gathers data about the global oceans, atmosphere,
space, and sun, and applies this knowledge to science and service that
has a major impact on the nation. NOAA provides weather information, warns
of dangerous weather, charts the seas, and guides the use and protection
of ocean and coastal resources. Some element of NOAA’s work literally
touches peoples’ lives every day.
“NOAA
is where science gains value, and this is evident when you consider that
each day NOAA services touch at least $3 trillion of America’s economy.
That’s about 30 percent of our nation’s gross domestic product,”
said retired Navy Vice Adm. Conrad
C. Lautenbacher, Ph.D., undersecretary of commerce for oceans and
atmosphere and NOAA administrator. “Americans rely on NOAA for an
incredible variety of products ranging from the local weather forecast,
to keeping the ocean coastline safe and vibrant, for a sustainable supply
of quality seafood, to the safe transport of millions of tons of waterborne
cargo, and even keeping a close eye on the ever changing impact of our
sun on space weather.”
Listed below
are representative NOAA achievements in 2003.
- NOAA played
a key role in producing the first Climate
Change Strategic Plan as mandated by the 1990 U.S. Global Change
Research Act.
- NOAA
joined the U.S. Department of State in hosting the first-ever Earth
Observation Summit in which 34 nations and 20 governmental organizations
agreed to a 10-year plan of development for a comprehensive Earth Observing
System.
The NOAA
National Weather Service provides weather, water and climate forecasts
and warnings for the United States, its territories, adjacent waters and
ocean areas. Weather services cost each American household approximately
$13.00 per year. Several accomplishments in 2003 include:
- Expanded
NOAA Weather Radio to reach
95 percent of the American public.
- During
the Midwest tornado outbreak from May 4-10, the NOAA Weather Service
utilized the benefits of investments in modern weather technologies
and new science. With approximately 400 tornadoes reported during this
period, the NWS issued tornado warning with an average lead time of
18 minutes.
- The NOAA
Tropical Prediction Center/National Hurricane Center issued two
weeks of advisories on Hurricane Isabel, through its landfall on Sept.
18. Hurricane watches were issued approximately 50 hours prior to landfall
and warnings posted 38 hours prior to landfall.
- The most
significant winter storm since 1996 struck the east coast in February
2003. Preliminary estimates indicate the NWS provided an average winter
storm watch lead time of 32 hours and an average warning lead time of
17 hours—well ahead of the goal of 14 hours.
- NWS obtained
use of a new supercomputer to assist
in predicting extreme weather days in advance. Operating as a parallel
computer system, the computer is capable of making more than 450 billion
calculations per second.
The NOAA
Ocean Service is responsible for managing and conserving the nation’s
coastal resources—one of the nation’s most valuable assets.
Key accomplishments in 2003 include:
- NOS issued
the first ecological forecast of the dead zone in the Gulf
of Mexico.
- Issued
the first-ever report to Congress on the state of coral reefs.
- NOS-supported
scientists deployed newly-developed optical detection technology on
autonomous
underwater vehicles (AUV) to detect harmful algal blooms, including
the organism responsible for red tides off Florida’s coast.
- NOS responded
to 136 marine events, including oil
and chemical spills, search and rescue efforts, and other emergencies
in 2003. As the federal agency responsible for providing scientific
support during such events, NOS is among the first on the scene at a
spill. NOS provides information on spill trajectory, potential impacts
to the shoreline, cleanup strategies, chemical analysis and basic oil
spill science for public outreach.
- NOAA’s
Coastal Storms Initiative is a nationwide effort to lessen the impacts
to coastal communities from storms. This initiative helps local, state
and federal organizations work together to use coastal observing systems
data to develop new and improved storm-related tools, data, information,
forecast models, and training opportunities.
NOAA
Fisheries is dedicated to protecting and preserving the nation’s
living marine resources and their habitats through scientific research,
fisheries management, law enforcement and habitat conservation. Accomplishments
in 2003 include:
- Bycatch,
living creatures that are caught unintentionally by fishing gear, continues
to be a top concern for NOAA Fisheries. Through the National
Bycatch Strategy that was implemented in 2003, NOAA Fisheries continues
to work to assess its progress and identify areas where more can be
done to minimize bycatch.
- Recovery
of Kemp’s
Ridley Turtles reached a milestone in 2003 with the documentation
of 8,000 nests—compared with 700 nests documented in 1985.
- In January
2003, NOAA Fisheries completed a Strategic
Plan to Reduce Ship Strikes of North Atlantic Right Whales. The
draft plan is a comprehensive, multi-year, multi-agency blueprint for
addressing ship strikes, one of the most significant known threats to
the highly endangered North Atlantic right whale.
- In October
2003, VT Halter Marine Inc. and NOAA launched the first of four planned
NOAA fisheries survey vessels. Christened OSCAR
DYSON, the 208 ft. ship will be one of the most technologically
advanced fisheries survey vessels in the world when it enters service
in the summer of 2004.
The NOAA
Satellites and Information Service provides timely access to global
environmental data from satellites and other sources to promote, protect
and enhance the nation's economy, security, environment, quality of life.
Key accomplishments in 2003 include:
- On April
1, GOES-12, the nation’s newest and most advanced geostationary
operational environmental satellite, was activated from an on-orbit
storage mode, replacing the older GOES-8, which served for almost 10
years. GOES-12 is the first satellite to have an advanced solar storm
detector, the Solar X-ray Imager
or SXI.
- NOAA
satellites monitored 14 named storms and 5 tropical depressions over
the Atlantic, and sixteen named storms over the Eastern Pacific.
- There
were 224 rescues in 2003 thanks to the international Cospas-Sarsat
program, which uses NOAA satellites and Russian satellites to detect
and locate emergency signals from beacons carried by vessels, aircraft
and outdoor adventurers in distress.
- An important
new capability for the program are Personal
Locator Beacons carried by outdoor adventurers. PLBs can pinpoint
the location of a person in distress. The beacons were approved for
use throughout the United States in July 2003.
NOAA
Research, the primary research and development organization within
NOAA, studies the Earth system from the deep ocean to the sun. Accomplishments
in 2003 include:
- NOAA is
leading or supporting the development of 19 of the 21 Climate Change
Science Program synthesis and assessment products over the next four
years. Further, NOAA Research scientists are contributing to products
ranging from the study of carbon cycle dynamics and greenhouse gas emissions
to projections of future climate change, along with the development
of decision support tools to help decision-makers.
- In the
autumn of 2003, NOAA researchers helped to forecast activity and capture
images of solar storms of record-breaking magnitude. Using the NOAA
GOES-12 Solar X-ray Imager, they captured images of some of the largest
solar flare activity on record.
- The NOAA
National Severe Storms Laboratory improved the regional accuracy
of products used by NOAA National Weather Service forecasters. Improvements
have also been made in the WSR-88D weather radar—Warning Decision
Support System (WDSS-II) through enhanced WSR-88D severe weather detection
and prediction algorithms and display capabilities provided to NOAA
forecasters.
- The deployment
of the 1,000th Argo float, a world-wide
ocean observation system, that monitors temperature and salinity. The
data can be used for operational forecasts as well as by the scientific
community contributing to the understanding of the role of oceans in
climate.
NOAA
Marine and Aviation Operations operates a wide variety of specialized
aircraft and ships to complete NOAA's environmental and scientific mission.
Key accomplishments include:
- Four retrofitted
vessels joined the NOAA
fleet in 2003 replacing vessels that were originally placed in service
during the early 1960s. The introduction of these vessels has reduced
the average age of the NOAA fleet from 33.6 years to 28.2 years, a decrease
of 5.4 years.
- The NOAA
Gulfstream-IV, a high altitude jet, was utilized for analysis of
a hurricane’s inner core for the first time. Joining NOAA’s
WP-3D Orion turboprop aircraft, and the U.S. Air Force Reserve WC-130
aircraft, the G-IV provided data during Hurricane Fabian.
- The ability
to accurately measure hurricane force winds at sea surface has been
answered by the development of a next generation airborne Stepped
Frequency Microwave Radiometer. The SFMR was successfully tested
onboard NOAA’s WP-3D aircraft.
NOAA is dedicated
to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction
and research of weather and climate-related events and providing environmental
stewardship of the nation’s coastal and marine resources. NOAA is part
of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Relevant
Web Sites
NOAA National Weather Service
NOAA Ocean Service
NOAA Fisheries
NOAA Satellites and Information Service
NOAA Research
NOAA Marine and Aviation Operations
Media
Contact:
David
Miller, NOAA, (202) 482-6090
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