U.S.
CLIMATE REFERENCE NETWORK PROVES VALUABLE WITHIN
"The Climate Reference Network is filling a major land-based data gap throughout the United States needed for a larger, more comprehensive Global Earth Observation System of Systems," said retired Navy Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Ph.D., undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. "Increasingly, the CRN will be a critical data link from the United States to the Earth Observation System and address emerging global climate issues."
Additional deployments for the next two years are scheduled at a rate of about 20 each year. Officials said a total of 104 stations are planned throughout the nation by 2006. "The USCRN is giving America a sound, first-class observing network that it will have for the next 50 to100 years and will be the benchmark for climate monitoring," said Gregory W. Withee, director of the NOAA Satellites and Information Service. "The Climate Reference Network is injecting as much concrete data as possible into the research pool about what the climate is doing now, and how it will be impacted in the future," said Tom Karl, NOAA Climatic Data Center director and creator of the USCRN. As an example, Karl said USCRN data are being used to develop NOAA's drought monitor, which assesses the status of drought nationwide. Also, the NOAA National Weather Service uses the USCRN data to verify forecasts and monitor meteorological conditions. The NOAA Satellites and Information Service is America's primary source of space-based oceanographic, meteorological and climate data. It operates the nation's environmental satellites, which are used for ocean and weather observation and forecasting, climate monitoring and other environmental applications. Some of the oceanographic applications include sea-surface temperature for hurricane and weather forecasting and sea-surface heights for El Niño prediction. 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 Climate Reference Network Calibrates the Future Media
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