FY2006 President's Request
CLIMATE RESEARCH
What is requested?
NOAA Research requests a net increase of +$19.0 million for Climate Observations
and Services, including +$11.0M for the Climate Change Research Initiative
(CCRI). The President has committed to providing resources to build climate
observation systems and proposed an international joint venture to develop
state-of-the-art climate modeling that will improve our understanding of
climate change and its potential impacts. This budget request represents
the third year of the President's program.
Why do we need it?
The changes in climate greatly affect our society and environment. Policy-makers
and business leaders are increasingly dependent on climate information to
manage water resources, agriculture, energy use, and human health. The data
collected worldwide by NOAA researchers aids our understanding of, and ability
to forecast changes in, complex climatic systems. The program increases will
provide a broad-scale look at the climate system, help us determine uncertainties
in predicting climate system behavior, reveal the regional impacts of climate
change, and allow NOAA to analyze key scenarios for policy-makers.
What will we do?
These programs are needed as the foundation for NOAA's
participation in the interagency U.S. Climate Change Science Program by providing
the base support fundamental to the success of activities conducted under
the Climate Change Research Initiative. This funding includes: Climate Research
and Observations, Climate Data and Information, Climate Operations, and the
Climate Change Research Initiative.
What are the benefits?
The requested increase for Climate Observations and Services
will ensure continuation of climate observing networks and long-term climate
records, such as the highly-regarded Climate Reference Network and NOAA's
Baseline Observatories. These programs are essential to today's climate
research and will further the development of operational climate products
and services. NOAA will be able to ensure critical monitoring of long-term
trends in important climate variables and to improve forecasting capabilities
and applications development over timescales from weeks to seasons
Climate Research At-a-Glance
What: $188.0M Total for Climate Research Programs
Why:
To better observe and understand the climate system, improve forecasts,
and allow society to better respond and adapt to climate variability
and change.
Office of Oceanic & Atmospheric Research, Climate
Research
FY 2006 Climate Program Changes
- $3.2M for Climate Research and Observations will :
- Support research activities such as long-term monitoring of key climate
variables, improving forecasts and more sophisticated applications of
climate information, and cutting-edge scientific assessments and information
products. These activities are central to NOAA's provision of end-to-end
climate services and products.
- Support continued participation in the Dobson total ozone global network
and ensure continuation of long-term climate monitoring of atmospheric
properties critical to tracking changes in long-term trends (e.g. carbon
dioxide), stratospheric ozone depletion, and surface radiation.
- Develop the decision support tools needed to better prepare for and
mitigate the effects of drought as called for in the National Integrated
Drought Information System plan through the eight current Regional Integrated
Sciences and Assessments teams. The implementation includes conducting
applied research to develop these tools to solve drought-related problems
facing State officials in water, land, and ecosystem management, as well
as fire mitigation strategies.
- Disseminate information products that serve our Nation's environmental
decision makers, e.g., Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
reports, World Meteorological Organization Ozone Assessments, and U.S.
Climate Change Science Program synthesis and assessment products.
- Support forecast improvements on a scale shorter than a season that
would benefit operational water resource forecasting, collaborations
with the U.S. Geological Survey, and the development of data assimilation
strategies at the NOAA National Weather Service (NWS) National Centers
for Environmental Prediction.
- $3.3M for Climate Data and Information will:
- Support the U.S. Climate Reference Network, the development of reference
satellite data sets, and the Observing System Monitoring Program for
continued long-term climate monitoring of surface temperature and precipitation.
This will enable NOAA to reactivate and commission 12 stations and install
four new stations as part of the U.S. Climate Reference Network, whose
reference measurements are critical to NOAA's development of an
Integrated Surface Observing System, integrating both ground station
and satellite measurements along a common reference scale.
- Enhance the Observing System Monitoring Program's ability to
identify and communicate early warnings of network problems that can
adversely affect our ability to track variations and changes in climate,
which also allow for a fully functional integrated observing system.
- Provide NOAA the processing capability to merge data from NOAA, NASA,
and other satellites, enabling scientists to track changes in global
cloud cover, a crucial component in understanding climate and whose resolution
is required for many energy-related applications.
- $0.9M for Climate Operations to:
- Provide the operational interface between users and developers of
reliable climate products and services.
- Transfer new forecasting techniques to the NWS to improve operational
settings, particularly in the areas of short- and medium-range climate
forecasts.
- Support local weather forecast office efforts to provide a full-range
of customer services for NOAA climate products, including new local forecast
products, through residence training courses for field personnel and
the NWS Partnership Program, which brings potential external partners
into NOAA to explore more effective climate services.
The Climate Change Research Initiative (CCRI) request
focuses on support for products for the interagency Climate Change Science
Program. The net $11.0 million (both Operations, Research & Facilities;
and Procurement, Acquisition, and Construction) CCRI increase includes:
- + $6.7M for Global Ocean Observing System (non-ARGO) request
- +$3.5M for Ocean Observations for Climate to continue
building and maintaining a global ocean observing system to document
climate-scale changes in ocean heat, carbon, and sea level. This request
is part of a multi-year, phased implementation to achieve 99% completion
by FY 2009. This effort will complete 55% of the ocean observing system,
keeping us on track with our international commitment of completing the
ocean climate observing system by 2010. Expansion of the ocean observing
system will ultimately enable society to better anticipate and respond
to changes in the Earth's climate system, through improved observations
of oceanic indicators of climate change and more accurate initial conditions
for seasonal climate forecasts.
- +$3.2M for Tropical Buoy Expansion for the Tropical
Atmosphere Ocean (TAO) and Pilot Research Moored Array in the Tropical
Atlantic arrays. This funding will expand the TAO array into the Indian
Ocean and support the technological development of the next generation
of moored buoys. These cost effective efforts will enhance TAO's
capability to accurately document the state of ocean climatic conditions
and improve our seasonal forecasting capability. Expansion will improve
seasonal-interannual forecasting, improve accuracy of buoy data, and
improve understanding of the effects of ocean-atmosphere interactions
on hurricane development.
- +$2.1M for Aerosols, Clouds, and Climate Change for
a multi-year program of observations to quantify how aerosols (airborne
fine particles) influence climate change by their interactions with clouds.
The observations will be used to test, validate, and improve aerosol-cloud
and global climate models. This will assess and improve the reliability
of future climate projection scenarios associated with anthropogenic activity
for the Climate Change Science Program and the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change, as well as help develop the next generation of decision-support
needs.
- +$0.8M for Regional Integrated Science Assessment Program for
a multi-year effort to strengthen research in a program that supports eight
integrated regional research teams addressing complex climate sensitive
issues relevant to decision-makers. This funding will initiate a multi-year
research effort to improve information in regional communities currently
served, expand information to regions not currently supported by NOAA,
and work across regions on climate-sensitive research issues that affect
larger areas, such as national drought management issues in the Colorado
River System. These actions will support research in such NOAA mission
areas as improved wildfire forecasting and response, water systems management,
enhanced agricultural management, improved vulnerability assessment and
management option development, and continued applied research on climate-related
health issues (e.g., West Nile Virus, Hanta Virus, and respiratory
ailments.)
- +$2.0M for Explaining Climate Conditions to Improve Predictions to
provide for enhanced climate prediction capabilities that will enable regional
and national decision makers and resource managers to better plan for impacts
of climate extremes, variability, and change. This effort represents a
key NOAA contribution to the interagency U.S. Climate Change Science Program
goal of improving knowledge of the Earth's past and present climate
and environment, including its natural variability, and improving understanding
of the causes of observed variability and change. These datasets will substantially
reduce current uncertainty about historical climate variations and improve
our ability to analyze and detect interannual-to-decadal variability and
weather-climate trends for the 20th century (vs. current capacity to do
so for just the second half of the 20th century). Finally, NOAA's
climate attribution research will greatly improve our ability to interpret
causes of observed climate variability and, thereby, provide policy-makers
with critically needed explanations of current and future regional climate
conditions, including major droughts, floods, prolonged warm or cold conditions,
climate trends and extremes, and multi-decadal variability.
- -$1.0M for Global Climate Atmospheric Observing System as
a partial offset to the climate increases being proposed in FY 2006.
The Climate Supercomputing ( Procurement, Acquisition,
and Construction ) request of +$1.0M has two
components:
- +$0.4M for Climate Modeling Center (part of CCRI request) to
provide funding for a very large, scalable computer system in support of
the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) and other national
and international climate assessments at NOAA's Geophysical Fluid
Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL).
- +$0.6M for Climate Research and Supercomputing to
provide funding for the development and utilization of comprehensive Earth
System Models being developed jointly by GFDL and its university partners.
NOAA Research Climate Request (Dollars
in Millions) CCRI Request in Italics
Operations,
Research & Facilities
(ORF) Program |
FY05 Enacted |
FY06 Current Program* |
FY06 Request |
FY06
Req – FY05 Enact |
FY06
Req – FY06 C.Prgm. |
Laboratories & Joint
Institutes |
46.0 |
47.9 |
47.9 |
+1.9 |
0 |
Climate and Global
Change Program |
67.5 |
57.4 |
57.4 |
-10.1 |
0 |
Climate Obs. & Services
Program |
53.1 |
51.2 |
69.2 |
+16.1 |
+18.0 |
A. Climate Research & Obs. |
13.7 |
14.3 |
17.5 |
+3.8 |
+3.2 |
B. Climate Data & Information |
0 |
0 |
3.3 |
+3.3 |
+3.3 |
C. Climate Operations |
0 |
0 |
0.9 |
+0.9 |
+0.9 |
D. Climate Change Res. Init.
(CCRI) |
39.4 |
36.9 |
47.5 |
+8.1 |
+10.6 |
i. Global Climate Atmos. Obs. Sys. |
[3.9] |
[4.0] |
[3.0] |
[-0.9] |
[-1.0] |
Ii .Global Ocean Obs. Sys.-non-ARGO |
[12.4] |
[9.4] |
[16.1] |
[+3.7] |
[+6.7] |
iii. Global Ocean Obs. Sys.-ARGO |
[2.7] |
[2.7] |
[2.7] |
[0.0] |
[0] |
iv. Aerosols, Clouds, & Climate |
[5.2] |
[5.3] |
[7.4] |
[+2.2] |
[+2.1] |
v. Reg. Integrated Science Assess. |
[1.0] |
[1.0] |
[1.8] |
[+0.8] |
[+0.8] |
vi. Explaining Climate Conditions
to Improve Predictions |
[0] |
[0] |
[2.0] |
[+2.0] |
[+2.0] |
vii. Climate Modeling Center |
[5.3] |
[5.4] |
[5.4] |
[+0.1] |
[0] |
viii. Carbon Monitoring |
[2.0] |
[2.1] |
[2.1] |
[+0.1] |
[0] |
ix. Carbon Cycle Atmos. Obs. Sys. |
[6.9] |
[7.0] |
[7.0] |
[+0.1] |
[0] |
Arctic Research Office |
5.0 |
3.0 |
3.0 |
-2.0 |
0 |
Partnership Programs |
5.7 |
0 |
0 |
-5.7 |
0 |
Procurement, Acquisition,
and Construction (PAC) |
Climate Research & Supercomputing |
6.3 |
6.4 |
7.0 |
+0.7 |
+0.6 |
Climate Modeling
Center |
3.5 |
3.1 |
3.5 |
0 |
+0.4 |
GRAND TOTAL (ORF & PAC) |
186.7 |
169.0 |
188.0 |
+1.3 |
+$19.0 |
* The FY 2006 Current Program is the FY 2005 congressionally enacted level,
less terminations, plus adjustments to base.