NCDC is the world's largest active archive of weather data.
The Weather Bureau, Air Force and Navy Tabulation Units in New Orleans, LA were combined and formed into the National Weather Records Center in Asheville, NC in November 1951. Authority to establish the joint Weather Records Center was granted under section 506(c) of the Federal Records Act of 1950 (Public Law 754, 81st Congress). The Center was eventually renamed the National Climatic Data Center. The National Archives and Records Administration has designated NCDC as the Commerce Department's only Agency Records Center. NCDC archives weather data obtained by the National Weather Service, Military Services, Federal Aviation Administration, and the Coast Guard, as well as data from voluntary cooperative observers. NCDC has increased data acquisition capabilities to ingest new data streams such as NEXRAD and ASOS.
Improving quality control and continuity of these new data sets as well as
making them available in timely fashion has been paramount. As operator of
the World Data Center for Meteorology, Asheville, which provides for
international data exchange, NCDC also collects data from around the
globe. The Center has more than 150 years of data on hand with 224
gigabytes of new information added each day--that is equivalent to 72 million pages a day.
NCDC archives 99 percent of all NOAA data, including over 320 million
paper records; 2.5 million microfiche records; over 1.2 petabytes of
digital data residing in a mass storage environment. NCDC has satellite
weather images back to 1960. NCDC annually publishes over 1.2 million copies of climate publications that are sent to individual users and 33,000 subscribers. NCDC maintains over 500 digital data sets, receives almost 2,000,000 requests each year, and records over 100 million hits per year on the website.
Data are received from a wide variety of sources, including satellites, radar, remote sensing systems, NWS cooperative observers, aircraft, ships, radiosonde, wind profiler, rocketsonde, solar radiation networks, and NWS Forecast/Warnings/Analyses Products. NCDC supports many forms of data and information dissemination such as paper copies of original records, publications, atlases, computer printouts, microfiche, microfilm, movie loops, photographs, magnetic tape, floppy disks, CD-ROM, electronic mail, on-line dial-up, telephone, facsimile and personal visit.
The Center, which produces numerous climate publications and responds to requests from all over the world, provides historical perspectives on climate which are vital to studies on global climate change, the greenhouse effect, and other environmental issues. The Center stores information essential to industry, agriculture, science, agriculture, hydrology, transportation, recreation, and engineering. This information can mean tens of millions of dollars to concerned parties.
Evidence is mounting that global climate is changing. The extent to which man is responsible is still under study. Regardless of the causes, it is essential that a baseline of long-term climate data be compiled; therefore, global data must be acquired, quality controlled, and archived. Working with international institutions such as the International Council of Scientific Unions, the World Data Centers, and the World Meteorological Organization, NCDC develops standards by which data can be exchanged and made accessible.
NCDC provides the historical perspective on climate. Through the use of over a hundred years of weather observations, reference data bases are generated. From this knowledge the clientele of NCDC can learn from the past to prepare for a better tomorrow. Wise use of our most valuable natural resource, climate, is the goal of climate researchers, state and regional climate centers, business, and commerce. NCDC's data and information are available to everyone including the general public, the legal profession, engineering, industry, agriculture, and government policy makers.
Over the years, new responsibilities were added to the Center's growing stature. Data began to be received in ever-increasing numbers. These data became the roots on which U.S. climatology began to grow. Regional processing centers were combined in the 1960s to form the world's largest climate center. Co-located with the NCDC are the Defense Department's Air Force and Navy climatological centers. The ensuing Federal Climate Complex has led to a sharing of resources, computers, and expertise so that the American taxpayer gets the most for his tax dollar.
Cooperation is not only a national practice, but also an international way of life. Through numerous international agreements with individual nations and with groups like the World Meteorological Organization, NCDC continues to foster global exchange of data so that global understanding of the climate will be enhanced.
The 1980s began the push towards a National Climate Services System. This system seeks to draw together climate activities at all levels of government. At the center of this system is the National Climatic Data Center, for without data, no climate system can be successful.
From Ben Franklin's and Thomas Jefferson's weather observations to today's most modern weather satellite, the archives at NCDC contain a treasure trove of information. Through exacting standards and vigorous quality assurance practices, NCDC continues to build the world's most complete climatological reference data bases. Such data are essential for analyses of the earth's recent climatic history. A historical perspective of today's climate conditions helps decision-makers plan for tomorrow. An active dissemination function completes the data cycle of this modern climate center.
The NWS's Cooperative Network, comprised mainly of 8,000 volunteer observers, has been recording daily records since the 1880s. Ships at sea have also been observing the weather essentially the same way for over 100 years.
However, new observing systems have presented themselves as technology has advanced. As aircraft began to fill the skies, information on the upper atmosphere was needed. Balloon-borne instruments radioed data; radars began to probe clouds; rockets reached the fringes of the atmosphere; and weather satellites, both geostationary and polar orbiting, now continuously watch the weather. These data are all archived by the National Climatic Data Center.
Climate knows no political or geographical boundaries; it is a global phenomenon. To support man's insatiable quest to understand the entire climate system, data on a global scale must be archived, analyzed, and made available.
The global weather and climate community has established a communications network to flash observations around the world in a matter of seconds. These data are supplied to NCDC by the National Weather Service's National Meteorological Center, the Air Force's Global Weather Central, and the Navy's Fleet Numerical Oceanography Center.
NCDC also maintains World Data Center for Meteorology, Asheville. The four World Centers (US, USSR, Japan, China) have created a free and open atmosphere in which data and dialogue are exchanged.
The World Meteorological Organization, through its Resolution 35, has established the mechanisms whereby marine observations are exchanged among participating countries. This exchange is perhaps the prime example of country-to-country cooperation over several decades.
However, to supplement all of the exchanges already listed, NCDC also maintains cooperative agreements with individual countries. In exchange for U.S. data and information, countries are glad to exchange their own data and information.
In today's high speed, high technology world, it is vital to remain in constant community around the world. The National Climatic Data Center is "wired" to the world's observing system, to the users of climate data, and to the managers of the climate organizations.
Serving customers, Americans from all walks of life, is a major source of pride among the staff of the National Climatic Data Center. NCDC's customers not only come from across America, but indeed come from every corner of the world.
Climatological publications have been produced and disseminated for over 100 years.
The Local Climatological Data (LCD) publication is produced monthly and annually for some 270 cities. The LCD contains 3-hourly, daily, and monthly values. The annual issue contains the year in review plus normals, means and extremes.
The Climatological Data (CD) publication, also produced monthly and annually, contains daily temperature and precipitation data for over 8,000 locations. The CD is published by state or region (New England), with a total of 45 issues produced each month.
The Hourly Precipitation Data (HPD) is produced monthly. It contains data on nearly 3,000 hourly precipitation stations, and is published by state or region.
The Storm Data (SD) publication documents significant U.S. storms and contains statistics on property damage and human injuries and deaths.
The Monthly Climatic Data for the World (MCDW) provides monthly statistics for some 1,500 surface stations and approximately 800 upper air stations.
In addition to routine publications, NCDC also generates many nonperiodicals including normals, probabilities, long-term station and state summaries, and several atlases covering the land areas, coastal zones, and oceans of the world.
Responding to national climatological needs has been a tradition at NCDC since its inception in the 1950s. We as a nation are learning that climate should be considered when making many decisions.
Our mission is to provide access and stewardship to the Nation's resource of global climate and weather related data and information, and assess and monitor climate variation and change. This effort requires the acquisition, quality control, processing, summarization, dissemination, and preservation of a vast array of climatological data generated by the national and international meteorological services. NCDC's mission is global in nature and provides the U.S. climate representative to the World Meteorological Organization, the World Data Center System, and other international scientific programs. NCDC also operates the World Data Center for Meteorology, Asheville.
The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) is part of the Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service (NESDIS).
Customer relations has been and continues to be a vital theme in the operations of the Center. NCDC scientists realize that climatic information basically remains an untapped resource that can contribute to the improvement of the socio-economic health of the nation. Providing data and information to customers in a timely manner is only one facet of the Center's customer relationship management. Of equal importance is suggesting alternate data sources or using the NCDC WWW as a source for selected climate information that might allow the customer to improve his/her application. NCDC has made a commitment to provide its customers with the best products and services possible using the latest WWW technology and through our offline services offered by the Climate Services Division. This involves continually improving the quality, timeliness and accessibility of the data.
Customer satisfaction is the primary factor in determining the effectiveness of NCDC's customer service operation. Center operations are designed to facilitate a "user friendly" environment for the servicing of customer requests.
The World Data Center (WDC) for Meteorology is maintained by the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and is collocated and operated by the National Climatic Data Center. It is one component of the World Data Center System which functions under the guidance of the International Council of Scientific Unions. The WDC for Meteorology home page is located at http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/wdcamet.html.
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