PRESIDENT’S BUDGET FOR NOAA MAXIMIZES RESOURCES TO BENEFIT THE
ENVIRONMENT, PUBLIC SAFETY, HOMELAND SECURITY AND THE ECONOMY
President
Bush’s proposed 2004 budget for the Commerce Department’s
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
totals $3.3 billion, an increase of $190 million, or approximately 6
percent, over the President’s FY 2003 request. This budget supports
NOAA’s efforts to provide increasingly accurate prediction of
severe weather; a deeper understanding of long-term climate and environmental
trends; sustaining healthy marine habitats, robust ecosystems and coastal
environments; and infrastructure, maintenance, safety and human capital
within the agency.
“This
President’s 2004 budget
presents innovative approaches as a result of an exhaustive top to bottom
organizational review of NOAA and the continued development of a new
strategic plan,” said retired Navy Vice Adm. Conrad
C. Lautenbacher, Ph.D., undersecretary of commerce for oceans and
atmosphere and NOAA administrator. “It also includes new cross-cutting
themes that will allow NOAA to tackle the complex environmental and
resource management challenges of today and the future,” added
Lautenbacher.
Programmatic
budget themes, funding requests and details on key increases are shown
below.
Environmental
Monitoring and Prediction - $1.6 billion total requested
- $1.3
million increase for The Observing System Research and Predictability
Experiment (THORPEX).
This is a global atmospheric research program designed to double
the rate of improvement of global weather forecasts and to make
reliable forecasts up to 14 days ahead.
- $3.7
million increase for NEXRAD radar
technology and systems that will result in increased tornado detection
accuracy from 68 percent to 75 percent and improve tornado warning
lead time from 11 minutes to 14 minutes by FY 2007.
- $39.5
million increase for the continuation of the National Polar Orbiting
Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS).
- $50.2
million increase for the Geostationary Operational Environmental
Satellite (GOES)
program.
- $2
million increase to establish a Coastal
Global Ocean Observing System. These new ocean measurements
will provide information on the effects of the changing climate
on coastal U.S. communities; improve forecasts of ocean conditions;
allow biological and chemical water sampling; provide information
on locations of marine endangerd or protected species; and monitor
coral reef health.
Ecosystem
Forecasting and Management - $1 billion total requested
-
$5.8 million
increase for the development and application of the necessary tools
for managing marine ecosystems, including funding for infrastructure
needed to capture and utilize data used in management decisions.
- $3.1
million increase to ensure implementation of the 2000
Federal Columbia River Power System Biological Opinion and Basin-wide
Recovery Strategy.
- $3
million increase to augment observer coverage in the New England
groundfish fishery to gather additional data for fishery management
decisions.
- $2
million increase to study effects of climate regimes on marine species.
These are first-ever funds to conduct this specific type of research.
Climate
Change Research, Observations and Services - $296 million total
requested
- $6.3
million increase to build and sustain a global
ocean observing system that will accurately document climate-scale
changes in ocean heat, carbon and sea-level.
- $5
million increase to implement a carbon cycle atmospheric observing
system with concentration on North America to begin definition of
carbon dioxide resources and sinks in and around the U.S. in order
to gauge the effectiveness of future carbon emission and sequestration
strategies.
- $3.5
million increase to enhance NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics
Laboratory’s (GFDL)
supercomputing capability to develop products to document, assess
and understand the impacts of long-term climate variability and
change on the United States.
- $1
million increase to support research that will provide a better
understanding of the absorption and scattering of radiation by aerosols
and the associated heating and cooling roles in the climate system.
- $1.1
million increase to support the initiation of an interagency Climate
Change Science Program Office (CCSPO) to support our Nation’s
interagency climate and global change program.
Infrastructure,
Maintenance, Safety and Human Capital - $248 million total
requested
- $3
million increase to accelerate the National
Weather Service’s Weather Forecast Office construction,
primarily in Alaska (planned completion in FY08).
- $10.4
million increase for the new NOAA Center for Weather and Climate
Prediction to provide for the relocation of the National Center
for Environmental Prediction (NCEP),
and other NOAA offices now located in Suitland, Md.
Homeland
Security - $65 million total requested
- $5.5
million increase to support a scaled upgrade of the current NOAA
Weather Radio (NWR) operation
to an All Hazards Warning Network, including systems to standardize
and automate receipt and dissemination of chemical and biological
emergency messages.
Energy
and Commerce - $116 million total requested
- $6.5
million increase for programs that support the improvement of the
Marine Transportation System (MTS)
by providing funding for safe and efficient maritime commerce.
- $1.2
million increase for the High
Impact Weather program to provide more accurate weather data
to utilities, enabling a more efficient use of energy resources.
This will entail upgrading instrument packages for NOAA
National Weather Service Cooperative
Observer Network.
The
Commerce Department’s National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (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 our nation’s coastal and
marine resources.
On
the Web:
NOAA:
http://www.noaa.gov
NOAA
FY ‘04 Proposed Budget: http://www.ofa.noaa.gov/~nbo/