History of the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory
The Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL), was formed October 1, 2005 as part of a reorganization and consolidation of six NOAA research entities including the former:
- Aeronomy Laboratory,
- Air Resources Laboratory - Surface Radiation Research Branch,
- Climate Diagnostics Center,
- Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory,
- Environmental Technology Laboratory, and
- Forecast Systems Laboratory
Many of these labs date back to the founding of the Department of Commerce's Boulder campus in 1954.
The new ESRL represents a strategic repositioning of NOAA's broad climate and weather capabilities into four major divisions (Global Monitoring, Physical Sciences, Chemical Sciences, and Global Systems) to better undertake the complex, interdisciplinary research increasingly necessary to achieve scientific and technological breakthroughs in today's modern world.
ESRL's staff of 650 Federal employees, contractors, and cooperative institute affiliates are a team dedicated to fulfilling ESRL's mission "to observe and understand the Earth system and to develop products through a commitment to research that will advance NOAA's environmental information and service on global-to-local scales."
A dedication ceremony took place on Wednesday, August 23, 2006. The agenda and presentations are available online.