New Climate Agency
SEARCH BLOG: NOAA
Not sure how this will play here and here.
From the Washington Post:
NOAA reorganization would provide more info on global warmingThe Obama administration proposed a new National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Climate Service on Monday, reorganizing the agency so it can provide Americans with predictions on how global warming will affect everything from drought to sea levels.
The initiative, modeled loosely on the 140-year-old National Weather Service, will provide forecasts to farmers, regional water managers and business operators affected by changing climate conditions. But it comes at a time when climate skeptics have become increasingly effective in attacking the credibility of global warming forecasts.
NOAA, along with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, ranks as one of the federal government's key agencies for monitoring the climate and conducting climate research.
"We currently respond to millions of annual requests for climate information, and we expect those requests to grow exponentially," said NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco in an interview, adding that in light of recent scientific advances, "the models will continue to improve, and we will be able to provide more and more information."
The move does not come with a designated boost in funding, but it will bring NOAA's climate research arm together with its more consumer-oriented services so they can operate, in Lubchenco's words, "cheek by jowl."
Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said in an interview the service will be able to provide advice on everything from where ski operators might want to refocus their activities in light of changing snowfall patterns to what farm crops will need increased irrigation. In the same way businesses such as the Weather Channel and AccuWeather.com have taken advantage of the National Weather Service's predictions, Locke said, "You'll see much of the private sector will want to build on this one-stop shop of climate services."
The agency launched a new web portal Monday at www.climate.gov to provide a single entry point for access to NOAA's climate information, data, products and services.
In order to formally launch the reorganization, Locke said, the House and Senate appropriations committees with jurisdiction over NOAA will have to concur with the move, which is planned for Oct. 1. "Ultimately we need to have approval from Congress, but not through legislation," he said.
Even without the reorganization, NOAA has been providing more detailed climate-related forecasts recently. The National Integrated Drought Information System, which became law in December 2006, provides drought forecasts and impacts for the West and Southwest for at least a season and up to a year. Climate models suggest both these regions will experience increasing dryness over the next 20 to 40 years, and Lubchenco said the agency will expand this system to cover the Southeast as well.
It remains unclear whether the new Climate Service will be able to answer all the questions that Americans have about global warming. Researchers are still seeking for how to best make regional climate projections, pinpoint future changes in precipitation, what cooling effects aerosols have and how best to interpret tree-ring temperature data over the past several hundred years.
Recently flaws have surfaced in some of the 2007 projections of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, including one that suggested Himalayan glaciers would all melt by 2035. This has led some critics to question the value of climate computer models and predictions.
Thomas R. Karl, who directs NOAA's National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C., will serve as transitional director of the NOAA Climate Service.
Several key groups, including the insurance industry, ocean advocates and public health officials welcomed the initiative.
Frank W. Nutter, president of the Reinsurance Association of America, said the new service "will provide essential information to the public and private sectors" to cope with global warming..
"The insurance industry is heavily dependent on public data and information related to climate, and the creation of a NOAA Climate Service with new data services will greatly enhance the industry's analysis of climate and extreme event weather risk," Nutter said..
Vikki Spruill, president of the Ocean Conservancy, said the agency's "scientific expertise and focus on our ocean and atmosphere gives it a unique ability to gather, analyze and disseminate information about the threat of climate change."
The new Climate Service might not be able to answer all the questions that Americans have about global warming. Researchers are still searching for the best ways to make regional climate projections, pinpoint future changes in precipitation, determine what cooling effects aerosols have and how best to interpret tree-ring temperature data over the past several hundred years.
Recently flaws have surfaced in some of the 2007 projections of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, including one that suggested Himalayan glaciers would all melt by 2035. This has led some critics to question the value of climate computer models and predictions.
Paul Reiter, who heads the insects and infectious disease unit at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, said researchers need to guard against making sweeping projections given the climate system's complexity.
"People feel they can feed in a few variables and think they can explain nature," Reiter said. "Nature is very complicated."
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