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NCDC and AASC in National Climate Service An
Update
Marjorie McGuirk National Partnership
Liaison NOAAs National Climatic Data Center
American Association of State Climatologists
Annual MeetingJuly 7-10, 2008Burlington, Vermont
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Integrated Climate ServicesBackground
Climate Services is The timely production and
delivery of useful climate data, information and
knowledge to decision makers (NRC 2001)

• Government, state, private sector, academia
  climate service partnerships currently exists
• loosely coupled but many gaps exist
• A strategy is needed for a more comprehensive and
  integrated approach among the many climate
  service partners
• NOAA offices (NWS/CSD/CPC)
• RCCs and State Climate Offices
• Other Federal Agencies
• Academia
• Private Sector
• International
• Update 2008 National Climate Services Strategic
  Planning
• Analysis options November February 2008
• Strategic Plan Vail June 2008
• Roundtable Discussion July and August 2008
• NCDC Re-organization tentative-draft-non-officia
  l

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Climate Services PartnershipsFederal, State,
Academia, Private Sector

• Current gaps in climate services
• Attributions
• Impacts
• Spatial and Temporal Resolution of observations
• Accuracy of Observing Systems
• Complexity of multi-disciplinary issues
• E.g., land use change climate confluence of
  heat waves, drought, poor dispersion/air quality
• Current Examples of Synergy
• RISAs Research to Operation issues
• RCCs Year-to-year uncertainty in budget
  resources
• Alliance for Earth Observations GEO efforts
• ESIP Assistance with data management
• NIDIS An issue specific model to follow for
  partnerships
• Update 2008
• IPCC and CCSP reports
• Drought.gov webportal operational
• Contract Mod RCC

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Climate Data Services-Observations

• Climate Reference Network
• Completing last of 114 stations by the end of
  September 2008
• Critical in-situ monitoring capability
• Work beginning on the deployment of soil
  moisture/soil temperature sensors at all 114
  sites stating in 2008
• Workshop held with stakeholders in Alaska in May
  2008 to begin planning for the deployment of 29
  stations in Alaska
• The first deployment in Alaska is planned for
  2008 at Sand Point.

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NOAA State Climate OfficesFormalizing the
Partnership

• Issue
• NOAA is in the process of defining a National
  Climate Services Program to include the RCCs
  SCs
• Thus, NOAA needs to associate with the
  appropriate designated State agent for climate
  services
• Method
• NOAA to work with partners in defining the roles
  of the State Climatologists
• Competency rely on AASC certification
• Official Designation - State appointment
  authority
• e.g., letter from Governors Office or
  Legislative Body
• Benefits
• Formalizes the climate service partnership among
  AASC, State Government, NOAA
• Update 2008
• Paper-work on all SCO and ARSCOs available at
  AASC registration in 2008
• ARSCO encoded into contracts for HCN-M

Existing Agreements
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Also122 WFOs15 WSOs13 RFCs50 State
Climatologists
Climate Services PartnershipsThe Broad Community
CIG
International Research Institute
WWA
Cornell University
University of Nebraska
Desert Research Institute
Illinois State Water Survey
NOAA Climate Prediction Center,
NOAA National Climatic Data Center
NOAA Climate Diagnostic Center
UNC-Chapel Hill
CAP
CLIMAS
CISA
Louisiana State University
ACCAP
SECC
IDEA
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We could talk about Climate Services in terms of
WHERE the NOAA offices are located.Location of
NOAA offices in the continental USA, by line
office. Symbols are size-scaled by number of
employees.
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NOAA Partnerships in Climate
or in terms of Budget
Three Line Organizations Budget climate
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Climate Services begins with the Customer
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What do our customers want?
NCDC Customer Profile
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5 million customers got data from NCDC in 2007
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(No Transcript)
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About half a million customers got large data
orders from NCDC in 2006
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NOAA Regional Climate CentersService Research,
Education and Outreach

• Conduct outreach to regional and local decision
  makers on the use of climate products.
• Building design (snow loads, soil freezing),
• Flood management,
• Irrigation,
• Pest management
• Coastal erosion
• Water management
• Agriculture
• Climate change
• Energy
• Environment
• Risk management
• Transportation
• Natural hazards

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NOAAs National Climatic Data Center
DO
Directors Office
SSD
GCAD
RSAD
CSMD
Global Climate Applications Division
Remote Sensing and Applications Division
Support Services Division
Climate Services and Monitoring Division
Finance and Acquisitions Branch
Logistics Support Branch
Archive Branch
Products Branch
Operations Branch
Information Technology Branch
Climate Database Modernization Program
Regional Climate Centers
Product Development Branch
Ingest and Analysis Branch
Paleo-climatology Branch
Data Access and Applications Branch
Climate Monitoring Branch
User Engagement and Services Branch
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Partnership Liaison Activities Update 2008

• RCCs
• AASC Action Teams
• National Data Stewardship Team
• Cross training customer service representatives
  on NVDI/CPO NCDC ACIS/NowData/CPC products
• Social-Economic Web Page
• FAQ Climate Change
• Fact sheets in draft form transportation,
  insurance, energy, health, agriculture
• (Auto-overload-distribution to RCCs)
• (FTEs at RCCs)
• Liaising at national and state levels
• NWS Sub-regional Climate Services Sacramento CA
  01/08, Fargo ND 06/08, Madison WI 05/08,
  Peachtree City GA 06/07
• AASC CSPM NDST monthly telecons
• NWSTC Climate Services Courses  09/07 12/07
  02/08
• (Climate Portal - not noaa.gov/climate)

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Regional Climate CentersUpdate 2008

• Positioning RCCs in National Climate Services
• RCC Contract Modifications
• Basic Regional Climate Services
• Advanced Regional Climate Services
• Data collection mapping - mesonets
• Science analysis
• Outreach education Fact Sheets - talks
• Supplemental Climate Services
• Data stewardship - BLM CDMP NWS support
• Applied Climatology in GEOSS theme areas AASC
  coordination
• HCN-M reference climate network
• Added RCC Regional Monthly State of Climate
  Summary to NCDC National Summary
• (State input for extreme events temp and precip)
• (State summaries of significant climate user
  applications)
• (Map Events of previous month in climate context)

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AASC Action Teams

• ARSCOs and RCCs cooperation.
• Ted Sammis (NM), Paul Knight (PA)
• Explore range of communication media to recommend
  avenues of more frequent communications between
  RCCs and their adjoining ARSCOs.
• 2. SC ACIS
• Jim Zandlo (MN), co-chair with Keith Eggleston
  (NRCC), Jim Angel (IL), George Taylor (OR), Ryan
  Boyles (NC) and Lesley-Ann Dupingy-Giroux (VT)
• Develop list of most useful products/queries for
  SCs. Develop procedures for making changes in
  the future. Connect with RCCs to determine the
  feasibility and likely costs of implementation.
• 3. Mesonet
• Ken Crawford (OK), chair Scott Archer (BLM), Stu
  Foster (KY), Ken Hubbard (HPRCC).switching to
  kelly Redmond
• Review and edit recommendations on siting,
  metadata, sensors and access for
  mesonet/modernized legacy cooperative stations.
  Design recommendations for coop legacy/mesonet
  for communications, storage and system security.
• 4. Official Data - Extremes
• Dennis Todey (SD) chair, Marjorie McGuirk (NCDC),
  Jeff Andresen (MI), Steve Hilberg (MRCC), Pat
  Guinan (MO), Mark Schafer (OK)
• Develop preliminary recommendations to NCDC on
  how to consider non-NOAA network data as
  official. Consider also which data sets should
  be stored.
• 5. Lincoln Accord follow-up
• Harry Hillaker (IA), chair, Matt Menne (NCDC),
  Chris Fiebrich (OK), consult with Kelly Redmond
  (WRCC), Tony Bergantino (WY), and Ken Hubbard
  (HPRCC)
• Develop a flexible, mobile principle or method of
  quality assurance of a variety of data sets.

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AASC Action Teams (cont)

• 6a. Strengthen AASC Members - Recommend new MOA
  between SCs and NCDC
• Paul Knight (PA), chair, Derek Arndt (OK), John
  Young (WI) and Ryan Boyles (NC)
• Take an inventory of what are the arrangements
  between SCs and their Governors Office. Propose
  a new MOA for NCDC that stresses ARSCO
  qualifications.
• 6b. Standing Committee for Recommendations on
  Recertification of ARSCO members
• Dave Robinson (NJ), chair, Pat Michaels (VA),
  George Taylor (OR), Jan Curtis (NRCS), John Young
  (WI), and Jim Angel (IL)
• Determine necessary components of an ARSCO,
  absolute minimum requirements, a model ARSCO and
  the process to become one. Recommend the
  professional development of ARSCO members.
• 7. Recommendations on Advocacy of ARSCO and its
  members
• Mark Schafer (OK), chair, Mike Anderson (CA),
  Steve Gray (WY) and Derek Arndt (OK)
• Develop an advisory plan to advocate ARSCOs
  considering a variety of resources, including
  upper level management from NOAA. Determine
  potential cost for first level of advocacy.
  Construct a mentorship plan and its procedures.
• 8. Inventory of AASC SC/RCC members
• Paul Knight (PA), co-chair, Nolan Doesken (CO)
• Identify membership roles and participation on
  boards, committees, etc. throughout the
  profession. Compile list of activities, including
  honors.

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Official Data- Update 2008

• Meeting June 10 2008- archive protocols and
  plans for environmental data management across
  NOAA.
• DAARWG (data archive and requirements working
  group) and the data center directors
• NOAA Data Centers, Centers of Data
• Discuss a new framework for NOAA archive
  architecture to include a new appraisal and
  approval process
• What to Archive procedure
• internal NOAA team for final review
• Constituent review to follow
• Future NOAA website for public comments 

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A New QA/QC Approach for Daily Data

• GHCN-Daily as the foundation
• GHCN Global Historical Climatology Network
• Tmax, Tmin, Precipitation, Snowfall/depth
• 23,000 temperature and 40,000 precipitation
  stations
• Operational dataset, currently available via FTP
• Dozens of data sources fully integrated
• U.S. Cooperative Summary of the Day (DSI-3200,
  3206)
• U.S. First Order and ASOS (DSI-3210, 3211, 3505,
  6407)
• Numerous international collections (including
  GSN)
• Twice per day updates for 9000 stations from
  four sources (HPRCC, DSI-3201, Environment
  Canada, and GSOD)

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Science-Based Quality Assurance

• Suite of complementary Q/A reviews
• Focus on the most egregious errors
• Internal consistency and frequent-value checks
• Temporal and spatial consistency checks
• At least a dozen tests per variable
• Performed in a deliberate sequence
• Rigorous evaluation of each check
• Durre, I., M.J. Menne, and R.S. Vose. 2008.
  Strategies for evaluating quality assurance
  procedures. Journal of Applied Meteorology and
  Climatology (in press)
• No check has a false positive rate 20
• Less than 1 of all values are flagged (excluding
  shifters)

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The Near Future

• Additional bells and whistles (tentative dates)
• Spatial regression test (September 2008)
• Teleconference with RCCs and SCs (October 2008)
• New shifter test (November 2008)
• Forts data and MRCC COOP data (December 2008)
• Other variables (September 2009?)
• CDO access (December 2009?)
• For more information
• http//www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/ghcn-daily/
• Contact Russell.Vose_at_noaa.gov
• BAMS manuscript on GHCN-Daily (draft by September
  2008)
• JAMC manuscript on Q/A (draft by December 2008)

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National Data Stewardship TeamNCDC, NWS (CSPM
CPM CSD) AASCActivities Issues

• QA/QC
• Monthly temp average techniques
• F6 ACIS LCD nowdata CDO
• CRN HCN-M New England
• Original vs Edited Value
• Integrated Surface Data
• Climate Data Online ACIS
• Hail in snowfall column
• QC Limits in WxCoder III
• Extreme Values
• ThreadEx
• Non-NOAA data source
• Official vs not-official
• Archive vs data storage
• Reference Networks
• CRN
• HCN-AL
• HCN-Modernization project
• SEBN

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http//www.economics.noaa.gov/?
   
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(No Transcript)
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Climate Services Partnerships collaboration
between NCDC AASC

• Re-iterate - NCDC is prepared to
• Pay publications page charges when NCDC is
  co-author
• Share professional graphics and scientific
  diagrams and charts
• Consider appointing ARSCO members as IPA
  appointments in-house
• Provide a phone bridge for ARSCO meetings that
  involve NCDC members
• Provide a summary of areas of expertise of NCDC
  scientists for possible collaboration
• Through the RCCs provide IT support for climate
  services, Web site support, and in particular
  Mapping, and scACIS.
• Update 2008 New role for AASC collaboration?
• Cooperation on the Climate Services Web Portal
• Education Outreach Simple linking from state
  institutions to SCOs, RCCs and NCDC
• Reporting of Climate Extremes as they occur to
  RCCs for the monthly climate monitoring

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Climate Services Partnerships collaboration
between NOAA AASC

• Roles State Climatologists in the broader NOAA
  context
• Climatologists for community, county, state-wide
  boards tasks teams
• Natural trust establishing administrative,
  economic, social and legal linkages between
  climate information sources and local needs
• Listen Locally, then Act Locally
• Preferred sources of climate information for
  state laws and regulations wrt climate
• Advise the governor
• drought status
• impact of several climate scenarios on mountain
  snowpack accumulation and melt
• Impacts on irrigated agriculture
• evaluate changing risks of extreme precipitation
• Update 2008?
• Many suggestions on the AASC list
• New Members on AASC Exec Council
• Mark Shafer 2007 AMS Second look at AASC
  vision statement on climate services in 2003 that
  harmonized with the NRC's "Climate Services
  Vision" document.
• Comments collected from AASClist - Phil Mote
  WA, Deke Arndt Ken Crawford OK, Mark Shafer,
  Nancy Selover AZ, Pao-Shin Chu HI, Dennis Todey
  SD, Michael Anderson CA, Jim Angel IL, Dave
  Stooksbury, Jan Curtis NRCS

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NCDC-RCC-NWS CollaborationNational Climate
Services Data Tools

• xmACIS (NWS Field Office Use)
• Applied Climate Information System
• Data query tool for NWS local climate
  research/local product development, and to answer
  customer climate record inquiries
• Complete historical climate database with near
  real-time update
• agACIS (Custom data and products for the NCRS)
• NOWData (Customer Use)
• Self-service tool
• Subset of xmACIS
• Free, limited access
• For current year and Normals
• Portal for ACIS and NCDC information
• ThreadEx (Open Use)
• Consistent daily temperature and precipitation
  extremes
• Datzilla (Partner Use)
• Data discrepancy reporting
• 400 registered NOAA users
• WxCoder III (COOP Use)
• Internet observation entry system