NWS Climate Services

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NWS Climate Services NCTP Regional Cores
Fiona Horsfall NWS/OCWWS/Climate Services
Division Climate Prediction Applications Science
Workshop Tallahassee, Florida March 9, 2004
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Outline

• NWS Climate Servcies
• NOAA Climate Transition Program
• Regional Climate Cores
• Summary

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NWS CLIMATE SERVICESDefinition

• Real-time monitoring
• Forecasting products and services
• Models and technology, model output
• Observations
• Customer education, assistance, and outreach

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NWS CLIMATE SERVICESVision

• Real-time monitoring
• of climate variability (including drought
  conditions) coast to coast down to the county
  level

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NWS CLIMATE SERVICESVision

• New forecast products
• Linking weather and climate on intraseasonal time
  scales
• Downscaled to local levels
• Reflecting new insight into warm season
  precipitation, drought, and the Southwest monsoon
  (NAME)
• Extending beyond a year to a decade or more

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NWS CLIMATE SERVICESVision

• User-friendly resource to climate services
  middlemen and providers (including the private
  sector) of NWS
• climate models
• climate forecast model output
• climate guidance products
• know-how

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NWS CLIMATE SERVICESVision

• Capacity to ensure the accuracy and continuity of
  the U.S. historical record

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NWS CLIMATE SERVICESVision

• Fully-mobilized regional and field offices for
• Customer outreach
• Downscaling climate forecasts
• Product and information dissemination
• Integration and quality control of surface
  observations

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NWS CLIMATE SERVICESImplementation

• Regional Climate Services Program Managers in all
  six NWS regions
• Developing partnerships with RCCs and AASC
• NWS Regional and Local Climate Services
  Implementation Plan Released August 29, 2003
• Climate Services Focal Points appointed in every
  field office
• Training developed (www.nws.noaa.gov/om/csd/pds/in
  dex.html)

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NWS CLIMATE SERVICESImplementation

• Climate Services Focal Points appointed in every
  field office
• NWS local experts on climate and climate
  variability
• NWS customer interface for climate information
• Local conscience of historical climate record

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NWS Climate ServicesOperations

• 5 goals for plan for regional and local climate
  services
• Goal 1 Organize and equip the regional and local
  offices with guidelines and tools to enhance
  climate services
• Goal 2 Provide reliable, timely, accurate, and
  secure observations and metadata for the climate
  record
• Goal 3 Enhance and extend Climate Prediction
  Centers (CPC) product suite to increase the use
  and effectiveness of regional and local climate
  information.
• Goal 4 Conduct education and outreach to
  regional and local customers of climate services
• Goal 5 Establish strong partnerships with the
  climate community to facilitate collaborations
  in the delivery of regional and local climate
  services

Goal 5 Establish strong partnerships with the
climate community to facilitate collaborations
in the delivery of regional and local climate
services
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NOAA Climate Transition ProgramNCTP

• What is NCTP?
• Represents a new way of doing business essential
  to advance delivery of climate services
• A model for proposal-driven, transition to
  applications of research to expand regional/local
  climate services
• Collaboratively developed between NWS and OAR/OGP
• Provides opportunity to develop best partnerships
  between NOAA assets and with the external
  community
• Responds to NOAAs vision for service delivery
  methods that continuously assess and respond to
  user needs with the most reliable information
  possible.

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NOAA Climate Transition Program

• What are the program benefits?
• Provides a mechanism for embedding research
  sustainably into operations
• Advances scientific research
• Supports the next generation of decision-maker
  relevant climate science
• Supports interactive learning
• Increases scientific and operational capacity
• Develops infrastructure
• Adapts as demand for climate services increases
• Responds to user/decision-maker requirements
• Results in products that have value to
  regional/local climate-sensitive decision-making
  processes
• Competitive, but open to all

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NCTP Unit Model
Decision- makers
Extension
Research
Operations
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NOAA Climate Transition Program Criteria for
Proposal

• Clearly defined roles
• Research
• Operations
• Decision maker
• Extension
• Defined participant contributions
• Project management description

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NOAA Climate Transition Program Criteria for
Proposal contd

• Formal agreement between participants
• Statement of duration and timeline
• Benefit analysis (socio-economic and other
  quantative analyses, ecosystem benefits, etc.)
• Address post audit (validation, verification,
  refinement, maintenance)
• Expected outcome clearly defined

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NOAA Climate Transition Program

• Good news!
• NCTP is funded for FY05 (2-3 projects)
• Currently drafting
• FRN (Federal Registry Notice)
• Announcement for position to manage program
• Brochure with proposal guidelines

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NOAA Climate Transition Program

• What is the context within which NCTP functions?
• In an environment that allows for robust
  interaction between research, operations, and
  decision-making communities

This requires the development of cohesive and
collaborative interactions among the climate
community to enhance knowledge, maximize
opportunities and limit redundancy
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The Climate Research-Services Conveyor Belt
Information Gathering and Dissemination
Research
Operations/ Decision-makers
NCTP
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Regional Climate Cores

• Cores for Regional Collaboration
• Region domain defined by issues, not politics
• Regional meetings/conferences
• Standardized format for meeting structure
• NOAA resource management
• Contracted out to local assets, eg., RISAs, RCCs,
  SCs, universities, self-selecting
• Frequency defined by participants

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Regional Climate Cores
Coordination/management
NWS
NESDIS
NOS
Federal research
State entities
Federal operations
NMFS
NOAA
OAR
RISAs
CORE
PPI
RCC
Non-profit
SCs
Academia
Private Sector
Extension
County Offices
Non-NOAA
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Regional Climate Core Functions

• Share regional/local science
• Identify policy issues
• Identify operational issues
• Facilitate transitions of research to operations
• Maintain dialogue for regional issues

• Review consistencies across regions
• Establish collaborations
• Set planning guidelines
• Communicate funding opportunities
• Make recommendations for regional/local priorities

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Regional Climate Cores

• A 3-step process
• Gather information, needs
• Regional conferences
• Domain defined by issues, not politics
• Develop a capacity for working
• Research
• Funding
• Transfer
• Operations
• Extension
• Delivery and improvement

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Summary

• NWS Climate Services Leveraging regions and
  field to develop customer interfaces for delivery
  of climate services
• NCTP and Regional Climate Cores
• Provide mechanism for research needs
  identification and transition to operations
• Enable collaborations with national, regional and
  local climate communities
• Develop effective partnerships for decision-maker
  relevant climate research and service delivery