Transcript NWS Climate Services

NWS Climate Services
NCTP
Regional Cores
Fiona Horsfall
NWS/OCWWS/Climate Services Division
Climate Prediction Applications Science Workshop
Tallahassee, Florida
March 9, 2004
Outline
• NWS Climate Servcies
• NOAA Climate Transition Program
• Regional Climate Cores
• Summary
NWS CLIMATE SERVICES
Definition
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Real-time monitoring
Forecasting products and services
Models and technology, model output
Observations
Customer education, assistance, and
outreach
NWS CLIMATE SERVICES
Vision
• Real-time monitoring
of climate variability
(including drought
conditions) coast to
coast down to the
county level
NWS CLIMATE SERVICES
Vision
• 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
NWS CLIMATE SERVICES
Vision
• 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
NWS CLIMATE SERVICES
Vision
• Capacity to ensure the accuracy and continuity
of the U.S. historical record
NWS CLIMATE SERVICES
Vision
• Fully-mobilized regional
and field offices for
100
CD96 forecast
POF (%)
– Customer outreach
– Downscaling climate
forecasts
– Product and information
dissemination
– Integration and quality
control of surface
observations
Phoenix forecast
80
CD96 climatology
60
40
20
0
82
84
86
88
90
92
94
96
Forecasted Temperature (°F)
98
NWS CLIMATE SERVICES
Implementation
 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/index.html)
NWS CLIMATE SERVICES
Implementation
 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
NWS Climate Services
Operations
• 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
with
the climate
community
to
and metadata
for the climate
record
Goal 3: Enhance
and extend
Climate Predictionin
Center’s
(CPC)
facilitate
collaborations
the
product suite to increase the use and effectiveness of
regional and local climate information.
Goal 4: Conduct education and outreach to regional and local
services
customers climate
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
delivery of regional and local
NOAA Climate Transition Program
NCTP
• 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 NOAA’s vision for “…service delivery
methods that continuously assess and respond to user
needs with the most reliable information possible.”
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
NCTP Unit Model
Decisionmakers
Extension
Problem
Identification
Education/
Outreach
Prototype
Development
Transfer to
Operations
Research
Operations
NOAA Climate Transition Program
Criteria for Proposal
• Clearly defined roles
• Research
• Operations
• Decision maker
• Extension
• Defined participant contributions
• Project management description
NOAA Climate Transition Program
Criteria for Proposal cont’d
• 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
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
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
The Climate Research-Services
Conveyor Belt
Information
Gathering and
Dissemination
Operations/
Decision-makers
Research
NCTP
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
Regional Climate Cores
NWS
Coordination/management
NESDIS
NOS
State
entities
NMFS
OAR
Federal*
research
Federal*
operations
NOAA
RISAs
PPI
CORE
Non-profit
RCC
SCs
Academia
Extension
Private
Sector
County
Offices
*Non-NOAA
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
Regional Climate Cores
• A 3-step process
– Gather information, needs
• Regional conferences
• Domain defined by issues, not politics
– Develop a capacity for working
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Research
Funding
Transfer
Operations
Extension
– Delivery and improvement
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