*EPF125 11/22/2004
Text: Climate-Monitoring System Filling Data Gap
(System establishes new state of the art in only one year of operation) (680)

The Climate Reference Network (CRN) is giving scientists more insight into climate variability and change just one year after it began full-scale operation, according to a November 19 press release from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The CRN taps data collected on Earth's surface and by satellites and integrates them into a single source for the first time, providing better information from which scientists can follow climate trends, the press release says.
"Increasingly, the CRN will be a critical data link from the United States to the Earth Observation System and address emerging global climate issues," said NOAA Administrator Conrad C. Lautenbacher.
The text of the NOAA press release follows:

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NOAA News Online

[U.S. Department of Commerce]
[National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration]

U.S. Climate Reference Network Proves Valuable Within One Year of Operation
Nov. 19, 2004 ���� After nearly a year of full-scale operation, the U.S. Climate Reference Network is already helping to improve the tracking of temperature and precipitation trends, giving NOAA scientists and the nation's decision makers more insight into climate variability and change. When it was unveiled in January 2004, the high-tech CRN marked the first time climate measurements gathered from the Earth's surface and NOAA satellites were integrated into one source, enabling higher levels of verification of observations. NOAA's top official said the CRN is poised to be a key tool on the world stage.
"The Climate Reference Network is filling a major land-based data gap throughout the United States needed for a larger, more comprehensive Global Earth Observation System of Systems," said retired Navy Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Ph.D., undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. "Increasingly, the CRN will be a critical data link from the United States to the Earth Observation System and address emerging global climate issues."
Currently, there are 72 USCRN stations operating in 35 states, logging real-time measurements of surface temperature, precipitation, wind speed and solar radiation. The NOAA Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites, or GOES, relay the data from these ground-based stations to the agency's National Climatic Data Center, in Asheville, N.C., which posts the observations online.
Additional deployments for the next two years are scheduled at a rate of about 20 each year. Officials said a total of 104 stations are planned throughout the nation by 2006.
"The USCRN is giving America a sound, first-class observing network that it will have for the next 50 to100 years and will be the benchmark for climate monitoring," said Gregory W. Withee, director of the NOAA Satellites and Information Service.
"The Climate Reference Network is injecting as much concrete data as possible into the research pool about what the climate is doing now, and how it will be impacted in the future," said Tom Karl, NOAA Climatic Data Center director and creator of the USCRN.
As an example, Karl said USCRN data are being used to develop NOAA's drought monitor, which assesses the status of drought nationwide. Also, the NOAA National Weather Service uses the USCRN data to verify forecasts and monitor meteorological conditions.
The NOAA Satellites and Information Service is America's primary source of space-based oceanographic, meteorological and climate data. It operates the nation's environmental satellites, which are used for ocean and weather observation and forecasting, climate monitoring and other environmental applications. Some of the oceanographic applications include sea-surface temperature for hurricane and weather forecasting and sea-surface heights for El Niño prediction.
NOAA is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and providing environmental stewardship of the nation's coastal and marine resources. NOAA is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Relevant Web Sites
U.S. Climate Reference Networ -- http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/uscrn/k
NOAA Climatic Data Center http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/ncdc.html
NOAA Climate Reference Network Calibrates the Future http://www.magazine.noaa.gov/stories/mag142.htm

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(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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