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FY11 NOAA Below the Surface

Courtesy of the NOAA Research Staff

To Friends and Partners of NOAA Research:

The President has released the fiscal year (FY) 2011 budget request for federal agencies. For FY 2011, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) requests a total appropriation of $5,554,458,000, an increase of $806,105,000 over the FY 2010 enacted level.

NOAA requests a total of $464,860,000 for the Office of Oceanic & Atmospheric Research, an increase of $15,715,000 over the FY 2010 enacted budget. OAR’s FY 2011 request seeks funding to: (1) sustain critical research activities in support of NOAA climate, weather, and ocean missions; (2) initiate new activities that address currently unmet gaps in the NOAA service missions; and (3) meet the information needs of our Nation’s environmental decision-makers.

The request also responds to recent considerations regarding: (1) strengthening collaboration between OAR & NWS; (3) supporting a “warn-onforecast” capability, improved lead time for forecasts, and new observational tools, e.g., MPAR (Multi-Function Phased-Array Radar) and (3) preparing for the establishment of a climate service.

You can view the “Blue Book,” which summarizes NOAA’s budget request, by
visiting:
http://www.corporateservices.noaa.gov/~nbo/11bluebook_highlights.html.
General one-pagers on NOAA’s request will be uploaded to this site soon.
Here are some tips for navigating the links to find information on OAR:

– Chapter 7: Special Exhibits, contains tables that summarize each of the NOAA Line Office budget requests. The Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) begins on page 7-153.

– Chapter 2: NOAA Operations, Research and Facilities – OAR’s Operations, Research, and Facilities summary begins on page 2-49. (Note:
The NOAA budget is broken into two pieces: Operations, Research, and Facilities (ORF), and Procurement, Acquisition and Construction (PAC).)

– Chapter 6: NOAA Research & Development presents R&D funding for not just OAR but for all of NOAA.

A summary of OAR increases and decreases is listed below. (Note: These increases and decreases reflect the difference between the FY 2011 enacted budget and the FY 2011 “base” budget. The FY 2011 base can be slightly different than the FY 2010 enacted budget because it removes earmarks and adds adjustments-to-base, such as inflationary costs.)

Increases

Climate Research: +$34.3M Total Increases

– NOAA Climate Services Portal +$1.5M: NOAA will develop an online Climate Services Portal program to provide the public with a broad array of climate communications, outreach, and education materials. The Portal will be a central component of NOAA’s commitment to the integration and delivery of climate services by providing readily accessible climate data and information.

– Earth System Modeling: Urgent Climate Issues +$7.0M: Numerical earth system models are essential to understand past climates and predict future climates. NOAA will accelerate development and use of state-of-the-art models to address such urgent climate issues as:
sea-level rise, feedbacks in global carbon cycle, Arctic climate change, and decadal prediction of extreme events.

– Assessment Services +$10.0M: NOAA will develop and produce climate assessments at national and regional scales to meet an increasing demand for climate change decision support. The assessments will synthesize, evaluate, and report on climate change research findings, effects of climate variability in different regions, and climate vulnerabilities and uncertainties for the U.S.

– Carbon Observing and Analysis System +$8.0M: An accurate, reliable, and independent system for tracking sources and sinks of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases is needed to evaluate mitigation strategies and predict future climate change and its impacts, including ocean acidification. NOAA will complete and sustain an observation and analysis system to determine regional uptake and emissions of greenhouse gases across North America.

– Arctic Watch +$3.0M: The Arctic region is undergoing profound air, land, and sea changes related to climate change. NOAA will establish with international partners an Arctic Observing Network that integrates observations from new and existing atmospheric, coastal, and oceanographic observatories; ocean moorings; ice buoys and stations; and ship transects.

– Global Ocean Observing System +$4.8M: A sustained global observing system is the foundation of all climate research and services. NOAA will continue implementation of the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS), with an emphasis on improving sea level rise monitoring and understanding.

Weather Research: +$13.7M Total Increases

– Water Resources Research to Operations +$7.7M: OAR and NWS will develop and transition to operations water forecasting services via improved quantitative monitoring and predicting of extreme precipitation events, river and stream flow, flash flooding, and storm surges.

– Multi-function Phased Array Radar +$6.0M: NOAA working in collaboration with the FAA seeks to demonstrate that Multi-function Phased Array Radar technology can cost-effectively replace aging operational weather and aircraft-tracking radars while offering such significant service improvements, such as longer lead times for tornado warnings.

Ocean, Coastal, and Great Lakes Research: +$10.8M Total Increases

– National Sea Grant College Program: Hazards and Extreme Events +$2.0M:
Sea Grant will support regional research, training, and technology transfer to enhance coastal community resilience to both persistent natural hazards and extreme events.

– Sea Grant Marine Aquaculture Initiative +$2.7M: Sea Grant will advance sustainable, domestic aquaculture through extension outreach to the community and competitive research addressing high priority aquaculture issues.

– Integrated Ocean Acidification (OA) +$6.1M: NOAA will enhance its long-term monitoring and physiological assessments of OA effects on fisheries by developing forecasting capabilities and technologies, and adaptive strategies for improved management of impacted ecosystems.

Decreases

Weather Research: -$3.0M Total Decreases

– Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) -$3.0M: This decrease reflects the planned completion of the High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) UAS testing and demonstration program. The results of the test observing missions completed in FY 2010 will be evaluated over the next year with respect to a possible future expansion of NOAA’s suite of observing capabilities to include this new technology.