A13D-0272 INVITED
Overview of Climate Services Structures in Support of Societal Response
Clear, timely, and accurate climate data and information that frame the influence of climate variability and change are in strong demand by many sectors and user groups. Yet the practices and tools required to meet this demand are fragmented across many entities. This session overview will lay out current and evolving organizational models of climate services developed to meet user needs in a systematic fashion. Such models generally adhere to thematic and/or sectoral emphases, with attention to climate information delivery and assessments directed at mitigation and adaptation responses.
A13D-0273 INVITED
Strengthening Climate Services Capabilities and Regional Engagement at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center
The demand for sector-based climate information is rapidly expanding. In order to support this demand, it is crucial that climate information is managed in an effective, efficient, and user-conscious manner. NOAA's National Climatic Data Center is working closely with numerous partners to develop a comprehensive interface that is authoritative, accessible, and responsive to a variety of sectors, stakeholders, and other users. This talk will explore these dynamics and activities, with additional perspectives on climate services derived from the regional and global experiences of the NOAA Integrated Data and Environmental Applications (IDEA) Center in the Pacific. The author will explore the importance of engaging partners and customers in the development, implementation and emergence of a national climate service program. The presentation will draw on the author's experience in climate science and risk management programs in the Pacific, development of regional and national climate services programs and insights emerging from climate services development efforts in NCDC. In this context, the author will briefly discuss some of guiding principles for effective climate services and applications including: • Early and continuous dialogue, partnership and collaboration with users/customers; • Establishing and sustaining trust and credibility through a program of shared learning and joint problem- solving; • Understanding the societal context for climate risk management and using a problem-focused approach to the development of products and services; • Addressing information needs along a continuum of timescales from extreme events to long-term change; and • Embedding education, outreach and communications activities as critical program elements in effective climate services. By way of examples, the author will reference lessons learned from: early Pacific Island climate forecast applications and climate assessment activities; the implementation of the Pacific Climate Information System (PaCIS) as a regional climate service prototype; and ongoing planning for enhanced climate services activities at NCDC in the context of discussions of a national climate service.
A13D-0274
Data Visualization and Analysis for Climate Studies Using NASA Giovanni Online System
With the many global earth observation systems and missions, focused on climate systems, and the
associated large volumes of observational data available for exploring and explaining how climate is changing
and why, there is an urgent need for climate services infrastructure. Giovanni, the NASA GES DISC
Interactive Online Visualization ANd ANalysis Infrastructure, is a simple-to-use yet powerful tool for research
on and application of global warming and climate change, as well as their impacts on such areas as weather,
air quality, agriculture, and water resources.
Giovanni is an online data system with a remarkable capability for data exploration, basic research, and
exemplary data visualization, utilizing data from many different NASA Earth observation missions. With these
long-term, high resolution and widely available data sets, including parameters such as temperature,
precipitation, and greenhouse gases (water vapor, methane, carbon dioxide, and ozone), Giovanni provides
capabilities to facilitate climate change and global warming research. Examples include the computation and
visualization of long-term means; the analysis of time series and trends; the study of inter-annual and intra-
annual variabilities; and the identification and study of extreme events (e.g., hurricanes, floods, droughts, El
Nino, La Nina). In addition to images, Giovanni also provides the output data in ASCII, HDF, NetCDF, and
KML formats, and exports output images to Google Earth. Giovanni has proven to be a highly successful and
popular climate services infrastructure that is significantly contributing to the study of global warming and
climate change and their social, political, economic, and environmental issues that affect all of us on this
planet.
http://disc.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/techlab/giovanni/
A13D-0275
An integrated climate service strategy for African drought monitoring and prediction: linking information to action
For 23 years, the US Agency for International Development's Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) has applied climate data analysis in support of timely food insecurity mitigation and adaptation in Africa. FEWS NET, therefore, provides a compelling example of a sector-specific climate service. We briefly review the phases, successes and shortcomings of the FEWS NET climate service, describe an improved long term climate service strategy, and present new research supporting an improved, integrated drought monitoring approach. Our new monitoring system emphasizes seamless links between historical precipitation archives, near real-time rainfall estimates, and 1-to-4 month statistical predictions. Assessment of forecast skill shows useful levels of accuracy for many regions during key periods of the growing season. Integrating these forecasts with near real time blended satellite-gauge precipitation observations facilitates early identification of mid-season agricultural drought. Integrated historical climate archives (1979-present) permit analysis of observed and forecast climate conditions in terms of historical probabilities and analogs. Tools specific to staple crops and pastoralist settings are then used to assess the likely impacts of hydrometeorological anomalies. These are geographically integrated with livelihoods information and interpreted in terms of current food security conditions and timelines to determine human consequences. A client-server web-mapping data portal will allow users to dynamically access the climate anomaly information, and visualize the results in conjunction with livelihood information.
A13D-0276
Evolution of a drought monitoring tool
This paper chronicles the development of a drought monitoring tool. A web-based mapping tool emerged in response to user needs during the 1998-2002 drought in the Carolinas. It was shaped by interactions with stakeholders during Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) relicensing of dams on major river basins in the Carolinas, and will be part of plans to more closely manage drought in the Catawba-Wateree Basin. The presentation will discuss how the tool evolved as a result of these activities. The tool has undergone extensive revisions in response to focus group interactions. Part of the presentation will examine the dynamics of transferring and scaling the tool for broader regions.
A13D-0277
Challenges in the Assessment and Presentation of California Drought Conditions
The water year 2007-08 exhibited a pattern similar to that projected by climate models, with a contracted wet season followed by a warm spring. These conditions exacerbated antecedent dry conditions to set in place moderate to severe drought conditions over most of the state by September 2008. This sequence of events has brought to light the challenges in depicting and communicating drought to California's public, and also relating California to drought elsewhere in the U.S. Through ties with the NIDIS effort, the Western Regional Climate Center has an array of climatological resources that can be utilized in the assessment of drought, with a new WestWide Drought Tracker that is in development. There are some web resources available to access these products, including a California-specific climate data access interface. The most significant challenge is how to accurately present a drought in California using these and other data products in a manner the user can understand, with its unique water storage and supply system, in combination with natural environmental conditions. Suggestions to ameliorate this difficulty will be discussed, with the possible development of new products for drought monitoring that are specific to the state of California that can be incorporated into a NIDIS or similar infrastructure.