Update: NPOESS and CDRs Florence Fetterer, Program Manager, NOAA at NSIDC PoDAG XXIII February 2005

Update: NPOESS and CDRs A Climate Data Record is “a time series of measurements of sufficient length, consistency, and continuity to determine climate variability and change.” ( National Research Council, 2004: Climate Data Records from Environmental Satellites. National Academies Press, Washington, DC. 116 pp. ) Many CDRs are satellite products  Changes in satellite orbit parameters or in instrument calibration are identified and, where feasible, corrected  Raw data are consistently processed  Errors are understood and quantified  CDRs enable climatologies and trend analysis Contrasted with Environmental Data Record (EDR - an operational product) Two types of satellite-based CDRs:  Fundamental CDRs (FCDRs): calibrated and quality-controlled sensor data (e.g. satellite passive microwave brightness temperatures) that have been improved over time  Thematic CDRs (TCDRs): geophysical variables derived from FCDRs (e.g. snow cover)

NASA and CDRs Testing the EDR = CDR hypothesis on the NPP Science Team Is planning theme/discipline-based “Climate Analysis Research Centers” (CARS) for NPOESS  SeaWiFS is serving as a prototype CARS  Scope of CARS is under development  CARS to be competed Influences the NPOESS IPO OATs through membership of the PSG on OATs  Project Science Group (PSG) is an in-house GSFC group  This true for VIIRS, not sure about CMIS, since no NPP CMIS equivalent. (Info from April 2004 NPP Project Scientist R. Murphy brief)

NOAA and CDRs (The above was published prior to this years cancellation of NCDC’s Climate Reference Network program) Creating Climate Data Records from NOAA Operational Satellites NOAA NESDIS White Paper, August 2003 Marie Colton, Director, NOAA/NESDIS/ORA Thomas R. Karl. Director. NOAA/NESDIS/NCDC Mitchell D. Goldberg. Chief, Climate Research and Applications Division, NOAA/NESDIS/ORA John J. Bates, Chief, Remote Sensing Applications Division, NOAA/NESDIS/NCDC From the Executive Summary: In response to …national initiatives in climate science, … will develop a NOAA Plan for Creating Climate Data Records from Operational Satellites to provide a framework for the use of climate data from existing and new instruments aboard NOAA satellites, including instruments on the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS). The goal of the plan is to ensure that satellite climate data are processed, archived, and distributed to users in a manner that is scientifically defensible for monitoring, diagnosing, understanding, predicting, modeling, and assessing climate variation and change.

NOAA and CDRs (Info from J Bates Jan 05 AMS talk, “NOAA’s Scientific Data Stewardship Program”) NOAA Scientific Data and Information Stewardship program, headed by John Bates, NCDC  Data rescue  CLASS (Comprehensive Large Array-data Stewardship System) o A node to be at NGDC here in Boulder o NSIDC will attempt to lend polar search expertise to software development effort o  Scientific Data Stewardship (SDS) SDS includes making CDRs  Validation and calibration  Reprocessing  Blending of in situ and satellite data “there will be an operational CDR production unit” “probably an A of O”

Berrien Moore and CDRs (Info from B Moore’s Jan 05 AMS talk on NPOESS and CDRs) “CDRs are an absolute necessity” based on 3rd IPCC Assessment “What we need is data”. Arctic ice his example. Drew from Challenges of CDRS and NPOESS NAS report  Shows climate nodes at NCAR and GFDL  Chart with thresholds critical for CDRs had snow cover to 10%, concentration to 1% (!). NOAA should embrace its new climate mandate  Current heading is to have the Weather Centrals tasked with CDR as well as EDR production  The NAS report said NOAA did not have to build a new system, but Moore disagrees.  SDS is going to be costly, complicated, and should not be mixed up with what the Centrals are already doing He recommends using the GEOSS process to establish an International Virtual Climate Central with a U.S. node at NCDC.

NSIDC and CDRs NSIDC: a partner for CDR generation Mature data processing and computing infrastructure An international leader in scientific data stewardship Experience in CDR generation (NOAA/NASA Pathfinder program participant) Part of the CIRES NOAA Cooperative Institute at the University of Colorado Affiliated with NOAA NESDIS (since 1976) A NASA Distributed Active Archive Center for EOS data (since 1994) o - NOAA has a new climate program emphasis that includes production of CDRs. NASA has an interest in transitioning EOS science technologies into NPP/NPOESS product generation and data management NSIDC has the expertise and institutional partnerships in place to bridge the gap between operational and climate research communities