Good News, Shared with the Marine Community

Wearing a different hat, I recently returned to the U.S. Naval Observatory to share good news about NOAA with members of the Marine Technology Society. I once lived on the observatory grounds, and it was a pleasure returning there to speak specifically about NOAA.

I noted that this is a pivotal time for anyone bound to the sea and that I am grateful to Admiral Watkins for taking the helm of the very important U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy. It’s been far too long since scientists and other policymakers took a long, hard visionary look at our ocean policies. As a nation, we have needed to fully re-examine our approaches to exploring, protecting and using earth’s indispensable lifeline – and I look forward to the release of the Commission’s report later this year.

Part of my talk focused on the transformation NOAA is undergoing. It was a pleasure to cite your headway in implementing the outcomes of the three-month program review and to explain how NOAA is moving into the 21st century, both scientifically and operationally, in the same interrelated manner as the environment we observe and forecast. Recognizing the link between our planet’s ecology and the global economy is paramount to this journey.

There is always so much happening at NOAA that it remains a challenge to keep you all current, but I hope the following rundown will help:

We are working hard to improve NOAA’s grants program. Last year NOAA administered nearly 1,500 grants worth over $900 million. While most are formula grants awarded to states, we did competitively award over $100 million last year. I extend my heartfelt thanks to the many good NOAA folks who are working to improve the grants process so that, as new technologies emerge and important opportunities become apparent, we can provide timely funding to our constituents and science partners.

NOAA’s navigation products are a hit on the Internet. Provisional electronic navigation charts went online for test purposes in July 2001. Downloads have since exceeded more than one-quarter million – and over 2,000 businesses, academic institutions and others have registered on the site. Integrated with GPS positioning, the charts give mariners a powerful new navigation tool. We now have 215 electronic navigation charts, and Commerce Secretary Don Evans recently signed a policy allowing us to provide them online cost-free.

Continuing to build strong relationships with data providers and data users is a top NOAA priority. NOAA’s National Ocean Service is helping to lead the way with an initiative called “Enterprise GIS” – a system to manage and coordinate spatial data resources. “Enterprise GIS” supports a mandate to document all federal spatial data to the government standard. In tandem with standardizing data content, methodologies and surveying specifications, the work boosts the Administration’s E-Gov initiative to provide “one-stop shopping” for geographic data.

NOAA’s PORTS’ program is becoming a one-stop shop for valuable real-time data. There are now nine PORTS, or Physical Oceanographic and Real-Time Systems, around the country and more are in development. Given the precise water level, tide, current and wind information that today’s ships require to transit safely and avoid groundings, PORTS is a crucial tool in providing real-time data, standards and quality assurance. Adding an extra inch of draft to a ship can means millions of dollars in added revenue. That extra inch equals about 270 tons of cargo.

In three years, the FSV Oscar Dyson, a new, versatile and state-of-the-art NOAA vessel, will greatly exceed the current capabilities of the NOAA fleet. The Dyson will simultaneously and cost-effectively conduct fisheries and environmental/oceanographic research. We’re moving from low-tech, where what you haul in is what you’ve caught, to sonar, either towed or hull-mounted, that lets you know what’s under the sea and how much there is.

NOAA keeps pushing the limits on remote sensing. Remote sensing techniques are being applied in surveying 95,000 miles of coastal regions and navigable shorelines. This work is delineating an official, accurate shoreline. LIDAR technology is assessing post storm damage to beaches, cities and building structures. Following the September 11 tragedy, LIDAR assisted recovery efforts by mapping the World Trade Center and Pentagon sites. Fully operational is C-CAP, our Coastal and Shoreline Change Analysis Program. In addition to data development, C-CAP sets guidelines and standards for developing digital, regional land cover and change data along America’s coasts.

During my first year at NOAA, there’s no message I’ve emphasized more than the need for an integrated global observing system. We have to have one. While remote sensing provides a global view of activity in the atmosphere and on the surface of the sea, it does not provide in situ observations of what occurs beneath the surface.
A telescope can peer into space, in every direction and under many circumstances. That’s what we need for our oceans. The space and astronomy community pulled together and supported the development of the Hubble Telescope, giving astronomers an unprecedented look at galaxies over 30 million light years away.

Now Earth scientists need to pull together and create an integrated, global observing system for our oceans and coasts. If we are to build comprehensive and accurate seasonal, decadal and longer-range climate forecasts, this system is essential. While it is mainly a vital engine for research, it must also be operational 24/7 and support improved weather and climate forecasting. NOAA has embarked on a new global effort to help make sure that happens.

Since NOAA’s services directly affect $2.7 trillion of the nation’s economy every day, I am happy to tell you there’s good support for our FY04 budget. You’ll be pleased that we have a $4.5 million increase for programs supporting improved maritime transportation. We also have $5.5 million more for homeland security and nearly $17 million more for climate change science and research, including $6.3 million to help build and sustain a global observing system.

Climate is clearly a priority issue. For the first time, the federal government has an interagency climate science plan to develop short-term (2- to 5- year) products critical to policymakers, scientific researchers and resource managers. Led by NOAA, the climate science plan was presented to the nation in a three-day planning workshop for scientists and stakeholders that attracted over 1,300 participants from more than 47 states and 35 countries. The workshop helped set the stage for national climate research over the next several years. Twenty-six sessions provided opportunities to examine vastly different perspectives, ranging from skepticism about climate change to concerns about imminent debacle to just about everything in between.

On the heels of that workshop, we announced an Earth Observation Summit to be held this summer. With representatives from around the world, we expect the summit to become a milestone in the global effort to measure, observe and genuinely understand our oceans and world climate.

I am pleased to have been chosen as honorary chair of the Marine Technology Society’s Oceans 2005. I see this as a positive reflection on everything NOAA does to serve our nation in ocean and atmospheric science. Thank you for your continuing outstanding work.

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Date Last Updated: March 5, 2003 3:11 PM