# Presentation: 947366

## Working with Partners to Serve Society

- James R. Mahoney, PhD
- Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere
- March 2, 2005

## NOAA’s Vision & Mission

- NOAA’s Vision
- An informed society that uses a comprehensive understanding of the role of the oceans, coasts, and atmosphere in the global ecosystem to make the best social and economic decisions.

- NOAA’s Mission
- To understand and predict changes in the Earth’s environment and conserve and manage coastal and marine resources to meet our Nation’s economic, social, and environmental needs.

**Notes:**
Everyone has probably read NOAA’s vision and mission statement.

But I thought it was important to start today off with the vision and mission, because it is the foundation for everything that NOAA does.

And thanks to all of NOAA’s employees and team members working with our valuable partners throughout the country and the world, together we had a successful year in 2004.

I would like to share with you a number of NOAA’s accomplishments from last year.

## Recent NOAA Accomplishments

- Protect, Restore, and Manage the Use of Coastal and Ocean Resources through an Ecosystem Approach to Management
- Leading in Global Earth Observing and the Development of an Integrated Ocean Observing System
- Rebounding US Fish Stocks
- Monitoring Fishery Vessels
- Protecting and Restoring Habitat
- Mapping, Monitoring and Managing Coral Reef Ecosystems

**Notes:**
Within NOAA’s Ecosystem Goal, we can be proud of a number of accomplishments.

Leadership in Global Earth Observing and an Integrated Ocean Observing System
NOAA continued to exercise international leadership in the development of a coordinated, comprehensive and sustained Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), including the development and implementation of an Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS).

Research, Management Help US Fish Stocks to Rebound
The 2004 Status of Fisheries of the United States report showed considerable progress was made to address excessive fishing rates and rebuild fish stocks to healthy levels.

Better Management Through Fisheries Vessel Monitoring System
NOAA now provides near-real time fishing vessel tracking of more than 2,250 vessels in 14 different fisheries via a satellite-based vessel monitoring program. This is a 36- percent increase over 2003, and the coverage is planned to increase by five fold (8,308 vessels) by 2009.

Record Amount of Habitat Protected and Restored
Collaboration with national and regional agencies and alliances with over 500 community groups resulted in restoration of more than 5,500 acres of habitat of a target of 3760 acres in 2004. Since 2001, NOAA has restored 11,000 habitat acres and opened 555 stream miles, with goals of 30,000 acres restored and 13,000 miles opened over the next 5 years.

Mapping, Monitoring and Managing Coral Reef Ecosystems
NOAA, in collaboration with state and territory partners and other Federal agencies has begun to implement a coherent ecosystem approach to management of U.S. coral reefs, through coordinated monitoring, mapping, research, and management efforts. NOAA has mapped and characterized shallow reef ecosystems in over 50% of the U.S. reef jurisdictions since 2000 and will map the remaining areas over the next few years.

## Recent NOAA Accomplishments

- Understand Climate Variability and Change to Enhance Society’s Ability to Plan and Respond
- Making Critical Climate Forecast System Operational
- Filling Key Data Gaps through Climate Reference Network
- Completing of Model Runs for International
- Climate Assessment

**Notes:**
In NOAA’s Climate Goal, several activities are noteworthy:

Critical Climate Forecast System Becomes Operational
In August, NOAA implemented a new global ocean and atmosphere Climate Forecast System (CFS). Under development for a year by a team of NOAA scientists, the CFS is a coupled model approach, representing the interaction between the Earth's oceans and the atmosphere. It complements our other models and gives NOAA increased confidence to more accurately depict the actual physical processes that occur in nature, such as El Niño. Understanding these interactions are critical for determining climate patterns and providing more accurate forecasts and outlooks on seasonal time scales.

Climate Reference Network Fills Key Data Gaps
NOAA commissioned the U.S. Climate Reference Network (CRN), which now contains 72 stations across the U.S. The Network, in it’s first full year of operation, is already providing significant results, reducing scientific uncertainty on long-term temperature and precipitation trends – from 5 percent to 3.5 percent for temperature and from 16 percent to less than 10 percent for precipitation. This verification of climate observations improves the tracking of temperature and precipitation trends, giving NOAA scientists and the nation's decision makers more insight into climate variability and change.

Completion of Model Runs for International Climate Assessment
In October, NOAA completed projections for the upcoming Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Scientific Assessment of Climate using a new coupled atmosphere ocean- land model. The new model was produced by the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory and incorporates finer spatial resolution and better representation of processes affecting climate.

## Recent NOAA Accomplishments

- Serve Society’s Needs for Weather and Water Information
- Using Successful Team Approach to Address Hurricane Season
- Providing Tsunami Warning through DART Buoys
- Supporting a National Integrated Drought Information System
- Improving the All-Hazards NOAA Weather Radio
- Leading Largest Air Quality and Climate Study
- Instituting New England Air Quality Forecasts

**Notes:**
In the Weather and Water Goal, I’d like to touch on several successes:

Successful Team Approach to Hurricane Season
NOAA’s National Hurricane Center had unprecedented success dealing with a busy August and September in keeping with the NOAA climate forecast of an above normal hurricane season in 2004. NOAA’s collective success was a result of the contributions made by several NOAA entities. NOAA’s four- and five-day hurricane forecasts are as good now as three-day forecasts were ten years ago–and the Hurricane Frances and Charley forecasts were even better this year.

DART Buoys Provide Tsunami Warning
NOAA’s Deep Ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis (DART) system hit the bull’s-eye on November 17, 2003 when it detected a small tsunami generated by an 7.5- magnitude earthquake near Adak, Alaska. This was the first time NOAA was able to capture tsunami data in real-time since the system was transferred from research to operations in October 2003. NOAA advised emergency managers to avert a tsunami warning because real-time DART data showed the tsunami would not be damaging. Canceling this warning avoided an evacuation in Hawaii, saving the state an estimated $68 million in lost productivity.

National Integrated Drought Information System
NOAA supported the Western Governors’ Association’s (WGA) development of a plan for a National Integrated Drought Information System. It serves as a roadmap and requirements document for the creation, operation, and management of an effective national drought system. 

All-Hazards NOAA Weather Radio
In partnership with the Department of Homeland Security, NOAA converted its Weather Radio program into an all- hazards warning system. This partnership with DHS extends NOAA Weather Radio’s capabilities from primarily broadcasting weather forecasts and warnings to include a wider range of alerts and warnings, both man-made and natural disasters, which will make critical information more readily available to the public.

NOAA Leads Largest Air Quality and Climate Study
NOAA led hundreds of government and university scientists from across the country, Canada, and in western Europe to sample the quality of the air this summer in the largest air quality and climate study to date. The study was undertaken as part of the International Consortium for Atmospheric Research on Transport and Transformation. A special focus of the sampling was a comprehensive effort to characterize air quality in the northeast U.S., called the New England Air Quality Study.

Operational New England Air Quality Forecasts
In June, NOAA began issuing Air Quality Forecasts for the Northeastern United States as part of a joint project with the EPA. This program will provide critical, high resolution forecasts enabling state and local agencies to issue more accurate and geographically specific air quality warnings to the public. The Air Quality Forecast (AQF) program will provide ozone forecast guidance with enough accuracy and advance notice for people to take action to prevent or limit harmful effects of poor air quality.

## Recent NOAA Accomplishments

- Support the Nation’s Commerce with Information for Safe, Efficient, and Environmentally Sound Transportation
- Providing the Three Millionth Navigation Chart, and counting
- Partnering to Improve GPS Information
- Saving 220 Lives through SARSAT

**Notes:**
In the Commerce and Transportation Goal, there are a number of notable successes:

Three Million Navigation Charts Served, and Counting
The 3,000,000th Electronic Navigational Chart was downloaded in July 2004. NOAA ENCs are perhaps the most critical component of NOAA’s navigation tools – part of a suite of navigation products and services which help ensure the safety of marine transportation, while improving the economic efficiency and competitiveness of American commerce.

NOAA Programs Partner to Improve GPS Information
The Geodesy Program partnered with NOAA's Space Environment Center (SEC) to incorporate Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS) data into ionospheric models. The ionosphere distorts Global Positioning System (GPS) signals coming down from space satellites to receivers on the Earth. Because highly accurate models of this phenomenon do not currently exist, NOAA’s Geodetic Survey (NGS) is investigating how information about the ionosphere can be derived from CORS, which gather GPS data 24 hours, 7 days a week. With this work, both military and civil users will be able to employ GPS data with greater accuracy in less time.

SARSAT Saves 220 Lives
NOAA's Search And Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking (SARSAT) System aided in rescuing more than 220 lives in U.S. waters and across the country. The system uses NOAA satellites in low earth and geostationary orbits to detect and locate aviators, mariners, and landbased users in distress. The satellites relay distress signals from emergency beacons to a network of ground stations and ultimately to the U.S. Mission Control Center (USMCC) in Suitland, Maryland. The USMCC processes the distress signal and alerts the appropriate search and rescue authorities to who is in distress and, more importantly, where they are located.

## Recent NOAA Accomplishments

- Provide Critical Support for NOAA’s Mission
- Providing Critical Environmental Satellite Support for the Nation
- Modernizing the NOAA Fleet
- Improving the NOAA Grants Process

**Notes:**
And finally, in the area of critical support to NOAA’s mission goals, I’d like to highlight a few activities:

Critical Environmental Satellite Support for the Nation
For special hurricane support, our satellite operations were reconfigured to provide rapid scan 5-minute imaging for an unprecedented full week, with a 99.9% delivery rate for 584 images during hurricane Frances and a 100% delivery rate for 469 images during hurricane Charlie. Overall, NOAA's Satellites provided 12 months of nearly flawless operation of three satellite constellations consisting of 17 spacecraft. NOAA had a 99.5% success rate for providing mission critical data satisfying customer requirements.

NOAA Fleet Modernization
Significant progress was made this year on modernization of the fleet ships employed to complete NOAA’s environmental and scientific missions, within all mission goals. The acquisition of five ships helped reduce the average age of the fleet from 33.6 years to 28.2 years. NOAA initiated construction of several new vessels in FY 2004.  The first FSV, OSCAR DYSON, was launched on October 17, 2003. A second FSV, the HENRY B. BIGELOW is now under construction, and a third FSV is in the design stage.

Improving the NOAA Grants Process
Significant improvements made in the NOAA grants process in FY04 have led to more timely awards and fewer awards at the end of the fiscal year. Development and implementation of Grants Online resulted in NOAA being first agency to receive electronic applications through the Grants.gov portal, and Grants Online was selected as a finalist in the 2004 Excellence.Gov awards. During FY 2004, NOAA made on time grant awards worth almost $972,000,000 to 1501 recipients.

## NOAA Budget Trends

**($ in billions)**

**Notes:**
As you can see, the NOAA budget requests and the congressional appropriations continued to increase over the past several years.

The FY06 NOAA Budget Request represents a 6% increase over the FY05 request .

## Budget by Goal

| $ in millions |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|  | FY05 Enacted | Terminations | ATBs | Program Changes | FY 2006 Request | % Change |
| Ecosystem | 	1,378.5 | 	(347.7) | 	4.0     | 	62.8 | 	1,097.5 | 	(20%) |
| Climate | 	256.9 | 	(42.6) | 	6.0 | 	19.6 | 	239.9 | 	(7%)  |
| Weather & Water | 	852.3 | 	(57.5) | 	29.5 | 	34.3 | 	858.6 | 	1% |
| Commerce & Transportation | 	164.7 | 	(28.4) | 	13.3 | 	20.0 | 	169.6 | 	3%   |
| Critical Support | 	1,393.8 | 	(174.1) | 	24.9     | 	105.8 | 	1,350.5 | 	(3%) |
| Financing/Transfers | 	(127.6) | 	0 | 	(2.8) | 	0 | 	(130.3) |  |
| TOTAL | 	3,918.6 | 	(650.3) | 	74.9 | 	242.5 | 	3,585.8 | 	(8.5%)   |

**Notes:**
Here is NOAA’s budget broken down by goal area. Each of NOAA’s 44 programs is located in one of the four mission goals or the critical support goal and contributes to the goal objectives.

The FY06 Budget Request includes significant program increases for each of the goal areas, resulting in an overall increased budget request over FY05.

## Budget by Line Office

| $ in millions |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|  | FY05 Enacted | Terminations | ATBs | Program Changes | FY 2006 Request | % Change |
| NOS | 	669.3     | 	(294.9) | 	12.5 | 	27.9   | 	414.7      | 	(38%) |
| NMFS | 	823.6 | 	(155.6) | 	6.6 | 	53.2 | 	727.9 | 	(12%)   |
| OAR | 	413.8    | 	(70.7) | 	4.1 | 	25.1 | 	372.2 | 	(10%) |
| NWS | 	783.0 | 	(13.8) | 	34.6  | 	35.5 | 	839.3 | 	7%      |
| NESDIS | 	907.4     | 	(33.3) | 	17.5  | 	72.3 | 	963.9 | 	6%       |
| PPI | 	2.5        | 	(0.5) | 	0 | 	0 | 	2.0         | 	(20%)    |
| PS | 	446.7     | 	(81.5) | 	2.4 | 	28.6 | 	396.2     | 	(11%)     |
| Financing/Transfers |    	(127.6)  | 	0 | 	(2.8) | 	0 | 	(130.3)    |  |
| TOTAL | 	3,918.7 | 	(650.3) | 	74.9 | 	242.6 | 	3,585.9 | 	(8.5%)       |

**Notes:**
For those of you interested in how the FY06 budget request is distributed by Line Office, there is good news here as well. The FY06 Budget Request includes an overall increases over the FY05 request.

## Challenges & Opportunities

- Challenges & Opportunities

- U.S. Ocean Action Plan
- Earth Observing System
- Climate Change Science Plan
- NOAA Research Review
- Technology Advances
- Fiscal Constraints

**Notes:**
NOAA is faced with a number of challenges and opportunities. Some of these include:

The Ocean Action Plan – the President’s response to the Final Report of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy – was presented to Congress in December 2004. Nearly every aspect of the Ocean Action Plan touches some part of NOAA, presenting an opportunity for NOAA to work together with its stakeholder partners at the federal, state, local, territorial and tribal levels, as well as with non-governmental entities to engender responsible use and stewardship of ocean and coastal resources for the benefit of all Americans.

Earth Observing –

The Climate Change Science Plan was finalized in July 2003.  Implementation continued in 2004 with NOAA as the lead agency. However, there remains much to do, and NOAA remains committed to the goals and objectives of the Climate Change Science Plan

The Research Review Team Report was submitted to NOAA last summer. It contained significant recommendations for NOAA that we have begun to address systematically.

Technology Advances – Dissemination and communication tools, supercomputing, and observing platforms are just some of the areas of technology that continue to improve, providing us with opportunities to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of NOAA research and the provision of information products and services.

Fiscal Constraints –  

## How You Can Help NOAA Today

- Give us feedback on where NOAA’s priorities should be in FY’08 and beyond
- Agency making adjustments to planning priorities based on stakeholder input
- Your updates make this a living plan

**Notes:**
So what’s next? We must evolve constantly to address changes in the world around us. And we continue to need your views and your help.  

There are opportunities throughout the year all across the country for stakeholders to provide NOAA with input to improve its programs and services.

Your input today is especially important for NOAA as we set priorities in the FY08 planning process that will impact NOAA’s budget for FY08 and beyond.

By participating in this process, you can make this a living plan and assist us in shaping and improving products and services that best serve your needs