New online mapping tool for Great Lakes region

September 9, 2013

Scientists take samples that can inform cleanup and restoration actions for the Kalamazoo River in Michigan.

High resolution (Credit: NOAA)

NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration has launched a new online mapping tool for the Great Lakes that will give decision makers, resource managers, and environmental responders better information as they clean up hazardous materials and restore the coastal and estuarine environments.

The new Great Lakes Environmental Response Management Application (ERMA®) tool features the most comprehensive collection of environmental contaminant data in the region, as well as information on natural resources, habitats, weather, water levels, and currents.

Great Lakes ERMA adds to ERMA coverage in other regions around the nation, and focuses on coastal areas in the Great Lakes Basin from Minnesota to New York and from Ontario to Quebec in Canada. It integrates both static and real-time data from NOAA and other partners into a centralized, easy-to-use format.

By combining environmental contaminant data from NOAA’s Great Lakes Query Manager database with ecological, recreational, cultural, and commercial information, resource managers can compare environmental conditions over time and between locations.

Great Lakes Areas of Concern and NOAA Query Manager sediment sampling stations (orange points) shown in Great Lakes ERMA.

High resolution (Credit: NOAA)

ERMA helps to illustrate progress in cleaning up contaminated sediment and restoring the health of the Great Lakes, both across the basin and in Areas of Concern -- areas identified by the U.S. and Canada as polluted and in need of cleanup and restoration.

As part of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, NOAA developed Great Lakes ERMA,  in collaboration with EPA, U.S. Coast Guard, and University of New Hampshire.

In addition to addressing environmental cleanup and restoration under the initiative, Great Lakes ERMA also improves planning, communication, and coordination for emergency responses to pollution incidents, such as oil and chemical spills. It integrates information from a variety of sources into a common picture, which can provide the response team with a quick visualization of the situation.

NOAA continues to work with federal, state, regional and non-governmental partners in the Great Lakes to incorporate additional, regionally relevant data and information into Great Lakes ERMA, including restoration projects and alternatives, potential climate change impacts, spill response plans, and environmental modeling and forecasts.

NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Join us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and our other social media channels.

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Final report on Sandy service assessment released

May 15, 2013

This image was taken on October 29, 2012 from NOAA/NASA’s Suomi NPP polar-orbiting satellite. Using its Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite, or VIIRS, the satellite provides forecasters more information about the storm’s cloud structure.

Download here (Credit: NOAA/NASA)

After a thoughtful and deliberate review, today NOAA released a report on the National Weather Service’s performance during hurricane/post tropical cyclone Sandy. The report, Hurricane/Post Tropical Cyclone Sandy Service Assessment, reaffirms that the National Weather Service provided accurate forecasts for Sandy, giving people early awareness of the significant storm churning toward the mid-Atlantic and Northeast. The report includes recommendations to improve products and services to fully meet customer and partner needs in the future.

“We found that core partners highly value the National Weather Service and thought the forecasts for Sandy were quite good – forecasters performed well predicting the track of this extremely large and complex storm, which undoubtedly saved lives,” said Peyton Robertson, director of NOAA’s Chesapeake Bay Office and team leader for the Sandy Assessment. “But we also found problems with NOAA’s ability to communicate the impacts associated with storm surge, one of the most significant hazards associated with Sandy.”

The report includes 23 recommendations for service improvements, identifying better storm surge forecasts as the highest priority. Although surge forecasts for Sandy were available two days before the storm, the team found that officials in New York and New Jersey needed information sooner and in more user-friendly, unified formats, including GIS maps and warnings that provide specific local impacts. Among others, the report recommends that NOAA unify public communications of forecast information and expand the use of social science to develop products, services and communication tools to drive public preparedness and response to severe weather.

This NOAA GOES-13 satellite image taken on October 29, 2012, shows the storm as it is centered off of Maryland and Virginia. The storm is heading in a northwestern direction towards the Delaware and southern New Jersey coast. 

Download here (Credit: NOAA/NASA)

The National Weather Service has already implemented one of the team’s recommendations and is developing an action plan to ensure that the team’s remaining recommendations become reality. Earlier this year, the National Hurricane Center moved to change its policy to issue forecasts and warnings for dangerous storms like Sandy, even when they are expected to become post-tropical cyclones by landfall. This policy will be in place for the June 1 start of hurricane season.

“I’m committed to implementing these recommendations to give America a National Weather Service that is second to none,” said Dr. Louis Uccellini, director of NOAA’s National Weather Service. “We will achieve better storm surge forecasts, and more accurate and reliable weather forecasts across the board, with increased high performance computing capacity that is planned within the next few years to support improved numerical weather prediction models.”

He explained that the agency’s structure and operations were last modernized two decades ago, and much of the agency’s communications capacity was designed in the 1980s.

This spring Congress passed the Sandy Supplemental Appropriations Act, providing NOAA with unprecedented opportunity to strengthen the National Weather Service. The Act provides $48 million in supplemental funding to the agency’s FY13 budget for Sandy recovery efforts and to improve response and recovery capability for future weather events. The funding will allow the National Weather Service to make critical improvements in high-speed computing, higher resolution weather prediction models and key observation systems, among other projects that will improve the agency’s support to local communities for extreme weather events.

Sandy was a complex storm, resulting in 72 direct deaths across eight states and at least 75 indirect deaths, damages in excess of $50 billion, storm surge in excess of eight feet and up to three feet of snow in some places. At close to 1,000 miles in diameter, it was among the largest storms ever to strike the United States. The storm caused impacts in 24 states.

NOAA formed a team to assess the National Weather Service’s performance before and during the storm, as it does for destructive or deadly weather events. Team members were selected from across NOAA and other government agencies. The team’s charter called for the review of three key areas: the issuance and communication of watches and warnings during Sandy; National Weather Service’s use of the Internet to communicate with the customers and partners; and the development and communication of storm surge forecasts and information across NOAA.

The National Weather Service is the primary source of weather data, forecasts and warnings for the United States and its territories. Working with partners, NOAA’s National Weather Service is building a Weather-Ready Nation to support community resilience in the face of increasing vulnerability to extreme weather. Visit us online at weather.gov and join us on Facebook, Twitter and our other social media channels.

NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Join us on Facebook, Twitter and our other social media channels.

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New current meter at Stevens will feed data into NOAA’s real-time information system to allow ships to navigate more safely in New York harbor

April 29, 2013

NOAA is using data from a new current meter in New York harbor, operated by one of its academic partners, New Jersey’s Stevens Institute of Technology, to provide enhanced real-time information to mariners travelling through the nation’s second busiest port.

The Stevens current meter measures the  direction, speed, and volume of ocean currents in the harbor’s navigation channels, north of the Narrows between Brooklyn and Staten Island.  Its data will be used in NOAA’s Physical Oceanographic Real-Time System (PORTS®) system, which delivers real-time environmental observations, forecasts and other geospatial information to mariners in 21 major U.S. harbors. The system makes maritime commerce more safe and efficient by giving ship captains instant measurements of the water levels and temperatures, and the direction and speed of the current and wind as they come in and out of port.

Stevens is a partner in the NOAA-led U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS®) , and is the first academic institution that is part of IOOS to have its research data incorporated into the NOAA real-time PORTS program.

"This new sensor will provide crucial current information halfway between the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and Manhattan, the primary navigation route into New York and New Jersey ports. It’s a great addition to PORTS,” said Richard Edwing, director of NOAA’s Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services. “This collaboration between Stevens and NOAA gives us access to previously untapped data to help us address marine commerce and other coastal issues.  It also lays the groundwork for future federal-regional collaborations.”

By providing real-time tide, current, and other information, NOAA’s PORTS program helps reduce the chances for accidents. Also, enhanced marine information can increase the amount of cargo moved through a port and harbor by enabling mariners to safely use every inch of dredged channel depth.

“This is how the national IOOS network – with federal, regional, academic, and private sector partnerships – is bringing more data and information to the table from more sources than the government has had access to before,” said Zdenka Willis, U.S. IOOS program director. “In these tough economic times, IOOS is really helping us do more for our nation at lower cost.”

IOOS brings together timely, reliable, and accurate data and information decision makers need to take action to improve safety, enhance the economy and protect the environment. These data provide a larger picture of the interaction between the ocean and global climate systems and advance our understanding of potential climate change impacts on our marine ecosystems and coastal communities.

NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Join us on Facebook, Twitter and our other social media channels.

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National Weather Service completes Doppler radar upgrades

April 25, 2013

Dual-pol data shows what type of precipitation is falling based on its shape.

Download here (Credit: NOAA)

This week, the National Weather Service completed the dual-polarization technology update in Brownsville, Texas – concluding the 122 NWS radar site upgrades throughout the country. This new advanced technology is helping federal weather forecasters more accurately track, assess and warn the public of approaching high-impact weather.

Dual-polarization is the most significant enhancement made to the nation’s federal weather radar system since Doppler technology was first installed in the early 1990s. Dual-pol radar sends and receives both horizontal and vertical pulses, which produces a much more informative picture of the size and shape of the objects in the sky. This provides meteorologists the ability to distinguish between rain, snow, hail and non-weather items like wildfire smoke plumes, birds and insects. Conventional Doppler radar only has a one-dimensional view making it difficult to tell the type of precipitation or object in the sky.

The radar receiving dish inside the protective cover. Dual-pol is both a hardware and software upgrade to the radar.

Download here (Credit: NOAA)

“This achievement is the result of years of research, development and continued investment that’s helping us become a more weather-ready nation,” said Dr. Louis Uccellini, director, NOAA’s National Weather Service. “It is amazing what we can see with dual-pol technology. This game-changing technology has already helped forecasters issue more accurate and timely warnings to the public and has saved lives.”

Dual-pol is credited with providing improved detection of heavy rainfall, which can increase warning time for flash floods. During winter storms, forecasters use dual-pol information to monitor a transition from snow to sleet and freezing rain, which allows for a more accurate forecast. Dual-pol can also spot airborne debris giving forecasters the ability to confirm a tornado on the ground, even in the dark or when hidden by heavy rain. The new technology has also been used to help detect hazards to aircraft, such as volcanic ash plumes, icing conditions and birds.

“I am committed to supporting the National Weather Service’s critical mission of forecasting and warning about severe weather, and supporting the men and women who work every day to fulfill that mission”, said Senator Barbara A. Mikulski, chairwoman of the Appropriations subcommittee that funds NOAA, “We owe it to our communities – to the coastal states that depend on accurate hurricane forecasts, and to the interior states that depend on timely tornado warnings – to make sure our weather offices are fit for duty. These new state-of-the-art radars will ensure our forecasters have the tools and technology they need to protect lives and livelihoods.”

Dual-polarization is the most significant enhancement made to the nation’s Next Generation Weather Radar network, NEXRAD, since Doppler radar was first installed in the early 1990s.

Download here (Credit: NOAA)

The National Weather Service has used dual-pol to develop 14 new radar products that have improved the speed, understanding, and accuracy of the information it provides about extreme weather. Forecasters now have more confidence to accurately assess weather events and be more descriptive in weather warnings, which helps improve public response to the warnings.

The nationwide dual-pol upgrade began in Sept. 2011 and the public has been benefiting from the new technology every day since. Here are a few successes:

On Feb. 10, 2013, NWS weather forecasters in Jackson, Miss., used the new radar technology to confirm a powerful tornado (EF-4) was moving across Southern Mississippi’s Lamar County toward the populated city of Hattiesburg. Forecasters warned the public using detailed, descriptive language about the tornado’s size and path, resulting in no fatalities. On the same day, dual-pol information helped the Jackson forecasters recognize thunderstorms with particularly heavy rainfall rates, enabling them to issue flash flood warnings more than an hour before flash flooding started.

Dual-pol technology can also identify non-weather targets such as bugs, bats or debris from a tornado producing damage on the ground.

Download here (Credit: NOAA)

On Nov. 7-8, 2012, NWS meteorologists at the Boston forecast office relied on dual-pol radar information to help locate the rain/snow line as a nor’easter traversed the area. During the afternoon and evening, a storm formed across Rhode Island and eastern Massachusetts. Snow fell to the west of the boundary where temperatures dipped into the 30s, while rain fell to the east where temperatures held in the 40s. Using dual-pol information, forecasters were able to accurately track the slow progress of the rain-snow line and provide short term forecasts which helped department of transportation officials focus their snow removal assets and for the media to highlight the hazardous routes to the traveling public. The NWS forecast office in Phoenix relied on dual-pol technology to successfully warn for a very large dust storm that moved across the metro area during the early evening of July 5, 2011. There were widespread reports of near-zero visibility and winds gusting more than 50 mph. Dual-pol radar data estimated this dust storm reached a peak height of at least 5,000 to 6,000 feet, with a leading edge stretching close to 100 miles and traveling at least 150 miles. Forecasters collaborated with emergency management and media partners, providing details on potential impacts as the dust approached from the southeast.  Dust storm warnings described the large size of the dust area and the potential for widespread low visibilities of less than a quarter mile.  Safety tips in the warnings and updating warning statements helped people in the storm's path make fast and smart decisions.

In addition to the 122 NWS-owned radars, the full nationwide radar network includes another 37 radar sites owned by the FAA and Defense Department, which will be completely upgraded to dual-pol technology this summer. NOAA’s NEXRAD radar program is a tri-agency effort with NOAA, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the United States Air Force.

NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Join us on Facebook, Twitter and our other social media channels.

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