Oak Ridge Associated Universities 2006 Annual Report

HIGHLIGHT
Nationwide Network for Tracking
Long-term Climate Changes Is
Expanded
In 2006, ORISE continued support
of decommissioning work at the
Curtis Bay Depot in Maryland and
the Hammond Depot in Indiana for
the Defense National Stockpile Center
(DNSC) of the U.S. Department of
Defense (DOD). Having previously
performed historical site assessments,
scoping and characterization surveys,
and site-specific dose modeling to
determine the extent of contamination
that resulted from stored containers of
thorium nitrate, ORISE will continue to
provide assistance with the preparation
of decontamination and final status
survey plans. The DNSC expects to
begin decontamination of both sites in
2007 and expects the decommissioning
process to be completed in 2009.
Imagine a worldwide network of environmental
monitoring equipment to more effectively pinpoint
when the next major hurricane will hit. What if this
network could also provide data to help scientists
better understand how environmental factors affect
human health or to strengthen the way we protect the
world’s water and energy resources?
The U.S. Climate Reference Network (USCRN),
a network of climate stations, records real-time
temperature, precipitation, wind speed, and solar
radiation trends across the U.S. Since 2003, the
Atmospheric Turbulence and Diffusion Division
(ATDD)—managed by ORISE for the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)—
has played an instrumental role in the deployment of
the USCRN. In 2006, ATDD continued the expansion
of the network, adding to the more than 80 stations
installed in various U.S. locations. A NOAA initiative,
the USCRN currently operates in 40 states.
While its primary purpose is to provide consistent,
long-term (50 to 100 years) observations of
temperature and precipitation as a benchmark for
trends in climatology, the USCRN is also playing
an important role in helping the U.S. record climate
changes within the international community. More
than 60 countries, the European Commission, and
more than 40 international organizations have joined
together to develop the Global Earth Observation
System of Systems (GEOSS)—a network of airborne
and surface monitoring equipment. Expected to be
fully implemented by 2014, GEOSS will employ
climate monitoring systems, such as the USCRN, to
better understand the effects of weather on social and
economic outcomes.
“The contributions that the USCRN will make
to GEOSS will have a profound effect on how we
predict the impacts of climate changes in the future,”
said ATDD Interim Director Tilden Meyers. “The
USCRN’s design and operating procedures will be
used by many countries that contribute to GEOSS as
a benchmark for their own systems, so the USCRN
will have an important influence globally on how well
and how frequently data are collected in the most
climatologically sensitive locations on Earth.”
With an unparalleled 99.9 percent reporting accuracy,
the USCRN provides the most accurate and reliable
environmental climate data that the U.S. has ever
collected. As work continues to integrate existing
networks into GEOSS, ATDD will further its
expansion of the USCRN, which is expected to top
120 stations nationwide.
Image Information:
The USCRN includes more than 80 measuring stations
across the U.S., such as this one at the Mauna Loa Slope
Observatory in Hawaii, that use highly accurate and reliable
sensors and gauges to measure temperature, wind speed,
and precipitation.
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