National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

 Administration (NOAA) 



NOAA's Grand Challenge research in climate prediction and weather forecasting is critical 

 to its mission to describe and predict changes in the Earth's environment, manage the 

 Nation's ocean and coastal resources, and promote global stewardship of the world's 

 oceans and atmosphere. This research depends on advances in high-end computing and 

 on the collection and dissemination of environmental data. 



NOAA Grand 

 Challenges Requiring 

 HPCC Resources 



• Environmental assessment and 



prediction 



- Global and regional modeling 



to support short term 

 forecasting and warnings 



Weather 



River flow and water 

 resources 



Solar and space 



Living marine resource 

 forecasts 



- Assessment of seasonal, 



interannual, and long-term 

 global environmental change 



Global change modeling 



Ocean modeling 



Coastal analysis and assess- 

 ment 



• Environmental data and 



information dissemination 



- Climate and weather 



- Oceanographic 



- Geophysical 



- Navigational, including 



charts of U.S. waters and 

 airspace 



Increased computing power will enable higher resolution 

 in the current models of the Earth's atmosphere-ocean 

 system. Increased resolution will enable accurate repre- 

 sentation of key features such as weather fronts and 

 ocean eddies, and eliminate distortions due to clouds. 

 More accurate NOAA models will improve the under- 

 standing of the behavior of climate and weather sys- 

 tems, making possible better decision making by gov- 

 ernment and industry on issues that affect both the envi- 

 ronment and the economy. 



NOAA is the Federal agency responsible for archiving 

 and disseminating the Nation's environmental data, and 

 is the principal repository for the Nation's climatic data 

 for the U.S. Global Change Research Program. By 

 increasing NOAA connectivity to the Internet, 

 researchers and other users will have better access to 

 this growing collection of large data sets located at more 

 than a score of sites. 



Through HPCC efforts in climate modeling, NOAA will 

 provide better simulations of atmosphere-ocean coupling 

 and a first-ever direct attack on the regional climate 

 change problem. More accurate and more timely 

 assessment of the future impact of climate change will 

 make it possible to avoid "false choices" between the 

 economy and the global environment. In weather fore- 

 casting, finer resolution in global and regional models 

 will result in better weather forecasting and warning ser- 

 vices, especially for hazardous weather and flight safety. 



NOAA participates in the NREN, ASTA, IITA, and BRHR 

 components of the HPCC Program as follows. 



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