(SORT). It is also responsible for the development of a global 

 climate monitoring system, for research on the environmental impact 

 on crops and fish, for establishing a climate warning system, and 

 for serving as a focal point for climatic impact information. 



Its Environmental Science and Information Center (ESIC) serves as 

 NOAA' s scientific and technical publisher, information banker, and 

 librarian. It developed and operates the computerized Oceanic and 

 Atmospheric Scientific Information System (OASIS), which provides 

 rapid access to a large number of bibliographic data bases dealing 

 with atmospheric, oceanic, and Earth sciences and marine resources. 



Its National Climatic Center (NCC), originally established in 

 the Weather Bureau (WB) as the National Weather Records Center (NWRC), 

 archives all weather data from U.S. agencies, including NOAA's Na- 

 tional Weather Service (NWS) and its predecessor, the Weather Bureau, 

 the U.S. Air Force and Navy weather services, the Federal Aviation 

 Administration, the U.S. Coast Guard, and many cooperative observers. 

 The NCC data base includes observations on marine weather and surface 

 conditions reported by cooperating ships, U.S. and foreign. It is 

 also responsible for the Satellite Data Services Division, which oper- 

 ates the environmental satellite data base comprising data imagery 

 and related data from NOAA's Earth-orbiting satellites and imagery 

 from NASA's experimental and operational spacecraft and satellites. 

 NCC produces many publications, among them the series of Summary of 

 Synoptic Meteorological Observations (SSMO) covering the coasts of 

 the United States and its territories. It is also responsible for 

 the WMO-sponsored Marine Climatological Summaries for the eastern 

 Pacific and western North Atlantic. 



Its National Geophysical and Solar-Terrestrial Data Center 

 (NGSDC), formed by a merger of the Aeronomy and Space Data Center 

 (ASDC) with the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC), acquires, 

 processes, archives, evaluates, and disseminates solid Earth and mar- 

 ine geophysical data and ionospheric, solar, and other space environ- 

 mental data. It is responsible for the World Data Center-A for Solid 

 Earth Geophysics and for Solar-Terrestrial Physics. It operates the 

 Earthquake Data File (EDF). 



Its National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC), established in 1961 

 as an interagency facility administered by the U.S. Naval Oceano- 

 graphic Office and advised, until its absorption by NOAA in 1971, 

 by a board composed of members from Government agencies involved in 

 marine research activities, acquires, processes, archives, and dis- 

 seminates oceanographic data, except for marine geological and geo- 

 physical data. 



NODC developed the National Data Inventory (NAMDI) to identify 

 data taken by U.S. oceanographers. NAMDI was superseded by the in- 

 ternational reporting form ROSCOP, and the NODC maintains a file of 

 ROSCOP's submitted by oceanographers worldwide. NODC operates EDIS's 

 Environmental Data Index (ENDEX) , a computerized data base whose 

 objective is to provide users with rapid references to available 

 data files in environmental sciences, including marine and coastal 

 resources. ENDEX includes the Environmental Data Base Directory 

 (EDBD), an inventory of environmental data bases located at Federal, 

 State and local agencies, educational and research institutions, 

 and private organizations in Canada and the United States. ENDEX 

 also includes the NODC Index for Instrument Measured Subsurface Cur- 

 rent Observations (NIMSCO) and the Bottom Photograph Camera Station 

 File (PHOTO) with Indexes to 7,700 camera sations throughout the 

 world's oceans represented by one or more bottom photographs avail- 

 able from an agency in the United States. 



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