NEON Data to be Used by New National Climate Service

On February 8, the US Commerce Department announced its proposal for a new national climate service to be managed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA). NOAA’s historical climate network provides information on over 100 years of climate change. Currently, climate modeling, forecasting, and observations are spread throughout NOAA. The new initiative would centralize these functions and make the information more accessible, while also helping people understand and mitigate the impacts of climate change in their daily lives. NOAA and NEON anticipate being able to provide more detailed, in-depth observations on climate impacts by integrating data. NOAA can use NEON data to provide additional insight into climate impacts on terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems. NEON plans to use NOAA data to provide even more long-term and comprehensive continental perspective on climate. “What we do is fully complementary to NOAA’s climate service,” said David Schimel, NEON CEO. “NOAA was one of NEON’s first partners and we rely on them for knowledge and to set the standard for climate measurements. We hope to extend their measurements of climate to better capture those aspects of climate that affect biology directly.” The partnership between NEON and NOAA will contribute significantly to data integration efforts already underway in various Federal science and resource management agencies. The climate research, observations, modeling, predictions and assessments generated by NEON data, NOAA scientists and others will provide the scientific foundation for responses via the new service to support requests for data and other critical information.