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Marine Mammal ScienceVolume 29, Issue 2 p. E193-E202 Notes An investigation of sound use and behavior in a killer whale (Orcinus orca) population to inform passive acoustic monitoring studies Marla M. Holt, Corresponding Author Marla M. Holt Marine Mammal & Seabird Ecology Team, Conservation Biology Division, Northwest Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 2725 Montlake Boulevard East, Seattle, Washington, 98112 U.S.ACorresponding author (e-mail: marla.holt@noaa.gov).Search for more papers by this authorDawn P. Noren, Dawn P. Noren Marine Mammal & Seabird Ecology Team, Conservation Biology Division, Northwest Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 2725 Montlake Boulevard East, Seattle, Washington, 98112 U.S.ASearch for more papers by this authorCandice K. Emmons, Candice K. Emmons Marine Mammal & Seabird Ecology Team, Conservation Biology Division, Northwest Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 2725 Montlake Boulevard East, Seattle, Washington, 98112 U.S.ASearch for more papers by this author Marla M. Holt, Corresponding Author Marla M. Holt Marine Mammal & Seabird Ecology Team, Conservation Biology Division, Northwest Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 2725 Montlake Boulevard East, Seattle, Washington, 98112 U.S.ACorresponding author (e-mail: marla.holt@noaa.gov).Search for more papers by this authorDawn P. Noren, Dawn P. Noren Marine Mammal & Seabird Ecology Team, Conservation Biology Division, Northwest Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 2725 Montlake Boulevard East, Seattle, Washington, 98112 U.S.ASearch for more papers by this authorCandice K. Emmons, Candice K. Emmons Marine Mammal & Seabird Ecology Team, Conservation Biology Division, Northwest Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 2725 Montlake Boulevard East, Seattle, Washington, 98112 U.S.ASearch for more papers by this author First published: 12 September 2012 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-7692.2012.00599.xCitations: 13Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume29, Issue2April 2013Pages E193-E202 RelatedInformation

The Global Space-based Inter-Calibration System (GSICS) is a new international program to assure the comparability of satellite measurements taken at different times and locations by different instruments operated by different satellite agencies. Sponsored by the World Meteorological Organization and the Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites, GSICS will intercalibrate the instruments of the international constellation of operational low-earth-orbiting (LEO) and geostationary earth-orbiting (GEO) environmental satellites and tie these to common reference standards. The intercomparability of the observations will result in more accurate measurements for assimilation in numerical weather prediction models, construction of more reliable climate data records, and progress toward achieving the societal goals of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems. GSICS includes globally coordinated activities for prelaunch instrument characterization, onboard routine calibration, sensor intercomparison of near-simultaneous observations of individual scenes or overlapping time series, vicarious calibration using Earth-based or celestial references, and field campaigns. An initial strategy uses high-accuracy satellite instruments, such as the NASA Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT)'s Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI), as space-based reference standards for intercalibrating the operational satellite sensors. Examples of initial intercalibration results and future plans are presented. Agencies participating in the program include the Centre National d'Études Spatiales, China Meteorological Administration, EUMETSAT, Japan Meteorological Agency, Korea Meteorological Administration, NASA, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and NOAA.

The National Ocean Service, which I've headed since December 1983, is one of the major line components of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA, in turn, is part of the Department of Commerce and is the leading federal agency in the oceanic and atmospheric sciences. Other agencies are involved in the earth sciences, such as the Department of the Interior's Geological Survey, or are in the business of environmental regulations, like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, but NOAA is the one federal agency charged specifically with analyzing and predicting oceanic and atmospheric components of the earth's environment as a whole. The importance of this global, integrated air‐sea approach is reflected in the five NOAA line offices.This past December, NOAA line offices were reorganized to consolidate programs as part of the Reagan Administration's general government‐wide belt tightening (see Figure 1). The idea was for NOAA to grow leaner but stronger. The main thrust of the work of the Weather Service and the Marine Fisheries Service remained the same. The Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research continued to provide research support to the other NOAA components. A trimmed down Environmental Data and Information Service merged with the National Environmental Satellite Service to become today's National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service. Also, this past December the NOAA Office of Coastal Zone Management joined forces with the National Ocean Survey to become the National Ocean Service.

The current constellation of environmental satellites is at risk of degrading due to several factors. This includes the following: 1) loss of secondary polar-orbiting satellites due to reaching their nominal lifetimes, 2) decrease in the density of extratropical radio-occultation (RO) observations due to a likely delayed launch of the Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate-2 (COSMIC-2) high inclination orbit constellation, and 3) the risk of losing afternoon polar-orbiting satellite coverage due to potential launch delays in the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) programs. In this study, the impacts from these scenarios on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Global Forecast System skill are quantified. Performances for several metrics are assessed, but to encapsulate the results the authors introduce an overall forecast score combining metrics for all parameters, atmospheric levels, and forecast lead times. The first result suggests that removing secondary satellites results in significant degradation of the forecast. This is unexpected since it is generally assumed that secondary sensors contribute to system’s robustness but not necessarily to forecast performance. Second, losing the afternoon orbit on top of losing secondary satellites further degrades forecast performances by a significant margin. Finally, losing extratropical RO observations on top of losing secondary satellites also negatively impacts the forecast performances, but to a lesser degree. These results provide a benchmark that will allow for the assessment of the added value of projects being implemented at NOAA in support of mitigation strategies designed to alleviate the negative impacts associated with these data gaps, and additionally help NOAA to define requirements of the future global observing system architecture.

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) is a key instrument onboard the Suomi NPP (S-NPP) and the NOAA-20 satellites that provides state-of-the-art Earth observations for ocean, land, aerosol, and cloud applications. VIIRS Reflective Solar Band (RSB) Sensor Data Records (SDR, or Level 1b products) are calibrated and produced independently by The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) VIIRS science teams. Multiple versions of S-NPP and NOAA-20 VIIRS SDRs are available to date. This study evaluates the long-term calibration stability, biases, and inter-channel consistency of S-NPP and NOAA-20 VIIRS SDRs generated by NOAA and NASA over Deep Convective Clouds (DCC) to support downstream applications, especially climate data record studies. Five VIIRS RSB SDRs were analyzed in this study: (1) NOAA version 2 S-NPP VIIRS reprocessed SDRs (NOAA-NPP-V2, 2012–2020), (2) NASA Collection 1 S-NPP VIIRS SDRs (NASA-NPP-C1, 2012–2021), (3) NASA Collection 2 S-NPP VIIRS SDRs (NASA-NPP-C2, 2012–2021), (4) NOAA constant F-factor calibrated NOAA-20 VIIRS SDRs (NOAA-N20-ConstF, 2018–2021), and (5) NASA Collection 2 NOAA-20 VIIRS SDRs (NASA-N20-C2, 2018–2021). The DCC time series analysis results indicate that the calibrations of the three S-NPP VIIRS RSB SDRs are generally stable, with trends within ±0.1%/year for all RSBs, except for M3–M4 (all three S-NPP SDRs) and I3 (NASA-NPP-C1 only). The calibration of NASA-NPP-C2 SDRs is more uniform at individual detector levels. NOAA-NPP-V2 and NASA-NPP-C1 SDRs exhibit non-negligible time-dependent detector level degradation in M1–M4 (up to 1.5% in 2020–2021), causing striping in the SDR imagery. The biases between NOAA and NASA S-NPP VIIRS RSB SDRs are from 0.1% to 2.4%. The calibrations of the two NOAA-20 VIIRS RSB SDRs are also generally stable, with trends within ±0.16%/year. Small downward trends were observed in the visible and near-infrared (VIS/NIR) bands, and small upward trends were observed in the shortwave infrared (SWIR) bands for both NOAA and NASA NOAA-20 SDRs. The biases between NOAA and NASA NOAA-20 VIIRS RSB SDRs are nearly constant over time and within ±0.2% for VIS/NIR bands and ±0.7% for SWIR bands. There exists large inter-satellite biases between S-NPP and NOAA-20 VIIRS SDRs, especially in the VIS/NIR bands (up to 4.5% for NOAA SDRs and up to 7% for NASA SDRs). In addition, the DCC reflectance of S-NPP VIIRS RSB spectral bands is more consistent with that of the SCanning Imaging Absorption SpectroMeter for Atmospheric CHartographY (SCIAMACHY) than that of NOAA-20. Bands M4 and M9 seem out of family in all five S-NPP and NOAA-20 RSB SDRs evaluated.

The Dobson ozone spectrophotometer network took a vital step toward worldwide calibration with a recent intercomparison test in the United States. Scientists from Denmark, the United Kingdom, Canada, the Soviet Union, Japan, Australia, Egypt, and the German Democratic Republic brought their instruments to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Air Resources Laboratories in Boulder, Colorado, for calibration. NOAA's spectrophotometer was recommended by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) as the primary reference standard for total ozone observations.

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is moving forward with an agency‐wide scientific integrity policy and has released a draft policy to all of NOAA's employees for their review and comment, NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco said on 8 February. The draft policy lays out guidance for scientific conduct at the agency, encourages scientists to publish their data and findings, provides whistle‐blower protection, encourages NOAA scientists to be leaders in the scientific community, and explicitly states that NOAA science managers and supervisors “must never suppress, alter or otherwise impede the timely release of scientific or technological findings or conclusions,” Lubchenco said at a meeting of the Union of Concerned Scientists' board of directors.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) provides daily reference evapotranspiration (ETref) maps for the contiguous United States using climatic data from North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS). This data provides large‐scale spatial representation of ETref, which is essential for regional scale water resources management. Data used in the development of NOAA daily ETref maps are derived from observations over surfaces that are different from short (grass — ETos) or tall (alfalfa — ETrs) reference crops, often in nonagricultural settings, which carries an unknown discrepancy between assumed and actual conditions. In this study, NOAA daily ETos and ETrs maps were evaluated for accuracy, using observed data from the Texas High Plains Evapotranspiration (TXHPET) network. Daily ETos, ETrs and the climatic data (air temperature, wind speed, and solar radiation) used for calculating ETref were extracted from the NOAA maps for TXHPET locations and compared against ground measurements on reference grass surfaces. NOAA ETref maps generally overestimated the TXHPET observations (1.4 and 2.2 mm/day ETos and ETrs, respectively), which may be attributed to errors in the NLDAS modeled air temperature and wind speed, to which reference ETref is most sensitive. Therefore, a bias correction to NLDAS modeled air temperature and wind speed data, or adjustment to the resulting NOAA ETref, may be needed to improve the accuracy of NOAA ETref maps.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is in the process of developing acoustic guidelines for assessing the effects of anthropogenic sound on marine mammal species under NOAA’s jurisdiction. The guidelines will provide a summary of past policies and updated basic science-based guidance. The guidelines are intended for use by NOAA analysts/managers and relevant stakeholders, including federal agencies, and will increase the transparency and consistency of how acoustic effects on marine mammals are assessed in the context of our authorizations, permits, consultations, and exemptions under the various environmental statutes NOAA administers (e.g., Marine Mammal Protection Act, Endangered Species Act, and National Marine Sanctuaries Act).

<p>The first satellite in the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) series was launched on 13 December 2022. It carries the state-of-the-art Flexible Combined Imager (FCI) and Lightning Imager (LI) which will provide significant improvements to geostationary observations over Europe, Africa, and surrounding regions. The FCI has 16 spectral channels, collects full disk images every 10 minutes, and provides up to 500 m spatial resolution, all notable upgrades over the imager aboard the previous Meteosat Second Generation series. And the LI will provide the first continuous optical lightning detection capability from geostationary orbit over Europe. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has been operating its Advanced Baseline Imager and Geostationary Lightning Mapper as part of the GOES-R satellites series over the western hemisphere since 2016. These instruments have many similarities to MTG’s and provide ideal proxy data for understanding how the new satellite observations will benefit severe storm analysis and short-term forecasting in Europe and Africa.</p> <p>This presentation will highlight the various ways that NOAA’s GOES-R satellites have improved severe storm analysis over the U.S. These include better detection of boundaries prior to convective initiation (CI), improved monitoring of cumulus fields and low-level moisture in anticipation of CI, the ability to track lightning activity, improved depiction of severe storm top features such as above anvil cirrus plumes and overshooting tops, and the ability to occasionally detect storm-scale rotation from space. In The potential of all of these will be discussed in the context of severe storm nowcasting over MTG’s domain.</p>

The Mg II core‐to‐wing index is a ratio of the Mg II chromospheric emission at 280 nm to the photospheric radiation in the line wings and is used as an indicator of solar activity. Since October 1991, the Solar‐Stellar Irradiance Comparison Experiment (SOLSTICE) has made daily irradiance measurements in the range 119–420 nm from the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS). A new Mg II index, based on the SOLSTICE observations at a spectral resolution of 0.24 nm, is presented and compared to previous measurements. Spectral irradiance measurements of the Mg II doublet at low spectral resolution (≈ 1 nm) have been made by the Solar Backscatter UltraViolet (SBUV) instrument on Nimbus 7 since November 1978 and subsequently by the SBUV2 instruments on NOAA 9 and NOAA 11 satellites. We compare the SOLSTICE data with the Mg II time series derived from SBUV2 data by the groups at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). SOLSTICE data are convolved to the lower SBUV2 resolution, and the NOAA and GSFC algorithms are then applied to this data set. The SOLSTICE Mg II indices constructed in this manner simulate the SBUV2 indices and can be used to validate the SBUV2 time series and identify data problems. From our analysis, we conclude that the NOAA Mg II time series is the most consistent during the period 1978–1994. The new GSFC Mg II time series has comparable accuracy for the period starting in 1989. We also derive the linear transformation equations required to put the high‐and low‐resolution time series onto common scales.

On 11 March 2011, a magnitude 9.0 Mw earthquake occurred near the east coast of Honshu Island, Japan. The earthquake generated a tsunami with wave heights up to 40 m triggering a response from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA is the lead federal agency responsible for tsunami warnings issuance, technology innovation, research, and mitigation for the United States. These activities are matrixed across several closely integrated bureaus, including the National Weather Service National Data Buoy Center, Tsunami Warning Centers, and UNESCO/IOC – NOAA International Tsunami Information Center; the National Ocean Service Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services, the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory; and the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC). Each of these bureaus work together to improve tsunami forecasting and thereby protect lives. Immediately following the March 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami, all NOAA offices were involved in complimentary tsunami activities. In this paper, we describe the status of data associated with this tsunami event, review the processing and availability of tide gauge and tsunameter data, including Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis (DART®) and discuss the uses of these data in tsunami models. The basic data in the NGDC historical event databases include: date, time, event location, magnitude of the phenomenon, and socio-economic information such as the total number of fatalities and dollar damage estimates. The tsunami database includes additional information on runups (locations where tsunami waves were observed by eyewitnesses, post-tsunami field surveys, tide gauges, or deep ocean sensors). Therefore, an introduction and summary of the effects of the earthquake and tsunami is also included.KeywordsDamageEarthquakeRunupTide gaugeTsunameterTsunami2011 Tohoku Japan Tsunami

The approach of the new year is a traditional time to tally up successes, failures, and the path ahead. Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), examined some agency advances and significant challenges during the 7 December Union Agency Lecture at the AGU Fall Meeting, during a press briefing, and in an interview with Eos. Lubchenco focused on several key areas including the concern about monitoring, mitigating, and managing extreme events; budgetary pressures the agency faces in current fiscal year (FY) 2012 and in FY 2013, with President Barack Obama on 18 November having signed into law a bill, HR 2112, following congressional agreement on a budget legislation conference report; and NOAA's newly released scientific integrity policy (see “NOAA issues scientific integrity policy,” Eos Trans. AGU, 92(50), 467, doi:10.1029/2011EO500004, 2011).

Research across natural resource management disciplines has identified an implementation gap between researchers and managers, where institutional norms and practices limit integration of novel data and observations into decision-making. This gap has largely been addressed using one-way science communication tools such as publications and conference presentations. While these tools can be designed and delivered effectively, mounting evidence suggests two-way communication builds more trust, enhances engagement, and may lead to more active use of scientific information in decision-making. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Western Regional Collaboration Team’s West Watch webinar is a one-way communication tool that shares information about climate, weather, and ocean condition anomalies to an internal audience of NOAA experts and key partners. NOAA is interested in expanding this tool to improve information accessibility and use by communities of interest that NOAA serves. This research uses a mixed-methods approach to evaluate how West Watch could change to function as a two-way communication tool, facilitating bilateral information movement between research presenters and the audience. Research results, supported by literature, inform five best practices and recommendations for changes to West Watch, as well as the design and implementation of future science communication tools.

We compare radiation budgets derived from different Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) archives over the tropical oceans (30S and 30N) from 1985 to 1989. Two ERBE data sets are used. One is taken from the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS), and the other from the combined ERBS, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) 9, and NOAA 10 satellites. The domain‐mean all‐sky outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) derived from the combined data set shows a notable change in early 1987 when NOAA 10 replaced NOAA 9. This change is also found in longwave (LW) cloud radiative forcing (CRF), all‐sky shortwave (SW) radiation, and SWCRF. The ERBS, however, does not show such changes.We also examine the sensitivity of cloud–radiation interaction to the sea surface temperature (SST) of the tropical oceans. In general, each component of radiative feedbacks derived from the two ERBE data have the same sign, although they show a certain degree of discrepancy in the magnitude. The discrepancy is more notable for averaged quantities over the entire tropical oceans, particularly over the subtropics where convective activities are relatively weak. The combined data show a larger sensitivity of LWCRF and SWCRF to SST than those of the ERBS, consistent with the above results. The response of clouds to an increase in SST has a net cooling effect when using the combined data but has a net heating effect when using the ERBS data (−0.80 W m−2 K−1 versus 0.48 W m−2 K−1). Most of the discrepancies of the net CRF between the two ERBE data sets can be accounted for by the difference in the sensitivity of all‐sky OLR (4.52 W m−2 K−1 versus 1.73 W m−2 K−1). Copyright © 2002 Royal Meteorological Society.