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As the first session of the 105th Congress moved into its final week before its month-long August recess, the House and Senate held different ideas on NOAA funding for FY98, differences that will have to be resolved in conference in September. The Senate appropriations committee has recommended a budget of $1.99 billion. The House was scheduled to consider its appropriations committee's recommendation of $1.86 billion during the final week of the session, and the full Senate was to continue its discussions of the appropriations committee's bill at the same time. The president requested a NOAA budget of $1.97 billion, a $68 million increase over the FY97 appropriation.
Of major interest among NOAA's operating agencies' budgets is the National Weather Service (NWS). The NWS has gained wide public attention recently because of budgetary and management concerns expressed by Congress and by the unexpected removal on 25 June of Dr. Elbert (Joe) Friday as director of NWS by Secretary of Commerce William Daley and NOAA Administrator James Baker for what they termed "conflicting signals on how much money the agency would need to continue the modernization program and conduct regular operations." Friday was reassigned within NOAA as assistant administrator for Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR). An agency by agency breakdown shows the following.
The Senate committee recommended $664.6 million for operations, acquisitions, and research. The House committee recommended $641.9 million.The president's request for NWS for FY98 was $659.9 million, and the FY97 appropriation was $650.9 million.
The Senate bill provides $473.0 million for NWS operations and research, an increase of $22.2 million above the budget request. That includes $21.8 million for local warnings and forecasts and $1 million for the Susquehanna River Basin Flood system, an increase of $381,000 over the budget request. The House committee recommends $458.2 million for operations and research, an increase of $7.3 million above the president's request and $l.12 million for the Susquehanna project, an increase of $501,000 above the request. The Senate committee provided $1.820 million to restore unfunded data buoys, $97,000 to restore funding for the NOAA Cooperative Institute for Regional Prediction at the University of Utah in preparation for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, and $150,000 to install three NOAA weather radio transmitters in southern Indiana. The House committee recommended no funding for those projects. The House committee denies the budget request of $910,000 for radiosonde replacement that was approved by the Senate. NWS officials believe that elimination of funding for this project places the entire radiosonde network at risk, jeopardizing the continuity of upper-air observations when federally mandated radio frequency restrictions are imposed on 1 January 1999. Under capital assets acquisitions, the Senate committee provided for $50.9 million for NEXRAD, the same amount requested by the president but less than the $53.1 million from FY97; $9.8 million for ASOS also as requested by the president but less than the FY97 appropriation of $10.0 million; $116.9 million for AWIPS, as requested and up from the FY97 appropriation of $100 million; and $13.9 million for a central computer facility upgrade as requested but down from the FY97 funding of $14 million. The House committee recommendation was $43.9 for NEXRAD, down $7 million from the request and $10 million less than the FY97 appropriation; $9.8 million for ASOS as requested; $116.9 million for AWIPS as requested; and $13 million for the computer facility upgrade, down $910,000 from the request. The committee reported also that it expects NWS to continue to work closely and cooperatively with the regional climate centers despite the transfer of the program to NESDIS. A breakdown of recommendations includes:
| Activity (in thousands) | FY97 | President Requested | House Committee | Senate Recommends |
| Opns/Res. Systems Acq. Construction |
$460.9 $177.2 $13.0 |
$450.8 $191.6 $17.4 |
$458.2 $183.7 $16.7 |
$473.0 $191.6 $14.5 |
With NESDIS, the Senate recommended $477.8 million, $7.7 million over the President's request but more than the FY97 appropriation of $447.5 million. The House committee recommended $413.7 million, $64.1 million less than requested. A breakdown of the recommendations includes:
| Activity | FY97 | FY98 Requested | FY98 House Committee | FY98 Senate |
| Polar | $176.3 | $134.4 | $107.9 | $134.4 |
| GOES | $171.4 | $237.6 | $210.9 | $241.2 |
| Landsat | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Tot. Sat. Obs. Systems | $402.7 | $426.2 | $369.8 | $430.9 |
| Data and Info. Services | $30.0 | $27.5 | $27.5 | $27.5 |
| Env. Data Mgmt. | $14.8 | $16.3 | $16.3 | $16.3 |
| Reg. Climate Centers | $0 | $0 | $0 | $3.0 |
Of the $134.4 million for the NPOESS, the senators dedicated $51.5 million for the interagency office to converge the NOAA and DOD polar satellite programs. In its report, the Senate committee reported that it was aware that NOAA can gain access to satellite data at significantly lower cost by purchasing data from privately owned small satellites. It indicated the funding was being made available to initiate a demonstration project for the purchase of such data from the private sector of global wind weather data. It said it expected NOAA to conduct an open competition and select a contractor prior to 31 December 1997 to provide "the required global wind data beginning in 2001 and to report back to the committee by 1 March 1998."
With OAR, the senators recommended $267.6 million overall, while the House committee recommended $237.5 million. The budget request was for $245.0 million, and the FY97 appropriation was $253.1 million.
Interpretation of the House and Senate numbers for the FY98 budget for OAR and OGP is difficult at best. The administration requested $74.9 million for climate and global change research, and interannual and season climate research. The Senate committee provided $72.9 million, $2 million less than requested. The Senate allocation includes funding for the operational observational network from TOGA but is silent on additional funding for IRI. The House allocation is for $70.0 million, which includes increases for IRI and health effects on the atmosphere. The House is silent on funding of the observational network from TOGA.
With long-term climate and air quality research, the Senate committee recommended $36.9 million, an increase of $1 million over current level spending. Included in that amount is $7.5 million for high-performance computing, the same as the FY97 appropriation. The House committee recommendation is for $28.3 million. For atmospheric programs, the Senate recommends funding for weather research and solar–terrestrial services and research at $47.3 million, $3.8 million more than both the budget request and the FY97 appropriation. The House committee recommendation is for $43.6 million. The additional Senate funds are to be used for the development of a national resource center at Mt. Washington, NH, to demonstrate and make available to science centers and schools nationwide innovative approaches of using weather as the educational link integrating sciences, math, geography, and history.
While the Senate Committee provides $15.0 million for the National Underseas Research Program (NURP), a $9.6 million increase over the request and $3 million more than the FY97 funding, the House provided no funding for underseas research. Neither the Senate nor the House provided funding for the Global Learning Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) program. In FY97, GLOBE was funded at $6.0 million, and the president had requested $7.0 million for FY98. Under the ocean and Great Lakes programs, the Senate Appropriation Committee's recommendation provides $24.7 million for marine prediction research, an increase of $7.5 million over the FY98 request. In this account, funds are recommended for a ballast water demonstration in the Chesapeake Bay and for the tsunami hazard mitigation plan designed to reduce risk to the coastal residents of Oregon, Washington, California, Hawaii, and Alaska. The House committee did not provide funding for either of those programs.
| Account | FY97 | President Requested | House Committee | Senate Recommends |
| Ocean Svcs. (NOS) Marine Fisheries (NMFS) |
$205.9 $323.3 |
$224.8 $338.2 |
$219.6 $326.9 |
$234.8 $372.3 |
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Important budgetary and program issues regarding the National Science Foundation (NSF) face House and Senate Appropriation Committee members as the first session of the 105th Congress breaks for its annual August recess.
Total NSF budget recommended by the House committee was $3.48 billion; the Senate committee recommended $3.37 billion. The Senate recommendation for research and related activities was $2.52 billion, while the House committee recommended $2.53 billion.
The Senate language differs significantly from that of the House. While the House report "strongly supports" NSF's Knowledge and Distributed Intelligence (KDI) initiative, the Senate report declares
the committee also believes that the agency must have a plan for the investment of nearly $500 million for the two initiatives (KDI and life in extreme environments). Therefore, the committee will not make the new funding for these two initiatives available until the agency submits appropriate milestones and guideposts to be accomplished in fiscal year 1998 and against which the agency can be measured in determining funding for fiscal year 1999.
The Senate report supports a program that the House was silent on, also. "The Committee . . . directs the National Science Foundation to accelerate the mapping of Arabidopsis and to move beyond the work it currently supports (through an interagency working group) toward more economically important plant genome projects such as corn, wheat, rice and soybeans." The Senate directs NSF to provide $40 million "to support a competitive, merit-based initiative, which may include one or more university-based research centers" for plant genome research.
The Senate report also wants a study of how pending changes in the proposal review criteria will affect the type research that NSF supports. The committee wants NSF to go back to providing in its future budget requests "valuable information on interdisciplinary research and education initiatives of broad national interest."
Regarding the phaseout of two supercomputer centers, the senators wrote, "The transition should take into account the needs of the users and also the appropriate transition period and costs. Absent an agreement between NSF and the centers, the committee may be compelled to provide guidance to the agency concerning what constitutes an appropriate transition." In addition, the senators reported, "The committee strongly supports the next generation Internet initiative and stresses the importance of equal access to the Internet for students, teachers, and researchers in the rural areas of this country."
Also having the support of the Senate committee is the Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences. The committee also wants NSF to work with "NASA and other agencies to develop complementary programs" to "understand the origin and evolution of galaxies and planetary systems and the origin and distribution of life in the galaxies."
The senators disagreed with their House counterparts who want to forward-fund the South Pole station work in the Antarctic. Instead, the senators would provide $25 million this year and $90 million over the next 4 years (the same amount of upfront money the House allocated). The two committees agree to give $4 million to the Gemini project, although from different NSF budget components. The Senate also recommends providing NSF with $25 million to procure an incoherent scatter radar for polar and ionospheric research if the radar is collocated with an existing Defense Department facility.
The Senate budget is $7 million below that of the House for education and human resources. The House is recommending $625 million.
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The Senate passed HR 2158, the VA/HUD appropriations bill, on 22 July, paving the way for House and Senate conferees to reconcile their versions into a final bill following the August recess.
The two versions vary, with the Senate providing funding equal to the amount asked by the president, and the House giving $148 million above the request. In addition, the House report would give the NASA administrator transfer authority to reallocate up to $150 million from NASA's Science, Aeronautics and Technology and Mission Support accounts to the space station program "if necessary to keep the space station program on schedule." The Senate report makes no mention of this transfer authority. If the House language is not specifically reversed in the conference, it will remain in effect.
The House bill recommends $13.6 billion. The Senate committee recommends $13.5 billion with a cautionary note saying, "the survival of its major programs may depend on its continuing efforts to downsize and increase the efficiency of its operations."
The committee provides $5.327 billion for human space flight, fully funding both the space station and the space shuttle. That amount, however, "does not include additional funds which may be needed for space station contingencies due to the Russian partners, the United States contractor, or other unforeseen contingencies.
The committee agreed to reallocate $200 million from other programs in this account in FY97 funds to cover the impacts from Russian contingencies, and some of these funds are expected to remain available as reserves for fiscal year 1998.
The Senate Committee recommends $5.642 billion for Science, Aeronautics, and Technology (SA&T), fully funding space science at $2.044 billion, which includes money for the president's request for the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) and for Gravity Probe-B (GP-B) and $5 million for solar terrestrial probes, of which $3 million is for solar stereo. The House committee recommendation for SA&T is for $5.69 billion.
The report language expresses the committee's concern about the absence of competition in the selection of funding recipients for the New Millennium advanced space technology and portions of the supporting research and technology program elements, and directs NASA to submit an operating plan that "lays out a specific strategy to implement this competitive framework . . . so that approximately half of these funds are made available to extramural academic institutions or private industry, with selection by external peer review panels." The committee recommends $10 million for advanced technology development for the Origins program to fund additional optical astronomy test beds.
The committee supports the president's full request of $1.417 billion for Mission to Planet Earth (MTPE) and includes an additional $5 million for the lightning mapper sensor. The committee commends the efforts of the commercial remote sensing activities at Stennis Space Center, particularly in managing the purchase of earth science data from private industry, and encourages the continuation of these activities.
The committee report warns, however, that the programs's Earth Observing System (EOS) and its data and information system (EOSDIS) " today face continuous technical challenges . . . Since EOS was approved as a new start in fiscal year 1991, the committee has directed NASA to resist efforts continually to change the architecture and program baseline of EOSDIS," the report noted. "To guarantee this occurs as EOS nears the AM-1 launch, the committee directs NASA to maintain the EOSDIS focus on the critical schedule milestones to minimize any adverse effect on the launch schedule. This emphasis should continue until EOSDIS version B.1 becomes operational in early 1999."
Both House and Senate bills recommend $678 million for EOS.
The report also indicated the committee is "highly skeptical of the inherent value of evolving EOSDIS to a federated system run by the program's principal investigators without a system-wide developer or software integrator."
The committee's recommendation includes $96.4 million for science education within SA&T "with program impacts minimized by improved management of uncosted carryover balances." The full request of $2.513 billion would be provided by the committee for the Mission Support account.
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Both the House and the Senate have approved budget cuts for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the FY98 budget. The Senate approved a $665 million—or 9%—cut to the president's funding request, a reduction that was higher than the House action, which approved a cut of $413 million. House and Senate differences will be worked out in conference, now planned for September.
The Senate's EPA total budget for the agency was $6.9 billion, while the House approved a budget of $7.3 billion. The president requested $7.6 billion.
While administration officials were critical, Senate VA/HUD subcommittee chairman Christopher Bond defended the Senate action, noting that EPA will receive an increase of $180 million over FY97. Bond was quoted as saying, "While $680 million less than the president's request, this reduction is attributable primarily to the decision not to fund a (requested) 50% increase for superfund." He said also that while the EPA operating fund also took a hit, "it was still $100 million more than the current year."
The Senate bill would cut $14 million from the president's request for EPA's science and technology account, which funds prevention, regulatory, and abatement programs. The Senate bill would add $8 million to the administration's $26.6 million request for a "comprehensive, extramural research initiative" to study particulate matter, the microscopic emissions that cause smog, haze, and health ailments. The House bill contains $35 million for a particulate study and another $5 million for ozone research. The Senate bill proposes an $83 million cut from the administration's request for environmental programs and management, most of which came from the climate change action plan. It would increase state environmental assistance grants by $250 million, up to $3.047 billion, however, slightly higher than the House bill.
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There has been increasing concern in Congress and elsewhere over the economic aspects of efforts to control greenhouse gases. A new world accord on greenhouse gases is expected to be signed in Kyoto, Japan, in December of this year as a followup to the 1992 accords signed in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The administration has declared itself in favor of binding caps on greenhouse gas emissions. "It is no longer a threat but now a fact that global warming is for real," Clinton said.
The Senate passed, 95–0, a nonbinding resolution (SR 98), sponsored by Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) stating that the United States should not sign any agreement limiting or reducing greenhouse gases by developed nations unless developing countries also are required to meet specific commitments in the same time period.
The resolution also says that no agreement should be signed that "would result in serious harm to the economy of the United States."
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The temperature range between daytime high temperatures and nighttime low temperatures is decreasing for most parts of the world, a team of scientists reports in the 18 July edition of Science magazine.
The scientists, led by David R. Easterling of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, NC, studied data from 5400 observing stations around the world. The data cover 54% of the world's total land area; this is 17% more than available for previous studies.
The scientists report that maximum temperatures have increased over most areas with the exception of eastern Canada, the southern United States, portions of eastern Europe, southern China, and parts of southern South America. Minimum temperatures, however, increased almost everywhere except eastern Canada and small areas of eastern Europe and the Middle East. The gap between the highs and lows decreased in most areas, except over the middle of Canada, and parts of southern Africa, southwest Asia, Europe, interior Australia, and the western tropical Pacific Islands.
Seasonally, the strongest changes in the temperature gap were in the Northern Hemisphere winter; the smallest changes were in the Northern Hemisphere summer. These facts suggest that there is an element of a seasonal cycle in the changes.
The authors note that minimum temperatures in the Southern Hemisphere increased and postulate that increased cloudiness is contributing to this. They also note that urban effects on the narrowing temperature gap are negligible, and circulation variations in parts of the Northern Hemisphere appear to be related to the narrowing gap.
In addition to Easterling, the authors are Thomas C. Peterson and Thomas R. Karl, both of the National Climatic Data Center; Philip D. Jones of the University of East Anglia, United Kingdom; Briony Horton, David E. Parker, and Christopher K. Folland of the Hadley Centre Meteorological Office, Berkshire, United Kingdom; M. James Salinger of the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, Auckland, New Zealand; Vyacheslav Razuvayev, of the All-Russian Research Institute of Hydrometeorological Information, Obninsk, Russia; Neil Plummer of the National Climate Centre, Bureau of Meteorology, Melbourne, Australia; and Paul Jamason of DynTel, Inc., National Climatic Data Center.
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A team of university and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists begins a 1.5-month research cruise 21 July aboard the NOAA ship Ronald H. Brown to measure the three-dimensional structure of clouds and precipitation in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, a region that has a strong, but not accurately measured, influence on global weather patterns, the Commerce Department announced.
The team will make a variety of oceanographic and meteorologic observations in the Intertropical Convergence Zone, an area of the Pacific about one-third of the distance from the U.S. west coast to Hawaii, 10° north of the equator. This time of year the trade winds collide there, sometimes producing meandering bands of violently rotating air masses that can affect atmospheric circulation patterns worldwide.
The Brown will also make a variety of measurements en route from its Charleston, SC, home port to the mid-Pacific and on its return trip. The ship is scheduled to return to Charleston on or about 7 September.
Recent satellite microwave measurements indicate the Intertropical Convergence Zone is one of the rainiest regions on earth, while satellite infrared sensors show much less precipitation. The NOAA-funded scientists intend to resolve this discrepancy the only way they can: go to the middle of the ocean in a specially equipped research ship and actually measure the rainfall. It is extremely important to resolve this discrepancy, since satellite-borne sensors are the main method of routinely gauging precipitation over the oceans, and three-quarters of the earth's atmosphere is over the ocean.
Because the Brown is both a modern floating meteorological station as well as a state-of-the-science oceanographic research platform, the ship will purposely try to cross the path of any cyclones that may form in its path, or near enough to intercept, to make measurements of a potential hurricane at sea. The ship will also routinely launch weather balloons and photograph clouds during daylight hours while under way for detailed analysis.
In a collaborative effort between the University of Miami and NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory and Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, a separate team of scientists will measure the uptake of carbon by the ocean to understand the bio- and geochemical mechanisms responsible for pressure variations in carbon dioxide in surface waters of the oceans, knowledge that is critical in coupled ocean–atmosphere models used to gauge global change.
Other scientists and crew will be on the lookout for marine mammals and sea turtles, which NOAA helps manage and conserve by accurately assessing their numbers.
Still others will test systems that will later be used to make measurements at the sea floor hydrothermal vents that are scattered across the world's oceans, spewing minerals into the seas and hosting unique communities of exotic sea life.
The NOAA ship Ronald H. Brown is a 274-foot-deep ocean research ship, and the newest and one of the most advanced research ships in the world, having been commissioned 19 July in Charleston. The Brown is unique even among research ships because of a 12-foot dome that sits atop the ship's mainmast, housing the antenna of a weather surveillance radar that previously was used atop a NOAA weather tower in the New Mexico desert.
The ship also carries an instrument called a "distrometer" that precisely measures raindrop size and distribution; digital cloud cameras and cloud radars; two "profilers" that automatically and continuously measure winds and temperature vertically and horizontally far above and away from the ship, thus providing a "profile" of the atmosphere; and instruments to make a complete suite of oceanographic measurements, including many while the ship is under way.
The Brown is operated by four NOAA Corps officers and 20 wage marine crew members and commanded by NOAA Commander David Peterson.
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A team of scientists sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration researching earth's climate in ancient times has obtained samples from a remote, ice-covered volcano in Bolivia that will provide information critical to the study of global climate change, the Commerce Department agency announced.
The scientists, led by Lonnie Thompson, a professor of geological science at Ohio State University, drilled into a 433-foot-deep glacier that covers the top of 21 608-foot Mt. Sajama in a remote, high alpine area of Bolivia. They obtained ice cores for chemical and physical analyses that will provide a more extensive view of short-term climate variability in the South American highlands. By looking at the information contained in ice records, scientists are able to unlock crucial clues to the earth's climate history.
The histories of the Bolivian ice cores will be integrated with those available from middle and high latitudes. These comparisons are essential to understanding the climate system. This information will also help extend back through millennia NOAA's long-term record of global climate change. The research is funded by the NOAA Paleoclimatology program element of NOAA's Office of Global Programs.
The scientists arrived at the base of Sajama in June and set up camps: base camp at 15 840 feet and high camp at 18 480 feet. The 3-day trip to the summit allowed time for adjust to the change in elevation between base camp and the summit. Drilling for ice cores on the 21 608-foot summit began on 26 June.
"The cores are a storehouse of many environmental records," Thompson said. "Major volcanic ash layers could be identified periodically throughout the cores along with other red and yellow dust layers. Both cores contain 30 m of very clean ice near the bottom, which we speculate may date from the time when the ancient Lake Tauca covered over 43 000 km² of a high plateau at the end of the last glacial stage some 14 000 years ago.
"Sajama is a polar-type glacier frozen to its bed, even though it is only 18° south of the equator," Thompson explained. "We believe it will contain more than 20 000 years of history for this part of the world where we know very little about the climate."
In addition to the scientists from Ohio State University, a team from the University of Massachusetts Climatology Laboratory is supporting the project with automatic weather stations, one of which was installed last year. The stations record hourly air temperature, relative humidity, pressure, wind speed and direction, solar radiation, snow temperature, and snow accumulation at the ice coring site. The data are transmitted to a NOAA GOES satellite and downloaded in near real time at the University of Massachusetts for processing.
The stations will provide data for the duration of the 3-year project, giving scientists a modern calibration dataset to be compared with data obtained from the ice cores. The weather station team successfully completed its work on Sajama and went on to install another satellite-linked station on Nevado del Illimani, Bolivia, on 17 July to support ice core drilling there.
Information about the project can be found on the World Wide Web at: http://polarmet.mps.ohio-state.edu/Icecore/Bolivia.html, http://www-bprc.mps.ohio-state.edu/Icecore/, and http://www.geo.umass.edu/climate/sajama/saj97.html.
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The Executive Committee of the American Meteorological Society has established a search committee to identify a successor to Dr. Richard E. Hallgren as executive director of the AMS. Dr. Hallgren has announced that he will step down in early 1999 but will continue to work part time for a period of about two years. The search committee consists of the following people.
Dr. Avery is director of the Cooperative Institute on Research on Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado, is a past chair of the UCAR Board of Trustees, and is currently a member of the AMS Executive Committee.
Dr. Brammer is senior vice president and chief technology officer of the TASC in charge of information infrastructure. He served for many years as the chairman of the AMS Committee on Interactive Processing Systems and is currently a candidate for president of the AMS.
Dr. Colman is a science and operations officer at the NWS Weather Forecast Office in Seattle and has served as editor of Weather and Forecasting. He is currently a member of the AMS Council.
Dr. Mahlman is director of NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton, NJ. Dr. Mahlman is an internationally renowned leader in the atmospheric sciences. He has served on the AMS Council.
Dr. Snow is dean of the College of Geosciences of the University of Oklahoma and serves as the AMS's commissioner on education.
The search committee will begin its work immediately and will aim to arrive at a short list of candidates by the middle of April 1998. The Executive Committee will then interview these candidates, and President Gene Rasmussen will forward the resulting recommendation to the AMS Council.
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