PRESIDENT’S BUDGET FOR NOAA MAXIMIZES RESOURCES TO BENEFIT THE ENVIRONMENT, PUBLIC SAFETY, HOMELAND SECURITY AND THE ECONOMY

February 4, 2003 — President Bush’s proposed 2004 budget for NOAA totals $3.3 billion, an increase of $190 million, or approximately 6 percent, over the President’s FY 2003 request. This budget supports NOAA’s efforts to provide increasingly accurate prediction of severe weather; a deeper understanding of long-term climate and environmental trends; sustaining healthy marine habitats, robust ecosystems and coastal environments; and infrastructure, maintenance, safety and human capital within the agency. (Click NOAA image for larger view of NOAA FY 2004 Budget book cover.)

“The President’s 2004 budget presents innovative approaches as a result of an exhaustive top to bottom organizational review of NOAA and the continued development of a new strategic plan,” said retired Navy Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Ph.D., undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. “It also includes new cross-cutting themes that will allow NOAA to tackle the complex environmental and resource management challenges of today and the future,” added Lautenbacher.

Programmatic budget themes, funding requests and details on key increases are shown below.

• Environmental Monitoring and Prediction - $1.6 billion total requested
  $1.3 million increase for The Observing System Research and Predictability Experiment (THORPEX). This is a global atmospheric research program designed to double the rate of improvement of global weather forecasts and to make reliable forecasts up to 14 days ahead.
• $3.7 million increase for NEXRAD radar technology and systems that will result in increased tornado detection accuracy from 68 percent to 75 percent and improve tornado warning lead time from 11 minutes to 14 minutes by FY 2007.
• $39.5 million increase for the continuation of the National Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS).
• $50.2 million increase for the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) program.
• $2 million increase to establish a Coastal Global Ocean Observing System. These new ocean measurements will provide information on the effects of the changing climate on coastal U.S. communities; improve forecasts of ocean conditions; allow biological and chemical water sampling; provide information on locations of marine endangered or protected species; and monitor coral reef health.

Ecosystem Forecasting and Management - $1 billion total requested

• $5.8 million increase for the development and application of the necessary tools for managing marine ecosystems, including funding for infrastructure needed to capture and utilize data used in management decisions.
• $3.1 million increase to ensure implementation of the 2000 Federal Columbia River Power System Biological Opinion and Basin-wide Recovery Strategy.
• $3 million increase to augment observer coverage in the New England groundfish fishery to gather additional data for fishery management decisions.
• $2 million increase to study effects of climate regimes on marine species. These are first-ever funds to conduct this specific type of research.

Climate Change Research, Observations and Services - $296 million total requested

• $6.3 million increase to build and sustain a global ocean observing system that will accurately document climate-scale changes in ocean heat, carbon and sea-level.
• $5 million increase to implement a carbon cycle atmospheric observing system with concentration on North America to begin definition of carbon dioxide resources and sinks in and around the U.S. in order to gauge the effectiveness of future carbon emission and sequestration strategies.
• $3.5 million increase to enhance the NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory’s supercomputing capability to develop products to document, assess and understand the impacts of long-term climate variability and change on the United States.
• $1 million increase to support research that will provide a better understanding of the absorption and scattering of radiation by aerosols and the associated heating and cooling roles in the climate system.
• $1.1 million increase to support the initiation of an interagency Climate Change Science Program Office (CCSPO) to support the nation’s interagency climate and global change program.

Infrastructure, Maintenance, Safety and Human Capital - $248 million total requested

• $3 million increase to accelerate the NOAA National Weather Service’s Weather Forecast Office construction, primarily in Alaska (planned completion in FY08).
• $10.4 million increase for the new NOAA Center for Weather and Climate Prediction to provide for the relocation of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction, and other NOAA offices now located in Suitland, Md.

Homeland Security - $65 million total requested

• $5.5 million increase to support a scaled upgrade of the current NOAA Weather Radio operation to an All Hazards Warning Network, including systems to standardize and automate receipt and dissemination of chemical and biological emergency messages.

Energy and Commerce - $116 million total requested

• $6.5 million increase for programs that support the improvement of the Marine Transportation System by providing funding for safe and efficient maritime commerce.
• $1.2 million increase for the High Impact Weather program to provide more accurate weather data to utilities, enabling a more efficient use of energy resources. This will entail upgrading instrument packages for the NOAA National Weather Service Cooperative Observer Network.

NOAA is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and providing environmental stewardship of our nation’s coastal and marine resources. NOAA is part of the Department of Commerce.

Relevant Web Sites
NOAA FY 2004 Budget Request

NOAA Budget Office

Media Contacts:
David Miller, NOAA, (202) 482-6090