Programmatical Documents & Information

Russian-American Long-term Census of the Arctic (RUSALCA)

The initial Expedition to the Bering And Chukchi Seas (Arctic Ocean) was from July 23 - September 6, 2004. Stemming from a 2003 Memorandum of Understanding for World Ocean and Polar Regions Studies between NOAA and the Russian Academy of Sciences, this cruise was the first activity under the Russian-American Long-term Census of the Arctic (RUSALCA). RUSALCA means mermaid in the Russian language.The cruise objectives for the United States partner were to support the U.S. interagency Study of Environmental Arctic Change (SEARCH) Program and the NOAA Ocean Exploration Program. NOAA SEARCH is a component of the multi-agency U.S. SEARCH program.

NOAA Study of Environmental Arctic Change (SEARCH)

NOAA is one of eight federal agencies participating in the implementation of SEARCH. With a mission to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, and conserve and manage coastal and marine resources to meet the Nation's economic, social and environmental needs, NOAA has a particularly important role to play in SEARCH. Two of NOAA's strongest attributes are established observation and modeling capabilities. The observational component includes acquisition and archiving of both regional and global-scale environmental data sets. The modeling component includes ingestion of these data into forecast and climate models for forecasting, hindcasting, and nowcasting. NOAA has initiated its SEARCH program with seed activities that address high priority issues relating to the atmospheric and the cryosphere. The 3 primary foci of the current NOAA program are the implementation of the

• Atmospheric Observations
• Sea Ice Observations
• Arctic Change Detection

NOAA Arctic Research Projects & Reports

• FY2010
  • FY2010 Plans
• FY2009
  • FY2009 Program Summary
• FY2008
  • FY2008 Progress Report ( March 3, 2009)
  • FY2008 Publications and Report Annex
• FY2007
  • Arctic Report Card 2007
  • State of the Arctic Report 2006
  • Arctic Change Indicators
• FY 2005-2006 Arctic Project Reports (PDF format)
  • Arctic change detection
    James Overland, Nancy Soreide, Muyin Wang and Kevin Wood
  • Retrospective Analysis of Arctic Clouds and Radiation
    from Surface and Satellite Measurements
    Jeffrey R. Key, Taneil Uttal, Robert Stone
    and collaborators Xuanji Wang, Shelby Frisch, Matthew Shupe
    (also available in Word format
• FY 2004 Arctic Project Reports
  • A new activity in FY2004 was focused on detection of ecosystem impact of physical climate change in the Bering and Chukchi Seas. The Bering-Chukchi Sea Climate Change Detection Demonstration Project will be aimed specifically at detecting ecosystem change caused by change in the physical climate of the area. The work will be done by NOAA and its academic partners, in association with the Russian Academy of Science. The first assessment of findings will be available in FY2006, after which future program direction will be determined.
  • Observing subpolar ocean climate with Seagliders: winter 2003-2004 Charlie Eriksen, Peter Rhines
  • Observations for SEARCH: Data integration for Arctic reanalysis and change detection Florence Fetterer
  • Correction of systematic errors in TOVS radiances Jennifer Francis, Tony Reale, Axel Schweiger
  • Ecosystem change in the northern Bering Sea Jackie M. Grebmeier, Jim Overland, Terry Whitledge
  • Retrospective analysis of Arctic clouds and radiation from surface and satellite measurements Jeffrey R. Key, Taneil Uttal, Robert Stone, Xuanji Wang
  • Arctic change detection James Overland, Nancy Soreide
  • Monitoring ice thickness in the western Arctic Ocean Jackie Richter-Menge, H. Melling, J. Overland, R. Lindsay, J. Zhang, D. Petrovich
  • Monitoring the Eurasian Basin of the Arctic Ocean Ignatius G. Rigor
  • Atmospheric observatory Taneil Uttal, Chris Fairall, Robert Stone, John Ogren, Patrick Sheridan
  • Atmospheric observatory site selection & Building national and international linkages Betsy Weatherhead, Amy Stevermer, Janet Intrieri, Taneil Uttal, John Calder, Jim Overland
  • Arctic regional reanalysis
• FY2003
  • In FY2003, the Arctic Research Office initiated a new set of projects focused on the Study of Environmental Arctic Change (SEARCH). An overview of the intent of the NOAA SEARCH projects is provided in the document "Arctic Climate Observations and Analysis SubProgram". Initial progress reports from each of these projects are available here.
• 2001- Brief summaries of projects supported by the Arctic Research Initiative in FY2001

Historical Arctic Research initiative information

In 1996, as part of an omnibus appropriation measure, the Congress appropriated $1.00 million to support an Arctic Research Initiative within NOAA. During FY 1997, in cooperation with the Cooperative Institute for Arctic Research, NOAA's Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research used those funds to begin support of 15 research projects in two principal areas: natural varaibility of the Western Arctic/Bering Sea ecosystem, and anthropogenic influences on the Western Arctic/Bering Sea ecosystem. The Congress subsequently appropriated $1.50 million in FY 1998, $1.65 million in FY 1999, $1.65 million in FY 2000, and $1.65 million in FY 2001 to continue the Arctic Research Initiative. A report on the first three years of the Arctic Research Initiative is available from the Arctic Research Office.