Back ||NOAA Home Ocean.US Workshop Vice Admiral Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr NOAA Administrator March 13, 2002 Good Afternoon- Thank you , Dave, for the kind words. It is a real pleasure for me to be here with you today. If time permitted, I'd gladly spend all week here. Dave has shown me the package of bios of the participants and this is one impressive group! You represent an enormous amount and diversity of knowledge and experience. I am thrilled that this event is taking place and that you have agreed to participate. I would like to thank the Ocean.US Workshop Executive Committee—Worth Nowlin, Tom Malone, Larry Atkinson, and Dave Martin—and the Workshop Steering Committee, and to the workshop staff for your hard work to make this happen. Thank you to all the attendees for the investment of your time and energy. I will say right up front that I have a very strong commitment to partnerships and teamwork, so I appreciate seeing the diversity of interests represented at this workshop. I understand you have had a demanding week so far and that you have a lot to accomplish. It is my pleasure to be here today to speak to you about the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's position on the Ocean.US effort. But before I begin, let me tell you a little about myself so that we can get better acquainted...I do see several familiar faces in the audience but for those of you who do not know me, here is a quick synopsis...... I am a retired naval officer. I served for 40 years in various positions in the Navy, both on board ships and on land in Washington DC and I have worked extensively on budget issues. I am very excited about coming to NOAA and serving as a civilian as I believe in public service, and the tremendous contributions of civil servants to our Nation. Before coming to NOAA I was president of CORE, and I worked with the university community promoting oceanographic research. I have a Ph.D. in applied mathematics and a deep respect for higher education and the sciences. I also have a healthy respect for hard work and accountability, and these values have guided my career. As you know, I am a political appointee. To be frank though, I came to NOAA because I was asked to serve, because it gives me an opportunity to pay back, and because I believe in the organization and its mission. I don't have an agenda. And frankly, I think that NOAA's employees are doing an excellent job. I think they should continue doing what they do best. This is a pivotal time as we stand at the crossroads of many promising and exciting opportunities. The President's Climate Change initiative has been recently unveiled, providing the science behind future policy decisions that will influence emission standards and business practices. Now that 75% of the Nation's population is clustered along our coasts, we must pay renewed attention to the environment. New ecosystem forecasting tools and management strategies will ensure we balance economic growth with environmental protection. These are exciting times for the us all and I am pleased to be at the helm at NOAA. I would like state that NOAA strongly supports this national, interagency effort.....Ocean.US. In fact, it is not a secret that I strongly support NORLC, the interagency concept behind the formation of Ocean.US. I believe that ocean observing systems are extremely important to understanding the earth's complex interactions between the oceans and atmosphere and to improving our assessment and predictions capabilities. NOAA is committed to the development of this system and provides both financial and personnel assets to this effort. Additionally, NOAA has a strong representation at this workshop as well as on the Ocean.US team and we are 100% committed to this process. By now everyone in this room should realize that we have a political imperative to focus on climate. (NIH example for cohesiveness- what is a political imperative) In FY03, the President's budget request has $18M for climate observations with a priority on ocean observations. We obtained this with little planning and I feel that we could receive a lot more by planning strategically. However, this system will not only be about climate but the other environmental parameters that are also important such as coastal weather forecasting and sustaining and restoring healthy coastal ecosystems and living marine resources. However, while NOAA clearly has a critical role to perform in this vital effort, true success will depend on partnerships and collaborative ventures. This effort does not only focus on government either. This is an effort involving several federal agencies, state and local governments, industry, academia, NGOs and other stakeholders in the national ocean community. We all know that this effort is too big for any single entity and that societal needs to be met by an integrated and sustained ocean observing system do not align neatly with any single agency or bureaucratic boundary. For this opportunity, we should look at our inputs in the following manner: the sum of its parts are greater than the value of its whole. Today marks an important step to cross those agency and bureaucratic boundaries.....to encompass the broad audience and interests here today. This workshop brings together the necessary stakeholders and expertise to begin the process of developing a phased, prioritized implementation plan for the ocean observing system into a reality. By working collaboratively, we will be able to generate new ideas, develop strategies, gain public support and—most importantly—get something done. What is clearly needed at this point is a plan to guide resource allocation decisions and agency priorities towards this national goal. We need to build an architecture as we currently have support on climate issues in both the executive and legislative branches of government - (JOKE - It would be a great feat if we also received support from Justice Rehnquist and the Supreme Court... but I think two out of three isn't bad). Let me read you the Hill Language supporting our effort. "The Committee directs the relevant agencies to work through the National Science and Technology Council and the National Oceanographic Partnership Program to develop an interagency plan for an ocean observing system and submit this report to the committee with the President's fiscal year 2003 budget request." We have been charged to move ahead! Although, operational needs are a key driver of your deliberations, the process also serves to identify key ocean research areas and this duality is critically important to the process. We need to push the research end into operational capacity for this system. We need an observing system which will be able to meet oceanographic operations and research needs in key societal areas. At NOAA, I am working hard with my team to evaluate all the pieces within the agency that can fit into this larger system. Every major Line Office within NOAA(OAR, NOS, NESDIS, NWS, and NMFS) has activities that are fundamental to an integrated and sustained observing system. For example, the data from the TAO array is again helping to identify the recurrence of El Niño. In fact, the Secretary of Commerce is very interested in this array as he understands it and sees the link between research, observations and predictions. He is even now explaining it to others. Additionally, NOAA has the Nation's oldest coastal observation program which began in 1807 to produce nautical charts of our coastal waters. This tidal program now includes the National Water Level Observation Network (NWLON) which consists of 190 stations nation wide. This system can serve as a backbone for a coastal observing system since it is already an end to end system located along the coastal United States. Additionally, NOS has developed the Physical Oceanographic Real Time System or PORTS which is providing the maritime community with valuable information. The Weather Service's National Data Buoy Center operates the largest and most diverse national marine observation system. This system uses data obtained through moored and drifting buoys, ARGO floats, Voluntary observing ships, and Coastal monitoring sites. A higher density of observations in ocean areas will directly help the National Weather Service improve its forecast capabilities on the high seas, offshore and coastal areas, as well as improve numerical prediction models for providing better global forecasts. On the satellite side, our two polar-orbiting and geostationary satellites are already providing critical ocean data. We are also working with DOD and NASA on our future polar system, the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS), with nearly a third of its data stream design addressing ocean requirements. It is important to consider the satellite input when designing a global observing system: Satellites give us a global view of what is going on at the surface of the oceans, and complement the measurement taken at specific depth with buoys. Some of the marine related satellite data include sea surface temperature, sea surface heights, sea ice distribution, even ocean color. NESDIS also provides key capabilities for communications and data management for operational observing systems. These are some of NOAA's priorities but we need to put the pieces together. These systems should also be strengthened and aligned along the Nation's priorities. We must have a clear understanding of the steps required to implement this integrated observing system and this plan should build upon the baseline of current capabilities. We will need both significant investment in the system as well as efficient management of resources and science. To begin to obtain that investment, there should be distinct deliverables that top management can begin to discuss with the Administration and the Hill. It is essential that we effectively separate what we know and what we have from what we need. To do this we need to move out of the planning period. Some of you have been attending similar workshops over the past 10 years. We now need a product.......a product for the Hill. You need to provide me and my counterparts with this product so we can go forward and begin obtaining support for the system and this needs to begin with the FY04 process. I know that I am really charging forward here today and I am delighted to learn that you have made substantial progress this week in identifying requirements. We all have to realize that we are at the beginning of this process but I would like this effort to focus on the outputs as well. I am a firm advocate for cost scheduled performance. Let me once again emphasize that an integrated and sustained ocean observing system will be of substantive and long lasting benefit to the nation and that I truly believe that this workshop is of profound importance in the design of such a system. I realize that this is an admittedly ambitious and demanding effort and I want to thank you for your dedication so far and to encourage you in your deliberations and analyses. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to address you today and I look forward to working with all of you in the coming years on this common goal.