In April 2011, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) co-hosted a workshop on The Climate Change Impacts and Responses: Societal Indicators for the National Climate Assessment (NCA). A group of 56 experts were convened to share their experiences. Participants brought a wide range of disciplinary expertise in the social and natural sciences, sector experience, and knowledge about developing and implementing indicators for a range of purposes. Participants included representatives from federal and state government, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), tribes, universities, and communities. The purpose of the workshop was to assist the NCA in developing a strategic framework for climate- related physical, ecological, and socioeconomic indicators that can be easily communicated with the U.S. population and that will support monitoring, assessment, prediction, evaluation, and decision making.

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National Strategy Proposed to Respond to
Climate Change's Impacts on Fish, Wildlife, Plants
Public encouraged to review and provide comments Great blue heron perched on a pier piling. Maryland, Patuxent River. 2002 May 12.
Photo credit: Mary Hollinger, NESDIS/NODC biologist, NOAA

In partnership with state, tribal, and federal agency partners, the Obama Administration has released the first draft national strategy to help decision makers and resource managers prepare for and help reduce the impacts of climate change on species, ecosystems, and the people and economies that depend on them.

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Colorado mountain hail may disappear in a warmer future
Lead author, Kelly Mahoney, came to NOAA as PACE Postdoctoral
Research Fellow in '09 A handful of hail after a July 2011 hailstorm in Boulder, Colorado.
Photo credit: Kelly Mahoney, NOAA

Summertime hail could all but disappear from the eastern flank of Colorado's Rocky Mountains by 2070, according to a new modeling study by scientists from NOAA and several other institutions.

Less hail damage could be good news for gardeners and farmers, said Kelly Mahoney, Ph.D., lead author of the study and a postdoctoral scientist at NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) in Boulder, Colo. But a shift from hail to rain can also mean more runoff, which could raise the risk of flash floods, she said.

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Dr. Lubchenco and Colleagues Emphasize International
Collaboration on Climate Services in Coastal and Oceanic Sectors NOAA diver surveys a bleached coral colony in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands in October 2005. Photo credit: NOAA

In November 2011, NOAA Administrator Dr. Jane Lubchenco traveled to Japan to accept the prestigious Blue Planet Prize and meet with officials from Japanese science agencies. Shortly thereafter, Professor Toshio Yamagata, Dean of the University of Tokyo School of Science, invited Lubchenco to contribute to Japan's prestigious and influential Ocean Policy Research Foundation's Ship & Ocean Newsletter. The resulting article, titled "Enhancing the Resilience of Coasts and Oceans through Climate Services," was published on January 5, 2012.

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CPO Supports Workshop Focused on Vulnerability and
Adaptation to Extreme Events in California Southern California Wildfires, 27 October 2007. Photo credit: NASA/MODIS Rapid Response

Last month, the Climate Program Office co-sponsored a successful workshop led and hosted by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, on December 13, 2011. The workshop, titled Vulnerability and Adaptation to Extreme Events in California in the Context of a Changing Climate: New Scientific Findings, convened a team of disciplinary and multi-disciplinary experts to discuss extreme weather-related events in different sectors of the economy such as energy, public health, agriculture, coastal resources, and ecosystems.

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