An update and future plans of NOAA's climate database modernization program (CDMP)

NOAA's Climate Database Modernization Program (CDMP) works to image and to key historical climate and environmental records. Once the data are imaged and indexed and/or keyed and placed into a database, the next step is to make data available electronically via the Internet. This not only benefits NOAA by modernizing its activities, but more importantly, the data are used by hundreds of thousands of customers in government, commerce, industry, science, education, engineering, and national defense.

Many records are made available on-line via the CDMP WSSRD® system (Web Search Store Retrieve Display). Holdings grew from just one-half million records in 2000 to over forty-five million records at the end of 2004, equating to near 5 terabytes of data. In addition, CDMP has keyed 27 million additional surface hourly meteorological records, extending the climate database from 1948 back in time to the establishment of some 150 airport stations. The period of record will be extended back into the mid 1800s by keying the Weather Bureau city office and Army Signal Service records.

CDMP holds an annual Data Access Workshop as a forum for information and exchange between the various NOAA task leaders. The workshop allows for the presentation of new and continuing proposals by NOAA agencies for the upcoming years program. On average, CDMP supports over 40 separate tasks across all five NOAA operational line offices each year. Many of these tasks are large multi-year efforts which now include international data rescue projects. This presentation will discuss current and future NOAA projects and the access to these data.