RCC and RISA Partnerships for Research to Operations Development

Regional Climate Centers (RCC) and Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments programs are NOAA programs established for distinct and complementary purposes. RCCs are, primarily, service organizations established to collect and archive operation climate data to support provision of a wide range of climate services to Federal, State, and local government agencies; private industries and business; researchers; and the general public. RISAs were established to perform research that addresses complex climate sensitive issues of concern to decision-makers and policy planners at a regional level. However, in the course of these activities, RCCs conduct applied climate research to develop meaningful products and RISAsperformproduct development to demonstrate and test research results. In order to maintain focus on primary areas of program responsibility a top-level administrative structure should be formally established by NOAA managers to facilitate research to operations activities. In this paper examples of RCC-RISA product development interactions are presented that demonstrate a framework for a successful research operational environment.