U.S. Climate Reference Network, Part 1: Overview

The 1997 Conference on the World Climate Research Programme concluded that ". . . the global capacity to observe the Earth's climate system is inadequate and is deteriorating." In response, the National Research Council (NRC) recommended the ". . . development, implementation, and operation of climate--specific observational programs." The Climate Reference Network (CRN) is being created to meet the challenge of climatic monitoring of the U.S. in the 21st Century. That is, the scientific objective of the CRN is improved quantification and detection of climatic change and placement of current/future climatic anomalies and extreme events into historical perspective. Daily and monthly summary statistics of temperature and precipitation will be generated from hourly data that are transmitted on a real-time basis. As an inter--agency network, the data also will have application to weather forecasting, agriculture, hydrology, and commercial interests, among others. This paper will review the ten climate monitoring principles outlined by the NRC, provide an overview of the CRN, and discuss how the efficient implementation of the network is dependent on the coordinated efforts of the federal and state agency players.