In response to the National Research Council's (NRC) June, 1998 report on the Future of the NWS Cooperative Observer Network (COOP), several initiatives have been started. The report made numerous suggestions on how to more efficiently manage and modernize the nationally important COOP program. The National Weather Service (NWS) and National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) are addressing the NRC's recommendations.
One of the primary conclusions from the report stated that despite the growing demand for data, organizational and budgetary constraints had weakened the network. Realizing that no single agency could carry the burden of such an undertaking it was recommended that a multi-agency approach would allow for the greater likelihood of success. The NWS asked the Office of the Federal Coordinator for Meteorological Services (OFCM) to assist in the process of recruiting agencies to partner in this process.
With assistance from the OFCM three interagency Joint Action Working Groups (JAG) were formed, the Climate Reference Network JAG (CRN JAG), the COOP Modernization (COOP MOD) JAG, and the Hourly Precipitation Data Gauge (HPD) JAG.
The CRN JAG is tasked to improve our ability to monitor long-term climate variability and change and to place current climate anomalies into historical perspective. This effort will require maintenance of a homogenous climate record from a select subset of the COOP network.
The COOP MOD JAG is tasked to develop a comprehensive long-term Program Development Plan for the modernization of the COOP program. A few of the issues to be addressed include network size and distribution, data composition and requirements, sensor accuracy and resolution.
The HPD JAG is tasked to develop requirements for future enhancements to the precipitation gauges currently used by the COOP network. In the short-term the HPD JAG will focus on the replacement of the precipitation gauge tape punch mechanism.
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