Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research
Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) is a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). OAR is also referred to as NOAA Research.
Agency overview
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OAR's Vision is to deliver NOAA’s future.
OAR's Mission is to conduct research to understand and predict the Earth’s oceans, weather and climate, to advance NOAA science, service and stewardship and transition the results so they are useful to society.
- Craig McLean, Assistant Administrator
- Ko Barrett, Deputy Assistant Administrator for Programs and Administration
- Dr. Gary Matlock, Acting Deputy Assistant Administrator for Laboratories and Cooperative Institutes
NOAA Research is the research and development arm of NOAA and is the driving force behind NOAA environmental products and services aimed at protecting life and property and promoting sustainable economic growth. Research, conducted by programs within NOAA and through collaborations outside NOAA, focuses on enhancing the understanding of environmental phenomena such as tornadoes, hurricanes, climate variability, changes in the ozone layer, El Niño/La Niña events, fisheries productivity, ocean currents, deep sea thermal vents, and coastal ecosystem health.
The origins of NOAA Research date to the creation of the Survey of the Coast (renamed the United States Coast Survey in 1836 and the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1878) by President Thomas Jefferson in 1807 and to the creation in 1841 of the United States Lake Survey. The Coast Survey was created to conduct hydrographic surveys of the coastline of the United States, while the Lake Survey was created to undertake "a hydrographic survey of northwestern lakes," i.e, the Great Lakes. Research executed by the scientists of the Lake Survey was innovative and holistic: the first current meters were developed to understand water flow rates, and forecasting techniques were greatly enhanced to predict water levels and the relationship to lakefront property.
The science and technology that NOAA Research produces is not only relevant to society, it anticipates and responds to partners’ needs to demonstrates the value of technologies so that partners can deploy them into their applications. OAR works with end-users to integrate mature technologies (and associated expertise) into larger systems, either in NOAA operations or partner applications, via testbeds, patents, etc.
Organization[edit]
NOAA Research is an open research network consisting of seven federal research laboratories, six program offices, sixteen Cooperative Institutes (which are non-federal, non-profit research institutions in 5-10 year collaborative partnerships with NOAA), and 33 university based Sea Grant programs. OAR also relies on work performed at numerous public, private, and academic institutions.
Weather Program Office includes the Earth Prediction Innovation Center,
created by Congress in 2018 to improve collaboration with academia and private companies.
NOAA research is intended to:
The laboratories that are part of NOAA Research are located throughout the United States near their areas of focus. These include:
The NOAA Research Laboratories conduct an integrated program of research, technology development, and services to improve the understanding of Earth's atmosphere, oceans and inland waters, and to describe and predict changes occurring to them. The laboratories and their field stations are located across the country and around the world.
The laboratories have established formal collaborative agreements with universities/non-profit research institutions to form joint research institutes pertaining to the Earth's oceans, inland waters, intermountain west, atmosphere, and arctic environment.
Scientific reviews are conducted every five years to evaluate the quality, relevance, and performance of research conducted at the OAR laboratories. These reviews help to strategically position laboratories in their planning of future science and are intended to ensure that OAR laboratory research is linked to the NOAA Next Generation Strategic Plan, remains relevant to the NOAA research mission and its priorities, and is consistent with NOAA planning, programming, and budgeting processes.
NOAA Research partners with research-oriented universities and institutions to share data and resources to advance the goals of NOAA.