Why the USCRN is Needed

In the past, long-term U.S. weather stations have faced challenges with instrument and site changes that impact the continuity of observations over time. Even small biases can alter the interpretation of decadal weather variability and change, so a substantial effort is required to identify discontinuities and correct station records.

The NRC (1999) study further concluded that action was needed to:

stabilize the existing observational capability;
identify critical variables that were inadequately measured;
build proper observing requirements into operational programs as a high priority; and
improve critical parts of operational observing programs.

NOAA's response to the NRC concerns is the USCRN, a network of 114 stations deployed across the continental U.S., and an ongoing effort to add 29 more stations in Alaska. As noted earlier, the primary goal of its implementation is to provide future long-term homogeneous observations of temperature, precipitation, and soil moisture/soil temperature that can be used for current applications while also being properly coupled to past long-term observations.

Beneficiaries

The USCRN cooperates with federal, state, and local government entities, as well as private non-profits, who provide sites and host services for stations. Local site hosts can access the weather data at their locations for their own needs as well via the USCRN’s public data access at NCEI. This joint effort can minimize the cost of operating the USCRN while maximizing the benefits and information obtained from the network. Beyond the site hosts, many government and commercial entities benefit from access to USCRN observations currently, including the Departments of Commerce, Interior, and Agriculture; NASA; and various firms needing high quality environmental measurements. The USCRN system is designed for easy expansion, such as when soil moisture/soil temperature and humidity instruments were added to the stations in 2009-2011 through a cooperative venture with the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS). The USCRN data has application to weather forecasting, agriculture, hydrology, and commercial interests, among others.

Sectors Supported

Commercial Sector

Over the last decade, the amount of money in our economy that is directly impacted by the reliability of NOAA's data has increased dramatically. Errors in the data which might not have mattered a decade ago can now cost individuals and corporations millions of dollars. The USCRN is able to provide various sectors of the economy with reliable data.

The USCRN provides important information to the energy sector, such as:

A power company assessing changes in demand needs to accurately determine how much of this year's increase or decrease in demand over last year is due to the differences in the weather between the two years versus changes in their consumers.
The weather insurance, reinsurance, and derivative industries, which provide a mechanism for energy producers and energy users to hedge their risks due to unusual weather, use NOAA temperature data to settle accounts.
Some public utilities have contracts for natural gas which specify that prices are raised or lowered depending on the severity of the winter as determined by NOAA data.
Solar radiation data from USCRN stations can be used to determine solar loads on structures for heating and cooling.

The USCRN provides important contributions to agricultural and natural resource development, such as:

Private industry often uses regional agricultural models to provide forecasts for planning. Having the highly accurate USCRN data will help them improve the forecasts used by agribusiness and other weather sensitive sectors of the economy.
Accurate USCRN 5-minute precipitation data would be used in hydrologic models to delineate flood zones and determine water resources.

National Weather Service

USCRN hourly data transmission will provide the NWS with additional real-time observations for forecast verification and weather monitoring, as well as for issuing weather forecasts, watches, and warnings, and updating flood forecasts.

Department of Interior/Department of Agriculture

NOAA has a long history of cooperation with the National Park Service and National Wildlife Refuges, placing COOP stations and now USCRN stations within parks to better monitor weather in these locations.
Further use of USCRN soil moisture observations, combined with USDA soil moisture observations, benefits national drought monitoring by NIDIS.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

USCRN in situ data are used by NASA for:
- calibration & validation of the satellite observations (surface IR, surface air temperature, precipitation, soil moisture),
- creating value-added satellite products.