Dear NESDIS Colleagues:
I hope you are enjoying the last few weeks of summer. This month at NESDIS, the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) released updated information on the 2013 Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters along with several new tools to assist users in analyzing the data. These new features allow users to better explore the type, frequency and cost of U.S. billion-dollar events by state and year, from 1980 to 2013. In research news, STAR’s Mark Eakin, Coordinator of NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch program was featured on NPR’s “Diane Rehm Show” on August 5 as part of a panel of commentators discussing a new report organized by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network on the status and deterioration of Caribbean coral reefs. Read more about the report—the most detailed and comprehensive study of its kind published to date—and a find link to Mark’s panel here.
As an update, “Strengthening NESDIS” activities are continuing. Reorganization and budget restructure approval are needed for FY15 implementation, so we are working with NOAA and Congress to plan a path forward into the next fiscal year. Meanwhile, our three Data Centers are also taking steps toward consolidation into the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).
I would also like to take this opportunity to introduce Eli Salahuddin, who joined us this month as the new NESDIS EEO Specialist and Diversity Manager. Eli is a native Washingtonian who began his federal government career with the Department of Commerce in 1985 at the Patent and Trademark Office. He also served with the Department of Navy and Agriculture, in the Civil Rights capacity, before returning to the DOC here with NOAA. Civil Rights is his life-long passion, and he plans to work hard to make NESDIS’s Diversity Office the model EEO/Diversity Office in NOAA.
Please join me in welcoming Eli and read on for more NESDIS News.
Thank you,
Mark S. Paese
