Network to Monitor Climate Change

Dec. 16, 2003
By Patrick O'Driscoll, USA TODAY

Federal scientists will switch on a system of weather stations next month to monitor climate change across the USA for the next 50 to 100 years.

The new "Climate Reference Network" will constantly record temperature, rainfall, wind and solar radiation more precisely than most of today's weather stations. The data the network collects will help researchers measure global warming.

Scientists project that the temperature of the Earth will increase by 2 to 10 degrees by the end of this century. Higher temperatures would lead to droughts and heat waves. Glaciers and polar ice caps would melt.

"It's an accepted fact that we have global warming. What we're trying to do is pin down how much and over what time," says Bruce Baker, chief scientist for the network, a project of the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. The center analyzes national and global climate statistics for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Thousands of weather stations across the country — from National Weather Service posts to amateur setups in backyards — already record temperature and precipitation. But Baker says the network will send hourly readouts via satellite from 100 sites that will result in more accurate measurements.

That's because the new stations will have backup instruments to guarantee an uninterrupted flow of temperatures and rainfall measurements.

Each will transmit readings from three thermometers and two rain gauges. The information will be available on the network's Web site.

The stations that form the network will take up about a twelfth of an acre each and will be positioned far from highways, buildings and areas likely to be developed. That way, climate data won't be skewed by heat and pollution. The locations for the stations represent every natural environment in the USA, from mountains and plains to coasts and deserts.

"We want to be able to separate out the urban 'signal,' " says Ken Hubbard, director of the High Plains Regional Climate Center in Lincoln, Neb. "If the temperature is trending upward, we want to know: Is that due to greenhouse gases increasing? Or is that due to somebody having built an urban parking lot nearby?"

Many of the stations are being built in national and state parks, wildlife refuges, government installations and laboratory farms at universities. Forty-seven are in place in 26 states. Fifty-three others will be built in the next two years after sites are chosen.

If funding increases, scientists hope to add 150 to 200 sites to better track regional climate changes.

The first station was built at the North Carolina Arboretum outside Asheville. Others are in Glacier National Park, Mont., Crater Lake National Park, Ore., and on NASA's balloon-launch site near Palestine, Texas. Some will be in coastal locations. One sits atop Niwot Ridge, Colo., more than 12,000 feet above sea level. Another will go in Death Valley, Calif.

The stations cost about $20,000 each. A key feature: a pair of eight-sided picket fences, one inside the other. The pens shield the station's rain gauge from the wind for more accurate readings.

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