ams climategov jan3-2013_v2

Viviane SilvaNOAA Climate Services Division (NWS) Frank NiepoldNOAA Climate Program Office (OAR)

First Symposium on the Weather and Climate Enterprise

AMS Annual Meeting

January 9, 2013

Climate.govA Brief Overview and Next Steps

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Weather and climate influences almost every sector of society, & affects up to 40 percent of the United States’ $10 trillion annual economy.

Extreme Events

Health

Marine Ecosystems

Agriculture

Coastal Resilience Water Resources

Energy InfrastructureSource: NRC report (2003) “Satellite Observations of the Earth’s Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations”)

Societal concern about the impacts of climate change is growing.

People want easy and timely access to credible climate science data & information to help them make informed decisions affecting their lives and livelihoods.

Societal concern about the impacts of climate change is growing.

People want easy and timely access to credible climate science data & information to help them make informed decisions affecting their lives and livelihoods.

0102030405060708090100

1992199319941995199619971998199920002001200220032004200520062007Year

PercentNetwork newsLocal TV newsCNNCable newsReads newspaperGets news online

Perc

ent o

f res

pond

ents

usin

g m

edia

*Miller, J.D. (2008): “Civic Scientific Literacy: The role of the media in the electronic era.” White paper presented at AAAS Conference.

Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism (2011)

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

1993 1995 2000 2002 2006

Recent trends in public media use*

100

20041998 2008 2010 2012

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As the leading provider of climate, weather, & As the leading provider of climate, weather, & water information to the nation and the world, water information to the nation and the world, NOAA is a logical source for citizens to turn to NOAA is a logical source for citizens to turn to for climate information. for climate information.

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NOAA Climate.gov GoalsNOAA Climate.gov Goals

• to promote public understanding of climate science and awareness to promote public understanding of climate science and awareness of ongoing changes in climate conditionsof ongoing changes in climate conditions—globally and regionally—globally and regionally;;

• to highlight climate data, decision support tools, and professional to highlight climate data, decision support tools, and professional development and training opportunities designed to help improve the development and training opportunities designed to help improve the nation’s resilience; andnation’s resilience; and

• to provide formal and informal educators reviewed educational to provide formal and informal educators reviewed educational resources and professional development opportunities to incorporate resources and professional development opportunities to incorporate climate science into their work.climate science into their work.

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www.climate.gov

NOAA’s Climate Portalhttp://www.climate.gov

The Climate.gov project began as a rapid prototyping effort that was first published in February 2010 so that NOAA could gather feedback to develop and evolve Climate.gov in user-driven ways.

Plans are to transition the portal from a prototype to an operational status in early 2013.

Science Attentive Publics

The Residual Public (unaware/uninterested)

Decision

Makers

Science & Technology

Policy Leaders

Science Interested Publics

Jon Miller’s model*

U.S. President, Congressional members, OMB, & OSTP

Nobel laureates, people who testify before Congress, heads of major research labs, NAS & NRC Committees

Roughly 38 million American adults track 1 or more sci/tech topics; are quite knowledgeable; willing & able to engage in policy-relevant discourse

67 million adults understand “scientific study”; 115 million understand the structure & purpose of an “experiment”.

The remaining population who is unaware &/or uninterested in science & technology.

*Miller, J.D. (2004): “Space Policy and Science Policy Leaders in the United States.” A white paper presented to NASA Headquarters; on-line at http://esdepo.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/files/NASA_Leadership_Report.doc

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Decision

MakersScience Policy Leaders

Educators & Students

Science Attentive Public, Citizen Scientists

Scientists & Data Users

Science Interested PublicsResidual Public

Museums, Science Centers, and After School & Community-based

Programs

NOAA Internal

Public Media

Public Continuum

NOAA’s four initial target audience groupings

New version: Structural HierarchySearch

& Browse

Portal Sections provide information to a range of audiences to enhance society's ability to understand and plan and respond to climate variability and change. 

1. Audience (the who)The prototype features four audience-focused sections:

• News & Features for the public

• Climate Conditions for the public

• Data for scientists and data users

• Teaching Climate for educators & students

• Decision Support for policy leaders

http://environment.yale.edu/climate/files/Climate-Beliefs-September-2012.pdf

The who - start at the audience interfaceand work backward into the agency

Public Continuum Educators Data-using Comms Policy Leaders

NOAA Climate Science

NOAA Virtual Teams

Target Audiences

Climate Science

Community

NOAA Coastal

Marine Fisheries

National Weather Service

NOAA

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Why communicate with them? What’s your desired outcome? Can be to:

• Inform — Raise awareness, increase interest, change attitude (Passive consumer)

• Engage — Dialogue, interact to further raise awareness, increase interest & change attitude (Active consumer)

• Educate — Programs to increase knowledge and skill, interpretation (Student, Educator, Resource developers, Leadership)

• Implement — Participation, R&D, Decision support (Designers & Decision Makers)

1. Audience (the who)

2. Objective (the why)

Recommended logical progression to lend focus

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What impression or information or knowledge or skills do you want to convey? Messages can be crafted to:

• inform &/or educate about the state of the science and build capacity

• report new science results

• announce new data products & services

• address societal implications and concerns, etc.

1. Audience (the who)

2. Objective (the why)

3. Message (the what)

Recommended logical progression to lend focus

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Successful, effective message delivery hinges on its compatibility with:

• an audience’s interests in it;

• their needs for it;

• their capacity to understand it;

• where / how they typically seek it, etc.

1. Audience (the who)

2. Objective (the why)

3. Message (the what)

4. Process & medium (the how)

Recommended logical progression to lend focus

Climate.gov Survey Score = 3.63(scale of 1 to 5, n=525) based on 5 core questions common to all target audiences that measure functionality and quality of relationships1) Satisfaction (based on reasons for

visiting), 2) ease of navigation, 3) likelihood of recommending, 4) search engine, and 5) response confidence level

72.6100 point scale

NOAA’s Climate Portalhttp://www.climate.gov

The NCS Portal Prototype provides a well-integrated, online presentation of NOAA’s climate data & services.

The prototype features four audience-focused sections:

• ClimateWatch for the public

• Data & Services for scientists and data users

• Understanding Climate for policy leaders

• Education for educators & students

The Dashboard is a data-driven synoptic overview of the state of the global climate system.

Past Weather allows users to easily retrieve weather data for any given location & date.

NOAA’s New ClimateWatch Magazine (Soon to be “News & Features”)

An online magazine written and designed in a popular style. Goal is to grow an attentive public to NOAA & climate.

Contains 3 types of content:

• Articles and stories

• Images with captions & annotations

• Videos with scientists’ commentaries

Features social media tools for subscriptions & RSS feeds, content rating, forward to a friend, and forms for facilitated feedback.

NOAA’s Climate.gov Teaching Climate Redesign and Expansionhttp://www.climate.gov

The NOAA Climate Portal’s Teaching Climate section provides a syndication of the CLEAN collection (cleanet.org) with the other section content

The section features educator-focused sections:

• Teaching Climate Literacy provide educators detailed discussions and strategies

• Curriculum Maps of Climate Concepts for grades 3-5 to 9-12

• Professional Development Resources and Opportunities

• Reviewed Educational Resources on Climate and Energy topics from the CLEAN Collection

Plans for new ‘Climate Conditions’ section Public-friendly

digest of recent & near-future climate conditions.

Initial emphasis on ‘mature’ products of high public interest & relevance

Will provide extensible maps & trends with links to source providers.

Will give entrée to subject experts to provide value-added interpretation.

Plans for new ‘Decision Support’ sectionPeer-reviewed resources for policy leaders & decision makers to help them manage their climate-related risks & opportunities

Content sortable by these categories:

- Society & Environment (i.e., sectors)

- Topics

- Regions

- Agencies & Organizations

Content types:

- Reports & Assessments

- Decision Support Tools

- Datasets

- Fact Sheets & Presentations

- Professional Development Opportunities

Content sortable by these categories:

- Global Maps

- Regional Maps

- United States Maps

- Global Climate Dashboard

Search types:

- Integrated Maps Application

- Text Search for data sets and services

- Browse Library

NOAA’s Climate.gov Data Section Redesign and Expansion

Just as a dashboard gives instant information on the status of a vehicle’s various systems, NOAA’s Global Climate Dashboard presents an overview of the current state of Earth’s climate system in historical context.

The Dashboard is designed for people seeking a synoptic view about what we know about climate variability and change, particularly policy leaders.

NCS Portal Dashboardhttp://www.climate.gov

Adjustable sliders up top allow users to focus on the time period of interest.

Hover cursor over graphs to produce brief “tool-tip” snippets stating what each parameter is showing.

Click on graphs to jump to more detailed landing pages with more details produced in a popular style.

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A three-pronged strategy for communicating with and educating our target audiences

NOAA Science Communication &

Education Personnel

Dialog & Direct

Engagement

NOAA Web & Social Media

Partners & trusted sources

Target Audience

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If you have feedback &/or would like to be a contributor to any section of Climate.gov, please contact the sections team leaders:

If you have feedback &/or would like to be a contributor to any section of Climate.gov, please contact the sections team leaders:

Climate Conditions:

luann.dahlman@noaa.gov

News & Features:rebecca.lindsey@noaa.gov

Teaching Climatefrank.niepold@noaa.gov

Datasam.mccown@noaa.gov john.keck@noaa.gov

Decision Supportdavid.herring@noaa.gov

Climate Dashboard:viviane.silva@noaa.gov

Climate.gov in general:david.herring@noaa.gov

Gathering Feedback and Enhancing Collaborations

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Background Slides

Quality of RelationshipsAwareness

To what extent do the various target audiences know that NOAA exists &/or what NOAA does

Trust

Perceptions of accuracy, credibility, and authority

Satisfaction

Perceptions of relevance, reliability, & completeness

Usability & Use

How easy is it to use climate.gov? How useful are the resources? Are the resources being used? And, if so, how often / widely?

Control Mutuality

Can users ask questions, offer recommendations or criticisms, & get timely responses? Is there opportunity for 2-way influence?

www.climate.gov

Easy Access to Data Products

Short explanatory article

Short explanatory article

Interactive MultiGraph

Interactive MultiGraph

References citedReferences cited

Links to data & source provider

Links to data & source provider