The Alaska regional center will be located at NOAA's National Weather Service Alaska Region Headquarters in Anchorage. Alaska's new climate center is part of a reorganization that creates the new NOAA Climate Service.
Previously, climate for Alaska was studied out of the regional NOAA office in Reno, Nev. The agency's move is expected to result in a greater emphasis on Alaska as NOAA moves forward with plans to reorganize itself to focus on the changing climate.
"From its rural transportation infrastructure to subsistence livelihood of Native Alaskan communities, climate changes like decreases in duration of sea ice and increases in land surface temperature are impacting Alaska earlier and with more intensity than anywhere in the United States," NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco wrote in a letter to Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska.
NOAA's plan to create a Climate Service is subject to congressional approval.
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