The establishment of the new NOAA Climate Service as presently conceived only makes sense if the the existing suite of NOAA activities related to the Climate problem is maintained and nourished. Much of the observational work which is an essential piece of the Climate problem is presently done by OAR labs that are not slated to be part of NCS. In particular NOAA Ocean Observations for Climate are done at both AOML and PMEL. Neither of these labs is slated to be in NCS. But apparently the OAR Climate Program Office, that provides the funding for the observations, is due to move to NCS. At the same time the NOAA budget for the operation of its research fleet seems to be inadequate, if the President's Budget for FY 2011 is not to be exceeded. One possibility being discussed is operating research vessels for less than 130 Days At Sea (DAS), instead of the normal 200 DAS. Under the various possible scenarios for establishing this NOAA Climate Service, given the whole state of the economy and the uncertain future of the climate work that is already being done, the whole process seems extremely problematic.

If there are not sufficient resources to maintain the important Climate work that is already being done, and no new resources are available, it is not  possible to establish a new NOAA Climate Service and maintain the present Climate Enterprise. So what do you keep and what do you throw away? If you cannot even maintain what you are presently doing, how can you consider adding this NCS a year from now, when budgets are expected to be even tighter?