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The Pacific Region Integrated Climatology Information Products (PRICIP) project arose out of a need to reduce the vulnerability of coastal communities to the economic, social, and environmental risks associated with coastal storms. Through the PRICIP project, the NOAA NCDC Integrated Data and Environmental Applications (IDEA) Center is working to address this need by improving our understanding of patterns and trends of storm frequency and intensity - “storminess”- within the Pacific region and by developing a suite of integrated data and information products.

The PRICIP integrating architecture (shown below) is the basic construct being used for program planning and product development. In this context, PRICIP is currently focused on the horizontal build-out of the fundamental derived data product tier and the vertical build-out of a single line of targeted information products. With respect to derived data products, for example, each theme team is delineating trends such as annual rates of change, and calculating annual, seasonal, and monthly event magnitudes, frequencies and durations. Theme teams are also delineating event return recurrence intervals via Generalized Extreme Value (GEV) analyses and will correlate event characteristics with regional climatological indices (e.g., ENSO and PDO). These analyses utilize key observing system data sets including NOAA’s Integrated Surface Hourly (ISH) mean sea level pressure and wind speed data; the Global Historical Climate Network (GHCN) precipitation dataset; the National Water Level Observing Network (NWLON) tide gauge records; the National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) wave buoy records; and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Coastal Data Information (CDIP) buoy data. With respect to targeted information products, the PRICIP team has chosen to focus initially on hindcast-related products, and specifically formulation of the concept of historical storm “event anatomies”, as a means placing the current weather into an historical context.

The PRICIP Integrating Architecture. At the top is the social system and the combination of factors within it that drive end-user product and service requirements in terms of content, format, timing, and delivery. At the bottom is the physical system and the combination of factors within it that, through their interaction, generate the different storminess-related phenomena. At the center of the figure are the connections between the social and physical systems. Depicted as an hourglass, it represents the transition from derived data, through the development of applied data products and decision-support tools, to the production of a targeted information suite applicable to a wide range of users, and the iterative, two-way interactions among producers and users that leads to the creation of these data and information products.

Adapted from An Integrating Architecture for Coastal Inundation and Erosion Program Planning and Product Development. Marra, J.J., Allen, T., Easterling, D., Fauver, S., Karl, T., Levinson, D., Marcy, D., Payne, J., Pietrafesa, L., Shea, E., Vaughan, L.. Special Issue of the Marine Technology Society Journal Volume 41:1, Spring 2007.