NOAA Climate.gov A brief overview and next steps David Herring NOAA Climate Program Office David.Herring@noaa.gov March 13, 2013

NOAA Climate.gov Portal Prototype http://www.climate.gov The Climate 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 four initial target audience groupings Decision Makers Science Policy Leaders NOAA Internal Scientists & Data Users Public Media Educators & Students I co-opted Jon Miller’s model and added more strata to reflect more of the diversity of audiences and objectives pursued by government agencies today. This version is color coded to reflect the four broad publics targeted by the NOAA Climate Services Portal. Red = policy leaders and decision makers; yellow = data and services users; green = educators; and blue = the public continuum and public media. Museums, Science Centers, and After School & Community-based Programs Science Attentive Public, Citizen Scientists Public Continuum Science Interested Publics Residual Public

The who: start at the audience interface and work backward into the agency Public Continuum Educators Data Users Policy / Decision Makers NOAA Climate Science NOAA Virtual Teams Target Audiences Climate Science Community NOAA Coastal Marine Fisheries National Weather Service NOAA 4

Our 3-pronged strategy for building relationships with target audiences Engagements for Dialog & Feedback NOAA Science Communication Personnel Climate.gov & Social Media Target Audiences Partners & Trusted Sources

Climate.gov growth in visits compared to target FY10 average = 26,196 FY11 average = 35,035 FY12 average = 56,932 FY13 Q1 average = 141,407 Record low Arctic sea ice, Hurricane Sandy, historic drought, & Arctic Report Card Locke & Lubchenco announce Climate Service & Climate Portal NUMBER OF VISITS MONTHS

Quality of Relationship Score = 3. 63 (72 Quality of Relationship Score = 3.63 (72.6) (scale of 1 to 5, n=525) based on 5 core questions common to all target audiences that measure functionality and quality of relationships Satisfaction (based on reasons for visiting), 2) ease of navigation, 3) likelihood of recommending, 4) search engine, and 5) response confidence level The survey was available on climate.gov from August 17 through October 31, 2011. 737 people started the survey and 525 finished, for a 71% completion rate. The survey was conducted and analyzed by Margaret Mooney and Jean Phillips at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 72.6 100 point scale

Measuring ‘Quality of Relationship’ Awareness: 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: Do users believe they can ask questions, or offer criticisms & recommendations, and get a timely response? Do they perceive opportunity for 2-way interactions? Do they feel they can influence us as we influence them?

5 Lessons learned after extensive evaluation, and resulting next steps » Our focus groups, usability studies, and Quality of Relationship survey revealed… 1. Our navigation structure is confusing » simplify & improve 2. Some of our terms are confusing » use plain English terms to contextualize content & enhance navigation 3. People want “actionable” climate information » produce timely & topical content that is relevant to people’s motivations » Information about significant climate-related events » Information about significant NOAA releases & new findings 4. People expect different content types to be thematically aggregated » build curated frames with topical, sectoral &/or regional foci 5. People want more & easier access to climate data » format and interpret data for usability & extensibility

Simplify & improve site’s structural hierarchy Search & Browse

NOAA Climate.gov Portal getting a facelift http://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.

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.

Understanding Climate renamed Decision Support Peer-reviewed resources for policy leaders & decision makers to help them manage their climate-related risks & opportunities Content aggregated into categories: Society & Environment (i.e., sectors) Topics Regions Agencies & Organizations Content types: Reports & Assessments Decision Support Tools Datasets Fact Sheets & Presentations Professional Development Opportunities

NOAA’s Climate.gov Teaching Climate Redesign and Expansion 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

NOAA’s Climate.gov Data Section Redesign and Expansion Content sortable by 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

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, interactive ‘Climate Explorer’

Global Climate Dashboard 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. Adjustable sliders allow users to focus on the time period of interest. Hover cursor over graphs to see specific values for each data point . Click on “Learn More” to jump to more detailed landing pages with more details produced in a popular style.

Gathering Feedback & Enhancing Collaborations 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 Climate frank.niepold@noaa.gov Data john.keck@noaa.gov sam.mccown@noaa.gov Decision Support david.herring@noaa.gov Climate Dashboard: viviane.silva@noaa.gov Climate.gov in general: