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| NOAA Technical Memoranda | |
|---|---|
| Title | NOAA Technical Memoranda |
| Discipline | Oceanography; Atmospheric science; Fisheries science; Hydrology |
| Publisher | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| History | 20th–21st century |
| Frequency | Irregular |
NOAA Technical Memoranda are a series of scientific and technical reports produced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration documenting research, methods, and operational findings across NOAA line offices such as the National Weather Service, National Ocean Service, National Marine Fisheries Service, and National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service. They serve as intermediate publications bridging peer-reviewed journals and internal agency reports and are frequently cited in work by institutions like the United States Geological Survey, Smithsonian Institution, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
NOAA Technical Memoranda provide technical descriptions, datasets, model evaluations, and procedural guidance accessible to organizations such as the Environmental Protection Agency, United States Navy, United States Coast Guard, and academia including Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Washington, and Colorado State University. Typical topics include analysis from programs like the National Marine Fisheries Service stock assessments, operational updates from the National Hurricane Center, calibration studies linked to instruments used at Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory and NOAA/NESDIS. They frequently interface with initiatives such as the Global Ocean Observing System, Argo (oceanography), Integrated Ocean Observing System, and collaborations with international bodies like the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission.
The memorandum series emerged alongside the institutional consolidation that created NOAA in 1970 under the Reorganization Plan No. 4 (1970), consolidating predecessor agencies including the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey and the Weather Bureau. Early memoranda recorded work from laboratories such as the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory and the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, reflecting advances from researchers associated with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Over decades the series paralleled developments in methods found in landmark programs and events like the International Geophysical Year, the growth of remote sensing exemplified by TIROS-1, and the rise of numerical forecasting exemplified by teams at the National Centers for Environmental Prediction.
The series documents technical methods, instrument calibrations, model intercomparisons, field campaign reports, and data processing routines used by centers such as National Ocean Service hydrographic offices, NOAA Fisheries assessment units, and satellite teams within NESDIS. Memoranda cover practical topics from sonar mapping practices used near Monterey Bay to statistical approaches applied to fisheries data from the Bering Sea and atmospheric composition studies connected to expeditions like those affecting Cape Verde and Barrow, Alaska. Agencies including the Department of Commerce and entities such as the Office of Naval Research and the National Science Foundation have relied on these documents to evaluate techniques and support program planning.
Authorship typically comprises NOAA scientists, collaborators from universities such as University of Rhode Island, University of Miami, and contractors affiliated with laboratories like Naval Research Laboratory or organizations such as the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences. Drafting, internal review, and clearance procedures involve technical editors and program managers within the originating NOAA office and compliance with policies set by the Department of Commerce and through memoranda of agreement with partners like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Some memoranda result from multi-institution teams tied to field campaigns associated with projects like the Hurricane Research Division or ecosystem studies in the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative.
NOAA Technical Memoranda use structured identifiers tied to specific line offices and series, analogous to numbering conventions employed by agencies such as the United States Geological Survey and historical series from the Coast and Geodetic Survey. Numbering links memoranda to subsections of NOAA like the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research or regional science centers including the Alaska Fisheries Science Center and the Southeast Fisheries Science Center, facilitating cross-referencing with datasets archived at repositories like the National Centers for Environmental Information.
Many memoranda are cataloged in NOAA institutional repositories and distributed through portals managed by NOAA Central Library and the National Centers for Environmental Information, and are cited in literature alongside works from journals such as Journal of Geophysical Research, Marine Ecology Progress Series, and Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. Users cite memoranda in reports for entities like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations Environment Programme, and regional management bodies such as the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council. Libraries including the Library of Congress and university collections often archive physical and digital copies.
The memoranda influence operational practices at agencies such as the National Weather Service and management decisions by the National Marine Fisheries Service and regional councils like the New England Fishery Management Council. They inform modeling efforts at centers including the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory and support regulatory analyses under statutes like the Magnuson–Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and environmental assessments tied to the National Environmental Policy Act. Academics and practitioners at institutions like Stanford University, Harvard University, and NOAA-affiliated cooperative institutes use memoranda as references for methodological development, calibration standards, and retrospective analyses of programs such as Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO) array deployments and long-term monitoring in the North Pacific and Gulf of Mexico.
Category:Publications of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration