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Description

Pacific Storms is focused on improving our understanding of patterns and trends of storm frequency and intensity - storminess - within the Pacific region. It is exploring how the climate-related processes that govern extreme storm events are expressed within and between three thematic areas: heavy rains, strong winds, and high seas. It is developing a suite of extremes climatology-related data and information products that can be used by emergency managers, mitigation planners, government agencies and decision-makers in key sectors including water and natural resource management, agriculture and fisheries, transportation and communication, and recreation and tourism. In-situ station products include the delineation of rates of sea level rise and high water return periods, as well as changes in the frequency of both short-lived intense rainfall events and extended periods of heavy rains and the linkages of these patterns and trends to climate indices.  Observational data used to support product development are taken from standard holdings. In addition to the basic product set, special attention is being given to climate indices-related products that describe the relationship between extremes and climate, primarily through the correlation of extremes indicators and climate indices known to have relevance to the Pacific region (e.g., the Multivariate ENSO Index (MEI); the Pacific Decadal Oscillation Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO); the North Pacific Index (NPI); etc.) as well as the formulation of new integrated and/or regional indices.

Project Status
Start Date
Friday, January 1, 1999
End Date
Friday, January 1, 1999
Short Title
PSCP
Project Type
Project Scope
Project Objectives

Users are able to explore how extreme events have been expressed historically and may be expected to be expressed in a changing climate. Such information is critical to risk assessment scenario development in support of coastal land-use planning and resource management. It also forms the basis for establishing infrastructure (e.g., roads, water, sewer) design criteria, among other things. The ultimate outcome of this effort will be a reduction in the vulnerability to the economic, social, and environmental risks associated with coastal storms, as decision-makers in the Pacific Islands are provided with high quality science-based information that enables them to understand, anticipate, and adapt to risks associated with coastal storm-related extreme events in the context of a changing climate: 1) A broad suite of in-situ station and remotely-sensed derived-data products for much of the Pacific Basin; and 2) The formulation of new integrated and/or regional climate indices.