Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) is a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). OAR is also referred to as NOAA Research. NOAA Research is the research and development arm of NOAA and is the driving force behind NOAA environmental products and services aimed at protecting life and property and promoting sustainable economic growth. Research, conducted by programs within NOAA and through collaborations outside NOAA, focuses on enhancing the understanding of environmental phenomena such as tornadoes, hurricanes, climate variability, changes in the ozone layer, El Niño/La Niña events, fisheries productivity, ocean currents, deep sea thermal vents, and coastal ecosystem health. The origins of NOAA Research date to the creation of the Survey of the Coast (renamed the United States Coast Survey in 1836 and the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1878) by President Thomas Jefferson in 1807 and to the creation in 1841 of the United States Lake Survey. The Coast Survey was created to conduct hydrographic surveys of the coastline of the United States, while the Lake Survey was created to undertake "a hydrographic survey of northwestern lakes," i.e., the Great Lakes. Research executed by the scientists of the Lake Survey was innovative and holistic: the first current meters were developed to understand water flow rates, and forecasting techniques were greatly enhanced to predict water levels and the relationship to lakefront property. The science and technology that NOAA Research produces is not only relevant to society, it anticipates and responds to partners' needs to demonstrates the value of technologies so that partners can deploy them into their applications. OAR works with end-users to integrate mature technologies (and associated expertise) into larger systems, either in NOAA operations or partner applications, via testbeds, patents, etc.
Organization NOAA Research is an open research network consisting of seven federal research laboratories, six program offices, sixteen Cooperative Institutes (which are non-federal, non-profit research institutions in five-to-ten-year collaborative partnerships with NOAA), and 33 university-based Sea Grant programs. OAR also relies on work performed at numerous public, private, and academic institutions. Weather Program Office includes the Earth Prediction Innovation Center, created by the United States Congress in 2018 to improve collaboration with academia and private companies. In April 2025, under the second presidency of Donald Trump, a draft budget proposal indicated intent to "eliminate all funding for climate, weather, and ocean laboratories and cooperative institutes," which would include the closure of the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research as a NOAA line office.
Research activities NOAA Research has three primary research areas: Climate; Weather and Air Chemistry; and Ocean, Coasts, and the Great Lakes. Both in-house and external scientists:
Continue to conduct experiments to understand natural processes (physical, geochemical, ecological) Build predictive models for use in weather, climate, solar, ocean, and coastal assessments and predictions. Develop and deploy new observing technologies to provide data to support predictive models and to document natural variability. Develop new analytical and forecast tools to improve weather services and earlier warnings for natural disasters. Use new information technology to share information with other federal and academic scientists. Prepare scientific assessments and information products to enhance public education and guide governmental action. Research plans and products are developed in partnership with academia and other federal agencies, and are peer-reviewed and widely distributed.
Climate Research NOAA's research laboratories, Climate Program Office, and research partners conduct research into complex climate systems and how they work. The aim of this research is to predict climate variation in the shorter term, for example, cold spells or periods of drought, and over longer terms, such as centuries and beyond. NOAA scientists are at the forefront of studying climate change and modeling what the effects will be on the Earth. Researchers at NOAA's Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL) have developed the Coupled Hydrosphere-Atmosphere Research Model (CHARM) to enable a valid assessment of the impact of how climate change might affect the climate and ecology of the Great Lakes. The CHARM model provides a realistic surface-atmosphere feedback portrayal, and accounts for runoff from land surfaces. It allows researchers to predict that global warming likely will bring higher temperatures and increased precipitation to the Great Lakes. Development of a second generation of CHARM is underway to help answer questions about greenhouse warming effects on Great Lakes water quantity. NOAA researchers closely monitor the Earth's atmosphere searching for clues about long-term changes in the global climate. The data collected worldwide by NOAA researchers contributes to the understanding of complex climatic systems and the ability to forecast changes.
Weather and Air Chemistry Research
NOAA Research organizations conduct research on the upper and lower atmosphere as well as the space environment. Their findings form the basis for NOAA's contributions to major national and international environmental programs and agreements. For instance, improvements in forecast and warning services provided by the National Weather Service are a direct result of NOAA research. Improvements in numerical modeling, observations gathered by satellites and Doppler weather radars (NEXRAD), and sophisticated weather warning and information processing and communications systems, have collectively led to significantly improved severe weather forecasts and warnings. Other research programs focus on observation and study of the chemical and physical processes of the atmosphere, detecting the effects of pollution on those processes and monitoring and forecasting the phenomena affecting the Sun-Earth environment.
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