New Organization, Same Location and Service

Effective 30 June 2002, the NOAA Paleoclimatology Program was realigned to become part of the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC). This occurred as part of a larger realignment of NCDC and brought NOAA's two major efforts in climatic data together within the same organization.

The National Climatic Data Center provides the historical perspective on climate. Prior to the addition of the NOAA Paleoclimatology Program, NCDC worked to ingest, quality control, archive, and service satellite and surface based observations. With the addition of paleoclimatic data, NCDC has expanded from instrumental data that span just over a century to include proxy data extending back centuries, millennia and beyond. The realignment brings a longer record to bear on important problems of climatic variability.

The NOAA Paleoclimatology Program is still a part of the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS), which manages the Nation's operational environmental satellite system as well as the largest collection of atmospheric, geophysical, and oceanographic data in the world. There are three data centers within NESDIS making up the NOAA National Data Centers: The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC), and the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC).

Officially, the NOAA Paleoclimatology Program is now a Branch within the NCDC Scientific Services Division. NCDC is divided into the following Divisions and Branches:


NCDC Organization Chart
Director's Office
Data Operations Division
Data Processing Branch
Archive Branch
Scientific Services Division
Climate Analysis Branch
Climate Monitoring Branch
Paleoclimatology Branch
Climate Services Division
Customer Services Branch
Data Access Branch
Product Development Branch
Support Services Division
Financial Management Branch
Information Technology Branch
Remote Sensing and Applications Division / Library
Satellite Services Branch

The NOAA Paleoclimatology Program is still home to the ICSU World Data Center for Paleoclimatology and remains in Boulder, Colorado within the David Scaggs Research Center.