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The U.S. GCOS Program [http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/usgcos/index.htm
htm] at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center
(NCDC) [http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov] is involved in working to implement a sustainable and robust GCOS observing
network for international atmospheric, oceanographic, and terrestrial climate observing. The U.S. GCOS support
philosophy is based upon a three-tiered approach involving a series of international, regional, and bi-lateral project
efforts. One of the most active and important areas of involvement is in the Pacific Ocean region where we leverage
support for this via formal climate bilateral agreements that the U.S. has with both Australia and New Zealand. NCDC
and the U.S. GCOS Program Manager serve as the NOAA and U.S. lead on these bilateral climate agreements. This
paper will describe the efforts undertaken in the Pacific region towards developing a more sustainable and robust GCOS
observing ground-based network for atmospheric, oceanographic, and terrestrial climate observing in the region. The
paper will describe the actions to date, plans for the future, and how the efforts to date such as the establishment of a
virtual Regional Climate Center for the region in order to, among other things, work towards improving data availability
and access for and from the nations in the region in order to improve climate services across the region. NCDC is also
interested in developing partnerships for installing U.S. Climate Reference Network [see http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/crn]
equipment to be part of a global long-term climate reference network for improving climate information from more data
sparse tropical and high-elevation areas. In order to properly document this, a full description of the overall climate
observations program in the U.S. is required.
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