Remarks
The demand for high-value environmental data and information has dramatically increased in recent years. NCEI is designed to improve NOAA’s ability to meet that demand. The Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015, Public Law 113-235, approved the consolidation of NOAA’s existing three National Data Centers: the National Climatic Data Center, the National Geophysical Data Center, and the National Oceanographic Data Center into the National Centers for Environmental Information. By using consistent data stewardship tools and practices across all science disciplines and by forging an improved data management team, users will see an improvement in the overall value of our environmental data archives. The transition to NCEI will take time, with the final integration anticipated beyond 2020. An overriding principle throughout the formation of NCEI is transparency to our users and commitment to continuing to provide the geophysical, oceans, coastal, weather and climate data users have come to rely on.