From the Director's Desk

In addition to the "core" CDIAC activities, such as quality-assuring, documenting, and publishing databases on global-change topics relating to emissions, atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and other greenhouse gases, and long-term climate records, staff have also been busy working in four special CDIAC "focus areas": AmeriFlux, FACE, NARSTO, and Ocean Data.

In this issue, we mention the AmeriFlux (the long-term study of carbon fluxes between the terrestrial biosphere of the Western Hemisphere and the atmosphere) databases available from CDIAC. AmeriFlux data management efforts were taken over by Tom Boden, assisted by Susan Holladay, following Antoinette Brenkert's move to Washington, D.C. As part of CDIAC's focus on FACE (Free-Air CO₂ Enrichment), we have a new Web site which begins the process of integrating the 30-something FACE sites around the world. In the Oceans Data area, Alex Kozyr, assisted by Linda Allison, continues to quality-assure and document databases on ocean carbon. Forrest Hoffman maintains Web sites for the Ocean Drifters project, as well as the Web sites for the multi-agency Global Change Data and Information System, and the U.S. National Assessment of the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change. We have also continued our focus on the operation of the NARSTO Quality Systems Science Center to provide quality-assurance guidance for research on tropospheric ozone and particulates.

At the end of the fiscal year, CDIAC's talented secretary Dana Griffith (who also had a hand in preparing several databases for publication!) left CDIAC for the private sector. We'll all miss Dana, and we wish her the best, however, we welcome Dana's replacement, Gloria Taylor (previously with the ORNL Distributed Active Archive Center), to CDIAC!

Although most of our customers aren't aware of this (unless they study our mailing address), about a year ago CDIAC moved from the "charming" confines of Building 1000 to more modern quarters in nearby Building 1509. The move, and all the logistics associated therewith, went smoothly, thanks to the heroic efforts of Dana Griffith, working with our division's Linda Armstrong and Linda Jennings and the Instrumentation and Controls Division's Randy Smith and Ed Stanford. Not only people and the contents of offices had to be moved, our inventory of printed documents and our computing network also had to be moved, in a manner that minimized disruption to our own work and our communications with the outside world.

I would like to acknowledge the guidance and support of the program managers within DOE's Office of Biological and Environmental Research: Bobbi Parra, who is CDIAC's Program Manager; Roger Dahlman, who has oversight of CDIAC's AmeriFlux and FACE work; Wanda Ferrell, who oversees CDIAC's NARSTO effort; Anna Palmisano, who manages CDIAC's Ocean Data project; and all the other DOE global change program managers (Pat Crowley, Jerry Elwood, John Houghton, Peter Lunn, Rick Petty, and Mike Riches).