Principle Instigator: Neal Dorst (HRD)

Purpose

The National Hurricane Research Project (NHRP) began field programs in 1956, and has continued doing so since that time under various other organizational names. Much of the data collected prior to the acquisition of the Orion P-3s in 1975 and 1976 was in analog format, such as film and paper. This makes retrieval and copying of this information difficult. In addition, the original material is very vulnerable to environmental assault and normal degradation through time. Some of the data from this era were stored on magnetic media, but have become unavailable due to degredation.

The National Center for Data and Climate (NCDC) has instituted the Climate Database Modernization Program (CDMP) to help other NOAA offices digitize such datasets. The Hurricane Research Division (HRD) of the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorlogical Laboratory has been granted CDMP funds for the last four fiscal years to help transfer its film records onto digital media, which provides back-up to the original source material, preserves the records from degradation, and makes using and sharing the information easier.

Results

FY04 Achievements

• Data archive is inventoried.
• Samples of various media are sent to Information Manufacturing Corporation (IMC) to determine best methods of digitizing.

• Six boxes of microfilm were sent to IMC. The administrative records and flight data contained were transfered to DVDs.
• Catalog of inventoried data begun.
• Seventeen boxes of Super VHS Flight videos from 1994 through 2005 sent to IMC. DVDs of these videos returned and cataloged.
• Determination was made that flight data could be more easily extracted from microfilms of printouts than from photo panel films.

FY06 Achievements

• Formats for various printouts are identified, and keying of data from microfilmed printouts is begun. First DVDs of flight data arrive.
• Two boxes of 35 mm flight films sent to IMC. DVDs of these films received and cataloged.
• Thirty-two boxes of 16 mm Flight films through 1979 sent to IMC. DVDs of these films received and cataloged.

• FY07 proposal accepted. Funding is much less than in previous years so the progress of digitizing records will be much slower.