Climate Services encompass a range of activities: the management of meteorological and related data collected by the Bureau; the derivation of products from the data that describe Australias climate; the development of techniques for applying the data in a wide range of social, economic and environmental contexts; and the provision of information and advice to the general public and specialist users about the nature of climate in general and Australias climate in particular. Meteorological and related data, obtained from both basic and special observation networks, are quality-controlled and archived in the national climate database and other related databases. These databases are available for the generation of a product line that ranges from copies of the basic climate data, through processed data sets to a diverse suite of climate summaries, atlases and specialised analyses. As part of Climate Services the Bureau also monitors short- and long-term climatic fluctuations, including extremes such as drought and flooding rains, and issues predictions of seasonal climatic anomalies and projections of trends that affect the environment, agriculture and other weather and climate sensitive sectors of the community. Due to the global nature of climate, the Bureau collaborates closely with several national and international organisations, and especially with the climate-related programs of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services of the Pacific region.

Climate Services are coordinated by the National Climate Centre (NCC), located in the National Operations Branch within Head Office, and are provided directly from the NCC, or through the Regional Climate and Consultative Services Sections (CCSs) and Field Meteorological Offices around Australia.

In this chapter:

• Planned Outcome 2004-05
• Outputs 2004-05
• Achieving the Outcome