IEDRO is a U.S. based 501(c)(3), nonprofit organization funded through charitable contributions, grants and government awards. It was formed in 2005 by Dr. Richard Crouthamel, D.Sc., to rescue and digitize historical climate data.
IEDRO works closely with the World Meteorological Organization, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the National Meteorological and Hydrologic Services (NMHS) organizations of developing countries to carry out this mission.
IEDRO was building on an initiative by Dr. Sharon E. Nicholson, Distinguished Research Professor of Meteorology, Florida State University, who in 2000 approached NOAA’s National Weather Service’s International Activities Office (IAO) to locate and rescue historic climate data in Africa.
IAO’s Chief, Dr. Martin Yerg, provided the initial funding for the effort through U.S. donations to the U.N.’s World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO) Voluntary Cooperation Programme (VCP).
Shortly thereafter, Dr. Crouthamel assumed management of the project. Six African countries: Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Niger, Senegal, and Zambia, were provided data rescue (DARE) equipment: computers, digital cameras, copy stands, and software.
The DARE Team consisted of Larry Nicodemus and Mark Seiderman, from NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), Dr. Wassila Thiaw, from NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center (CPC), and Ken Clark, IAO. The team traveled to each country, installing computers and instructing the staff from each NMHS on data rescue and imaging.
During this time, NOAA established the Climate Data Modernization Program (CDMP) which provided the labor, both by NOAA staff and contractor personnel to facilitate the acquisition of the historic hydrometeorological (weather) data at risk, mainly in developing countries, and getting those data digitized from their deteriorating paper records.
This process, funded by U.S. Senate appropriations proposed by the Senators from Kentucky, West Virginia and Maryland enabled companies to be formed in high unemployment areas to take the data on paper that was imaged (photographed) by IEDRO (and others) and manually enter those data into the NOAA data base. About 300 people, many formerly on unemployment and welfare, were provided jobs with benefits and performed excellent quality work for over a decade, digitizing these data critical to all humanity.
In March 2013 the U.S. Senate eliminated funding for this critical program citing cost concerns (only about $9 million/year). Digitization of these critical data was stopped and most of the employees lost their jobs. Data critical to climate change / global warming research among other extremely useful purposes was no longer being preserved or digitized.
In April 2013, IEDRO expanded its mission to not only include locating and imaging these historic data at risk, but also digitizing those data and getting them archived in the NOAA data base for use of the world’s scientists, researchers and educators. The process was able to continue, but at a much slower rate.
With the help of Summit Business Technologies in Maryland, IEDRO established a citizen science / crowd sourcing platform – Weather Wizards – which enables volunteers throughout the world to assist in digitizing valuable historic data.
For the next 9 years, IEDRO worked with the NMHSs of eleven additional developing countries helping them to locate, inventory, image and digitize their critical historic weather data.
In 2022, IEDRO and NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) in Asheville, NC have reached an agreement that NCEI will archive both the images rescued by NOAA and the digitized data from those images for the use of scientists, researchers and educators worldwide for little or no cost.