Национальный институт водных и атмосферных исследований Новой Зеландии (NIWA)

New Zealand national research institute

The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research or NIWA , is a Crown Research Institute of New Zealand. Established in 1992, NIWA conducts research across a broad range of disciplines in the environmental sciences. It also maintains nationally and, in some cases, internationally important environmental monitoring networks, databases, and collections. as of 2019, NIWA had 697 staff spread across 14 sites in New Zealand and one in Perth, Australia. Its head office is in Auckland, with regional offices in Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch, Nelson, and Lauder (Central Otago). It also has small field teams, focused mostly on hydrology, stationed in Bream Bay, Lake Tekapo, Rotorua, Napier, Whanganui, Greymouth, Alexandra, and Dunedin. NIWA maintains a fleet of about 30 vessels for freshwater, marine, and atmospheric research.

"NIWA's mission is to conduct leading environmental science to enable the sustainable management of natural resources for New Zealand and the planet."

In 2007, 12 NIWA climate scientists – Greg Bodeker, Matt Dunn, Rod Henderson, Darren King, Keith Lassey, Dave Lowe, Brett Mullan, Kath O'Shaughnessy, Guy Penny, James Renwick, Jim Salinger and David Wratt – shared the Nobel Peace Prize with other contributors to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The NIWA Lauder Atmospheric Research Laboratory takes atmospheric measurements for the purpose of observing and better understanding interactions between the stratosphere, troposphere and global climate. This is achieved through measurements of ozone, solar radiation, aerosols and greenhouse gases. There are approximately 10 staff (scientists and technicians) working at the Laboratory (December 2015).

Lauder is located 33 km north east of Alexandra, in the South Island of New Zealand. It also hosts a telescope part of the BOOTES network. This location was chosen for the laboratory due to the area's low horizons, clear skies, dry atmosphere, and southern latitude location.

A research laboratory was originally established at Lauder in 1961 with the purpose of observing the aurora. In the Mid 70's Lauder was a ground tracking station for the satellite ensemble "International Satellites for Ionospheric Studies" (ISIS (satellite)). By the late 1970s research had shifted focus to the stratosphere. From the 1990s Lauder has also monitored the effects of ozone depletion on solar UV irradiance. Recently, research at Lauder has focused on interactions between climate change and ozone depletion and Lauder now measures most gases that contribute to climate change. Data from these balloons enables atmospheric profiles of temperature, pressure, water vapour, and ozone to be produced. One method of remote sensing measurements at Lauder uses a LIDAR system to generate ozone profiles to 100 km in altitude. BSRN, TCCON, and GCOS Reference Upper Air Network (GRUAN). Lauder has many ongoing long term measurements, including the longest time series of nitrogen dioxide in the world.

In 2018 NIWA commissioned 3 powerful Cray supercomputers called Mahuika, Maui and Kupe, forming the HPCF (High Performance Computing Facility). The HPCF is capable of processing more than two thousand trillion calculations per second. 2 of the 3 Cray supercomputers (Mahuika and Maui) are located in NIWA's Wellington campus, while Kupe is located at the University of Tamaki Data Centre. It also leads investigations such as the analysis of genetic information, the modelling of the impact of climate change and forecasting weather related hazards. The detailed specifications of the HPCF can be found here.

The NIWA Invertebrate Collection (NIC) is the largest repository of marine invertebrate (animals without a backbone) specimens from the New Zealand region, southwestern Pacific, and the Ross Sea (Antarctica). It holds representatives of almost all phyla in the New Zealand region. Collected over the last 50 years and still growing, the collection holds several million specimens, ranging from single celled organisms to giant corals. as of 2015, it included over 2100 type specimens of species new to science (800 holotypes and 1300 paratypes). The collection is used by scientists, teachers, and journalists throughout New Zealand and the world.

In 2002 NIWA teamed up with the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Science to create the Natural Hazards Centre as a New Zealand resource for all hazards information and advice. The centre develops systems to monitor and predict the following hazards: earthquakes, tsunami, floods, storms, landslides, coastal flooding and waves, coastal erosion, and volcanoes.

Foremost among NIWA's 30 vessels New Zealand's only ice strengthened research ship. The 28 metre RV Kaharoa is used mainly for coastal research, but has gone further afield to deploy ocean profiling Argo floats, from Chile to Mauritius. which recounts his career. The information in NIWA's databases is in high demand. In the 2007 08 financial year, for instance, NIWA responded to more than 350 000 requests for data from its databases. In 2020, NIWA chief executive John Morgan told Parliament the two organizations are like "a car and a truck; both being vehicles but each serving different purposes". Private weather forecaster WeatherWatch commented that it is "bizarre" the government is funding two weather forecasters and compared it to "Fire Service getting into Police Speeding Infringements".

From 2010 to 2012, NIWA defended itself in a court case claiming that they had exaggerated temperature increases. The charge was brought by the climate change deniers The New Zealand Climate Education Trust – a branch of the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition. They challenged NIWA figures which showed a rise in temperatures in New Zealand of 1 °C over the past 100 years. The climate denier group said the published increase of 1 °C was significantly higher than global warming figures around the world and almost 50 per cent above the global average. In a High Court judgement, Justice Geoffrey Venning ruled that the New Zealand Climate Science Education Trust had not been successful in any of the challenges they brought against NIWA. Justice Venning also decided that NIWA's cost should be paid by the trust and he said that if an agreement on the costs could not be reached he would make another ruling at a later stage.