Water and Climate Program
Products and Services Briefing Book

Unified Climate Access Network (UCAN)

UCAN is a consortium of federal and state agencies that have joined together to unify access and availability of climate data and information for natural resource management.

UCAN will provide users with "virtual access" via the Internet to climate datasets collected by federal, state, and county networks. UCAN will provide a networked computer and data storage infrastructure that will allow users to access climate information faster, easier, and more efficiently than previously possible.

In addition to new datasets, users will be able to run a wide variety of climate applications specifically tailored to meet their needs. These include, but are not limited to, statistical averages,frequency analyses, spatial mapping, risk analyses, and modeling applications that require specialized climatic information.

• Provide national leadership in climate technology.
• Support a national, on-line climate database accessible via the Internet.
• Provide appropriate climatic data and analysis products directly supported by the on-line database.
• Provide a seamless, national distribution network for climatic products via the Internet.
• Provide error free, serially complete, spatially representative and timely climatic data.
• Provide training, educational materials and workshops to improve the use of climatic information in all sectors of the user community.