4.2 Links with Mission Goals and Programs
4.2.3 Weather and Water
The Weather and Water Mission Goal is tasked to serve Society's needs
for weather and water information. Specific strategies include:
- Improve the reliability, lead-time, and effectiveness of weather and
water information and services that predict changes in environmental
conditions.
- Integrate an information enterprise that incorporates all stages
from research to delivery, seeks better coordination of employee skills
and training, and engages customers.
- Develop and infuse research results and new technologies more
efficiently to improve products and services, streamline dissemination,
and communicate vital information more effectively.
- Work with private industry, universities, and national and
international agencies to create and leverage partnerships that foster
more effective information services.
- Build a broad-based and coordinated education and outreach program
by engaging individuals in continuous learning toward a greater
understanding of the impacts of weather and water on their lives.
- Employ scientific and emerging technological capabilities to advance
decision support services and educate stakeholders.
The following SOCD-relevant research priorities have been identified to
support this effort.
- Improve the accuracy and capabilities of NOAA's monitoring and
observing systems, both in situand remotely sensed
- Improve weather forecasts and warning accuracy and amount of lead
time
- Advance data assimilation techniques; satellite, radar, ocean,
hydrologic, and land surface assimilation
- Improve NOAA's understanding and forecast capability in coasts,
estuaries, and oceans
- Development of a transition zone modeling system to integrate river,
estuarine, and coastal models
- Develop and evaluate advanced ocean forecasting system for currents
and ocean status
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Weather and Water Program Links
- Coasts, Estuaries, and Oceans (CEO): SOCD's Ocean Remote
Sensing program is a major component of CEO; and SOCD provides the
NESDIS leadership to this matrixed program. SOCD directly contributes
research, development, and the transition of research to operations to
the focus of this program on near-real-time operational observations and
products. CEO provides a leading role in NOAA IOOS efforts, of which,
SOCD is a principal contributor to NOAA's satellite component of the
IOOS National Backbone. The NOAA CoastWatch program, an identified NOAA
contribution to IOOS, as a part of SOCD's Ocean Remote Sensing program,
consequently, is a component of CEO.
- Environmental Modeling: Specific links to be established.
Ongoing coordination of near-real-time operational satellite ocean data
assimilation with the JCSDA needs to be expanded to support ecosystem
and climatological modeling efforts. SOCD science team links with the
NESDIS/STAR Cooperative Research Program Division's (CORP) research
efforts at the Cooperative Institute for Climate Studies (CICS) on the
use of satellite ocean remote sensing, sea-surface temperature in
particular, for ecosystem modeling in the Chesapeake Bay have led to a
public web site with developmental analyses of the presence of specific
noxious species, sea nettles in particular. Efforts are being pursued to
extend this methodology to harmful algal blooms.
- Weather and Water Science, Technology, and Infusion
Program: SOCD's principle link with this program is through the
NPOESS Data Exploitation (NDE) effort. The NDE focus provides additional
products for NOAA that the NPOESS contractor is not producing with
NPOESS data. SOCD's role, as a fundamental component of NDE, is in
developing algorithms to support the additional products, leading ocean
data calibration and validation activities, and supporting the
development and distribution of products. SOCD leads NDE's NOAA-unique
ocean products effort, co-leads the calibration/validation effort, and
contributes to the product distribution effort. SOCD also provides NDE
oversight and leadership through membership on the NDE Management Board.
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