- NOAA’s Science & Technology Enterprise
- NOAA’s vision centers on a holistic understanding of the interdependencies between human health and prosperity, and the intricacies of the Earth system. Achieving this level of understanding presents an overarching, long-term scientific and technical challenge to NOAA: to develop and apply holistic, integrated Earth system approaches to understand the processes that connect changes in the atmosphere, ocean, space, land surface, and cryosphere with ecosystems, organisms, and humans over different scales. Over the long-term, drawing upon its world-class research, observation, and modeling capabilities, NOAA is uniquely positioned to:
• Acquire and incorporate knowledge of human behavior to enhance understanding of the interaction between human activities and the Earth system.
• Understand and quantify the interactions between atmospheric composition and climate variations and change.
• Understand and characterize the role of the oceans in climate change, and variability and the effects of climate change on the ocean and coasts.
• Assess and understand the roles of ecosystem processes and biodiversity in sustaining ecosystem services.
• Improve understanding and predictions of the water cycle from global to local scales.
• Develop and evaluate approaches to substantially reduce environmental degradation.
• Sustain and enhance atmosphere-ocean-land-biology and human observing systems.
• Characterize the uncertainties associated with scientific information.
• Communicate scientific information and its associated uncertainties accurately and effectively to policy makers, the media, and the public at large.
To address this long-term challenge and meet the near-term science requirements within and across its strategic goals, NOAA must simultaneously pursue three objectives within its core scientific and technical enterprise: a holistic understanding of the Earth system, accurate and reliable data from sustained and integrated Earth observing systems, and an integrated environmental modeling framework.
- Objective: A holistic understanding of the Earth system through research
- NOAA’s long-term goals and objectives hinge on an enhanced understanding of the complex interrelationships that exist across NOAA’s climate, weather, ocean, and coastal domains. NOAA needs to advance innovative research that pushes the boundaries of scientific understanding and integrates information across scientific disciplines. This innovative research will enable improved understanding of the Earth system from global to local scales, and improve the ability to forecast weather, climate, water resources, and ecosystem health.
To achieve this objective, NOAA will expand and maintain reliable and accessible information and develop advanced technologies to better observe, understand, model, and communicate knowledge of complex systems, and promote existing and future scientific excellence and collaborations in its science workforce. Across all domains, NOAA will need to characterize the uncertainties inherent in the process of scientific discovery, and effectively communicate scientific information and its associated uncertainties to policy makers, the media, and the public.
Over the next five years, evidence of progress toward this objective will include:
• Increased understanding of climate, weather, oceans, ecosystems, human activities, and their interrelationships;
• Improved understanding of the processes contributing to, and impacts of ocean acidification, changes in ocean temperature and freshwater input, and sea level change;
• Improved understanding of ecosystems (e.g., Gulf of Mexico, Arctic, Great Lakes) and the effects of human activities on the ecosystem, and coastal communities and economies;
• Increased investigation and assessment of unexplored and ecologically, economically and culturally important coastal and oceanic regions;
• Research on ecosystem impacts, processes, dynamics and biodiversity transitioned to enable ecosystem approaches to management and coastal community resilience;
• Social, behavioral, and economic research advanced and transitioned into NOAA’s delivery of climate, weather, ocean, and coastal services;
• Meteorological, atmospheric, climatic, and oceanic research advanced and transitioned to NOAA’s production of enhanced weather, climate, and marine forecasts and services, including those supporting renewable energy;
• More effective development and transition of technologies to operational services and stewardship applications; and
• An integrated research agenda supported by portfolio management that promotes transformative research and innovation.
- Objective: Accurate and reliable data from sustained and integrated earth observing systems
- NOAA is an environmental information generating organization. Therefore, NOAA’s observing system portfolio needs to balance growing demands with continuity concerns and implementation of emerging technologies. Over the long-term, NOAA must sustain and enhance its many observing systems — and their long-term data sets — and develop and transition new observing technologies into operations, while working in close collaboration with its governmental, international, regional, and academic partners.
To achieve this objective, NOAA will research, develop, deploy, and operate systems to collect remote and in situ observations, and manage and share data through partnerships and standards. Fundamental to ensuring effective use of the wealth of environmental information collected by observing systems is an increased focus on information management standards and strategies to improve access, interoperability, and usability of NOAA’s environmental information resources.
Over the next five years, evidence of progress toward this objective will include:
• Increased percentage of environmental measurement needs (legacy and new) satisfied within objectives of the four strategic goals;
• Reduced gaps in sustained environmental measurements;
• Improved data interoperability and usability through application and use of common data management standards;
• Enhanced access and use of environmental data through data storage and access solutions, integration of systems, and long-term stewardship; and
• Reduced life cycle cost of observations through increased partnerships, integration of systems leveraging available data, and reducing unnecessarily duplicative capabilities.
- Objective: An Integrated environmental modeling system
- To fulfill current and emerging science and service requirements for its strategic goals, NOAA must ultimately evolve toward an interconnected and comprehensive Earth system modeling enterprise that links atmospheric, oceanic, terrestrial, cryospheric, ecological, and climatic models.
To achieve this objective, NOAA will develop a comprehensive modeling backbone; integrate observations, models, products, and services; and foster a culture of collaboration within and external to NOAA. To this end, NOAA will develop collaborative strategies involving internal and external partnerships and community-wide standards to ensure interoperability. integrate research monitoring and prediction plans for its strategic goals, including regional-scale climate models and integrated ecosystem modeling, enhance and expand existing capabilities for data integration from observing systems for model validation and verification, and institute a well-functioning governance structure for NOAA’s environmental modeling enterprise.
Over the next five years, evidence of progress toward this objective will include:
• Effective and efficient collaboration and coordination within NOAA and with partners to enhance the scope and predictive accuracy of integrated Earth system models for global, national, and regional applications, and for specific phenomena;
• Increased capacity, capability, and use of models to support ecological forecast services;
• Improved predictive performance of global, regional, and local climate, weather, ocean, and ecosystem models for variable temporal scales;
• Increased development and implementation of integrated modeling science plans incorporating prioritization, and partnerships to accelerate the advancements of modeling capabilities, capacities, and enterprise solutions;
• Increased volume and diversity of data and information effectively integrated into models, particularly at different global, national, regional, and local scales;
• Increased evaluation and optimization of NOAA’s investments in observation and monitoring through the use of models;
• Acceleration of model coverage, transitioning, and interoperability; and
• Increased development and use of enterprise and community models.
- NOAA Partnerships for Climate Adaptation and Mitigation
- NOAA will take advantage of its broad national and international network of partners in other agencies, in Cooperative Institutes and Sea Grant colleges, in external academic institutions and professional societies, and in the private sector to better understand the complex connections between the physical Earth system and its biological components — including human beings. NOAA’s partnerships with NASA and DOD will continue to maintain the continuity of critical remotely sensed satellite data and products to support weather and climate applications. NOAA’s international partners include the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites; and the space agencies of Canada, China, Europe, France, India, and Taiwan. NOAA’s international partners will continue to share data, ground processing, and reception sites, and collaborate on the operation of satellite assets. NOAA will communicate scientific information that is accurate and reliable through adherence to the highest levels of scientific integrity, transparency, and accountability.
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