[House Hearing, 118 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                     REAUTHORIZING THE WEATHER ACT:
                  DATA AND INNOVATION FOR PREDICTIONS

=======================================================================
                                                                         

                                HEARING

                               BEFORE THE

                      SUBCOMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT

                                 OF THE

                      COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE,
                             AND TECHNOLOGY

                                 OF THE

                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                    ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS

                             FIRST SESSION
                               __________

                             MARCH 28, 2023
                               __________

                            Serial No. 118-6
                               __________

 Printed for the use of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology

                                                                          
                  [GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]                                     
                                     
                                                                          

       Available via the World Wide Web: http://science.house.gov
                               __________

                    U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
                    
51-881PDF                  WASHINGTON : 2024          
       

              COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE, AND TECHNOLOGY

                  HON. FRANK LUCAS, Oklahoma, Chairman
BILL POSEY, Florida                  ZOE LOFGREN, California, Ranking 
RANDY WEBER, Texas                       Member
BRIAN BABIN, Texas                   SUZANNE BONAMICI, Oregon
JIM BAIRD, Indiana                   HALEY STEVENS, Michigan
DANIEL WEBSTER, Florida              JAMAAL BOWMAN, New York
MIKE GARCIA, California              DEBORAH ROSS, North Carolina
STEPHANIE BICE, Oklahoma             ERIC SORENSEN, Illinois
JAY OBERNOLTE, California            ANDREA SALINAS, Oregon
CHUCK FLEISCHMANN, Tennessee         VALERIE FOUSHEE, North Carolina
DARRELL ISSA, California             KEVIN MULLIN, California
RICK CRAWFORD, Arkansas              JEFF JACKSON, North Carolina
CLAUDIA TENNEY, New York             EMILIA SYKES, Ohio
RYAN ZINKE, Montana                  MAXWELL FROST, Florida
SCOTT FRANKLIN, Florida              YADIRA CARAVEO, Colorado
DALE STRONG, Alabama                 SUMMER LEE, Pennsylvania
MAX MILLER, Ohio                     JENNIFER McCLELLAN, Virginia
RICH McCORMICK, Georgia              TED LIEU, California
MIKE COLLINS, Georgia                SEAN CASTEN, Illinois
BRANDON WILLIAMS, New York           PAUL TONKO, New York
TOM KEAN, New Jersey
VACANCY
                                 ------                                

                      Subcommittee on Environment

                    HON. MAX MILLER, Ohio, Chairman
BILL POSEY, Florida                  DEBORAH ROSS, North Carolina, 
RICK CRAWFORD, Arkansas                  Ranking Member
RYAN ZINKE, Montana                  SUZANNE BONAMICI, Oregon
MIKE COLLINS, Georgia                MAXWELL FROST, Florida

                         C  O  N  T  E  N  T  S

                             MARCH 28, 2023

                                                                   Page

Hearing Charter..................................................     2

                           Opening Statements

Statement by Representative Max Miller, Chairman, Subcommittee on 
  Environment, Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, U.S. 
  House of Representatives.......................................     6
    Written Statement............................................     7

Statement by Representative Deborah Ross, Ranking Member, 
  Subcommittee on Environment, Committee on Science, Space, and 
  Technology, U.S. House of Representatives......................     8
    Written Statement............................................     9

Statement by Representative Zoe Lofgren, Ranking Member, 
  Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, U.S. House of 
  Representatives................................................    10
    Written Statement............................................    11

Written statement by Representative Frank Lucas, Chairman, 
  Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, U.S. House of 
  Representatives................................................    12

                               Witnesses:

Mr. Richard Jenkins, Founder & CEO, Saildrone Inc.
    Oral Statement...............................................    13
    Written Statement............................................    15

Ms. Meredith Bell, Atmospheric Program Manager, FLYHT Inc.
    Oral Statement...............................................    25
    Written Statement............................................    27

Dr. Antonio J. Busalacchi, Jr., President, University Corporation 
  for Atmospheric Research
    Oral Statement...............................................    33
    Written Statement............................................    35

Mr. Michael Eilts, General Manager for Weather and Earth 
  Intelligence, Spire Global
    Written Statement............................................    56

Discussion.......................................................    63

             Appendix I: Answers to Post-Hearing Questions

Mr. Michael Eilts, General Manager for Weather and Earth 
  Intelligence, Spire Global.....................................    78

            Appendix II: Additional Material for the Record

Letter submitted by Representative Max Miller, Chairman, 
  Subcommittee on Environment, Committee on Science, Space, and 
  Technology, U.S. House of Representatives

    The Commercial Weather Alliance..............................    86

 
                     REAUTHORIZING THE WEATHER ACT:
                  DATA AND INNOVATION FOR PREDICTIONS

                              ----------                              


                        TUESDAY, MARCH 28, 2023

                  House of Representatives,
                       Subcommittee on Environment,
               Committee on Science, Space, and Technology,
                                                   Washington, D.C.

    The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:03 a.m., in 
room 2318, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Max Miller 
[Chairman of the Subcommittee] presiding.

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

    Chairman Miller. Without objection, the Chair is authorized 
to declare recesses of the Committee at any time.
    Welcome to today's hearing entitled ``Reauthorizing the 
Weather Act: Data and Innovation for Predictions.'' I recognize 
myself for 5 minutes for an opening statement.
    I want to welcome everyone to our first Environment 
Subcommittee hearing today of the 118th Congress. I am honored 
Chairman Lucas has placed his trust in me to lead this 
Subcommittee, and I'm excited to work with my colleague on the 
other side of the aisle, Ranking Member Ross, to continue the 
productive bipartisan history this Committee has enjoyed.
    Today's hearing will be the first in a series that touches 
on a very important topic, U.S. weather policy. As the 
Committee with the sole jurisdiction over the National Weather 
Service and the scientific activities at the National Oceanic 
and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, we have the privilege 
of shaping the future of weather forecasts and modeling. This 
is a responsibility I do not take lightly. The stated mission 
of the National Weather Service is to provide services that 
protect life and property, as well as to enhance the national 
economy. And I can promise you, any legislation we pursue will 
only help them succeed in this mission.
    In '22 alone, there were 18 separate billion-dollar weather 
events that took the lives of 474 people and cost a total of 
$165 billion in damaged infrastructure, homes, businesses and 
more. In fact, a typical year in the United States sees 26,000 
thunderstorms, 5,000 floods, and 1,300 tornadoes. That's more 
extreme weather events than any other country.
    So if it wasn't obvious already, weather forecasts provide 
much more valuable information than indicating if you need an 
umbrella or not. Weather information directly saves lives and 
protects entire communities like the ones I represent in 
northern Ohio from economic devastation. The good news is that 
many parties involved in this work understand the value of 
forecasting and come together to improve the timely delivery 
and overall accuracy of weather products and services. 
Collectively known as the United States Weather Enterprise, 
each sector--public, private, and academic--plays a critical 
role in understanding, observing, forecasting, and warning 
communities of extreme weather. There is no single sector or 
provider who can effectively develop and deploy all the tools 
needed to predict and communicate weather patterns or extreme 
events.
    Today's hearing will focus primarily on one particular 
piece of the puzzle, the private sector and what they bring to 
the table for NOAA and the Weather Service. The data and 
innovation they offer can make immediate and impactful 
improvements to the status quo. For example, we'll hear about 
how atmospheric temperature data collected from satellites is 
processed and integrated into operational models. We'll also 
hear about high altitude water vapor data collected from 
sensors on commercial planes. And we'll even hear about the 
development of uncrewed vehicles that can go right into the eye 
of an active hurricane to collect the data there.
    It's all very exciting stuff and truly on the cutting edge 
of scientific innovation. But completing the transition from 
initial demonstration of these technologies to long-term 
commercial operation requires policy that encourages Federal 
partnerships. That is what I hope to take away from today's 
hearing, how we in Congress can empower the Weather Enterprise 
to innovate and excel through public-private partnerships. 
Doing so will enable our economic growth and protect the 
essential pillars of our economy like agriculture that are 
dependent on knowing what the weather will be tomorrow, as well 
as the next season.
    I want to thank all of our witnesses for being here today. 
I look forward to each of your testimonies.
    [The prepared statement of Chairman Miller follows:]

    I want to welcome everyone to our first Environment 
Subcommittee hearing of the 118th Congress. I am honored 
Chairman Lucas has placed his trust in me to lead the 
subcommittee and I'm excited to work with my colleague on the 
other side of the aisle, Ranking Member Ross, to continue the 
productive, bipartisan history this subcommittee has enjoyed.
    Today's hearing will be the first in a series that touches 
on a very important topic: U.S. weather policy. As the 
Committee with sole jurisdiction over the National Weather 
Service and the scientific activities at the National Oceanic 
and Atmospheric Administration--or NOAA--we have the privilege 
of shaping the future of weather forecasts and modeling.
    This is a responsibility I do not take lightly. The stated 
mission of the National Weather Service is to provide services 
that protect life and property, as well as enhance the national 
economy. And I can promise you, any legislation we pursue will 
only help them succeed in this mission.
    In 2022 alone, there were 18 separate billion-dollar 
weather events that took the lives of 474 people and cost a 
total of $165 billion in damage to infrastructure, homes, 
businesses, and more. In fact, a typical year in the U.S. sees 
26,000 thunderstorms, 5,000 floods, and 1,300 tornadoes. That's 
more extreme weather events than any other country.
    So if it wasn't obvious already, weather forecasts provide 
much more valuable information than indicating if you need an 
umbrella or not. Weather information directly saves lives and 
protects entire communities, like the ones I represent in 
Northern Ohio, from economic devastation.
    The good news is that the many parties involved in this 
work understand the value of forecasting and come together to 
improve the timely delivery and overall accuracy of weather 
products and services.
    Collectively known as the U.S. Weather Enterprise, each 
sector--public, private, and academic--plays a critical role in 
understanding, observing, forecasting, and warning communities 
of extreme weather. There is no single sector or provider who 
can effectively develop and deploy all the tools needed to 
predict and communicate weather patterns or extreme events.
    Today's hearing will focus primarily on one particular 
piece of the puzzle: the private sector and what they bring to 
the table for NOAA and the Weather Service. The data and 
innovation they offer can make immediate and impactful 
improvements to the status quo.
    For example, we'll hear about how atmospheric temperature 
data collected from satellites is processed and integrated into 
operational models. We'll also hear about high altitude water 
vapor data collected from sensors on commercial planes. And 
we'll even hear about the development of uncrewed vehicles that 
can go right into the eye of an active hurricane to collect 
data there.
    It's all very exciting stuff and truly on the cutting-edge 
of scientific innovation. But completing the transition from 
initial demonstration of these technologies to long term 
commercial operation requires policy that encourages federal 
partnerships. That is what I hope to take away from today's 
hearing: how we in Congress can empower the weather enterprise 
to innovate and excel through public-private partnerships.
    Doing so will enable our economic growth and protect the 
essential pillars of our economy, like agriculture, that are 
dependent on knowing what the weather will be tomorrow, as well 
as next season.
    I want to thank all of our witnesses for being here. I look 
forward to each of your testimonies.

    Chairman Miller. Before yielding to Ranking Member Ross, 
I'd like to ask unanimous consent to enter into the record 
three items: Chairman Lucas's opening statement, Mr. Eilts' 
prepared testimony, and a letter from the Commercial Weather 
Alliance highlighting important industry-related topics for the 
reauthorization of the Weather Act.
    Hearing no objections, so ordered.
    I now recognize the Ranking Member, the gentlewoman from 
North Carolina, for an opening statement.
    Ms. Ross. Well, thank you so much, Chairman Miller, for 
holding this important hearing on improving weather and climate 
predictions. And thank you to our panel of witnesses for 
joining us this morning to share your expertise.
    First, I must say that my heart goes out to the families 
who lost their loved ones due to severe weather storms that 
occurred across the South over the weekend. Rolling Fork, 
Mississippi, experienced one of the deadliest tornado events 
ever, and communities were devastated across several States. 
Weather forecasts help inform decisions made by Americans every 
day and play an especially critical role in protecting lives 
and property during extreme weather events.
    These phenomenon are becoming increasingly common, and 
their severity has magnified due to climate change. Last year, 
the U.S. experienced 18 individual weather and climate 
disasters, costing at least $1 billion each. This makes 2022 
tied for the third-highest number of billion-dollar disasters 
in a calendar year.
    Ensuring that the National Weather Service has the data and 
tools to provide timely and accurate forecasts is integral to 
the safety and well-being of Americans. A key component in 
advancing weather forecasting and modeling is collaboration 
among the academic, private, and governmental sectors of the 
Weather Enterprise. Longstanding partnerships between academia 
and government had been successful in furthering forecasting. 
And we will hear from Dr. Busalacchi--is that correct? 
Busalacchi about fundamental research carried out by academia 
that is vital to the scientific advancement and innovation in 
weather science.
    North Carolina's Second Congressional District, which I 
represent, is home to one of the strongest collaborative 
research partnerships between the National Weather Service 
office and an academic institution. The National Weather 
Service in Raleigh and North Carolina State University have 
worked together for decades to improve the understanding of 
Southeast weather phenomena and operational forecasting 
techniques. Good data form the backbone of weather forecasting 
and modeling.
    As we will hear from several of our panelists today, the 
private sector is also playing an increasingly important role 
in contributing to the Weather Enterprise, in particular by 
providing additional data. While there are already a wide 
variety of instruments collecting data around the clock to 
inform weather modeling, significant gaps in coverage still 
exist. Expanding the source of data use for the National 
Weather Service's watches, warnings, and advisories is crucial, 
and some of that data may come from the private sector. Thank 
you very much. Some companies have already entered into 
partnerships with NOAA to provide weather data, and I look 
forward to hearing the panelists speak about what is and isn't 
working well in those partnerships and recommendations for 
strengthening public-private partnerships to advance the 
Nation's forecasting capabilities.
    Because no great challenge has a simple answer, just adding 
more data to models is not enough. The accuracy of weather 
forecasts is directly influenced by the quality, quantity, and 
variety of data to inform weather models. And even with a lot 
of high-quality data available, data assimilation continues to 
be its own research challenge. Significant research and 
development of data assimilation is vital for current and 
future observations. Progress in weather climate modeling will 
be dependent on our continued strong support for the National 
Weather Service and government-academic-private sector 
partnerships.
    Under the threat of increasingly severe weather events and 
climate change, improving weather forecasting is paramount to 
protecting the American people. I look forward to hearing from 
our witnesses. And I also want you to know that I will support 
all improvements in weather forecasting and modeling through 
innovations in data collection and data assimilation.
    Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I yield back.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Ross follows:]

    Thank you, Chairman Miller, for holding this important 
hearing on improving weather and climate predictions, and thank 
you to our panel of witnesses for joining us this morning to 
share your expertise.
    First, my heart goes out to the families who lost their 
loved ones due to the severe weather storms that occurred 
across the south over the weekend. Rolling Fork, Mississippi 
experienced one of the deadliest tornado events ever and 
communities were devastated across several states.
    Weather forecasts help inform decisions made by Americans 
every day and play an especially critical role in protecting 
lives and property during extreme weather events. These 
phenomena are becoming increasingly common, and their severity 
is magnifying due to climate change. Last year, the U.S. 
experienced 18 individual weather and climate disasters costing 
at least one billion dollars each. This makes 2022 tied for the 
third-highest number of billion-dollar disasters in a calendar 
year. Ensuring the National Weather Service has the data and 
tools to provide timely and accurate forecasts is integral to 
the safety and well-being of Americans.
    A key component in advancing weather forecasting and 
modeling is collaboration among the academic, private, and 
government sectors of the weather enterprise. Longstanding 
partnerships between academia and government have been 
successful in furthering forecasting capabilities, as we will 
hear from Dr. Bussalachi. Fundamental research carried out by 
academia is vital to scientific advancement and innovation in 
weather science. North Carolina's 2nd District, which I 
represent, is home to one of the strongest collaborative 
research partnerships between a National Weather Service office 
and an academic institution. The National Weather Service in 
Raleigh and North Carolina State University have worked 
together for decades to improve the understanding of southeast 
weather phenomena and operational forecasting techniques.
    Good data form the backbone of weather forecasting and 
modeling. As we will hear from several of our panelists today, 
the private sector is also playing an increasingly important 
role in contributing to our weather enterprise, in particular 
by providing additional data. While there are already a wide 
variety of instruments collecting data around the clock to 
inform weather modeling, significant gaps in coverage still 
exist. Expanding the sources of data for use in the National 
Weather Service's watches, warnings, and advisories is crucial, 
and some of that data may come from the private sector. Some 
companies have already entered into partnerships with NOAA to 
provide weather data. I look forward to hearing the panelists 
speak about what is and isn't working well in those 
partnerships, and recommendations for strengthening public-
private partnerships to advance the nation's forecasting 
capabilities.
    Because no great challenge has a simple answer, just adding 
more data to models is not enough. The accuracy of weather 
forecasts is directly influenced by the quality, quantity, and 
variety of data used to inform weather models. Even with a lot 
of high-quality data available, data assimilation continues to 
be its own research challenge. Significant research and 
development of data assimilation is vital for current and 
future observations. Progress in weather and climate modeling 
will be dependent on our continued strong support for the 
National Weather Service and government-academic-private sector 
partnerships.
    Under the threat of increasingly severe weather events and 
climate change, improving weather forecasting is paramount to 
protecting the American people. I look forward to hearing from 
our witnesses today on how Congress can support the improvement 
of weather forecasting and modeling through innovations in data 
collection and data assimilation.
    I yield back.

    Chairman Miller. I'd like to recognize Ranking Member 
Lofgren of the Full Committee for an opening statement.
    Ms. Lofgren. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thanks to you 
for--and Ranking Member Ross for holding this hearing, as well 
as thanks to the witnesses.
    You know, California has had 12 atmospheric rivers since 
late December. Damage to homes, communities, infrastructure is 
widespread across California, and flooding has been just 
devastating in my district. Last week, we had another type of 
powerful storm, dubbed a bomb cyclone. Dozens of people died 
and--as a result of these unusually intense and frequent 
storms. And I got an alert on my phone just a short while ago 
that another bomb cyclone is heading to my district today.
    These atmospheric rivers are not new. In fact, they have a 
useful role in the West by bringing water to replenish 
reservoirs and snowpack in the winter months, but too much in a 
short amount of time has really had a devastating effect. 
Climate change means that these atmospheric rivers coming over 
and over again may be the new normal and with the warming 
climate.
    You know, these atmospheric rivers have characteristics 
that make them particularly difficult to forecast. Satellites 
are a good tool for looking at weather forming over the oceans, 
but satellites generally can't see through the clouds and heavy 
precipitation. Satellites are also more limited in their 
ability to penetrate the lowest layers of the Earth's 
atmosphere, which is where the atmospheric rivers hang out. 
However, the Interagency Atmospheric River Reconnaissance, 
which includes NOAA's aircraft, has the capability to gather 
data from within the storm, and it's been beneficial in filling 
that data gap. This data has led to significant improvements in 
atmospheric river forecasting, but we have aging aircrafts, and 
NOAA is unable to cover the full atmospheric rivers season. We 
need to increase NOAA's aircraft fleet to fly these storms 
during the winter months. This will be critical to safety in 
California.
    For NOAA to carry out its mission to protect life and 
property, it must be well-funded to maintain a backbone of 
weather and climate data from a range of data collection tools, 
including airplanes, weather balloons, ocean buoys, and land-
based observations. The commercial data sector can help 
contribute to NOAA's data collection efforts in a very 
complementary way. And I look forward to hearing from the 
witnesses on your ideas specifically how commercial data can 
augment our atmospheric river forecasting capabilities.
    In addition, academia has been--has to be supported in 
their efforts to advance fundamental understanding of the 
science and innovation in weather modeling. I look forward to 
discussion of the role of each of these partners in the Weather 
Enterprise and what mechanisms Congress can support to increase 
and expand these partnerships.
    I understand this is a first in a series of hearings on the 
Weather Act reauthorization. There's a lot more that could be 
done across the board to improve weather forecasting. And as we 
enter the appropriations season here in Congress, I'll note 
that the importance of providing the National Weather Service 
with the resources it needs to improve the availability of 
high-quality data streams for weather forecasting can't be 
understated. I know that bipartisan support for the--for NOAA 
and for weather forecasting exists, and I look forward to 
working with the Full Committee's Chairman, as well as all the 
Members of this Committee, to make sure that we get the 
information we need to prepare for these devastating events.
    So with that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Lofgren follows:]

    Good morning. Thank you to Chairman Miller and Ranking 
Member Ross for holding this hearing, and thank you to the 
witnesses for your testimony.
    California has experienced 12 atmospheric rivers since late 
December. Damage to homes, communities, and infrastructure is 
widespread across California. Flooding in my district has been 
devastating. Last week we experienced another type of powerful 
storm known as a bomb cyclone. Dozens of people have died as a 
result of these unusually intense and frequent storms.
    Atmospheric rivers are not a new phenomenon. In fact, they 
serve a critical role in the western United States in bringing 
water to replenish reservoirs and snowpack in the winter 
months. But too much rain in a short amount of time can have 
devastating effects on communities. Climate change means that 
this past winter may presage a new normal for flooding-related 
catastrophic damage in California. Researchers have already 
established that the warmer climate is causing more intense 
rainfall--and specifically wetter, larger, and more frequent 
atmospheric rivers.
    Atmospheric rivers have characteristics that make them 
particularly difficult to forecast. Satellites are a valuable 
tool for looking at weather forming over the oceans, but 
satellites generally can't see through clouds and heavy 
precipitation--both characteristic features of atmospheric 
rivers. Satellites are also more limited in their ability to 
penetrate the lowest layers of the Earth's atmosphere, which is 
where atmospheric rivers hang. However, the Interagency 
Atmospheric River Reconnaissance, which includes NOAA's 
aircraft, has the capability to gather data from within the 
storm and has proven beneficial in filling that data gap. This 
data has led to significant improvements in atmospheric river 
forecasting. But due to aging aircraft, NOAA is unable to cover 
the full atmospheric river season. Increasing NOAA's aircraft 
fleet to fly these storms during the winter months is critical 
to the safety of Californians and others affected by these 
powerful storms.
    For NOAA to carry out its mission to protect life and 
property, it must be well funded to maintain a backbone of 
weather and climate data from a range of data collection tools, 
including airplanes, weather balloons, ocean buoys, and land-
based observatories. The commercial data sector can help 
contribute to NOAA's data collection efforts in a complementary 
manner, and I look forward to hearing from the witnesses on 
your ideas of specifically how commercial data can augment our 
atmospheric river forecasting capabilities. In addition, 
academia has to be supported in their efforts to advance 
fundamental understanding of the science and innovations in 
weather modeling. I look forward to a discussion of the role of 
each of these partners in the weather enterprise, and what 
mechanisms Congress can support to increase and expand these 
partnerships.
    I understand this is the first in a series of hearings on 
the Weather Act Reauthorization. There is a lot more that can 
be done across-the-board to improve weather forecasting. As we 
enter the appropriations season here in Congress, I'll just 
note that the importance of providing the National Weather 
Service with the resources it needs to improve the availability 
of high-quality data streams for weather forecasting cannot be 
understated.
    Thank you to our committee members and witnesses for 
joining us today to engage in this important and timely 
discussion.
    I yield back.

    Chairman Miller. Thank you, Ranking Member Lofgren.

    [The prepared statement of Chairman Lucas follows:]

    I want to thank the gentleman from Ohio, Mr. Miller, for 
holding today's hearing, as well as welcome him to the role of 
Subcommittee Chairman. Being a farmer, working with livestock, 
and living in tornado alley, the Science Committee's work on 
weather and climate is very important to me. I'm confident you 
and Ranking Member Ross will do great things in this area this 
Congress.
    When I introduced the Weather Act in 2017, it was 
desperately needed because there hadn't been an update to 
weather policy in over two decades. But what I didn't know was 
the almost instant impact it would have in putting the United 
States back at the table when it comes to global leadership in 
forecasting.
    But while the Weather Act had an immediate positive impact, 
we still have work to do if we want to once again be the most 
accurate and trusted source of forecasting in the world.
    That's why as Chairman of the Committee, I am prioritizing 
the reauthorization of the Weather Act this Congress. Some of 
the programs will expire at the end of FY 23, while other 
programs will continue without any updates.
    As we write new legislation, we plan to examine both 
categories-- ensuring all of NOAA's work is modern, flexible, 
and at the forefront of accurate and timely weather modeling 
and forecasting.
    The impacts of weather are far too important to not strive 
for the very best. Protecting life and property, helping first 
responders anticipate extreme weather events, and ensuring that 
farmers and ranchers know when to plant crops are only a few of 
the reasons having the most accurate weather forecasts is 
invaluable.
    And we can only have accurate weather forecasts if we 
continue to invest in researching weather patterns and 
utilizing the tremendous innovation and data the private sector 
can offer.
    Before the Weather Act was signed into law, I was told 
countless times that commercial weather data wasn't viable--
that no private company could provide the quality and quantity 
of information NOAA needs for their operational forecasts. 
Flash forward to this year, NOAA is going to invest $27 million 
on either purchasing data or demonstrating its use in 
forecasts. That's quite the success story and a testament to 
the innovation of American businesses.
    I'm immensely proud of the progress NOAA and the private 
sector have made to help each other on this topic. As we look 
to reauthorize the Weather Act, I will push to continue this 
growth and expand the options and resources NOAA has to 
incorporate private sources of data into their operational 
weather models and forecasts.
    Today's hearing is important because it allows us to 
pinpoint the types of data and innovations NOAA doesn't need to 
duplicate, but can immediately utilize, to advance their 
mission of protecting lives and property. There are plenty of 
examples out there, and today's witnesses represent just a 
small sample of the community working in this field.
    I thank our witnesses for sharing their expertise with us 
and I look forward to a productive discussion. Thank you and I 
yield back Mr. Chairman.

    Chairman Miller. Now, let me introduce our witnesses. Our 
first witness today is Mr. Richard Jenkins, who's the Founder 
and CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of Saildrone, Inc., a leading 
company that has developed autonomous surface vehicles for 
collecting data that provides intelligence for climate, 
mapping, and maritime security applications.
    Our second witness is Ms. Meredith Bell, who is the 
Atmospheric Program Manager for FLYHT Aerospace Solutions, an 
innovative company that partners with the airline industry to 
use software, weather sensors, and services to provide 
actionable intelligence on weather.
    Our third witness is Dr. Antonio ``Tony'' Busalacchi, who's 
the President of the University Corporation for Atmospheric 
Research, or fondly known as UCAR. UCAR is a nonprofit 
consortium of more than 120 North American colleges and 
universities focused on research and training in Earth system 
science.
    Unfortunately, one of our witnesses, Mr. Mike Eilts, could 
not be here today after testing positive for COVID before 
traveling. We respect his decision to stay at home and wish him 
the best in his recovery. Mr. Eilts's testimony will still be 
submitted for the record, and Members are encouraged to submit 
any questions for him to the hearing record as well.
    Welcome to all the witnesses, and thank you for being here 
today.
    I now recognize Mr. Richard Jenkins for 5 minutes to 
present his testimony.

               TESTIMONY OF MR. RICHARD JENKINS,

                 FOUNDER & CEO, SAILDRONE INC.

    Mr. Jenkins. Thank you, Chairman, Ranking Member Ross, and 
the Members of the Environment Subcommittee for providing me an 
opportunity to testify today. My name is Richard Jenkins. I'm 
the Founder and CEO of Saildrone, a U.S. company based in 
Alameda, California. Saildrone manufactures, owns, and operates 
a fleet of uncrewed oceangoing surface vehicles that are 
purpose-built for ocean monitoring and measurements. For those 
who haven't seen a Saildrone, imagine an uncrewed sailboat 
remotely operated and equipped with a range of science-grade 
pilot sensors to collect oceanographic and meteorological data 
both above and below the surface of the ocean. Primarily via 
renewable wind and solar, Saildrone vehicles are 
environmentally friendly, able to operate 24/7 for an entire 
year at sea without support from a crewed vehicle. Since 2014, 
Saildrone vehicles have spent more than 25,000 days deployed at 
sea and sailed nearly 1 million miles, context for which is 
more than 40 times around the planet.
    Saildrone has a long history of collaboration with 
partnerships with the world's leading scientific, civilian, 
government, and defense organizations to collect some of the 
most important and hard truth data about our Earth's oceans, in 
particular, at a very strong relationship and partnership with 
NOAA, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric 
Administration, which has helped both advanced our capabilities 
and in turn provide valuable services and data back to NOAA.
    Today, as we broadly consider how the private sector can 
contribute to improving weather forecasts, I think it's 
valuable to put into context the importance of the oceans, both 
overall and as a driver for global weather. Oceans cover over 
71 percent of our Earth's surface and represent a key domain 
that impacts nearly every component of the global economy from 
food production to weather patterns, energy production, 
transportation of goods, and many, many more. Put simply, the 
Earth is a maritime planet, and the United States is a 
maritime-dependent nation.
    However, despite the dependence of our global ocean system, 
the Earth's oceans remain largely unobserved, unexplored, and 
unmapped. This is due to the fact that collecting data in the 
ocean is extremely costly, and the ocean is a physically harsh, 
immensely dangerous, and a complex environment in which to 
operate.
    From a weather prediction perspective, the importance of 
the ocean cannot be underestimated. For example, the top 100 
meters of the world's oceans have 40 times the heat capacity of 
the entire atmosphere, and it is now widely understood that the 
energy exchanges that occur in the air-sea interface are a key 
driver of global weather patterns such as storms, hurricanes, 
and the El Nino-Southern Oscillation. As such, any effort 
focused toward improving weather prediction capabilities must 
consider ways to observe the ocean domain in a better and more 
efficient way.
    As I mentioned, Saildrone has been partnering with NOAA as 
a data-as-a-service arrangement effectively using Saildrones--
Saildrone vehicles to both augment and supplement NOAA's 
traditional ocean data platforms. For example, we're currently 
preparing our third consecutive mission of Saildrones to 
monitor hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, 
and the Gulf of Mexico. These missions involve deploying 
Saildrone vehicles into areas where hurricanes are known to 
develop and with the intention of sending the vehicles into the 
eye of the storms.
    In the last 2 years, Saildrone vehicles sailed near or into 
the eyes of two category 4 hurricanes, Hurricane Sam in 2021, 
Hurricane Fiona in 2022. Battling 100-foot waves and winds over 
130 miles an hour, the USV (uncrewed surface vehicle) sent back 
live video in real-time meteorological air traffic observations 
from the eyes of the storms. This was the first--this is the 
world's first uncrewed vehicle and provided new data that has 
enabled us to better understand and predict these very, very 
dangerous storms, data that was previously impossible.
    This is just one of many examples that I present to 
demonstrate how commercial technologies--in this case, data 
from uncrewed surface vehicles--plays an important role in 
helping NOAA meet its oceangoing research operational 
requirements, including improved weather forecasting.
    As this Subcommittee considers reauthorization of the 
Weather Act 2017, I encourage you to consider prioritizing 
ocean data by explicitly identifying it as the type of data 
that NOAA could and should source in the private sector by the 
commercial weather data program.
    I appreciate the opportunity to testify here today to 
express my views on behalf of Saildrone. Thanks for attention. 
I look forward to answering questions.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Jenkins follows:]

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    Chairman Miller. Thank you, Mr. Jenkins.
    I now recognize Ms. Meredith Bell for 5 minutes to present 
her testimony.

                TESTIMONY OF MS. MEREDITH BELL,

            ATMOSPHERIC PROGRAM MANAGER, FLYHT INC.

    Ms. Bell. Chairman Miller, Ranking Member Ross, and Members 
of the Subcommittee, thank you for inviting FLYHT to testify 
today before the Subcommittee on the Environment to discuss the 
innovative products and services provided by the commercial 
sector and how they partner with the National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration, NOAA.
    I'm Meredith Bell, an Atmospheric Scientist and an 
Atmospheric Program Manager at FLYHT. In my role, I work 
closely with NOAA and the World Meteorological Organization, 
the WMO, to ensure the community is receiving and decoding our 
aircraft data properly. We also provide monthly reports to NOAA 
regarding data quantity, location, and quality.
    Prior to working at FLYHT, I worked at both Panasonic 
Weather Solutions and AirDat LLC, both of which provided 
aircraft-based observations to NOAA through our Tropospheric 
Airborne Meteorological Data Reporting system, the TAMDAR 
sensor.
    FLYHT provides the airline industry with innovative data 
solutions to enable our partners to make smart decisions based 
on actionable intelligence to improve operational efficiency 
and sustainability through our extensive hardware, software, 
weather sensors, and services. Specifically for weather, FLYHT 
provides Aircraft Meteorological Data Reports, or AMDAR 
reports, data through our Automated Flight Information System, 
the AFIRS system. This includes temperature, wind speed, and 
direction, as well as two solutions that include relative 
humidity, the TAMDAR sensor, and the FLYHT Water Vapor Sensing 
System, the WVSS-II sensor.
    The TAMDAR sensor provides in situ measurements of 
temperature, wind speed, and direction, relative humidity, 
icing, and turbulence, as well as location and time information 
from approximately 130 aircraft across the globe. FLYHT's 
TAMDAR system delivers in real time a critical and unique high-
resolution data stream to provide improved atmospheric analysis 
and weather observations. Due to aging systems, the number of 
TAMDAR soundings are decreasing, which will have detrimental 
impacts on NOAA's weather models.
    The FLYHT WVSS-II sensor merges the aircraft AMDAR with 
relative humidity data from the sensor to provide a complete 
profile of the atmosphere. The sensor is fully automated with 
high accuracy measurements and reliability for long-term 
performance. It is compact in size and weight, yet highly 
durable and requires low power usage and low maintenance, all 
of which contribute to its low cost of operation. The cost of 
AMDAR with FLYHT WVSS-II is less than 10 percent the cost of a 
traditional radiosonde soundings, example, NOAA's weather 
balloon program over a 10-year period.
    FLYHT provides critical weather data operationally to NOAA 
to improve its numerical weather prediction skill through its 
National Mesonet Program, the NMP. FLYHT first began working 
with NOAA as AirDat and its partners in 2006 and joined the NMP 
program in 2017 through Synoptic Data PBC, or Synoptic, which 
aggregates various sources of observations and datasets to feed 
into the NOAA weather models. Through Synoptic, FLYHT provides 
TAMDAR and AMDAR-over-AFIRS observations from approximately 260 
aircraft across the globe. This provides over 28,000 soundings 
per month to the NOAA program.
    Given our partnerships with NOAA on multiple programs over 
the years, FLYHT is uniquely positioned to comment on the 
working relationship with NOAA. NOAA is a strong advocate for 
increasing observations both domestically and internationally. 
The WMO has also been advocating for the global weather 
community to recognize the importance of this data and 
advocating for other countries to participate in a water vapor 
program like FLYHT WVSS-II and share this information with the 
global weather community.
    Aircraft data with relative humidity remains one of the 
most critical observation types of rapidly updating short-range 
weather models. FLYHT continues to work closely with the WMO 
and NOAA so we can provide the most useful data set possible to 
the weather community. NOAA understands its needs on an 
observational level and strives to provide clear guidance 
externally to private-sector stakeholders, Congress, and the 
public.
    FLYHT's global airline partners gives us unique ability to 
easily approach airlines regarding expanding our network of 
weather sensors over both the U.S. and data-sparse regions 
worldwide. We intend to continue to work with NOAA to expand 
our networks in regions they feel will bring the most value to 
their--both their global and mesoscale weather models.
    One area of partnership with the Federal Government that 
could benefit from greater coordination is the mission of 
aviation turbulence forecasting, specifically, turbulence and 
relative humidity measurements. An enhanced government mission 
and focus on turbulence forecasting could aid NOAA's mission of 
protecting lives and property, especially since turbulence is 
so inherently interwoven with weather phenomenon. In the 
future, greater collaboration between NOAA and the Federal 
Aviation Administration (FAA) and in partnership with the 
expertise of private industry, our turbulence forecast could be 
greatly improved, and in doing so, aviation safety would be 
improved.
    Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member, and the Members of the 
Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify before 
you today. I would be pleased to answer any questions you may 
have.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Bell follows:]

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    Chairman Miller. Thank you, Ms. Bell.
    And I now recognize Dr. Antonio Busalacchi for 5 minutes to 
present his testimony.

    TESTIMONY OF DR. ANTONIO J. BUSALACCHI, JR., PRESIDENT,

        UNIVERSITY CORPORATION FOR ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH

    Dr. Busalacchi. Good morning, Chairman Miller, Ranking 
Member Ross, and Members of the Subcommittee. Thank you for the 
opportunity to speak with you today on the importance of data 
innovation and prediction within the upcoming Weather Act 
reauthorization. As I've testified to this Subcommittee in the 
past, today's Weather Enterprise is a triad that consists of 
the academic and research communities, the public sector, and 
the private sector. It is important to the future success of 
the Weather Enterprise that each leg of the triad continues to 
grow and that any reduction in size of any leg will negatively 
impact its diverse beneficiaries. My testimony this morning is 
informed by my experience with and within each of the legs of 
this three-legged stool.
    For example, during my time at the NASA (National 
Aeronautics and Space Administration) Goddard Space Flight 
Center, I was the Source Selection Official for the sea-viewing 
wide-field-of-view sensor satellite known as SeaWiFS, which was 
one of the very first data buys not only at NASA, but also 
governmentwide. SeaWiFS was a satellite mission that was 
launched by Orbital Sciences Corporation in 1997 to monitor the 
Earth's ocean from space. It provided unprecedented data on 
ocean color, temperature, and marine chlorophyll to the 
university research community. From my--SeaWiFS was retired in 
2010 after exceeding its design lifetime. From my perspective, 
SeaWiFS was a grand success as a data buy and, as a result, I'm 
very bullish on the role that the private sector can play with 
respect to data buys with the attention to what are the best 
practices for such, as outlined in my written testimony.
    Another excellent example of the positive feedback among 
the research community, the Federal Government, and the private 
sector is the COSMIC program, Constellation Observing System 
for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate. COSMIC began in April 
1995 when a prototype instrument designed by the Jet Propulsion 
Laboratory went into orbit aboard the MicroLab-1 satellite on a 
mission conceptualized and planned by our UCAR's GPS/MET team. 
The GPS/MET prototype obtained nearly 10,000 atmospheric 
soundings, fulfilling its role as a proof-of-concept experiment 
and pave the way for the highly successful COSMIC-1 mission 
from 2006 to 2020 and today's COSMIC-2, launched in 2019. The 
COSMIC program has been a notable collaboration among Taiwan's 
National Space Organization, NASA, NOAA, NSF (National Science 
Foundation), and what is now the United States Space Force. GPS 
radio occultation data from COSMIC-1 had direct and marked 
improvement to global analyses of the atmosphere, especially 
above the oceans, polar regions, and other hard sample areas, 
leading to improved prediction of tropical cyclones, global 
weather, and space weather forecasting.
    As a result of the COSMIC-1 program, private weather data 
companies like Spire that would have been here today were able 
to use the trailblazing technology of COSMIC-1 to develop their 
own observational systems for radio occultation. This 
commercialization of radio occultation should be celebrated, 
and it's another fine example of how the research community, 
the government, and the private sector can work together to 
drive innovation and create value together as technology 
development moves forward.
    However, it is also worth emphasizing that America's 
Weather Enterprise already has a significant amount of data at 
its disposal, but U.S. weather forecasting capabilities 
continue to lag behind our European counterparts. This 
discrepancy is not due to a data deficit compared to the 
Europeans. Rather, our European colleagues have made greater 
advances in what is called data assimilation, and their 
forecast models are better able to utilize the data that are 
already available. Therefore, it is critical that policymakers 
make significant investments in data assimilation and the 
modeling and forecasting workforce to enable more accurate, 
predictive forecasts in service to society with the existing 
observing systems we already have.
    Finally, I ask the Subcommittee to consider, much like 
NASA, the initiation of a decadal survey for the entire Weather 
Enterprise that would include a strong emphasis on data 
innovation for prediction, including but not limited to the 
themes in my testimony, including data standards and data 
assimilation. Given the increased prevalence of major weather 
disasters across the Nation a decadal process by the National 
Academies will allow us to prioritize what has to be done and 
do so in recognition of current fiscal realities. The potential 
upside for the Nation in implementing a more intentional 
decadal survey process for the Weather Enterprise encompassing 
midway assessments and a subsequent follow-on survey is 
enormous. If we do it right, we can leverage every leg of the 
triad to spur successful growth of the entire Weather 
Enterprise. If we get it wrong, we risk falling further behind 
with our prediction capabilities at a time when the extreme 
weather impacts to our Nation continue to grow. Thank you.
    [The prepared statement of Dr. Busalacchi follows:]

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    [The prepared statement of Mr. Michael Eilts follows:]

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    Chairman Miller. Thank you, Doctor. And I thank all the 
witnesses for their testimony. The Chair recognizes himself for 
5 minutes.
    Mr. Jenkins, my district in Ohio 7 has a small piece of 
Lake Erie coastline just west of Cleveland, but it also 
contains a significant portion of the Cuyahoga River, which 
some people might be familiar with because of it's catching on 
fire as a result of the pollution in the late 1960's. So 
staying on that theme, we've heard what Saildrone can do and 
offer in terms of ocean data for weather forecasting, but what 
capabilities does Saildrone have for inland waterways, 
including lakes? Is continuous and holistic ecosystem water 
quality monitoring, for example, the entire Cuyahoga River 
drainage basin, something uncrewed vehicles are primed to do?
    Mr. Jenkins. Absolutely. Saildrone vehicles can operate in 
any water body deeper than 6 feet deep. The keels are 6 feet, 
so you need that much water to navigate. Beyond that, we're OK. 
I'd say that where we're not good is in fast-flowing rivers, 
and that's much more the domain of powered vessels, powered 
vehicles. We're a very long endurance platform that deals with 
lakes and open ocean for long endurance missions. That said, we 
operate frequently in the Great Lakes. Last year, we deployed 
Lake Superior, Lake Huron, and Lake Erie, both for fisheries 
management. So we had four vehicles out the two last years, and 
we're going to do another two vehicles this year. So we operate 
regularly. We're hoping to bring up our mapping vehicles there 
soon and actually do mapping of the seabed of the lakes, which 
is almost entirely unmapped.
    Chairman Miller. Yeah, which would be incredible. Thank you 
for that answer.
    The Interagency Council for Advancing Meteorological 
Services, ICAMS, was established by the White House Office of 
Science and Technology Policy under the authority of the 
Weather Act to improve coordination of what--relevant weather 
research and forecasts innovation activities across the Federal 
Government. I worked at the White House and know coordination 
among Federal agencies doesn't always include input from the 
private sector when it should. My question to all of the 
witnesses here today is have you engaged with ICAMS at all 
since it was stood up in 2020? And whether you have not, do you 
have any suggestions of how we can ensure ICAMS is achieving 
its mission of ensuring United States' global leadership in the 
meteorological services enterprise?
    Dr. Busalacchi. So my last contact was when Kelvin 
Droegemeier helped startup ICAMS. Since then, I've not had much 
contact.
    But getting to the point of your question is, you know, the 
United States has invested a tremendous amount of money and 
resources in weather prediction, weather observations across 
the agencies, more so than our European colleagues. And, you 
know, the goal and aspiration of ICAMS is to be much more 
effective and efficient. So the ground has been laid. Now, we 
need to take it to the next level.
    Chairman Miller. Yeah. All right. Well, thank you for that, 
and I'll yield back.
    I now recognize Ranking Member Ross for 5 minutes.
    Ms. Ross. Well, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
    My home State of North Carolina is particularly vulnerable 
to extreme weather events, hurricanes on our coasts, but also 
through the area that I represent, the Research Triangle area, 
and a lot of flooding both on the east and the west. And that's 
why accurate and prompt weather forecasting is critical to 
protecting lives, property, and infrastructure.
    As I noted in my opening statement, academic and government 
research partnerships like the one between the National Weather 
Service Raleigh office and North Carolina State University are 
critical to the advancement of science and innovation for 
weather forecasting, with a goal of improving weather forecasts 
capabilities. The Weather Act directed NOAA's Office of the 
Ocean--Oceanic and Atmospheric Research to further collaborate 
and support the non- Federal weather research community and 
academic partners, private partners, and public partners to 
make funds available through competitive grants, contracts, and 
cooperative agreements.
    Dr. Busalacchi, have--how have investments like these 
enabled further opportunities between academia and the 
government to collaborate, and how has that benefited the 
Nation's modeling and forecasting capabilities?
    Dr. Busalacchi. Thank you very much for that question. I 
think a great example going to your initial comment is where we 
are today with respect to streamflow and river forecasting. And 
so NOAA has stood up the National Water Center in Tuscaloosa, 
Alabama, and the model they're using, the National Water Model 
started at my organization at the National Center for 
Atmospheric Research (NCAR). It started as a spinoff of our 
weather research forecast model for hydrology. Barron 
Industries, a private-sector company in Alabama, ported that 
model to Romania and Israel. That then became the platform for 
our national model. So again, perfect example of the triad, 
research community, private sector, and government now 
protecting life and property.
    Ms. Ross. Great. I'd also like to stay with you for just a 
minute because I want to follow up on your comments about data 
assimilation and the importance of enhancing that to make U.S. 
weather predictions more accurate. Can you help us better 
understand how data assimilation works, how it affects 
predictions, and why we need a new generation of data 
scientists trained in data assimilation for weather 
forecasting?
    Dr. Busalacchi. Again, thank you very much for the 
question. It's somewhat of an esoteric topic. Let me begin this 
way. We do not have observations everywhere of the planet. The 
models we use to predict the weather have limitations. And so 
let's take the example we have an observation here and an 
observation here. And in our models, we have a model grid point 
here and a model grid point here. Data assimilation blends the 
observations with the model to get the best possible 
description of the state of the atmosphere because when we make 
a prediction, these predictions are very sensitive to the 
initial conditions. So it's blending the model and the 
observations in space and time so that we can reduce the errors 
in our initial conditions to get more accurate forecasts. The 
Europeans are much more deliberate and much--have further long-
range planning horizons with respect to data assimilation.
    And then with respect to the workforce, the vast majority 
of our data assimilation scientists, software engineers as well 
are coming from overseas. We need to invest in our 
universities, community colleges for workforce development 
because if we don't, we're going to continue to fall behind our 
colleagues and our adversaries.
    Ms. Ross. Well, that's terrific. What should be the 
specific roles of NOAA versus the NSF, the Navy, and other 
agencies in supporting improvements in data assimilation?
    Dr. Busalacchi. So we--my organization hosts what's called 
the Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation. It is a 
multi-agency activity, NOAA, NASA, Department of Defense, but 
also it comes from different appropriations lines. So as a 
result, the funding for this activity is about $8 million a 
year. We compare that to the GOES-R (Geostationary Operational 
Environmental Satellite-R) satellite, $11 billion. So data 
assimilation is just--it's like the flea on the tail of a dog 
in terms of the investment, so we need to make a greater 
investment in data assimilation so we can get more bang for the 
buck for the--what we've already invested in these observations 
so we can get more information extracted out of them, like the 
Europeans do.
    Ms. Ross. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
    Chairman Miller. Thank you, Ms. Ross.
    I'd now like to recognize Mr. Posey out of Florida for 5 
minutes.
    Mr. Posey. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Ms. Bell, can you elaborate on why aircraft data is such an 
important way to collect weather data?
    Ms. Bell. Thank you for that question. Yes, I mean, it is 
extremely important to have in situ weather observations. There 
has been numerous studies that have shown that aircraft data 
remains a top-five data source when it comes to the weather 
models, meaning that is one of the most important and critical 
data sources that are being assimilated into our weather 
models, especially when it comes to short-term rapid-cycling 
weather models. So that's just showing that, you know, 
satellite data that's extremely beneficial for the weather 
models, especially the global weather models, but when we're 
talking about short-term forecasts, we really need this real-
time observations.
    Mr. Posey. OK. Can you explain the process for how NOAA 
partners with the private sector to deploy weather sensors on 
commercial aircraft?
    Ms. Bell. Yes. So in the past, NOAA has funded the equipage 
of aircraft with these weather sensors. So they did do a 
program with airlines in the past. However, most of those 
airlines are going through fleet replacement cycles, so a lot 
of that data will be lost over the next 5 to 10 years as those 
aircraft go out of service. So how FLYHT plans to do it is we 
will partner with an airline and we will go to NOAA and say--
and we will talk to NOAA about where they feel data would be 
most valuable. So if they say we really want--need data over 
the Pacific Northwest or Alaska or other data-sparse regions, 
that is where we will look for a partner airline, we will go to 
NOAA with that partner airline, and then we will take care of 
all the STCs (Supplemental Type Certificates), the installation 
of a sensor, and then handle the data transmission down to the 
ground and then back over to NOAA.
    Mr. Posey. Does anybody besides NOAA benefit from that?
    Ms. Bell. Yes, I mean, the FAA could definitely benefit 
from having this information, especially when we're talking 
about turbulence forecasts. Having more in situ observations 
would benefit the FAA. We're also looking into potentially 
doing some--increasing the sensitivity of our sensor, and that 
would help with contrails forecasts. So the Air Force is 
currently looking at better predictions of your contrails 
forecasts, so they need to have those in situ relative humidity 
observations to be able to better predict where they would be 
forming the contrails.
    Mr. Posey. You mentioned the turbulence. How would that be 
measured? I mean----
    Ms. Bell. I mean, so there's a few things that could 
improve our turbulence forecasts. For one, having better short-
term forecasts will inherently improve your turbulence 
forecasts because turbulence are so interwoven within your 
general forecasts. The second way is that we can incorporate 
the NCAR EDR algorithm within our sensor so that we can also 
report turbulence on our aircraft. So if we have more in situ 
turbulence observations, that will allow you to have better 
turbulence observations and forecasts.
    Mr. Posey. OK. Is there currently a government agency 
tasked with the mission of turbulence forecasting?
    Ms. Bell. The Aviation Weather Center puts out turbulence 
forecasts right now.
    Mr. Posey. OK. Would our industry and private sector 
benefit from a clear government mission on turbulence? I mean, 
it's pretty critical.
    Ms. Bell. I mean, we definitely believe so. You know, if we 
have better forecasts, if we have more of a mission to improve 
our turbulence forecasts to get more in situ turbulence 
observations, that could enhance the mission of saving--
protecting lives and property.
    Mr. Posey. Thank you. Mr. Jenkins, can you tell us about 
the water temperature affecting the atmosphere?
    Mr. Jenkins. Apologies. Absolutely. Oceans are driving our 
weather and climate by the rate of absorption and exchange of 
heat and carbon dioxide. They absorb a majority of the heat we 
make, and that is delaying climate change. So if the oceans 
continue to absorb heat, it delays--puts out temperature 
changes in the atmosphere. If it stops to absorb heat, they 
would accelerate the atmospheric warming. And likewise for 
carbon, there's an issue of absorbing our carbon. If the ocean 
continues to do that, it mitigates climate change on our 
surface of the Earth but it also acidifies the oceans. So 
carbon dioxide changes--turns to carbonic acid and it means 
fish can't build bones and shells, can't build shells for the 
creatures, so very significant, will disrupt our entire food 
chain. And that needs to be measured very specifically. 
Saildrone is the only autonomous platform that can measure that 
to a very, very high accuracy. We worked with NOAA for a 4-year 
period on a CRADA (cooperative research and development 
agreement) to develop a sensor that can actually measure, 
detect, and quantify carbon in the atmosphere and the ocean.
    Mr. Posey. Very good. My time is about to expire. Mr. 
Chairman, I yield back.
    Chairman Miller. Thank you, Mr. Posey.
    I now recognize Ranking Member of the Full Committee, Ms. 
Lofgren out of California, for 5 minutes.
    Ms. Lofgren. Well, thank you very much. This is a very 
important hearing, and all of your testimony has been 
enlightening. One of the things I want to ask further about, 
Dr. Busalacchi, is our lagging in actually utilizing 
effectively the data that is collected. You know, we watch the 
news, and we see, you know, there's our prediction, and then 
there's a European prediction, and the European prediction 
usually a little bit better than ours. So I'm wondering, why is 
that? Is it the limited capacity to transmit large amounts of 
data? Is it deficiencies in the data scientist area? I mean, I 
agree with you that we need to emphasize and develop the smart 
people from all over the country to be part of our technology 
workforce, but I also know that the best data scientists in the 
world are located in the United States. And there's some 
private sector companies, I understand, are trying to develop 
using AI (artificial intelligence) data. I don't know whether 
that's part of the solution, so I'm interested in further 
understanding your point of view and what we might do.
    Dr. Busalacchi. Thank you. Let me preface my remarks by 
saying I continue to be amazed with what NOAA does for what 
they have for the forecast mission because their forecasting 
remit----
    Ms. Lofgren. Yes.
    Dr. Busalacchi [continuing]. Is much broader when we talk 
about the European centers, so let's put that there.
    But when we speak about, let's say, weather forecasting, 
the short answer is yes to all of the above, all right? It is 
being able to accept more volumes of the data, so the ingest 
pipes have to be bigger. That's one. The Europeans do a better 
job of extracting the information out, let's say, separating 
the signal from the noise, and that's as a result, let's say, 
in the case of microwave data of precipitation and water vapor 
in the atmosphere. They do a much better job of processing that 
information.
    And it just--I mentioned before the GOES program, $11 
billion. At the present time, only 0.02 percent, 0.02 percent 
of the radiance that are being used in an operational context. 
So just making an order-of-magnitude impact, which we think is 
feasible over the next several years, will have a significant 
impact. So it's data ingested, it's being more innovative. AI 
is part of that. And it's hiring more people and having more 
high-performance computing. Keep--there's not a--it's not a----
    Ms. Lofgren. Right.
    Dr. Busalacchi [continuing]. Silver bullet. It's a 
portfolio approach.
    Ms. Lofgren. Well, I appreciate that. And certainly we have 
terrific scientists in NOAA, but--that we don't give them the 
tools that computing power, and perhaps we need some additional 
data scientists to be part of our crew. I'm hearing you on 
that. And maybe--I see our Chairman is here, and I thank him 
for his great interest in assisting NOAA. And, you know, that 
may be part of what we do because, obviously, I'm concerned 
that we may have gaps in the collection of data, but if we're 
not giving the tools to actually assimilate the data, the 
computing power, and the like, focusing on data collection 
alone without utilization of that data would be a mistake.
    Dr. Busalacchi. Absolutely. I'll be very blunt. When the 
bits fall on the floor, we're flushing dollars down the toilet.
    Ms. Lofgren. Yep. Great. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield 
back.
    Chairman Miller. Thank you, Ranking Member Lofgren.
    I now recognize the Chairman of the Full Committee, Mr. 
Lucas out of Oklahoma, for 5 minutes.
    Chairman Lucas. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Having introduced the Weather Act of 2017, I've been along 
for the entire rollercoaster ride that has come with 
establishing and implementing the commercial data program. We 
purposely included language to have NOAA create a strategy to 
assess the range of commercial opportunities, including public-
private partnerships for obtaining surface-based, aviation-
based, and space-based weather operations. However, while NOAA 
has requested information on other types of data, they've only 
purchased radio occultation.
    So can each of the witnesses briefly answer the following? 
Are we currently collecting data that you believe could be used 
in operational weather forecasts and models? And has NOAA 
utilized its data through the commercial data program? Floor is 
yours.
    Mr. Jenkins. Thanks for that. I think that's a great 
question. So yes, absolutely, we take very, very important data 
that can be used for two forms. One is assimilation as talking 
about here, building model physics with Saildrones near the 
surface. You collect very, very high resolution gradients that 
give you insights into how the ocean works, how the heat is 
transferred from the atmosphere to the ocean, and vice versa. 
Those are things you need to understand to put back into the 
models. There are two things, so it's a two-pronged attack. One 
is data for the assimilation. One is data to understand and 
improve those model physics. So yes, absolutely, we could do 
that. Have we done that yet? We have--no. Thank you.
    Chairman Lucas. Ms. Bell?
    Ms. Bell. Yes, we have been providing NOAA with data, but 
it is not currently through the CVP. We provide it through the 
National Mesonet Program. And again, this data is extremely 
important for use in our weather models. There's another use of 
what--the flight aircraft data, though, as well. We can use 
that real-time in operations at the National Weather Service 
centers. So the meteorologists can take in this aircraft data 
and look at soundings or vertical view of the atmosphere. That 
helps when you're--they were talking about very short-term 
forecasts. So if--when they're in the operational center and 
they're putting out severe thunderstorm watches, potential for 
tornadoes, things like that, they can use this aircraft data in 
real time. So it can be used in multiple ways.
    Chairman Lucas. Dr. Busalacchi?
    Dr. Busalacchi. Mr. Chairman, first of all, let me thank 
you for your leadership on this topic over the years.
    And another success story that we really haven't focused on 
today, you know, started in your own backyard, the National 
Mesonet Program, started in the research environment. 
University of Oklahoma played a major role, started to 
establish the standards and actually, you know, ended up with a 
commercialization opportunity. There are now something like 36 
different mesonets around the country in all 50 States, a grand 
success story.
    We've talked about radio occultation. However, I will say 
there is a need for a culture change within NESDIS (National 
Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service) at 
NOAA. We need to get away from these sort of Battlestar 
Galacticas that we're putting in orbit the size of a school 
bus, billions of dollars, and be thinking more innovative like 
radio occultation, constellation flying, formation flying, 
being willing to accept more risk and starting to lower the 
cost to the government.
    Chairman Lucas. Reauthorizing the Weather Act is an 
opportunity to make sure U.S. weather policy is up-to-date and 
pursuing the research and tools best positioned to enhance our 
forecasts and models. Therefore, in my remaining time, I'd like 
to give each of the witnesses an opportunity to highlight one 
or two things that they think are of particular need for 
attention or updating in the Weather Act reauthorization. And 
we'll start in reverse order. Dr. Busalacchi?
    Dr. Busalacchi. Thank you very much. Another area is--we 
need to continue to invest in what's called ensemble 
predictions where we take a variety of models, perturb physics 
because not any single model is perfect. And what we're finding 
is that in order to capture the whole breadth of this nonlinear 
system of our atmosphere, we need to have this sort of plethora 
of models. So ensemble then is--it's computational-intensive 
but relatively straightforward.
    The other area is, you know, a reinvestment in the 
timescale of sub-seasonal to seasonal because that's where our 
water resource managers need information, agriculture, et 
cetera. We haven't been making the advances in our predictive 
skill on this timescale that's so critical to decisionmaking.
    Ms. Bell. I mean, I think we really need to focus on the 
fact that we have decreasing data. We need to look into 
research on where that data--the aircraft data is most 
valuable. So we do have less data in some regions, but perhaps 
not equipping planes over areas that we still have data and 
equipping planes over, you know, data-sparse regions, that will 
be the most benefit. So we need to do research on our 
observations that we're taking into the model and to see how 
much value they bring.
    There's also other research that is ongoing and needs to 
continue about how you verify satellite data. The--I've talked 
to several researchers that have said that using the aircraft 
data is critical to validating satellite data, so we need these 
in situ observations to make sure our satellites are also 
giving out good data.
    Mr. Jenkins. I think it occurs to me one is--I mentioned 
carbon. Carbon is an incredibly important piece of our puzzle, 
not just for short-term forecasting, but our long-term climate 
forecasting. NOAA had eight objectives at COP26, and the first 
object in the science category by Rick Spinrad was global 
operation of a surface CO2 reference network. That 
has not started. That's a very, very important thing to get out 
there and to work.
    The second piece is auto the--NOAA's autonomous Uncrewed 
Technology Office, have done a fantastic job of actually 
fielding unmanned systems and acquiring commercially available 
data from unmanned systems. Making their mission clearer and 
their trajectory clarified and financed would be a fantastic 
opportunity.
    Chairman Lucas. Thank you for indulging me, Mr. Chairman. I 
yield back.
    Chairman Miller. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    I'd now like to recognize Ms. Bonamici out of Oregon for 5 
minutes.
    Ms. Bonamici. Thank you so much to the Chair, Ranking 
Member. Thank you to the witnesses here for your expertise.
    I'm excited to be serving another Congress on the 
Environment Subcommittee and look forward to continuing our 
work together, hopefully, again, on a bipartisan basis.
    I was Ranking Member of the Subcommittee working with Mr. 
Lucas on the rollercoaster when we passed the original bill, 
and even though it was signed into law in 2017, we know the 
work was long--began long before that, and I'm proud of that 
work. And I know reauthorization is critical, and I'm grateful 
for this hearing today.
    Now, more than ever, we need to make sure our constituents 
are informed about weather-related risks. And I'm glad that 
both the Chair and the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee 
recognize the increasing intensity and frequency of extreme 
weather events. I'm thinking about Mississippi, you know, 
everything is--California, as Ranking Member Lofgren noted. 
It's hard to overstate the importance of the research that's 
needed.
    Dr. Busalacchi, welcome back. Good to see you again. We 
know the Weather Act included provisions regarding the 
commercial partnerships, and we want to strike the right 
balance. Obviously, you talked about the three-legged stool, 
certainly acknowledge the benefits of the those partnerships. 
Can you summarize why the role of NOAA is important, 
particularly in the area of data quality and open access?
    Dr. Busalacchi. Thank you very much for that question. 
First of all, the government in the form of NOAA provides that 
foundational support for is the gold standard. It is--provides 
the quality control so that we're not in the caveat emptor 
situation. And so it's that backbone that NOAA provides that 
allows the private sectors to succeed in all the different 
examples in the dais up here today. And so that sort of 
foundational role of NOAA has to continue so that the private 
sector can continue to succeed.
    Ms. Bonamici. Thank you. And I appreciate that you brought 
up the data assimilation issue. And just following up on 
Ranking Member Ross' and Ranking Member Lofgren's questions 
about that, it's my understanding and want some clarity here, 
it's a software issue as well as a workforce issue?
    Dr. Busalacchi. That is correct. We--and an investment 
issue. We need more data scientists so that we can extract more 
data out--more information out of the data we already have.
    Ms. Bonamici. Yeah, that's something we can definitely be 
working on.
    Also, Dr. Busalacchi, I want to talk about--a little bit 
about disaster preparedness. Now, I represent a district in 
Oregon. A good portion of it is along the coast of Oregon where 
we sit on the Cascadia Subduction Zone. Producing a major 
earthquake and tsunami is in our future. We don't know when, 
but it's in the future, overdue. So one of my first bills in 
Congress was to update and reauthorize the Tsunami Warning 
Education Research Act, which expires this year. We know early 
warning and improving public safety, that the program cannot 
only save lives, but reduce property damage.
    So I know you've been a leader in oceanic and atmospheric 
interactions for your career and clearly understand that 
synergistic relationship between ocean and climate. So how can 
the collection and analysis of ocean data contribute to the 
development of climate models and forecasting systems? And what 
are some examples of where this data has led to innovation in 
weather and climate science?
    Dr. Busalacchi. Great. So thanks for that question. And so 
I appreciate the question because, as the first oceanographer 
to be President of the University Corporation for Atmospheric 
Research in 63 years, it resonates with me because the 
questions that society is asking of us today are no longer just 
atmosphere by itself, oceans by itself, or land surface. It's 
studying the Earth as a coupled system. So recently, we stood 
up a Center for Ocean Leadership because of the importance of 
the role of the ocean in the coupled Earth system. El Nino only 
results a result of the ocean being coupled with the 
atmosphere, providing us seasonal forecasting.
    We heard about atmospheric rivers. You know, this wet 
winter on the West Coast, all that moisture is coming from the 
oceans. Coastal inundation, another ocean-atmosphere coupled 
problem. I talked about sub-seasonal and seasonal. Bottom line, 
sustained ocean observations are critical to advancing this 
forecast skill, be it satellite observations, surface 
observations, observations from autonomous vehicles, and 
subsurface observations.
    Ms. Bonamici. Again, I see Mr. Jenkins nodding his head 
because I know your testimony. You acknowledge that the ocean 
covers 70 percent of the planet.
    And just finally, Dr. Busalacchi, I don't have much time, 
but I wonder if you could comment on the importance of the IPCC 
(Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) Sixth Assessment 
Report was just released last week, and how can we learn from 
these recommendations? When we work on reauthorizing 
legislation, how should our approach be different now than it 
was back when we started this back in, you know, 2000--or, 
excuse me, in 2000----
    Dr. Busalacchi. Well, as we saw in the IPCC report, the 
future is now. It's not 20, 30, 40, 50 years. We're seeing 
these changes today, and actually quite, as a climate 
scientist, earlier than many of us expected.
    Ms. Bonamici. Thank you. I'm out of time. I yield back. 
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Chairman Miller. Thank you, Ms. Bonamici.
    I now recognize Mr. Collins out of Georgia for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Collins. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Is it Dr. Busalacchi?
    Dr. Busalacchi. Busalacchi.
    Mr. Collins. That's a north Georgia name. OK. OK. I'm going 
to steal your flea comment if that's OK. You commented on 
keeping up with the Europeans, and I had a whole list of 
questions here, but I threw them to the side because I kind of 
want to focus on that a little bit because--and I sit on 
several Committees, as we all do, and I've been seeing a 
reoccurring theme of--with a lot of our agencies. It seems 
like--that we have the--in this case, the data, but I'm just 
wondering, has NOAA lost its way or has it changed its mission?
    Dr. Busalacchi. I would say neither in all fairness. As I 
said before, you know, what we ask of them for what they get--
they fund it, they do a marvelous job. But their remit is so 
broad that, you know, we need to be more effective as a nation. 
As we said before, we have--we talked about ICAMS. Weather is 
separated across NASA, NOAA, NSF, et cetera. We need to be more 
organized as a nation with respect to the resources we already 
have and be more effective and efficient in that regard.
    Mr. Collins. But you made the comment that bits were 
falling on the floor and they weren't using them.
    Dr. Busalacchi. Sure. So that's where we do need to make 
more investment in data assimilation and data science. And that 
is--that's where the flea comes in. It's just a small fraction. 
So, for example, another solution going forward, when a 
satellite system or an observational system is proposed, the 
ground data--data processing is built into the cost of the 
provision of that sensor in the data. Why not include the cost 
of data assimilation right up front in the cost of the sensor 
and purchasing that data stream so that when those observations 
are available, we don't wait 1 or 2 years to assimilate and 
learn how those data. The minute those observations are 
available, we're ingesting them into our models that very day, 
not years----
    Mr. Collins. But it doesn't sound like that costs anything. 
It's already there?
    Dr. Busalacchi. Well, but we have to invest in the data 
science, and we're not investing to the extent that we need to, 
to make that advance and get that extraction out of the data.
    Mr. Collins. All right. Well, you had two other legs to 
that stool, and I noticed in some of the comments it seemed 
like that maybe NOAA was--is are they holding up some of the 
private sector from making investments on their own?
    Dr. Busalacchi. I will defer to my colleagues. I think 
there's--as I outlined in my testimony, there's a number of 
success stories where NOAA is providing insight, but not 
oversight into the obtaining of private sector data, and I 
think that's the way it should be.
    Mr. Collins. Ms. Bell, would you like to comment on that?
    Ms. Bell. I mean, I think there's definitely a 
collaboration between NOAA and the private sector. I do think 
that there needs to be, you know, more funding for that 
collaboration because as much as we do need data assimilation, 
there are definitely data-sparse regions out there that we need 
to look at. And I have talked to NOAA meteorologists, and they 
do have a desire to have more data than they currently have. 
And I've even talked to forecasters in the office--in various 
offices that has expressed the needs of having more real-time 
data. Right now, radiosonde launches are twice a day, 0-Z and 
12-Z. That misses prime time for having convective outbreaks in 
the afternoon. If we had more aircraft data, those 
meteorologists in the offices could be looking at soundings 
that would help them forecast. So I believe there is a setup 
for partnership there, but more work still needs to be done.
    Mr. Collins. Can you explain that again? I may have missed 
it when you were talking about early--airlines and planes with 
the equipment on them. Is that--I thought I heard you say is 
that NOAA's equipment or is that private equipment?
    Ms. Bell. So FLYHT is currently the owner of a--the sensor, 
the Water Vapor Sensing System, so we will contract with NOAA, 
and they will buy----
    Mr. Collins. Yeah.
    Ms. Bell [continuing]. The equipment, and then we'll put 
them on the aircraft.
    Mr. Collins. OK. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, that's all I got, 
I yield back.
    Chairman Miller. Thank you, Mr. Collins.
    I now recognize Mr. Frost out of Florida for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Frost. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for convening this 
hearing, and thank you to our witnesses for being here.
    The Weather Act is an example of successful bipartisan 
legislation and has the potential to be a real weapon in the 
fight against the climate crisis by bringing together and 
expanding research, data collection, and private--public-
private partnerships to understand increasingly dangerous 
weather.
    Mr. Jenkins, your company Saildrone, which has sent 
autonomous sailing vessels to map some of the most remote 
oceans in the world and even sailed through hurricanes, which 
being from Florida is very personal to me, has been working 
with NOAA since 2014. In what ways has the 2017 Weather Act 
positively impacted that partnership? Like what differences 
have you seen?
    Mr. Jenkins. To be brutally honest, I don't think it has at 
all. We've done some amazing work with scientists and the 
creators. These are the frontline scientists who want the data, 
want the information. We have about 45 peer-reviewed papers 
written by government scientists about our data being climate 
quality, how much difference it can make to climate models, to 
weather models. We don't have a program where it can transition 
into operational models, operational programs. All scientists 
want the money, they ask for the money. There is no money 
available to progress those programs from demonstrations up to 
big programs. So we have a lot of 1-year funds, which is 
appropriations trying to achieve things, but we'd love to see 
something like the Weather Act actually create a vehicle 
whereby these technologies that are proven to be working and 
TR-9 readiness level 9, ready for operations, transition into 
full-time operations, supplying data to models for 
assimilation.
    Mr. Frost. OK. Thank you so much. I--you know, and I think 
that it's very important that the data and research purchased 
with public dollars are available to the public for awareness, 
research, data collection, innovation. Mr. Jenkins again, to 
what degree is the data collected through your NOAA 
partnerships available to the public, and what is the process 
like for making it available?
    Mr. Jenkins. So we give all our data to NOAA in real time, 
so two types of data. There's near real time, which is about 
eight second delay to get the data, which is a low resolution. 
It's down sampled. And then they get the high resolution data 
when the vehicle comes back to shore. So they get the entire 
data set from the vehicle both in real time for modeling and 
for--in high resolution for physics experiments and other kinds 
of deep dives in technology.
    At that point, it's up to NOAA when they distribute it. I 
believe NOAA's mandate is to release all data they have, which 
they're allowed to do with our data of course. That's really a 
NOAA decision on when it goes public. A lot of the scientists 
who write papers want to hold that data back for a few years so 
it's not--doesn't reveal the findings of that paper. So it 
varies from National Weather Service buy our data for 
atmospheric soundings, pressure, temperature, wind speed, et 
cetera. That's almost instantaneous. Other deep projects, ocean 
currents bathymetry is much longer times getting it released.
    Mr. Frost. OK. Thank you.
    Dr. Busalacchi, how do we ensure that the data collected 
through NOAA's public-private partnerships stay true to NOAA's 
founding mission and continuing the mission of protecting lives 
and property?
    Dr. Busalacchi. Thank you for that question. I think we 
need to settle on a set of best practices for what is in a data 
buy, and that's my experience with the SeaWiFS mission, again, 
back to the issue of government insight but not oversight. And 
so we never want to be totally dependent on any one particular 
company because of the data stream, and it's important to 
protecting life and property. The importance of setting up 
ancillary science teams to extract even more information out of 
the data, we need data streams that are stable, continuous, and 
calibrated for actually decades. Sensors always degrade, so we 
need to have--make sure that the raw data, the level zero data 
are archived permanently so that we can reprocess them as 
algorithms and prove--we can improve our science. We need 
insight to the instrument characterization, access to the 
calibration validation, verification data so that we can ensure 
the integrity of this data set going forward.
    Mr. Frost. Got you. Yeah, you know, it seems like there 
still is a real role for public research and academic research 
in predicting weather events, which again, being from the State 
of Florida is really important for me, both in terms of 
resiliency, but also in terms of being able to look at patterns 
and ensure that we're prepared for these storms. You know, we 
just had Ian last year, which was one of our worst storms that 
we've had and longest storms.
    This is for anybody on the panel. I'm curious. I'd love to 
hear if there are examples of where data collected through the 
partnerships with NOAA, the public-private partnerships were 
able to provide better predictability and warn us of extreme 
weather events.
    Mr. Jenkins. Back toward the hurricane directly, we're 
working--this is our third year with hurricanes, and that is 
transformationally new information. It's the first time we've 
got data from the surface of the ocean, inside hurricanes. 
Hurricane intensification is very poorly understood. We've got 
much better tracking the direction of hurricanes and the path, 
but the intensification has gone actually down in skill. So the 
storm is getting stronger before reaching land, probably due to 
the warmer temperatures, but it's unknown. So putting our 
vehicles into those hurricanes is actually tangibly affecting 
the model science to help us improve rapid intensification of 
hurricanes.
    Mr. Frost. All right. Well, thank you so much. I yield 
back.
    Chairman Miller. Thank you, Mr. Frost.
    And in closing, I just want to thank the witnesses for your 
valuable testimony and for the Members for their questions here 
today. The record will remain open for 10 days for additional 
comments and written questions for Members.
    The hearing is adjourned.
    [Whereupon, at 11:09 a.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]

                               Appendix I

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                   Answers to Post-Hearing Questions




                   Answers to Post-Hearing Questions
Responses by Mr. Michael Eilts

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                              Appendix II

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                   Additional Material for the Record




             Letter submitted by Representative Max Miller

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