§ 8520 — United States Weather Research Program

(a) The Secretary of Commerce, in cooperation with the Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering, and Technology through the Committee on Earth and Environmental Sciences, shall establish a United States Weather Research Program to— (1) increase benefits to the Nation from the substantial investment in modernizing the public weather warning and forecast system in the United States; (2) improve local and regional weather forecasts and warnings; (3) address critical weather-related scientific issues; (4) coordinate governmental, university, and private-sector efforts; (5) submit to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate and the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the House of Representatives, not less frequently than once each year, a report, including— (A) a list of ongoing research projects; (B) project goals and a point of contact for each project; (C) the five projects related to weather observations, short-term weather, or subseasonal forecasts within Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research that are closest to operationalization; (D) for each project referred to in subparagraph (C)— (i) the potential benefit; (ii) any barrier to operationalization; and (iii) the plan for operationalization, including which line office will financially support the project and how much the line office intends to spend; (6) establish teams with staff from the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research and the National Weather Service to oversee the operationalization of research products developed by the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research; (7) develop mechanisms for research priorities of the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research to be informed by the relevant line offices within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the relevant user community, and the weather enterprise; (8) develop an internal mechanism to track the progress of each research project within the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research and mechanisms to terminate a project that is not adequately progressing; (9) develop and implement a system to track whether extramural research grant goals were accomplished; (10) provide facilities for products developed by the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research to be tested in operational simulations, such as test beds; (11) encourage academic collaboration with the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research and the National Weather Service by facilitating visiting scholars; and (12) carry out the activities of the Earth Prediction Innovation Center as described in section 8512(b)(2) of this title. (b) The Secretary of Commerce, in cooperation with the Committee on Earth and Environmental Sciences, shall prepare and submit to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate and the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the House of Representatives a plan for implementation of the United States Weather Research Program which shall— (1) establish, for the 10-year period beginning in the year the plan is submitted, the goals and priorities for Federal weather research which most effectively advance the scientific understanding of weather processes and provide information to improve weather warning and forecast systems in the United States; (2) describe specific activities, including research activities, data collection and data analysis requirements, predictive modeling, participation in international research efforts, demonstration of potential operational forecast applications, and education and training required to achieve such goals and priorities; and (3) set forth the role of each Federal agency and department to be involved in the United States Weather Research Program, identifying and addressing, as appropriate, relevant programs and activities of the Federal agencies and departments that would contribute to such Program. (c) In this section, the term “subseasonal” means the time range between 2 weeks and 3 months.