FY23 WPO VORTEX – USA Awards
Four projects have been selected for the FY23 WPO VORTEX-USA Awards. The grant total for the four selected projects equals $2.5M with each project being funded for 3 years beginning in August 2023.
FY23 WPO Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Awards
The award total* for the 10 selected projects is: $4 M in cooperative agreements.
Weather-Ready Nation for All? The Demographics of Severe Weather Communication
How do different racial and socioeconomic groups in the United States receive, understand, and respond to severe weather information? A new study by three NOAA scientists and a member of the Coast Guard takes a look at the demographics of severe weather communication.
Satellite Observations Improve Flooding and Inundation Monitoring and Forecasts
Floods are among the most costly and deadly natural disasters that occur in the United States, coming in second to heat events. On average, approximately 100 people in the U.S. perish each year due to flooding. Reliable observations of flooding and inundation spanning larger extents are key in advancing the National Water Model (NWM) capability.…
Improving Wildfire Prediction with Convection-allowing models
As the climate continues to change and the frequency, severity, and impacts of wildfires increase, the importance of wildfire prediction and detection becomes even more critical. It then becomes essential to improve fire weather and smoke & air quality forecast accuracies in current operational models. This involves taking advantage of recent advancements in wind and…
JEDI: The Future of Data Assimilation
The process by which observational data is brought into models is called data assimilation (DA). The Joint Effort for Data assimilation Integration (JEDI) is the next generation, unified DA framework under collaborative development between NOAA and cross-agency partners through the Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation (JCSDA). JEDI will allow for a faster development and…
Saildrones Track Hurricanes to Gather Data for Forecast Improvement
In partnership with NOAA, Saildrone Inc. is deploying seven ocean drones to collect data from hurricanes during the 2022 hurricane season with the goal of improving hurricane forecasting. For the first year, two saildrones will track hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico. One of the biggest challenges to hurricane forecasting is predicting rapid intensification, when hurricane…
WindBorne Weather Balloon Reaches New Heights in Atmospheric Measurement Capabilities
The Observations Program at the Weather Program Office has partnered with WindBorne Systems, Inc. to fund the development of an advanced weather balloon. This technology offers a low cost platform enabling collection of surface to stratosphere weather data in lesser-sampled regions. Long Range Sampling and Dynamic Altitude Control With an average flight time of 7…
VORTEX-USA Awards
WPO works in coordination with the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) in Norman, Oklahoma to award projects that explore and refine novel predictors of tornadoes, and to improve the communication of tornado forecasts and risk to tornadoes in the U.S. This year competition award total* for the 4 selected projects equals $1.36 M in grants.…
OWAQ-sponsored research suggests link between sea surface temperatures and dust storms, Valley Fever
People living in the American Southwest have experienced a dramatic increase in windblown dust storms in the last two decades, likely driven by large-scale changes in sea surface temperature in the Pacific Ocean drying the region’s soil, according to new NOAA-led research.