NOAA's Weather Program Office (WPO; formerly OWAQ, the Office of Weather and Air Quality) is soliciting proposals for weather, atmospheric composition, and earth system modeling and observations research reflecting multiple science objectives spanning time scales from hours to seasons, and from weather and water observations and earth system modeling to fire weather and social, behavioral, and economic science. There are 6 program areas Fire Weather & Atmospheric Composition (FWAC), 2) Climate Testbed (CTB), 3) Weather Testbeds, 4) Joint Technology Transfer Initiative (JTTI), 5) Subseasonal-to- Seasonal (S2S) , and 6) Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment in the
United States (VORTEX-USA).
Fire Weather & Atmospheric Composition
Fire Weather: OAR WPO invites research and development proposals to improve fire weather forecast information and delivery. This program will support new research into the coupled Unified Forecast System (UFS) for both the short-term fire-atmosphere and subseasonal to climate scale modeling systems. OAR will collaborate with NWS, NESDIS, and emergency managers from across the fire weather community to develop new impact-based decision support tools, products, and models, which will improve the ability to provide timely and accurate guidance to safeguard lives and property and manage downstream air quality impacts.
Atmospheric Composition: The current NOAA operational science improvement needs for air quality predictions
include: 1) improving emissions modeling (e.g. wildfire smoke and dust, and timely updates of anthropogenic sources), meteorology (e.g. planetary boundary layer (PBL) height, cloudiness, and vertical transport), and initialization of atmospheric composition concentrations (model state) and emissions using coupled data assimilation (DA); 2) incorporating feedbacks of atmospheric composition on atmospheric physics and meteorological DA through coupled modeling and DA; and 3) improving computational efficiency of atmospheric composition transport, gas-phase chemistry, DA and prediction. Increased collaboration is desired in building the coupled UFS, with shared community
atmospheric chemistry components, that NOAA uses for operational air quality applications and for operational weather applications.
VORTEX-USA
The Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 authorized the implementation of a tornado warning improvement and extension program, codified in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, as VORTEX-USA. VORTEX-USA continues the work of the VORTEX-SE program and also expands it by seeking to increase our knowledge of meteorological processes and societal impacts of tornadoes nationwide, while gaining improved understanding of unique regional challenges that heighten tornado vulnerability. VORTEX-USA will integrate research findings into NOAA's Forecasting a Continuum of Environmental Threats (FACETs) project to ensure that this research effort improves NOAA's operational forecast and warning capacity and improves societal response to tornado threats and impacts.
Weather Testbeds
Project proposals submitted to this competition will focus on applied research and development, and, in particular, the demonstration and testing of that research in NOAA's quasi-operational forecasting environment through engagement with one of NOAA's testbed. The high impact weather focus areas included in this competition include tornadoes, severe wind and hail storms, tropical cyclones, heavy rainfall, winter weather such as heavy snow and ice, and flooding, including coastal, inland, and flash flooding. The three NOAA testbeds relevant to these focus areas and this competition are i) the Hazardous Weather Testbed (HWT), ii) the Hydrometeorology Testbed (HMT), and iii) the Joint Hurricane Testbed (JHT). Projects associated with other NOAA testbeds are not supported in this competition.
The Weather Program Office (WPO) Testbeds Program, a component of the U.S. Weather Research Program (USWRP), supports projects that will transition applied research to NOAA's operations and services through close collaboration with NOAA testbeds. Close collaboration with one of the testbeds outlined above is critical and therefore required of all projects.
Joint Technology Transfer Initiative
The U.S. faces a spectrum of high impact environmental hazards that can disrupt people's lives and the nation's economy. Through improved forecasting of these events and better communication and preparedness, loss of lives and property damage can be reduced. While NOAA is the sole U.S. government authority for issuing official weather forecasts and warnings, the broader weather enterprise plays an important role in the communication and
dissemination of weather information. The purpose of this competition is to fund further development, testing and evaluation of mature weather research that has potential for improving NOAA's NWS operational capabilities.
Subseasonal to Seasonal
The Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) seeks to support resiliency of the nation's economy, infrastructure, and security by fulfilling the subseasonal to seasonal (two weeks out to two years) requirements of the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017. Through the Weather Program Office, NOAA and OAR will address a spectrum of issues on the subseasonal to seasonal time frame at various stages of research readiness. This solicitation coordinates with the Climate Program Office's Joint Competition to Advance Process Understanding and Representation of Precipitation in Models; some selected projects may coordinate with projects funded under the Climate Variability Program FY22 competition, with potential shared collaborative webinars and meetings.
Climate Testbed (CTB)
In partnership with the Climate Prediction Center (CPC) and the Environmental Modeling Center (EMC), WPO is soliciting proposals involving the external community to advance NOAA's operational subseasonal to seasonal prediction capabilities via the Climate Test Bed (CTB). CTB projects should improve NOAA's operational S2S (two weeks to two years) prediction capability, via:
- Maturation and implementation of data assimilation (DA) including coupled DA, monitoring products, and data quality control (QC);
- Development and maturation of GEFS or SFS within the Unified Forecast System (UFS); and
- Post-processing, diagnostic and verification tools, and innovative statistical techniques (including but not limited to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML)) leading to improvement of S2S operational predictions.
None is available.