National Mesonet Authorization Act
This bill provides statutory authority for the National Mesonet Program of the National Weather Service (NWS).
The program shall obtain observations from observing platforms in all geographic environments to improve understanding of and forecast capabilities for atmospheric events, with a prioritization on leveraging available commercial, academic, and other nonfederal weather data to enhance coordination across the private, public, and academic sectors of the U.S. weather enterprise.
The program must carry out specified activities, including improving environmental observations used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the NWS to support baseline forecasts and warnings that protect the nation's citizens, businesses, military, and government agencies and enable such individuals and entities to operate in safe, efficient, and orderly manners.
NOAA shall ensure the program has an active advisory committee of subject matter experts to identify, implement, procure, and track data needed to supplement the program, and recommend improvements, expansions, and acquisitions of available data.
The advisory committee shall establish partnerships with one or more institutions of higher education to identify, evaluate, and recommend potential partnerships, regional or subregional consortia, and collaborative methods that would expand the number of participants and volume of data in the program.
[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 8397 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
117th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 8397
To authorize the National Mesonet Program of the National Weather
Service, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 15, 2022
Mrs. Bice of Oklahoma (for herself, Mr. Tonko, and Mr. Lucas)
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on
Science, Space, and Technology
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To authorize the National Mesonet Program of the National Weather
Service, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``National Mesonet Authorization
Act''.
SEC. 2. NATIONAL MESONET PROGRAM.
(a) In General.--Title I of the Weather Research and Forecasting
Innovation Act of 2017 (15 U.S.C. 8501 et seq.) is amended by adding at
the end the following new section:
``SEC. 111. NATIONAL MESONET PROGRAM.
``(a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
``(1) Since the initial establishment of the National
Mesonet Program, a public-private partnership program, the
Program has leveraged data collected by existing weather
observation networks to--
``(A) provide accurate, real-time observations to
support weather forecasters, emergency response, and
all-weather sensitive activities across the United
States;
``(B) address persistent impediments, identified in
a 2009 National Academy of Sciences Report, From the
Ground Up, to fulfill the need for broader and denser
environmental observation networks to improve severe
weather lead-times;
``(C) help achieve major improvements for the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the
broader American Weather Enterprise, as identified in
the 2011 National Academy of Sciences Report, The
National Weather Service Modernization and Associated
Restructuring;
``(D) increase the amount of non-Federal weather
data available to the Federal Government by orders of
magnitude; and
``(E) improve understanding of the impact, size,
and duration of mesoscale weather events.
``(2) The National Mesonet Program is a critical component
of Administration operations and provides reliable, real-time
observation capabilities for the physical environment that
enhances prediction, preparedness, and response strategies to
severe weather events.
``(3) The National Mesonet Program is a primary input,
ingest, and quality-assurance/quality-control for non-Federal
weather data that are critical to operations, including
situational awareness, forecasting, decision support, research,
in-situ verification and validation for emerging satellite
technologies, and numerical weather prediction modeling.
``(b) Program.--There is in the National Weather Service a program
to be known as the National Mesonet Program (in this section referred
to as the `Program'). The Program shall--
``(1) be administered by the Under Secretary; and
``(2) obtain observations from observing platforms in all
geographic environments to improve understanding of and
forecast capabilities for atmospheric events, with a
prioritization on leveraging available commercial, academic,
and other non-Federal weather data to enhance coordination
across the private, public, and academic sectors of the United
States weather enterprise.
``(c) Program Elements.--The Program shall carry out the following
activities:
``(1) Improve environmental observations used by the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the
National Weather Service to support baseline forecasts and
warnings that protect the Nation's citizens, businesses,
military, and government agencies and enable such individuals
and entities to operate in safe, efficient, and orderly
manners.
``(2) When demonstrably cost effective, leverage existing
networks of environmental monitoring stations to increase the
quantity and density of weather observations available to the
Administration.
``(3) Establish means to integrate greater density and type
of weather observations into the Program on an annual basis,
including by encouraging local and regional networks of
environmental monitoring stations to participate in the
Program.
``(4) Yield increased quantities of boundary-layer data to
improve numerical weather prediction performance, including
regarding subseasonal to seasonal timescales.
``(5) Provide the critical technical and administrative
infrastructure needed to facilitate rapid integration and
sustained use of new and emerging networks of environmental
monitoring stations anticipated in coming years.
``(6) Expand and enhance environmental observational
networks in the roadway environment to provide real-time road
weather and surface conditions for surface transportation and
related economic sectors.
``(7) Identify available terrestrial or marine weather
data, or quantifiable gaps in such data, to improve the
understanding of air-sea interactions.
``(8) Support the National Weather Service in reaching its
target of a 30-minute warning time for severe weather through
better predictive model algorithms driven by increasingly
effective observations.
``(9) Coordinate with existing Administration data used for
forecasts, including data from the National Environmental
Satellite, Data, and Information Service, the Integrated Ocean
Observing System, the Global Ocean Monitoring and Observing
Program, and National Ocean Service water level stations.
``(10) Identify and communicate to the Office of Oceanic
and Atmospheric Research and other partners priorities of
research and development needed to advance observations in the
Program.
``(d) Financial and Technical Assistance.--
``(1) In general.--In furtherance of the Program, the Under
Secretary may, to the extent amounts are made available, award
financial assistance to State, Tribal, private, and academic
entities seeking to build, expand, or upgrade equipment and
capacity of mesonet systems. Financial assistance under this
subsection may be made in coordination or addition to awards
from other Federal agencies.
``(2) Agreements.--Before receiving financial assistance
under paragraph (1), the State, Tribal, private, or academic
entity seeking financial assistance under this subsection shall
enter into an agreement with the Under Secretary to provide
data to the Program, subject to verification of the relative
operational value and evaluation of the cost of such data, for
use in weather prediction, severe weather warnings, and
emergency response.
``(3) Assistance and other support.--The Under Secretary
may provide technical assistance, project implementation
support, and guidance to entities seeking financial assistance
under this subsection.
``(4) Terms.--In providing financial assistance under this
subsection, the Under Secretary shall establish terms to ensure
that each State, Tribal, private, or academic entity that
receives financial assistance under this subsection receives a
level of Federal support commensurate with the quality and
other characteristics of the data to be provided.
``(5) Determination.--A State, Tribal, private, or academic
entity may receive financial assistance under this subsection
only if the Under Secretary determines such entity shall
provide sufficient non-Federal financial support to maintain
the quality of the mesonet system and associated data standards
required by the Program.
``(e) Advisory Committee.--
``(1) In general.--The Under Secretary shall ensure the
Program has an active advisory committee of subject matter
experts to identify, implement, procure, and track data needed
to supplement the Program, and recommend improvements,
expansions, and acquisitions of available data. The Under
Secretary may designate an existing Federal advisory committee,
subcommittee, or working group, including, if appropriate, the
Science Advisory Board of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, to carry out this subsection.
``(2) Partnerships.--The advisory committee under paragraph
(1) shall establish partnerships with one or more institutions
of higher education (as such term is defined in section 101 of
the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001)) to identify,
evaluate, and recommend potential partnerships, regional or
subregional consortia, and collaborative methods that would
expand the number of participants and volume of data in the
Program.
``(f) Regular Reporting.--The Under Secretary shall provide regular
briefings, not less than twice annually, to the Committee on Science,
Space, and Technology of the House of Representatives and the Committee
on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate on all Program
activities. Such briefings shall include information relating to the
following:
``(1) Efforts to implement the activities described in
subsection (c).
``(2) Any financial or technical assistance provided
pursuant to subsection (d).
``(3) Efforts to address recommendations received from the
advisory committee under subsection (e).
``(4) The potential need and associated benefits of a
coastal and ocean mesonet, or other emerging areas of weather
data needs.
``(5) Progress toward eliminating gaps in weather
observation data by States and regions of the United States.
``(6) Any other topic the Under Secretary determines
relevant.
``(g) Authorization of Appropriations.--Of amounts otherwise
authorized to be made available to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, there is authorized to carry out this section the
following:
``(1) $50,000,000 for fiscal year 2023.
``(2) $55,000,000 for fiscal year 2024.
``(3) $61,000,000 for fiscal year 2025.
``(4) $68,000,000 for fiscal year 2026.
``(5) $70,000,000 for fiscal year 2027.''.
(b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of contents for the Weather
Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 is amended by inserting
after the item relating to section 110 the following new item:
``Sec. 111. National Mesonet Program.''.
<all>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.
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