5.1: NOAA's Science and Technology Enterprise

Develop and apply holistic, integrated Earth system approaches to understand the processes that connect changes in the atmosphere, ocean, space, land surface, and cryosphere with ecosystems, organisms, and humans over different scales.

Other Information:

NOAA's vision centers on a holistic understanding of the interdependencies between human health and prosperity, and the intricacies of the Earth system. Achieving this level of understanding presents an overarching, long-term scientific and technical challenge to NOAA: to develop and apply holistic, integrated Earth system approaches to understand the processes that connect changes in the atmosphere, ocean, space, land surface, and cryosphere with ecosystems, organisms, and humans over different scales. Over the long-term, drawing upon its world-class research, observation, and modeling capabilities, NOAA is uniquely positioned to:  Acquire and incorporate knowledge of human behavior to enhance understanding of the interaction between human activities and the Earth system;  Understand and quantify the interactions between atmospheric composition and climate variations and change;  Understand and characterize the role of the oceans in climate change, and variability and the effects of climate change on the ocean and coasts;  Assess and understand the roles of ecosystem processes and biodiversity in sustaining ecosystem services;  Improve understanding and predictions of the water cycle from global to local scales;  Develop and evaluate approaches to substantially reduce environmental degradation;  Sustain and enhance atmosphere-ocean-land-biology and human observing systems;  Characterize the uncertainties associated with scientific information; and  Communicate scientific information and its associated uncertainties accurately and effectively to policy makers, the media, and the public at large. To address this long-term challenge and meet the near-term science requirements within and across its strategic goals, NOAA must simultaneously pursue three objectives within its core scientific and technical enterprise: a holistic understanding of the Earth system, accurate and reliable data from sustained and integrated Earth observing systems, and an integrated environmental modeling framework.

Stakeholder(s):

• NOAA Partners: NOAA Partnerships in its Science and Technology Enterprise—NOAA will take advantage of its broad national and international network of partners in other agencies, in Cooperative Institutes and Sea Grant colleges, in external academic institutions and professional societies, and in the private sector to better understand the complex connections between the physical Earth system and its biological components— including human beings.


• Cooperative Institutes


• Sea Grant colleges


• NASA: NOAA's partnerships with NASA and DOD will continue to maintain the continuity of critical remotely sensed satellite data and products to support weather and climate applications.


• DOD


• European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites: NOAA's international partners include the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites; and the space agencies of Canada, China, Europe, France, India, and Taiwan. NOAA's international partners will continue to share data, ground processing, and reception sites, and collaborate on the operation of satellite assets. NOAA will communicate scientific information that is accurate and reliable through adherence to the highest levels of scientific integrity, transparency, and accountability.


• Space Agency of Canada


• Space Agency of China


• Space Agency of Europe


• Space Agency of France


• Space Agency of India


• Space Agency of Taiwan

Indicator(s):

Indicator:1

Content