Introduction to NASA's Western Water Applications Office

Water availability in the Western U.S. is drastically changing and fluctuating, this is especially difficult for a community that manages water based on past experience – the stationarity paradigm no longer applies under a changing climate. More and more, water managers are looking for additional information from satellite observations to complement and extend existing sources of information. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA’s) 18 in-flight satellite missions and instruments, plus dozens of airborne measurements, provide remote-sensing measurements with sampling periods that can provide value for water management. NASA's Western Water Applications Office (WWAO) aims to harness NASA capabilities for improved water management. The mission of NASA’s Western Water Applications Office (WWAO) is to directly benefit water managers in the Western U.S. by putting NASA data, models, analysis, and tools to work for water management. Collaboration and partnership is key, WWAO maintains sustained engagement with the water community and works to create strategic partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies and the private sector to identify gaps and needs for major basins in the west. Once gaps are identified, WWAO implements needs-driven projects to address the needs, and works with partners to transition projects to sustained use. This talk provides an overview of the WWAO, along with a description of processes, partnerships, and highlights of current projects and tools.