Identifying Information Needs to Improve NOAA Services for Blue Economy and Weather Research and Innovation Act Priorities

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of Technology, Planning, and Integration for Observation (TPIO) developed an observing capability gap analysis tool based on the NOAA Value Tree. This tool denotes the observing capability gaps that, if improved, would result in an appreciable increase in NOAA’s mission performance. The analysis derived from this tool was mapped to objectives from NOAA’s Blue Economy initiative and the Weather Research and Innovation Act of 2017. TPIO analyzed and mapped the objectives to NOAA mission outcomes, observing system platforms, and ultimately the data needs each platform services. This presentation will describe the methodology and results of this analysis documenting the top areas of improvement. Identifying these gaps informs NOAA leadership, system developers, and private industry on where the greatest improvement to overall mission can be achieved through improved observing capabilities.