Opportunities for Assessing Observation System Value

The NOAA mission value model (NOAA Observing System Integrated Analysis, NOSIA) is a very large portfolio analysis model that includes hundreds of NOAA products and services and several hundred observing programs important for meeting NOAA's missions. NOSIA is designed to assess the impact of these observing programs to a mission area and to answer several business questions relevant to changes in the observing portfolio at NOAA.

This talk will describe the evolution of NOSIA to address NOAA’s evolving missions, observing priorities, and observing capabilities. In response to OMB (M-17-22): “Agencies should develop an analytical framework that looks at the alignment of agency activities with the mission and role of the agency and the performance of individual functions … [eliminating any] service, activity or function [that] is not core to the agency’s mission or obsolete”, NOAA is extending the Value Tree assessment capability to identify observations the support of its core mission. This work includes the prioritization of observing systems, the identification and linkages to legislative, administration and policy mandates, and the integration of value-tree modeling throughout the entire product value-chain and across all of NOAA’s observation domains. This talk will also briefly summarize key findings of the current work effort, lessons learned, and future plans.