Foundational Data and Analyses to Inform the NOAA Emerging Technology Workshop and R2O (Invited Presentation)

American citizens, businesses, and communities rely on NOAA’s environmental intelligence to make decisions that impact lives and livelihoods. NOAA’s observing systems portfolio is an inventory of NOAA observing systems programs, projects, and/or operations that provide a collection of products and services that support Americans. Nearly one-half of NOAA’s annual budget is invested in acquiring and sustaining observing systems. Investment and management decisions across NOAA Line Offices and programs must rely on essential data about user observation needs, observing system capabilities, and their impact on NOAA’s mission. To manage its complex and large observing systems observation portfolio, NOAA has established a policy on its integrated observing systems portfolio management, through NOAA Administrative Order 212-16, which requires systematic governance using evidence-based, data-driven decision-making processes.

NOAA has been developing and using foundational datasets and integrated analysis to inform NOAA decisions on inform NOAA program managers, system-owners and leadership on R2O decision processes. These foundational datasets have shown value for business intelligence analyses to inform various NOAA decisions on issues including strategic planning, reorganizations, system engineering, and operation system decisions. At this panel, We will present case studies of how this information has been used to inform NOAA decisions to organize NOAA emerging Technology Workshops. We also provide some suggestions on how this information can be useful to inform other R2O efforts.