Survey of DoD Climate Support Types and Methods and User Engagement Strategies

The 14th Weather Squadron (14 WS) is the Department of Defense (DoD) organization responsible for delivering climate information and services across the DoD enterprise. 14 WS develops and delivers tailored applied climatological support to DoD operations planning and intelligence activities. The authors present an overview of the sectoral breakdown of agencies supported by the 14 WS. A robust web presence is augmented by a customer service-oriented Support Analysis Request (SAR) process that delivers 800-1000 individual tailored supports and consults each year. This two-fold approach to applied climate support presents a successful services framework to meet the range of needs presented by a diverse global user base. Despite enhanced solutions to the demand for on-demand services, human-in-the-loop tailored supports continue to increase, reflecting both the successes of customer engagement strategies and the challenges associated with communicating applicability of on-demand web applications and tools. Customer engagement strategies such as webinars, video podcasts, and in-person demonstrations are explored and summarized.