Augmenting Government Observing Systems With Commercial Data for the Public Good

Delivery of the daily weather forecast and life-saving warnings to citizens worldwide represents one of the most successful and impactful examples of public-private collaboration. In the face of increasing demand for environmental intelligence and decreasing government budgets, the global weather enterprise is now entering a new era of collaboration in provision of the core data that fuels the forecast itself. With an open mind and a spirit of “co-creation,” the public and private sectors can work together to reconcile commercial business models with data policies in a way that increases the resiliency of the global observing system, drives innovation, lowers costs, and ultimately serves the public good by improving the weather forecast for users worldwide.