White House Investing $36.6 Million to Improve Weather Forecasting

At the end of May, the White House announced that it will be investing $36.6 million in programs aimed at improving weather forecasting and tsunami warning systems. Not only will these efforts benefit the United States, but it will also benefit Canada and other countries around the world.

$6.6 million of the funding will go toward the creation of a Consortium for Advanced Data Assimilation Research and Education (CADRE), which will consist of six universities that include top-rated meteorology programs at the University of Oklahoma and Pennsylvania State University. 

CADRE’s goal will be to upgrade and improve NOAA’s technology for numerical weather prediction capabilities, which will be used to boost American models and share the information around the world with other scientists to help improve their own models.

The remaining $30 million will be used to upgrade the Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis (DART) Ocean Observing System. It is a network consisting of 38 buoys across the Atlantic and Pacific basins that can pick up subtle signs of a tsunami before it hits land. 

Each buoy is hard-wired to a pressure-sensitive device that is anchored to the ocean’s floor. The sensors monitor the ocean for signs of a tsunami and instantly relay their findings back to land via satellite. This data would allow coastal communities critical lead time ahead of an approaching tsunami, including potential arrival times and the amount of sea level rise expected.