The use of these tools is not new to NOAA. In fact we have robust experience and demonstrated leadership with applications across a variety of mission areas and are already delivering successful operational systems that are beginning to pay dividends. To illustrate, UxS is already helping us map and explore more of America’s oceans, coasts, and Great Lakes;  AI is analyzing satellite data for severe weather and wildfire detection; Cloud computing partnerships with commercial cloud service providers allow NOAA to make more of its valuable data publicly accessible; NOAA already manages (or has extensive experience managing) environmental data that form the basis of NOAA’s scientific products and services; and, ‘omics is already informing fisheries management decisions. Implementing our strategies more fully will accelerate these advances and serve as force multipliers to solve tough problems and set the course to strengthen our environmental S&T leadership for the coming decades.

In recent years, NOAA and its multisector partners have worked tirelessly to advance successful unmanned systems, artificial intelligence, ‘omics, and cloud solutions that improve our mission accomplishment. The draft strategies will ensure robust agency-wide coordination and strong institutional support from NOAA senior leadership for these emerging science and technology focus areas to guide transformational advances in the quality and efficiency of NOAA’s science, products, and services. An overarching summary of NOAA’s Science and Technology Focus Areas is available here. Summaries of the Uncrewed Systems, Artificial Intelligence, ‘Omics and Cloud Computing strategies highlight impactful examples in each domain and punctuate their five foundational goals.

In recent years, NOAA and its multisector partners have worked tirelessly to advance successful unmanned systems, artificial intelligence, ‘omics, and cloud solutions that improve our mission accomplishment. The draft strategies will ensure robust agency-wide coordination and strong institutional support from NOAA senior leadership for these emerging science and technology focus areas to guide transformational advances in the quality and efficiency of NOAA’s science, products, and services. The NOAA ‘Omics White Paper was developed by the NOAA ‘Omics Task Force (OTF), a cross-NOAA interdisciplinary team established by the NOAA Science Council. The OTF was tasked in 2018 with documenting the portfolio of ‘omics research and activities across the organization, identifying priorities, fostering integration and communication, and formulating solutions to implement challenges in this nascent sector of research. This document informed the creation of the NOAA ‘Omics Strategy and corresponding fact sheet, and thus provides important supplemental information to those documents.

NOAA developed these strategies in accordance with guidance provided by the Administration and Congress, including the Presidential Memorandum on Ocean Mapping, the Office of Science and Technology Policy FY21 Research and Development Priorities letter, the National Science and Technology Council report “Science and Technology for America’s Oceans: a Decadal Vision,” the Executive Order on Maintaining American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence, the Commercial Engagement Through Ocean Technology (CENOTE) Act and the Federal Cloud Computing Strategy.  They also support the goals of the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 and the National Integrated Drought Information System Reauthorization Act of 2018, for example, to improve weather models and observations as well as the efficiency of NOAA’s computing resources.