A Newly Formed Group of Six American Universities Aims to Enhance Weather Prediction Capabilities

By Better Today On May 21, 2024

TL/DR –

The US Commerce Department and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have announced $6.6m in funding to create a consortium of six universities dedicated to improving weather forecasting in the context of climate change. The Consortium for Advanced Data Assimilation Research and Education (CADRE) will use numerical weather prediction systems to upgrade NOAA’s technology. The universities involved are Pennsylvania State, the University of Oklahoma, Colorado State, Howard, the University of Maryland, and the University of Utah.

US Universities Unveil New Working Group Aimed at Improved Weather Forecasting

In an effort to combat climate change, the Commerce Department and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have announced a $6.6 million funding initiative for a new working group composed of six American universities.

\”Major weather and climate disasters are occurring nearly six times more frequently than 40 years ago,\” stated Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. The Biden administration aims to leverage this financial support to acquire more accurate data and minimize the impact of these disasters.

Provided under the Inflation Reduction Act, this funding will be allocated to the Consortium for Advanced Data Assimilation Research and Education (CADRE), a collective aimed at enhancing weather forecasts through numerical weather prediction systems.

The CADRE, led by six universities including Pennsylvania State University and the University of Oklahoma, will focus on upgrading NOAA technology to ensure accurate and timely information dissemination during extreme weather events, thus making communities more climate resilient.

Earlier this year, NASA and NOAA reported a record-breaking global average temperature in 2023, and deployed a data-gathering device to improve ocean temperature measurements.

Data assimilation advancements are crucial in increasing the accuracy of NOAA’s operational weather forecasts. However, CADRE faces significant challenges with the increased scale and complexity of data. To address this, the consortium will focus on workforce development in this area.

According to Colorado State Professor Peter Jan van Leeuwen, there is a growing need for experts in data assimilation. The consortium aims to train more experts in this field to meet this demand.

The consortium’s new director, Xuguang Wang, pointed out that CADRE will also address gaps in the data assimilation workforce by increasing the number of trained graduates in the field. This initiative will enhance the national and international data assimilation workforce pipeline, he added.

Investments like this, made possible through the Inflation Reduction Act, contribute to greater weather and climate resilience and will enhance the national economy, stated Michael Morgan, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Environmental Observation and Prediction.