National Mesonet/UrbaNet

Overview

In 2006 Congress provided funding to establish "UrbaNet", a surface network designed to explore the use of using integrated commercial and government meteorological data in forecasting within the complex topology of the urban environment. These observations are provided in support of homeland security, emergency management, dispersion modeling, and general forecasting applications.

In 2010, in response to recommendations from the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in their 2008 report Observing Weather and Climate From the Ground Up: A Nationwide Network of Networks, and subsequent Congressional directives, NOAA established funding to expand UrbaNet into the "National Mesonet". The National Mesonet Program will:

1. Maintain and leverage the IT infrastructure that enables the National Mesonet.
2. Maintain procurements of surface mesonet observational data obtained via competitive procurements from existing networks in previous fiscal years.
3. Integrate additional, already-existing non-NWS surface mesonet observations into the Network via competitive procurements.
4. Integrate non non-NWS observations of vertical profiles in the lowest 1000 feet of the atmosphere via competitive procurement.
5. Identify remaining gaps in upper-air observing capabilities and devise a cost-effective strategy to complete an Integrated Upper-Air Observing System.

Statement of Need and Economic Benefits

Despite decades of progress in our ability to observe and predict the weather, we remain limited in our ability to provide long-lead forecasts for small-scale, high impact phenomena. Such phenomena include the initiation of individual thunderstorm cells, the location of the divide between rain and snow during major winter storms, flash floods, and fine-scale, short-lived variations in solar radiation and low-level winds. The NAS report identifies 5 economic sectors that could benefit significantly by improved forecasts of such phenomena:

• Energy production and distribution
• Public health and safety, including forecasts of air quality and in support of hazardous events
• Aviation and highway transportation
• Water resources
• Agriculture

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