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NOAA's Office of Weather and Air Quality (OWAQ) is soliciting proposals for weather, air quality, and earth-system modeling research reflecting multiple science objectives spanning time scales from hours to seasons, and from weather and water observations and earth system modeling to social and behavioral science. There will be three grant competitions from this notification valued at approximately $7,000,000 as follows: 1) Joint Technology Transfer Initiative (JTTI), 2) Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment - Southeast U.S. (VORTEX-SE), and 3) Climate Testbed (CTB). In alignment with the Weather Forecasting and Innovation Act of 2017 (Public Law 115-25), the funded projects should improve NOAA's understanding and ultimately its services of weather and water forecasting through engagement with the external scientific community on key science gaps of mutual interest. Through this funding opportunity, NOAA will support new weather, water, climate, earth system, and air quality observing and forecasting applications, including improved analysis techniques, better statistical or dynamic forecast models and techniques, and communication of that information to better inform the public.

The goal of this Federal Funding Opportunity (FFO) is to support the education of K-12 students and the public so they are knowledgeable of the ways in which their community can become more resilient to extreme weather events and/or other environmental hazards, and become involved in achieving that resilience. Many U.S. communities are increasingly contending with issues related to preventing, withstanding, and recovering from disruptions caused by extreme weather and other environmental hazards (U.S. Department of Commerce FY2014-FY2018 Strategic Plan). These hazards include but are not limited to severe storms, tornadoes, hurricanes, flooding, heavy precipitation events, persistent drought, heat waves, increased global temperatures, acidification of the ocean, and sea level rise (Weather-ready Nation: NOAA's National Weather Service Strategic Plan 2011; Melillo et al., 2014). These extreme weather and climate events put stress on infrastructure, ecological systems, and the humans that live in the impacted places.

The goal of this Federal Funding Opportunity (FFO) is to support the education of K-12 students and the public so they are knowledgeable of the ways in which their community can become more resilient to extreme weather events and/or other environmental hazards, and become involved in achieving that resilience. Many U.S. communities are increasingly contending with issues related to preventing, withstanding, and recovering from disruptions caused by extreme weather and other environmental hazards (U.S. Department of Commerce FY2014-FY2018 Strategic Plan). These hazards include but are not limited to severe storms, tornadoes, hurricanes, flooding, heavy precipitation events, persistent drought, heat waves, increased global temperatures, acidification of the ocean, and sea level rise (Weather-ready Nation: NOAA's National Weather Service Strategic Plan 2011; Melillo et al., 2014). These extreme weather and climate events put stress on infrastructure, ecological systems, and the humans that live in the impacted places. U.S. communities can become more resilient to such events by exploring the hazards they face, assessing their specific vulnerabilities and risks, considering options, prioritizing and planning, and finally taking action (U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit). This process is typically performed by scientists and municipal planners, but in order for resilience to occur, other members of a community must have some understanding of the hazards they face and how to mitigate them, both at the individual and the community level.

NOAA's Weather Program Office (WPO; formerly OWAQ, the Office of Weather and Air Quality) is soliciting proposals for weather, air quality, and earth-system modeling and observations research reflecting multiple science objectives spanning time scales from hours to seasons, and from weather and water observations and earth system modeling to social, and behavioral, and economic science. There will be three grant competitions from this notification valued at approximately $7,750,000 as follows: 1) Joint Technology Transfer Initiative (JTTI), 2) Observations, and 3) Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBES).

The purpose of the NOAA Research to Operations (R2O) Initiative is to expand and accelerate critical weather forecasting research to operations to address growing service demands and increase the accuracy of weather forecasts. This will be achieved through: (1) accelerated development and implementation of improved global weather prediction models, and inclusion of the coupling of atmosphere, ocean, wave, land surface and ice system components; (2) improved data assimilation techniques; (3) nested regional prediction capabilities; (4) improved hurricane and tropical cyclone modeling techniques; (5) improved ensemble techniques; (6) post-processing forecast tools and techniques; and (7) improved software architecture and system engineering.

This solicitation addresses the overlapping objectives of the National Space Weather Strategy and Action Plan (NSW-SAP) and the National Strategic Computing Initiative (NSCI) Update through a pilot program. The goal of this pilot program is to transform development of predictive modeling of the coupled evolution of the magnetized solar atmosphere and the solar wind, and their interaction with the Earth's magnetosphere and upper atmosphere. This requires advancing our understanding of the necessary and sufficient requirements of model complexity, computational performance, and observational inputs. The pilot program is also expected to directly contribute to the long-term goal of creating space weather models with quantifiable predictive capability.

In collaboration with the university science community, NCAR scientists focus on fundamental research aimed at improving our ability to predict meteorological, air quality and space weather hazards and increasing our understanding of the variability in and changes to the Earth's climate system at regional and global scales. These research themes are enabled by NCAR-operated facilities such as two highly modified aircraft (a C-130Q Hercules and a Gulfstream-V); a petascale supercomputing center in Cheyenne, Wyoming; and state-of-the-art community models, including the Community Earth System Model (CESM), the Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF) and the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM). Partnerships with researchers in complementary fields, such as hydrology, cryospheric science, oceanography, terrestrial biology, public health and social sciences, to name a few, broaden NCAR's activities beyond the traditional atmospheric and geospace sciences. Details about NCAR's research activities can be found on the website at ncar.ucar.edu and in NCAR's current strategic plan.

The NOAA/NASA/DOD Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation (JCSDA) is a distributed center that engages units of NASA: Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Earth-Sun Exploration Division; NOAA: NESDIS Center for Satellite Applications and Research (STAR) , National Weather Service (NWS) National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), and Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR); US Navy: Oceanographer of the Navy and the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL); and US Air Force Air Weather Agency. The Joint Center's goal is to accelerate the abilities of NOAA, DoD, and NASA to ingest and effectively use the large volumes of data from current satellite-based instruments and planned satellite missions. The JCSDA supports scientific development work in the following priority areas (1) Radiative transfer, (2) Clouds and precipitation data assimilation, (3) Advanced instruments data assimilation, (4) Land data assimilation, (5) Ocean data assimilation and (6) Air Composition data assimilation. JCSDA research is performed internally (internal research) as well as externally using grants and/or contracts awarded via a competitive process open to the broader scientific community (external research). The overarching goal of JCSDA research is to accelerate the assimilation of satellite data in US operational numerical environment forecast models. A primary measure of potential impact in this solicitation will be the acceleration of satellite data usage into NOAA, and DoD forecast systems, and the improvement of forecasts from those systems.

Through the U.S. Weather Research Program (USWRP), OAR's Office of Weather and Air Quality (OWAQ) is soliciting proposals to conduct air quality research and development activities related to advancing air quality forecasting that will improve NOAA's operational predictions of ozone and PM2.5 in particular over the coming 5 to 10 years.

(1) This project will examine and test the feasibility of stabilizing large petrified redwood stumps using established methods of stone conservation. The petrified stumps at Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument (FLFO) are the fundamental resource of the park. Of the approximately 30 stumps, five of these are actively deteriorating due to cracking, spalling and the loss of large fragments of petrified wood. Several stumps have many deep multidimensional fractures apparently resulting from the use of dynamite during their original excavation, and subsequent weathering including freeze-thaw cycling. They are exposed to accelerated natural and man-made weathering processes. Currently, vulnerable portions of the stumps are held in place only by steel banding that keeps loose fragments together. Risks to the stumps persist due to the combined action of freeze-thaw (loosening of fragments and spalling), gravity (falling of fragments), biological interactions (fracturing and defacement as a result of factors such as plant growth, burrows, and excrement), and theft (loss of fragments that are within reach of visitors). Possible ground salts activated through moisture, may also be a factor.

Projects must be designed to advance understanding of the impacts of or mitigating strategies for climate change. This may include but is not limited to understanding the impacts of climate change on water resources and natural resource preservation, tracking and predicting (human or animal) migration patterns based on changing weather conditions, developing models to analyze and improve crop or livestock resilience and yields in regions with extreme weather conditions, and more.

Through the Joint Technology Transfer Initiative (JTTI) Program, OAR's Office of Weather and Air Quality (OWAQ) is soliciting proposals to conduct research and development activities related to advancing data assimilation of new observations and data assimilation techniques for convective-scale weather prediction, improving water prediction capabilities through enhancements to National Water Model, improving daily to subseasonal scale prediction of Arctic sea ice, and communicating forecast uncertainty.

Through the Joint Technology Transfer Initiative (JTTI) Program, OAR's Office of Weather and Air Quality (OWAQ) is soliciting proposals to conduct research and development activities related to advancing data assimilation of new observations and data assimilation techniques for convective-scale weather prediction, improving water prediction capabilities through enhancements to National Water Model, improving daily to sub-seasonal scale prediction of Arctic sea ice, and communicating forecast uncertainty.

The CSTAR Program represents a NWS effort to create a cost-effective transition from basic and applied research to operations and services through collaborative research between operational forecasters and academic institutions which have expertise in the environmental sciences. These activities will engage researchers and students in applied research of interest to the operational meteorological community and will improve the accuracy of forecasts and warnings of environmental hazards by applying scientific knowledge and information to operational products and services. The CSTAR Program addresses NOAA's Mission Goal 3: Weather Ready Nation. NOAA's Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) office is announcing a separate federal funding opportunity that is a companion to this funding opportunity. Please search for funding opportunity number NOAA-OAR-OWAQ-2017-2005004 in grants.gov. The OAR funding opportunity supports projects that require NOAA testbed collaborations and demonstrations, while this funding opportunity does not have this requirement.

The CSTAR Program represents a NWS effort to create a cost-effective transition from basic and applied research to operations and services through collaborative research between operational forecasters and academic institutions which have expertise in the environmental sciences. These activities will engage researchers and students in applied research of interest to the operational meteorological community and will improve the accuracy of forecasts and warnings of environmental hazards by applying scientific knowledge and information to operational products and services. The CSTAR Program addresses NOAA's Mission Goal 3: Weather Ready Nation. NOAA's Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) office is announcing a separate federal funding opportunity that is a companion to this funding opportunity. Please search for funding opportunity number NOAA-OAR-OWAQ-2017-2005004 in grants.gov. The OAR funding opportunity supports projects that require NOAA testbed collaborations and demonstrations, while this funding opportunity does not have this requirement.

Grants will support the development of research and practices that focus on the human dynamics of resilience. Specifically, we are interested in projects that enhance community resilience and well-being by accounting for the influence of social, cultural, and health factors on a community's capacity to adapt and thrive as part of efforts to mitigate and respond to the adverse impacts of climate change, severe weather, and major environmental disasters. Proposed projects should bring together researchers, practitioners, and individuals from communities, including those from community organizations, state and local government, industry, and local businesses, so that all relevant perspectives inform possible approaches to advancing the science and practice of resilience. Involvement of local leaders and community members, particularly those substantially affected, is strongly encouraged.

NSF-funded advancements are enabling a wide variety of beneficial applications of UAS in areas such as monitoring and inspection of physical infrastructure, prevention of airport bird strikes, smart emergency/disaster response, natural gas leak detection, agriculture support, personal services, and observation and study of weather phenomena including severe storms. These advances are made possible through fundamental investments in theoretical principles of UAS, including intelligent sensing, perception, and control; estimation; communications; collaboration and teaming; UAS adaptation and learning; human-UAS interaction; and safety, security, and privacy of UAS. These novel fundamental approaches enable increased understanding of how to intelligently and effectively design, control, and apply UAS to beneficial applications. NSF welcomes proposals that accelerate fundamental technological advances in UAS; these proposals should be submitted to existing CISE and ENG core and crosscutting research programs, following all proposal preparation instructions specified in the corresponding program announcements and solicitations. All proposals must meet the requirements of NSF's Grant Proposal Guide (GPG), along with any program- or solicitation-specific proposal preparation instructions and review criteria. Proposals must be synergistic with the goals of the programs to which they are submitted.

Through the Joint Technology Transfer Initiative (JTTI) Program, OAR's Office of Weather and Air Quality (OWAQ) is soliciting proposals to conduct research and development activities related to advancing the convective scale modeling and water prediction over the coming 1 to 2 years.

This research funding opportunity is being jointly issued by the NOAA OAR Office and Weather and Air Quality (OWAQ) and the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL). It seeks to obtain new knowledge of the meteorological and infrasound aspects of tornadoes in the southeastern United States (U.S.) and the social and behavioral aspects of the public response to tornado forecasts and tornado events. This new knowledge will improve our ability to understand, forecast and warn the public of tornadoes and elicit appropriate responses to mitigate damage, injuries, and loss of life.

The purpose of the program is to conduct research utilizing a multidisciplinary approach to investigate the complex relationships among weather, climate, human health and ecosystems; and training the next generation of scientists in these complex, yet interconnected areas; thus, ultimately increasing novel and practical applications of public health and climate science for the prevention of disease and protection of public health.

Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP) Primary Announcement (7 Task Statements) 1. Fuels Mapping for Emissions Inventories 2. Smoke Hazard Warning Signs 3. Implications of Changing Fuels and Fire Regimes 4. Fire Ember Production 5. Fire Effects on Soil Heating 6. Fire Weather and Decision Making 7. Re-measurement-Long Term Effects on Vegetation/Fuels. See Section IV of announcement for proposal submission requirements.