National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

  • The National Weather Service is recruiting federal agencies to be ambassadors as part of its Weather-Ready Nation initiative. NWS says ambassadors are helping citizens and businesses prepare for weather emergencies. Laura Furgione, deputy director for the National Weather Service, tells Federal News Radio's Executive Editor Jason Miller about the new ambassadors program and how agencies can get involved. Read Jason's related article.

    June 17, 2014
  • One of the most damaging aspects of hurricanes is not the storm itself — it is what happens afterwards. Both Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy showed communities were not prepared for the storm surges and flooding. This hurricane season, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is rolling out new tools to improve forecasts and communication. James Franklin is the branch chief in NOAA's hurricane specialist unit. He joined Tom Temin and Emily Kopp on the Federal Drive from the National Hurricane Center.

    June 13, 2014
  • Federal scientists hope to get the first inside look at hurricanes, thanks to new drones. This hurricane season the National Hurricane Center in Miami will send small-unmanned aircraft into the eyes of the storms. Joe Cione is a hurricane researcher at the center, which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He joined Tom Temin and Emily Kopp on the Federal Drive to discuss what scientists hope to accomplish.

    May 30, 2014
  • The White House recently put out what it calls "the loudest and clearest alarm bell to date" on climate change. Its new report says global warming is a factor in changing weather from heat waves to bad allergy seasons. Much of the data supplying the national climate debate is housed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Tom Karl, director of NOAA's National Climatic Data Center, spoke with Federal Drive hosts Tom Temin and Emily Kopp about the work his agency is conducting and the data its collecting.

    May 13, 2014
  • Joe Klimavicz will become the Justice Department's new chief information officer. Klimavicz will leave the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) after spending more than seven years its the CIO and director of high performance computing and communications.

    April 24, 2014
  • The search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has covered hundreds of thousands miles of ocean, and the plane still hasn't turned up. But the search has highlighted a growing problem in the oceans: giant blobs of garbage. The Marine Debris Program at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tracks the problem. The program's mission is to protect and conserve the marine environment and natural resources. Spokesperson Dianna Parker says trash often gets caught in gyres.

    April 04, 2014
  • Kathryn Sullivan, the acting under secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere, sent an email to staff today announcing she was lifting the hiring freeze ban on non-mandatory training NOAA put in place last year to offset the impact of sequestration.

    January 31, 2014
  • The National Weather Service Employees Organization (NWSEO) says the agency blamed lack of funds when it implemented a hiring freeze last March. But the union says NWS budget documents posted to its website show the agency actually ended fiscal 2013 with $125 million in unspent funds. NWS officials dispute the union's contentions that they agency left money on the table. The union's concerns over agency vacancies were the focus of recent arbitration hearings.

    January 22, 2014
  • For Casey Coleman, CIO of the General Services Administration, IT consolidations have netted big savings and allowed the agency to move in a more strategic direction. Meanwhile, Joe Klimavicz, the CIO of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, says wider adoption of shared services can help agencies cut back on operations-and-maintenance IT spending to free up more cash for mission-specific tech initiatives.

    November 20, 2013
  • Iftikhar Jamil, the associate chief information officer for weather at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said the National Weather Service moved its high performance computing capabilities to a private cloud and is developing dissemination-as-a-service. October 31, 2013

    October 31, 2013
  • Iftikhar Jamil, the associate chief information officer for weather at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said the National Weather Service moved its high performance computing capabilities to a private cloud and is developing dissemination-as-a-service. September 12, 2013

    September 12, 2013
  • For his three decades of work in developing severe weather forecasting models, the Partnership for Public Service has named Mark DeMaria a finalist for a Service to America Medal.

    June 18, 2013
  • Employees at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will be furloughed four days starting in July, acting Administrator Kathryn Sullivan wrote in an email to staff Monday.

    April 16, 2013
  • GAO adds two new areas to the list, NOAA's satellite programs and the federal government's financial risk because of climate change. Comptroller General Gene Dodaro said nearly every initiative on the list made progress in fixing their problems over the last two years.

    February 15, 2013