(d) REPORT.—The Under Secretary shall transmit to 
Congress annually, concurrently with NOAA’s budget re-
quest, a description of current and planned activities under 
this section. 
SEC. 4. TORNADO WARNING IMPROVEMENT AND EXTEN-
SION PROGRAM. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Under Secretary, in collabora-
tion with the American weather industry and academic 
partners, shall establish a tornado warning improvement 
and extension program. 
(b) GOAL.—The goal of such program shall be to reduce 
the loss of life and economic losses from tornadoes through 
the development and extension of accurate, effective, and 
timely tornado forecasts, predictions, and warnings, includ-
ing the prediction of tornadoes beyond one hour in advance. 
(c) PROGRAM PLAN.—Not later than 6 months after 
the date of enactment of this Act, the Assistant Adminis-
trator for OAR, in coordination with the Assistant Admin-
istrator for NWS, shall develop a program plan that details 
the specific research, development, and technology transfer 
activities, as well as corresponding resources and timelines, 
necessary to achieve the program goal. 
(d) BUDGET FOR PLAN.—Following completion of the 
plan, the Assistant Administrator for OAR, in coordination 
with the Assistant Administrator for NWS, shall transmit 
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annually to Congress a proposed budget corresponding to 
the activities identified in the plan. 
SEC. 5. HURRICANE FORECAST IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Under Secretary, in collabora-
tion with the American weather industry and academic 
partners, shall maintain the Hurricane Forecast Improve-
ment Program (HFIP). 
(b) GOAL.—The goal of such program shall be to de-
velop and extend accurate hurricane forecasts and warnings 
in order to reduce loss of life, injury, and damage to the 
economy. 
(c) PROGRAM PLAN.—Not later than 6 months after 
the date of enactment of this Act, the Assistant Adminis-
trator for OAR, in consultation with the Assistant Admin-
istrator for NWS, shall develop a program plan that details 
the specific research, development, and technology transfer 
activities, as well as corresponding resources and timelines, 
necessary to achieve the program goal. 
(d) BUDGET FOR PLAN.—Following completion of the 
plan, the Assistant Administrator for OAR, in consultation 
with the Assistant Administrator for NWS, shall transmit 
annually to Congress a proposed budget corresponding to 
the activities identified in the plan. 
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SEC. 6. WEATHER RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PLAN-
NING. 
Not later than 6 months after the date of enactment 
of this Act, and annually thereafter, the Assistant Adminis-
trator for OAR, in coordination with the Assistant Admin-
istrators for NWS and NESDIS, shall issue a research and 
development and research to operations plan to restore and 
maintain United States leadership in numerical weather 
prediction and forecasting that— 
(1) describes the forecasting skill and technology 
goals, objectives, and progress of NOAA in carrying 
out the program conducted under section 3; 
(2) identifies and prioritizes specific research 
and development activities, and performance metrics, 
weighted to meet the operational weather mission of 
NWS to achieve a weather-ready Nation; 
(3) describes how the program will collaborate 
with stakeholders, including the American weather in-
dustry and academic partners; and 
(4) identifies, through consultation with the Na-
tional Science Foundation, American weather indus-
try, and academic partners, research necessary to en-
hance the integration of social science knowledge into 
weather forecast and warning processes, including to 
improve the communication of threat information 
necessary to enable improved severe weather planning 
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and decisionmaking on the part of individuals and 
communities. 
SEC. 7. OBSERVING SYSTEM PLANNING. 
The Under Secretary shall— 
(1) develop and maintain a prioritized list of ob-
servation data requirements necessary to ensure 
weather forecasting capabilities to protect life and 
property to the maximum extent practicable; 
(2) undertake, using OSSEs, OSEs, AOAs, and 
other appropriate assessment tools, ongoing system-
atic evaluations of the combination of observing sys-
tems, data, and information needed to meet the re-
quirements listed under paragraph (1), assessing var-
ious options to maximize observational capabilities 
and their cost-effectiveness; 
(3) identify current and potential future data 
gaps in observing capabilities related to the require-
ments listed under paragraph (1); and 
(4) determine a range of options to address gaps 
identified under paragraph (3). 
SEC. 8. OBSERVING SYSTEM SIMULATION EXPERIMENTS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—In support of the requirements of 
section 7, the Assistant Administrator for OAR shall under-
take OSSEs to quantitatively assess the relative value and 
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benefits of observing capabilities and systems. Technical 
and scientific OSSE evaluations— 
(1) may include assessments of the impact of ob-
serving capabilities on— 
(A) global weather prediction; 
(B) hurricane track and intensity fore-
casting; 
(C) tornado warning lead times and accu-
racy; 
(D) prediction of mid-latitude severe local 
storm outbreaks; and 
(E) prediction of storms that have the po-
tential to cause extreme precipitation and flood-
ing lasting from 6 hours to 1 week; and 
(2) shall be conducted in cooperation with other 
appropriate entities within NOAA, other Federal 
agencies, the American weather industry, and aca-
demic partners to ensure the technical and scientific 
merit of OSSE results. 
(b) REQUIREMENTS.—OSSEs shall quantitatively— 
(1) determine the potential impact of proposed 
space-based, suborbital, and in situ observing systems 
on analyses and forecasts, including potential im-
pacts on extreme weather events across all parts of the 
Nation; 
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a geostationary hyperspectral sounder global con-
stellation. 
(e) RESULTS.—Upon completion of all OSSEs, results 
shall be publicly released and accompanied by an assess-
ment of related private and public sector weather data 
sourcing options, including their availability, affordability, 
and cost effectiveness. Such assessments shall be developed 
in accordance with section 50503 of title 51, United States 
Code. 
SEC. 9. COMPUTING RESOURCES PRIORITIZATION REPORT. 
Not later than 12 months after the date of enactment 
of this Act, and annually thereafter, the NOAA Chief Infor-
mation Officer, in coordination with the Assistant Admin-
istrator for OAR and the Assistant Administrator for NWS, 
shall produce and make publicly available a report that ex-
plains how NOAA intends to— 
(1) continually support upgrades to pursue the 
fastest, most powerful, and cost effective high perform-
ance computing technologies in support of its weather 
prediction mission; 
(2) ensure a balance between the research to op-
erations requirements to develop the next generation 
of regional and global models as well as highly reli-
able operational models; 
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(3) take advantage of advanced development con-
cepts to, as appropriate, make next generation weath-
er prediction models available in beta-test mode to 
operational forecasters, the American weather indus-
try, and partners in academic and government re-
search; and 
(4) use existing computing resources to improve 
advanced research and operational weather pre-
diction. 
SEC. 10. COMMERCIAL WEATHER DATA. 
(a) AMENDMENT.—Section 60161 of title 51, United 
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘This prohibition shall not extend to— 
‘‘(1) the purchase of weather data through con-
tracts with commercial providers; or 
‘‘(2) the placement of weather satellite instru-
ments on cohosted government or private payloads.’’. 
(b) STRATEGY.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 6 months after 
the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of 
Commerce, in consultation with the Under Secretary, 
shall transmit to the Committee on Science, Space, 
and Technology of the House of Representatives and 
the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transpor-
tation of the Senate a strategy to enable the procure-
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ment of quality commercial weather data. The strat-
egy shall assess the range of commercial opportuni-
ties, including public-private partnerships, for obtain-
ing surface-based, aviation-based, and space-based 
weather observations. The strategy shall include the 
expected cost effectiveness of these opportunities as 
well as provide a plan for procuring data, including 
an expected implementation timeline, from these non-
governmental sources, as appropriate. 
(2) REQUIREMENTS.—The strategy shall in-
clude— 
(A) an analysis of financial or other bene-
fits to, and risks associated with, acquiring com-
mercial weather data or services, including 
through multiyear acquisition approaches; 
(B) an identification of methods to address 
planning, programming, budgeting, and execu-
tion challenges to such approaches, including— 
(i) how standards will be set to ensure 
that data is reliable and effective; 
(ii) how data may be acquired through 
commercial experimental or innovative tech-
niques and then evaluated for integration 
into operational use; 
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(iii) how to guarantee public access to 
all forecast-critical data to ensure that the 
American weather industry and the public 
continue to have access to information crit-
ical to their work; and 
(iv) in accordance with section 50503 
of title 51, United States Code, methods to 
address potential termination liability or 
cancellation costs associated with weather 
data or service contracts; and 
(C) an identification of any changes needed 
in the requirements development and approval 
processes of the Department of Commerce to fa-
cilitate effective and efficient implementation of 
such strategy. 
(3) AUTHORITY FOR AGREEMENTS.—The Assist-
ant Administrator for NESDIS may enter into 
multiyear agreements necessary to carry out the strat-
egy developed under this subsection. 
(c) PILOT PROGRAM.— 
(1) CRITERIA.—Not later than December 31, 
2015, NOAA shall publish data standards and speci-
fications for space-based commercial weather data. 
(2) PILOT CONTRACT.— 
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(A) CONTRACT.—Not later than October 1, 
2016, NOAA shall, through an open competition, 
enter into at least one pilot contract with a pri-
vate sector entity capable of providing data that 
meet the standards and specifications set by 
NOAA to provide commercial weather data in a 
manner that allows NOAA to calibrate and 
evaluate the data. 
(B) ASSESSMENT OF DATA VIABILITY.—Not 
later than October 1, 2019, NOAA shall transmit 
to Congress the results of a determination of the 
extent to which data provided under the contract 
entered into under subparagraph (A) meet the 
criteria published under paragraph (1). 
(3) OBTAINING FUTURE DATA.—NOAA shall, to 
the extent feasible, obtain commercial weather data 
from private sector providers. 
(4) AUTHORIZATION
OF
APPROPRIATIONS.— 
There are authorized to be appropriated out of funds 
made available for procurement, acquisition, and con-
struction at NESDIS, $9,000,000 for carrying out 
this subsection. 
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