House Hearing on Potential Weather Satellite Gaps and Commercial Data Buys, February 2015

Two subcommittees of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee held a hearing on February 12, 2015 on “Bridging the Gap: America’s Weather Satellites and Weather Forecasting.”  Two main themes were how to mitigate against potential gaps in weather satellite coverage if older satellites cease functioning before new ones are launched, and whether NOAA should buy weather data from commercial companies to augment the data acquired by NOAA’s own satellites.  SpacePolicyOnline.com published a summary of the hearing on February 15, 2015.   Witnesses at the hearing were:

• David Powner, Government Accountability Office (GAO)
• Stephen Volz, NOAA, National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service (NESDIS)
• Steven Clarke, NASA, Joint Agency Satellite Division

Two additional witnesses were available to answer questions, but did not testify:

• Alexander MacDonald, President, American Meteorological Society, and Director, NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory and Chief Science Advisor, NOAA Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research
• John Murphy, NOAA, National Weather Service, Office of Science and Technology