Foreword

Every day, NOAA protects the lives of all Americans, supporting public safety and sustainable commerce; providing for life-saving weather predictions, safe navigation, a viable seafood industry, and disaster mitigation and response. 

The incredible professionals at NOAA are responsible for these services and more, along with environmental stewardship and world class science that shapes so many aspects of our lives. Over the last several years, I’ve witnessed this team do exceptional, even previously unimaginable things, in the face of unique challenges.

Team NOAA also embraced extraordinary opportunities, like the unprecedented $6B in new investments that we’re using to build a Climate Ready Nation. Thanks to this funding, we’ve restored thousands of acres of habitat and waterways, helped people across the country make climate-smart investments in their communities and coasts, and improved the climate data and services we provide to decision makers, families, communities, and businesses. 

We’ve designated three new national marine sanctuaries, thus protecting the marine environment and stimulating local economies. We’ve also helped permit the most offshore wind renewable energy projects in history. 

Our ability to predict severe weather has taken a significant step forward with investments in high-performance computing power and new satellites. Our ability to gather environmental intelligence will continue to grow as we add four new state-of-the-art ships that we’re building from the keel up, multiple new aircraft received or under construction and new pier facilities in South Carolina and Rhode Island.

We’ve provided unparalleled support to tribal nations and underserved communities to bolster resilience in the face of climate change. We’ve provided tools to community leaders facing sea level rise and other challenges like excessive heat. And we’ve recommitted ourselves to equity and making our own NOAA workforce reflective of the nation we serve.

As the Biden-Harris Administration comes to a close, I’m proud to say our communities are more prepared for climate change, our observation and prediction tools are more powerful, and our core values of innovation, integrity, and inclusion are central to our mission of science, service and stewardship.

Dr. Richard W. Spinrad
Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere
NOAA Administrator

Executive Summary

Over the last four years, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has profoundly impacted Americans’ lives through its mission of science, service and stewardship. NOAA has advanced its world-class science through groundbreaking research and expanded operational capabilities, helping our nation become safer, healthier and more prosperous.

As part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America Agenda, NOAA has invested billions of climate-smart dollars via the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) into communities nationwide, including tribal and underserved areas. Programs like the $575M Climate Resilience Regional Challenge have helped the nation’s coastal communities assess their risks to extreme weather and flooding risks, implement locally-designed solutions, upgrade aging infrastructure, and build resilience capacity. Thanks to the $60M Climate Ready Workforce program, thousands of people are being trained and placed in climate jobs that help coastal and Great Lakes states, tribes and territories adapt to climate change. Over $600M in habitat restoration grants is being invested to help communities improve natural areas and local fisheries, and to recover and conserve endangered species, with a special focus on tribal fisheries. Nearly $500M is being invested to improve fish passage and stream restoration, which will contribute to the removal of dams and other barriers to fish passage and increase access to migratory pathways and healthy habitat for fish species. 

Through this funding, NOAA delivered its scientific expertise in bigger, broader, and bolder ways than ever before. IRA and BIL investments were used to expand and enhance data, products, services, and expertise to address rapidly increasing user needs resulting from increasing climate impacts. These historic investments in America’s climate resilience empowered local leaders and decision makers to understand, prepare for and mitigate climate impacts unique to their communities. BIL and IRA-funded opportunities, coupled with the agency’s perennial programs, facilitated the construction of a Climate Ready Nation, the growth of the New Blue Economy, and the enhancement of our operational excellence, all with a reaffirmed commitment to serving all Americans.

In 2023 — the Earth’s warmest year on record — the U.S. experienced 28 billion-dollar disasters, costing $92.9 billion. With record-breaking heat affecting both land and ocean, NOAA has embraced extraordinary opportunities and unprecedented funding to help build a Climate Ready Nation. The agency has worked to expand its climate services, provide equitable access to the most up-to-date and accurate climate and weather data, and work one-on-one with communities to build up resilience in response to unique challenges. These improvements support public safety, provide life-saving weather predictions, ensure safe navigation, and strengthen disaster mitigation and response. NOAA’s once-in-a-generation programs and investments have helped prepare American communities and leaders for the challenges of tomorrow’s planet. 

America’s New Blue Economy looks to the sea to address societal challenges and inspire their solutions. Under NOAA’s stewardship, the traditional blue economy has developed into a more sustainable and equitable ocean and coastal economy that optimizes advances in science and technology to create new opportunities and solutions for climate-driven conflicts. By gathering and revolutionizing the application of ocean data within multiple sectors, NOAA has expanded ocean and coastal observations, improved resilience for coastal communities and economies, and restored marine life and ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes ecosystems. NOAA has also worked tirelessly to support the responsible growth of the offshore wind sector, advancing renewable energy while safeguarding marine biodiversity. Under the Biden-Harris Administration’s America the Beautiful initiative, new marine sanctuaries have been designated to protect species close to extinction, preserve historically significant shipwrecks, and provide natural classrooms for students of all ages.

As NOAA continues to monitor, research and forecast our planet’s ever-changing conditions, we have made critical upgrades and additions to our fleet and technology. Next-generation aircraft have taken to the sky to support coastal mapping, emergency response, and data collection missions, among others. NOAA’s fleet of oceanographic research and coastal mapping vessels have docked at upgraded pier facilities that support enhanced economic security, public safety and at-sea data collection. State-of-the-art geostationary satellites monitor our planet, providing life-saving data and insights on weather and environmental trends.

In the face of previously unimaginable challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic, NOAA’s diverse team of over 12,000 individuals has embraced Inclusion, Innovation and Integrity in order to bolster our science. From groundbreaking discoveries in the deepest depths of the ocean to pioneering satellite technology for severe weather monitoring, NOAA has introduced new innovations on air, land and sea to protect people, property and livelihoods across the nation. “Investing in America: NOAA's Science, Service and Stewardship in Action” outlines NOAA’s transformative work to build a Climate Ready Nation, accelerate the growth of an information-driven Blue Economy, and upgrade operational capabilities through critical investments in our facilities, marine fleet and aircraft — all of which are enhanced by a focus on serving all Americans.

Building a Climate Ready Nation

NOAA is tasked with building a Climate Ready Nation that depends upon a shared understanding of — and collective action to reduce — the impacts of climate change. By providing essential climate data, tools and services nationwide, NOAA empowers local leaders, emergency managers and vulnerable communities to take informed and proactive steps to combat the climate crisis.

Equitable access to climate and weather information is key for successful climate preparation and mitigation. Through initiatives like the Inflation Reduction Act’s Industry Proving Grounds (IPG), NOAA is preparing communities for compounding risks from extreme weather, water and climate events. IPG has connected major U.S. industries like architecture & engineering, re/insurance and retail with actionable climate data to better support decision making and long-term climate resilience planning. 

The climate economy is projected to expand rapidly, with green jobs in the U.S. expected to reach nearly 24 million by 2030, or 14% of total U.S. employment. In 2023 alone, clean energy jobs in the U.S. grew at more than twice the rate of overall job growth across all states and sectors. Cross-sector and global partnerships stemming from initiatives like IPG are essential in creating the jobs of tomorrow. NOAA has placed a $60M down-payment on a Climate Ready Workforce to train tomorrow’s workers in climate-smart tools, technology and insights. 

These tools have broken new ground in severe weather forecasting and prediction — down to local levels. As NOAA delves deeper into the science of our dynamic ocean planet, the agency is forecasting weather phenomena further in advance than ever before. Americans are benefiting from increased safety measures and targeted local guidance, thanks to NOAA’s innovative models, like the newly customized LightningCast model, which provides advanced warnings of lightning activity in a given area. The agency’s latest global forecasts now provide up to a year’s advance notice of marine heatwaves, which dramatically affect ocean ecosystems, coastal communities and fisheries.

Through strong partnerships, NOAA has shed light on some of our planet’s oldest weather mysteries, leading to stronger predictions and forecasts. As major storms made landfall, NOAA captured the world’s first footage from inside of a category 4 hurricane, paving the way for improved severe storm forecasting. Our collaborative suite of tools for emergency managers and community leaders is expansive, meeting the needs of a wide range of communities. One key initiative, the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) Billion-Dollar Disaster Risk Mapping Tool, now incorporates U.S. Census tract data and covers over 100 combinations of weather and climate hazards, offering local officials community-level insights into risk, exposure, and vulnerability.

As our nation adapts to climate change, NOAA’s National Weather Service continues to protect lives and property in harm’s way. Our 122 local Weather Forecast Offices are part of a broad team who work diligently to deliver the most accurate and up-to-date weather, water and climate data, forecasts and warnings directly to community members across multiple platforms. NOAA empowers individuals to take preventative measures in the face of climate change through accessible tools like Heat.gov, the nation’s premier hub for heat and health information.

Accomplishments highlighted in green were funded in part or in full by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and/or the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

Strengthening the New Blue Economy

Under NOAA’s leadership, the U.S. is advancing a New Blue Economy — a sustainable ocean and coastal economy that embraces innovation in ocean technology, resource management and logistics. The New Blue Economy protects marine habitats and species while promoting the responsible use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods and job creation. Through NOAA’s work, coastal communities are more empowered to harness the potential of our oceans and coasts in local climate adaptation and mitigation strategies.

Home to over 127 million people, our nation’s coastal communities represent approximately 40% of the entire population. NOAA’s transformative stewardship of the New Blue Economy has supported over 2.4 million jobs and contributed over $397 billion to the nation’s gross domestic product through tourism, shipping, transportation, power generation, and the ever-growing seafood industry, to name a few. These coastal industries continue to thrive with sustainability as a top priority, with demand for maritime commerce expected to triple by 2030.

The success of the New Blue Economy is dependent upon a robust understanding of our ocean planet — and over the last several years, NOAA has made great strides in navigation, observations and positioning to meet this need. NOAA has expanded coastal, ocean and Great Lakes observing systems, which play a critical role in data collection to inform severe storm forecasts, among a myriad of other uses. As of January 2023, a record 50% of U.S. waters have been mapped to 100m resolution, greatly enhancing marine navigation. In the air, NOAA completed its groundbreaking 15-year effort to collect gravity data over the entire area of U.S. states and territories, which will support improved floodplain mapping, coastal resource management and emergency evacuation planning. 

These critical advances have laid the foundation for the New Blue Economy’s conservation and recovery efforts. As reported in the 2023 Status of the Stocks, 94% of the stocks managed with known status are not subject to overfishing. Since 2000, NOAA has rebuilt 50 fish stocks, supporting a $321 billion commercial and recreational fishing industry that sustained 2.3 million jobs in 2022. 

As stocks have recovered, NOAA has reopened fishing areas that have been closed for decades, revitalizing local economies and recreational fishing. NOAA has also designated more national marine sanctuaries than in any other four-year period in agency history, protecting diverse underwater habitats and assets like archaeological sites, shipwrecks, submerged aircraft, coral reefs, seamounts and abyssal plains for generations to come.

Sustainability in the New Blue Economy reaches into many different facets of American life. Across the country, farmers are using innovative aquaculture practices to sustain their communities with fresh, local seafood. NOAA has streamlined this process through the identification and designation of Aquaculture Opportunity Areas, as well as improving aquaculture permitting practices. The agency has permitted the most offshore wind renewable energy projects in history, advancing the Biden-Harris Administration’s clean energy goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030. NOAA scientists are committed to monitoring and protecting marine ecosystems as the offshore wind sector grows, using cutting-edge uncrewed vehicles and technology to responsibly collect subsurface data in areas that traditional survey vessels can no longer access.

Accomplishments highlighted in green were funded in part or in full by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and/or the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

Enhancing Operational Excellence

NOAA’s transformative efforts to build a Climate Ready Nation, center equity, and sustain the New Blue Economy rely on a durable fleet, enhanced computing power and best-in-class monitoring tools.

Our fleet in the sky continues to grow, advancing our capabilities for hurricane reconnaissance and research, marine mammal and fisheries assessment, and coastal mapping. At sea, NOAA operates one of the largest fleets of federal research ships nationwide, conducting critical hydrographic surveys, oceanographic and climatic research and fisheries surveys. New, state-of-the-art ships are being constructed from the keel up to explore the deepest parts of the ocean and conduct a wide range of marine activities and research. NOAA’s oceanographic vessels are further supported by the design and construction of new pier facilities around the nation, which are equipped to accommodate multiple large vessels, provide shoreside power and support smaller vessels, in addition to other critical infrastructure upgrades. 

Our eyes in the sky — satellites — are advancing rapidly in both number and instrumentation. In 2023, NOAA’s satellites helped rescue 350 people from an array of life-threatening situations in the U.S. and surrounding waters. NOAA’s latest generation of Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES-R Series) provide unprecedented climate and weather data to scientists and forecasters. With the successful launch of GOES-18 and GOES-19, NOAA now monitors environmental phenomena with even greater precision, improving public safety, protection of property, and our nation’s economic health and prosperity. The GOES-19 satellite features NOAA’s first-ever solar coronagraph, an instrument that will capture imagery and data on coronal mass ejections to monitor the outer layer of the sun, enabling early detection of significant solar eruptions. Additionally, NOAA is streamlining safety, sustainability and international cooperation in space through unprecedented mechanisms like the Traffic Coordination System for Space (TraCSS), which issues potential collision alerts to beta users and space operators representing some 1,000 satellites. 

Advancements in uncrewed and machine learning technology have unlocked new monitoring and research capabilities in previously inaccessible areas. Uncrewed marine and aircraft systems provide essential observations to meteorological and oceanographic research, ocean exploration and characterization, and marine resource management. Through its new Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) Pilot Program and Working Group, NOAA has developed over 70 projects to safely and ethically innovate with AI. New high-performance computing systems have been brought into production around the nation, enhancing NOAA’s capacity for complex mathematical computations and supporting advancements in AI and machine learning.

Accomplishments highlighted in green were funded in part or in full by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and/or the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)

Serving all Americans

The need for equitable investments in communities is visible even from our geostationary satellites in space. To leave behind a healthier planet, the needs of underserved and vulnerable communities must be addressed. Our understanding of the impacts of climate, weather, oceans and coasts is incomplete without input from groups experiencing disproportionate impacts of climate change. As a Climate Ready Nation takes shape, NOAA has broken down barriers to make our science communicable, accessible and cross-disciplinary through Climate Equity Pilots, equity-driven BIL and IRA investments, our new Equitable Climate Services Action Plan, and more.

Different regions experience climate change uniquely, and vulnerable communities often bear the heaviest burdens. Since 2021, NOAA has strengthened its commitment to incorporating equity into our tools and service delivery. Our scientists and researchers have published standardized, accessible climate projections by region through 2050, providing local leaders with region-specific climate risk information. In partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), NOAA expanded the availability of HeatRisk, a tool offering guidance and social understanding resources on heat risk to protect those most vulnerable to extreme heat. After decades of manually translating weather forecasts and warnings in Spanish, the National Weather Service capitalized on advancements in AI to share weather, water and climate information in other languages, with further plans to expand language offerings to ensure that critical, life-saving information is available to everyone.

NOAA has also approached its partnerships through an equitable lens. Through regional and interagency collaborations, NOAA has provided climate mitigation resources to tribes around the nation and engaged in dialogues like the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium’s (ANTHC) first Tribal Climate Initiatives Gathering, where participants addressed Alaska Native communities’ climate realities and planned mitigation strategies. The agency has broadened the range of voices that contribute to its science and policies through initiatives like the eeBLUE Young Changemakers Fellowship, which connects students directly to NOAA leaders and empowers young people to take action on ocean and environmental issues. Additionally, NOAA’s newest Citizen Science Action Plan advances public participation in NOAA’s mission — ensuring that collaboration, inclusivity, and data integrity remain foundational to NOAA’s work.

NOAA has turned inward to cultivate a more diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace, essential for delivering tools and services that are accessible to all. While formally established in October 2024, NOAA’s core values of integrity, inclusion, and innovation have long guided our commitment to fostering trust, transparency, and accountability. Furthermore, through the first-ever NOAA Equity Framework, our team continues to transform organizational culture, build trusting relationships with historically underserved and tribal communities, and work to avoid biases in research and data collection, centralizing equity in our approach to scientific integrity.

Accomplishments highlighted in green were funded in part or in full by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and/or the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)

Conclusion

Over the last four years, NOAA’s science, service and stewardship have continued to facilitate a shared understanding and drive for conservation of the dynamic ocean planet that we call home. The agency has made significant strides in bolstering climate resilience, protecting all people and property in the face of disasters, sustainably growing the New Blue Economy, and deploying transformational new tools and technologies to carry out its mission.

Thanks to the Biden-Harris administration’s commitment to building a Climate Ready Nation, billions of dollars invested via the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act have helped preserve our planet’s natural resources and provide communities with timely scientific information to inform local decision-making. These historic investments allowed NOAA to build on its mission to help Americans prepare, adapt, and build resilience to weather and climate events, particularly Tribal communities and vulnerable populations. 

As we reflect on the last four years and look ahead to the next, our workforce is more diverse, our observation tools are more powerful, and our commitment to protecting lives, lifestyles and livelihoods with a renewed focus on equity remains central to our duties.