On May 8, 2024, NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad visited NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson while it surveyed the approaches to Savannah, Georgia, using a DriX USV. The NOAA Uncrewed Systems Operations Center recently transitioned the DriX into operational status. It primarily supports NOAA’s ocean mapping. From left to right are: General Vessel Assistant Stephanie King, NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad, NOAA Corps LTJG Abby Letts and Ensign Genesis Beaz Nieves. (Credit: NOAA Corps LT Michelle Levano)

 

By Dr. Rick Spinrad
Under Secretary of U.S. Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere
NOAA Administrator

NOAA had a record-breaking year in 2024. Bolstered by the largest climate investment in U.S. history, NOAA put out more climate-focused grant money to U.S. communities than ever before. We accomplished our core mission and accelerated our efforts to lay the groundwork for a climate-ready future for our nation.

We forged new relationships and strengthened existing partnerships with communities, states, tribes, academia, international partners, nonprofit organizations and industries, including insurance and reinsurance, retail, architecture and construction, ocean technology, and transportation. We also partnered with Climate Mayors, a bipartisan network of nearly 350 mayors demonstrating climate leadership in their communities, to provide cities nationwide with the tools, data and resources needed to address the growing threats of climate change.

By the end of the 2024 fiscal year, we invested $4.3 billion of the $6.3 billion granted to NOAA from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act. These investments include: high-impact projects to build resilience to coastal hazards, such as sea level rise and extreme weather events, and to reduce pollution and marine debris; restoring coastal habitats that help wildlife and humans thrive; building the capacity of underserved communities to support community-driven restoration; creating climate solutions by storing carbon; supporting economic development in environmental products and services; and providing employment opportunities through climate-ready workforce training and job placement. We also added supercomputing capacity for weather and climate research, and we continue to strengthen our fleet of ships and aircrafts and to replace aging port facilities.

Industry Partnerships for Climate Resilience

With $85 million in funding from the IRA, NOAA established the Industry Proving Ground program to bring together NOAA scientists with key industry leaders to deliver more modernized products and services and help build climate adaptation. We are working with industries to ensure they have high-quality, accessible, and actionable data to ensure sustainable growth as the climate changes and extreme weather increases.

NOAA is fueling economic opportunity across the new blue economy by supporting innovation in new tools and technologies to gather ocean, weather, and climate data needed to operate effectively in the present and to plan for future climate impacts. NOAA supports the development of uncrewed systems that can track hurricanes; map the seafloor; help site wind power; monitor fisheries; and inform climate models to prepare society for higher sea levels, more precipitation, and intensifying tropical cyclones, as well as the impacts of these phenomena on humans and the environment.

New Ships, Aircraft, Piers

Novel uncrewed systems complement the monitoring and research done with NOAA ships and aircraft. We are building two new oceanographic research ships that will go online over the coming years, and two new coastal mapping and charting ships are in the design phase.

In 2024, we contracted for two specialized Lockheed C-130J Super Hercules aircraft to become the next generation of NOAA hurricane hunter aircraft. The planes will be modified to serve as flying laboratories in support of NOAA’s hurricane and environmental research. The fully instrumented aircraft are expected to join NOAA’s fleet in 2030. They will replace the long-serving WP-3D Orions, which have operated since the mid-1970s. We also ordered a second Gulfstream G550 aircraft that will support atmospheric research and hurricane surveillance.

We broke ground in 2024 for a new marine operations center in Newport, Rhode Island, and for major renovations to the NOAA pier facility in North Charleston, South Carolina.

Next-Generation Satellite, Space Weather Sensor

We also continued to add to our next-generation satellite fleet in 2024, launching GOES-19, a satellite that provides high-definition, real-time observations to improve the accuracy and timeliness of our weather, climate, and ocean forecasts. The new satellite carries the first operational satellite solar coronagraph, an instrument that will improve the detection of hazardous space weather that could disrupt power grids, navigation systems and communications.

Climate Planning Tools

In 2024, NOAA released a sea level calculator to provide the public with the best available data to understand and plan for sea level rise at the community level.

NOAA’s investments in climate-ready fisheries are bolstering efforts to incorporate climate and ecosystem data into fisheries research and quota management to help fishing communities adapt to climate impacts on resources.

New National Marine Sanctuaries

NOAA designated two new national marine sanctuaries in 2024. Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary, off the California coast, will celebrate the indigenous people’s connections to the region and conserve marine diversity. Lake Ontario National Marine Sanctuary in the state of New York will celebrate maritime culture and provide new opportunities for tourism, recreation, research, and education. The two sanctuaries help advance the America the Beautiful Initiative to support locally led conservation and conserve 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030.

Seafloor and Coastal Mapping

NOAA made continued progress mapping both coastal and deep seawaters in 2024, including autonomous mapping with the Exail DriX uncrewed surface vehicle, which was deployed off the NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson. Mapping to improve navigation, resource management, and our understanding of ever-changing ocean environments took place in the Arctic, Great Lakes, Pacific, Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic. NOAA partnered with the U.S. Coast Guard to successfully map a new Arctic shipping route leading to the North Slope of Alaska that has opened up because climate warming is accelerating sea ice melt. The Arctic mapping will help inform the locations of a series of meteorological and oceanographic data buoys to deliver observations for navigation and to ensure increased vessel traffic does not harm the region’s marine life and coastal communities.

Strengthening the NOAA Corps

In workforce progress, Vice Adm. Nancy Hann became the first woman in NOAA history to achieve the rank of three-star admiral this past year. As the director of the NOAA Corps and Office of Marine and Aviation Operations, Hann led efforts to improve NOAA Corps policies, practices, and working conditions, putting in place policies to prevent sexual assault and harassment and raising pay for mariners. In late 2024, I was thrilled to name Hann as the deputy under secretary for NOAA Operations, the highest ranking career leader in the agency.

As we look to this new year, 2025, NOAA’s investments in climate resilience, infrastructure improvements and expanded partnerships have positioned the dedicated NOAA workforce to build on the many achievements of the past year.

Learn more here.