43 



Answer: I am very proud of the way NOAA has come together to 

 develop the Strategic Plan. I plan on continuing this process as 

 we evaluate our progress and determine priorities. We have 

 established teams for each of the 15 Strategic Plan elements that 

 have representatives from all the interested organizations within 

 NOAA. These teams provide the intellectual foundation for 

 determining the content of the elements. The information from 

 these teams is iteratively presented to the leadership and senior 

 management of NOAA. All decisions on program direction, 

 priorities among elements, and funding options are made 

 corporately by this senior management group. The process worked 

 fairly well this past year and I plan on continuing the use of 

 this type of corporate involvement. 



Question 4: How far along is NOAA in implementing plans to use 

 defense systems such as the IDSS and over the horizon radar to 

 address specific missions? 



Answer: Any implementation of NOAA's plans for using defense 

 systems in support of our mission areas is dependent on: 

 1) decisions within the Navy and Air Force on whether to continue 

 operating these systems; and 2) costs and benefits of utilizing 

 the systems for non-defense purposes. Much of NOAA's work with 

 the Integrated Undersea Sound Surveillance System (lUSS) and 

 Over-the-Horizon (OTH-B) radar has been experimental so far, 

 aimed at showing the feasibility of applying data from these 

 systems to support NOAA's mission. For example, NOAA has been 

 working with the Navy's hydrophone arrays/Sound Surveillance 

 System (SOSUS) to detect underwater volcanic eruptions as part of 

 our hydrothermal venting (VENTS) research. This summer, NOAA 

 scientists were able to monitor, for the first time, an active 

 eruption that was detected by the SOSUS. 



Question 5: What happens if these systems are shut down? 



Answer: Currently, the Navy intends to shut down a large part of 

 the lUSS system, including much of the SOSUS array. The Navy 

 will continue to operate a few SOSUS hydrophones and a reduced 

 number of AGOR ships which support the Surveillance Towed Array 

 Sensor System (SURTASS) , concentrating on coastal waters. The 

 final configuration of the lUSS is not known. 



If the lUSS is shut down, potential benefits from its use would 

 not be realized. These may include: whale studies, fish 

 population studies, fisheries enforcement efforts, studies of 

 hydrothermal venting (VENTS) , ocean circulation studies, acoustic 

 tomography, and tsunami warnings. 



In many respects, the situation with the OTH-B radar is analogous 

 to that of the lUSS. The OTH-B radar was designed as an early 



