Atmospheric Activities 



The United States has led in the remarl<abie advances of recent years in observ- 

 ing, describing, understanding, and simulating large-scale atmospheric behavior. 

 NACOA finds it is now time to increase the relative effort on smaller-scale 

 meteorological phenomena which nevertheless have large local impact — flash 

 floods, tornadoes, severe hail, etc. — and to improve local forecasts. NACOA 

 also recommends greater attention be paid to monitoring the public response to 

 weather forecasts and warnings so as to improve the ultimate effectiveness of 

 dissemination and to increase its value to weather sensitive activities. 

 Although we appear to stand on the threshold of practical weather modification, 

 and some limited aspects are now operational, not enough is known about it to 

 make it ready for general operational use. In addition to unsatisfied questions 

 in domestic and international social, legal, and economic areas, a great deal of 

 physical research still needs to be done. Last year NACOA recommended focus- 

 ing and coordinating the many small research programs now scattered widely 

 through the Federal agencies. NACOA again recommends this be done and 

 again recommends assigning NOAA lead agency responsibility because it has the 

 bulk of the scientific expertise both theoretical and experimental. 



Introduction 



The last decade has been a period of remarkable advance in the atmos- 

 pheric sciences. Perhaps the outstanding achievement has been the great 

 strides made in observirig, understanding, describing, and modeling 

 (through computer simulation) the large-scale behavior of the atmos- 

 phere. This effort has had as a major objective extending the accuracy 

 and the period for which reliable forecasts can be made. A secondary 

 objective, of growing importance in the light of man's increasing inter- 

 vention, is understanding the processes of climate change. 



The United States has led the way in this effort, notably in the Global 

 Atmospheric Research Program (GARP). Universities, NOAA, NSF, and 

 DOD, using computers, satellites, aircraft, ships, buoys, and balloons, have 

 coordinated to a remarkable degree both the organization and planning 



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