NOAA FY 2023 Small Business Innovation Research Phase I

Societal Challenge Communities across the U.S., particularly underserved communities, face enduring, compounding risks from extreme, high-impact weather, water, and climate events, which have become more severe and more frequent in recent decades. Overview In the context of a warming, changing climate, extreme weather, water, and climate events are becoming more common. Extreme high temperatures in the U.S. are projected to increase. The frequency and intensity of heavy precipitation events in most parts of the U.S. are projected to increase, and future droughts in most regions will likely be stronger and potentially last longer. The frequency, depth, and extent of tidal flooding are expected to continue to increase in the future, as is the more severe flooding associated with coastal storms, flooding, shoreline erosion, disruptions to commercial navigation and tourism. As the climate changes, extreme events are becoming more prevalent, and compound extreme events are leading to cascading hazards. Innovative ideas are needed to mitigate the growing impact of extreme events and cascading hazards on key sectors of the economy, including transportation, power generation, agriculture, recreation, and natural resource management and protection. Examples of appropriate research topic areas for applications from small businesses include, but are not limited to products and services that accomplish the following objectives: ● Help decision makers prepare for and/or adapt to extreme weather, water and climate events, including deviations in temperatures and precipitation patterns (e.g. extreme heat or cold, tornadoes, floods, coastal storms and hurricanes, marine heat waves) to inform decision making and protect life and property ● Facilitate understanding of risk for extreme weather, water and climate events for key sectors of the economy, including but not limited to transportation, power generation, agriculture, recreation, and natural resource management and protection and/or support increased resilience to likely climate impacts ● Support wildfire early detection, modeling, prediction, and monitoring of impacts, including on air quality, snowpack properties, and soil hydraulic behavior ● Support regional drought early warnings and forecasts, covering weather-to-climate timescales, as well as new methods for accurately capturing the full economic cost of drought on the agricultural sector and beyond ● Facilitate more equitable access to information about extreme weather, water and climate events ● Improve modeling and forecasting of urban heat island effects and the impact on air quality, particularly in underserved communities ● Support educators and other STEM outreach professionals to increase comprehension and use of relevant water, weather, and climate science concepts and education resources

Societal Challenge U.S. coastal communities, economies, and ecosystems, as well as the natural and built infrastructure on which they depend, are increasingly impacted by accelerating changes at the coast. Creating resilience to these changes requires risk-informed decision making and adaptation via enhanced emergency response, coastal data collection, and predictive capabilities. A resilient coastal zone is necessary to reduce the risk of adverse impacts on our coastal and ocean infrastructure, ecosystems, marine transportation, tourism, recreation, and other key economic sectors at the coast. Overview Sea level rise, dramatic shifts in Great Lakes water levels, the warming ocean, loss of sea ice, changing ecology, reduced water quality, and coastal erosion and shoreline change are severely impacting coastal states and territories, communities, economies, and ecosystems. For instance, increasingly extreme storms and changing water levels have heightened risks to lives and property and challenged navigation and sustainable supply chains in dynamic coastal environments. Increasing impacts from coastal change represent a threat to lives and livelihoods, as well as national and economic security, and raise important social equity concerns. There is an urgent need to develop technologies to preserve and protect coastal zones, as well as expand and enhance observations, mapping, modeling, future conditions projections, and services that inform the public about environmental and physical coastal risks. Examples of appropriate research topic areas for applications from small businesses include, but are not limited to products and services that accomplish the following objectives: ● Facilitate better understanding and prediction of hazard risk, vulnerability, and resilience for decision makers in coastal communities with regards to sea level rise, changes in Great Lakes hydrology and water levels, and other climate impacts ● Support improved community preparedness in response to natural and human-induced coastal hazards ● Integrate real-time navigation at national ports ● Manage inundation and protect coastal infrastructure on varying timescale ● Support forecasts of temperature, salinity and other water quality risks in bays, estuaries, and sounds ● Support effective preparation and response to ocean-related threats to health, including harmful algal blooms, shellfish poisoning, and marine pollution ● Support coastal habitat conservation and restoration to increase resilience in coastal communities and ecosystems ● Address hazardous spill response and nearshore search and rescue operations

Societal Challenge Ocean warming, decreasing sea ice, changing currents, rising seas, ocean acidification, and deoxygenation are affecting the nation’s valuable living marine resources and many ocean-dependent businesses and communities. These changes impact the nation’s security through many sectors from marine navigation, transportation, and energy, to fisheries, aquaculture, and protected resources. Overview: The ocean is a dynamic and connected component of the earth system. It plays a pivotal role in the global 47 weather and climate system by absorbing and redistributing both heat and carbon dioxide, and provides the largest source of water vapor for global precipitation. Human-caused carbon emissions have led to ocean warming, acidification, deoxygenation, and decreasing sea-ice. To safeguard fisheries and marine-dependent communities in the face of a rapidly changing ocean, resource managers and other decision-makers urgently need better information on what is changing, who is at risk, what to plan for and how to respond. Examples of appropriate research topic areas for applications from small businesses include, but are not limited to products and services that accomplish the following objectives: ● Support monitoring of marine health including remote sensing and in-situ monitoring technologies, for regionally-optimized ocean ecosystem and biogeochemical observations ● Support increased protection and restoration of marine and coastal habitats to enhance vital ecosystems ● Support innovative observation and exploration of the ocean, including the deep ocean, and improved data assimilation into ocean models, to improve understanding and promote more effective management of ocean resources ● Help living marine resource managers prepare for and respond to the impacts of a changing climate, ocean acidification, and other climate impacts, and develop management strategies for marine ecosystem conditions and adaptation plans to manage risk from the changing ocean and other stressors ● Facilitate sustainable and productive aquaculture practices and facilities, including new applications for uncrewed systems and environmental DNA applications to reduce illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing ● Support access to robust forecasts, projections, risk assessments and management strategies to optimize fisheries management and increase the resilience of marine resources and the communities that depend on them ● Facilitate quantification of short- to long-term outlooks and projections of Arctic sea ice ● Support safe and efficient marine transportation, reduce maritime incidents in U.S. waters by providing timely and accurate navigational information, or facilitate preparedness and response to maritime incidents and emergencies ● Support advancements in offshore wind energy production including data-based technologies and uncrewed systems applications

Societal Challenge The U.S. is facing emerging threats to our economic and national security and ecosystem and habitat health from competing demands for our increasingly limited and stressed water supply and other water risks nationwide, in the context of aging water infrastructure, degrading water quality, population growth, and climate change. Overview Water is essential for life and is inexorably linked to environmental protection, sustainable development, and international peace and security. Too much water, too little water, or poor water quality endangers life, property, communities, economies, and ecosystems. Water challenges affect all economic sectors, from agriculture to utilities, and the impacts are escalating. There is a need for new observations and tools, as well as the use of more physically-based water modeling and fully coupled Earth system modeling approaches that leverage the rapid expansion of available data and technology. Examples of appropriate research topic areas for applications from small businesses include, but are not limited to products and services that accomplish the following objectives: ● Help communities better prepare for, adapt, and respond to drought and flooding ● Support understanding and management of water quality risks in rivers, lakes, estuaries and other coastal environments impacted by flooding and long term inundation ● Support integrated or improved water forecasts to support the management of water resources, water supply, and risk in the face of water stress exacerbated by climate change ● Support increased efficiencies in water usage in the transportation, hydropower, and agriculture sectors ● Facilitate the development of an integrated suite of weather- and climate-related information relevant to food security needs

Societal Challenge The effects of space weather pose significant and increasing societal, economic, national security, and health risks to the United States and nations worldwide. These include risks to the electric power grid; aviation operations; positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) services; satellites and communications; human space exploration; and other space-based assets. Overview Space weather refers to variations in the space environment between the Sun and Earth, and throughout the solar system, that have the potential to adversely affect critical functions, assets, and operations in space and on Earth. Events driven by space weather can disrupt the technology that forms the backbone of this country’s economic vitality and national security. There is a need to develop the next generation of space-based observations and models to improve space weather predictive capability integrating emergent technologies, such as machine learning and artificial intelligence, to enhance space weather capabilities. Examples of appropriate research topic areas for applications from small businesses include, but are not limited to products and services that accomplish the following objectives: ● Advance region-specific space weather products and services that provide decision-makers with improved characterization and prediction of the timing, intensity, and impact of space weather events on critical infrastructure ● Expand observational tools that supports short-term and long-term predictions of space weather including continuity of solar wind measurements and new imagery of the solar corona ● Help in the development of plans and procedures for responding to and recovering from space weather events including tools that facilitate advanced warning of geomagnetic storms

Societal Challenge Worldwide, there is now widespread recognition of the impact of greenhouse gas emissions on the climate system, leading to dangerous, accelerated warming. Within the U.S. and internationally, there is a growingdemand for information about current and future greenhouse gas emissions, their impact on the state of the global climate system, and options and effectiveness of climate change mitigation measures at different scales. Overview The Nation and decision makers at sub-national scales require information about a number of difficult-to-quantify greenhouse gas (GHG) emission sources and sinks, the effectiveness of GHG mitigation actions over time, and the benefits and potential risks of some mitigation and removal measures, some of which have been proposed but remain untested at scale. Given the trajectory of anthropogenic GHG emissions and Earth-system feedbacks, there is an urgent need for accurate, reliable, and timely information about GHG emissions. Examples of appropriate research topic areas for applications from small businesses include, but are not limited to products and services that accomplish the following objectives: ● Support the development of comprehensive knowledge of greenhouse gasses and other climate forcing agents, including within emerging areas (e.g. hydrogen energy and other alternative energy choices) ● Improved climate observing and monitoring systems ● Advances in climate modeling that lead to improved scientific understanding and a new generation of climate predictions and projections on global to regional scales ● Facilitate the identification of potential climate impacts and vulnerabilities and inform the development of useful climate services ● Advance greenhouse gas observation and modeling capabilities to reliably track changes in natural and human-made emissions and sinks over time and at local, regional, continental, and global scales ● Models, tools, and products for decision makers to determine the feasibility of achieving climate mitigation targets, quantify key emission sources, identify mitigation opportunities, and evaluate the broader climate implications of various mitigation measures ● Support decision-makers by providing improved scientific information to evaluate the performance, effectiveness, benefits, and risks of certain mitigation strategies at multiple scales, including climate interventions