1.This Act may be cited as
the Improved Hurricane Tracking and
Forecasting Act of 2007
.
2.Congress makes the following
findings:
(1)Scatterometers on
satellites are state-of-the-art radar instruments which operate by transmitting
high-frequency microwave pulses to the ocean surface and measuring echoed radar
pulses bounced back to the satellite.
(2)Scatterometers
can acquire hundreds of times more observations of surface wind velocity each
day than can ships and buoys, and are the only remote-sensing systems able to
provide continuous, accurate and high-resolution measurements of both wind
speeds and direction regardless of weather conditions.
(3)The Quick
Scatterometer satellite (QuikSCAT) is an ocean-observing satellite launched on
June 19, 1999, to replace the capability of the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration Scatterometer (NSCAT), an instrument which lost power in 1997, 9
months after launch in September 1996.
(4)The QuikSCAT
satellite has the operational objective of improving weather forecasts near
coastlines by using wind data in numerical weather-and-wave prediction, as well
as improve hurricane warning and monitoring and acting as the next El
Nino watcher
for the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration.
(5)The QuikSCAT
satellite was built in just 12 months and was launched with a 3-year design
life, but continues to perform per specifications, with its backup transmitter,
as it enters into its 8th year—5 years past its projected lifespan.
(6)The QuikSCAT
satellite provides daily coverage of 90 percent of the world’s oceans, and its
data has been a vital contribution to National Weather Service forecasts and
warnings over water since 2000.
(7)Despite its
continuing performance, the QuikSCAT satellite is well beyond its expected
design life and a replacement is urgently needed because, according to the
National Hurricane Center, without the QuikSCAT satellite—
(A)hurricane
forecasting would be 16 percent less accurate 72 hours before hurricane
landfall and 10 percent less accurate 48 hours before hurricane landfall
resulting in—
(i)with a 16 percent
loss of accuracy at 72 hours before landfall, the area expected to be under
hurricane danger would rise from 197 miles to 228 miles on average; and
(ii)with a 10
percent loss of accuracy at 48 hours before landfall, the area expected to be
under hurricane danger would rise from 136 miles to 150 miles on average;
and
(B)greater
inaccuracy of this type would lead to more false alarm
evacuations along the Gulf Coast and Atlantic Coast and decrease the
possibility of impacted populations sufficiently heeding mandatory
evacuations.
(8)According to
recommendations in the National Academies of Science report entitled “Decadal
Survey”, a next generation ocean surface wind vector satellite mission is
needed during the three year period beginning in 2013.
(9)According to the
National Hurricane Center, a next generation ocean surface vector wind
satellite is needed to take advantage of current technologies that already
exist to overcome current limitations of the QuikSCAT satellite and enhance the
capabilities of the National Hurricane Center to better warn coastal residents
of possible hurricanes.
3.Program for
improved ocean surface winds vector satellite
(a)The Administrator of the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration shall, in consultation with the Administrator of
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the head of any other
department or agency of the United States Government designated by the
President for purposes of this section, carry out a program for an improved
ocean surface winds vector satellite.
(b)The
purposes of the program required under subsection (a) shall be to provide for
the development of an improved ocean surface winds vector satellite in order
to—
(1)address science
and application questions related to air-sea interaction, coastal circulation,
and biological productivity;
(2)improve
forecasting for hurricanes, coastal winds and storm surge, and other
weather-related disasters;
(3)ensure continuity
of quality for satellite ocean surface vector wind measurements so that
existing weather forecasting and warning capabilities are not degraded;
(4)advance satellite
ocean surface vector wind data capabilities; and
(5)address such
other matters as the Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, in consultation with the Administrator of the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration, considers appropriate.
(c)
(1)Not later than six months after the date of the
enactment of this Act and annually thereafter until the termination of the
program required under subsection (a), the Administrator of the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shall submit to the Committee on
Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate and the Committee on
Science and Technology of the House of Representatives a report on the program
required under subsection (a).
(2)Each
report under paragraph (1) shall include the following:
(A)A current
description of the program required under subsection (a), including the amount
of funds expended for the program during the period covered by such report and
the purposes for which such funds were expended.
(B)A description of
the operational status of the satellite developed under the program, including
a description of the current capabilities of the satellite and current estimate
of the anticipated lifespan of the satellite.
(C)A description of
current and proposed uses of the satellite by the United States Government, and
academic, research, and other private entities, during the period covered by
such report.
(D)Any other matters
that the Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
in consultation with the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration, considers appropriate.
(d)Authorization
of appropriationsThere is authorized to be appropriated to the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration $375,000,000 to carry out the
program required under subsection (a).