The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has been a government leader in Open Data for many decades. NOAA’s science-based mission includes, for example, the protection of life and property from weather events, the regulation of marine fisheries in a sustainable manner, the monitoring of climate change, the protection of marine mammals, and the long-term preservation of environmental information. In the course of achieving this mission, NOAA collects, analyzes, synthesizes and distributes many petabytes of data every year, and NOAA has realized the potential value of these data when shared in a full and open manner, with no restrictions on others’ use of these taxpayer-funded data. NOAA’s mission benefits from enabling scientific research in the academic community that ultimately improves NOAA’s products and services to the Nation. The US economy benefits from the jobs created by industry through the provision, interpretation and integration of NOAA open data into a variety of value-added products and services. And our global society benefits through the sharing of these open data which are used by governments and industries alike to evaluate and respond to risks from environmental events such as extreme weather, rising sea levels, threats to food supplies, droughts and floods. A brief history of Open Data in NOAA will be discussed, and a new initiative to realize their full potential through Partnerships that promote the wider use of these data will be described.
