Technology Transfer News Archives - Tech Partnerships Office

NOAA scientists receive Technology Transfer award

A NOAA-led team of scientists will be recognized at this year’s 2022 Governor’s Awards for High Impact Research event on December 14 in Denver, Colorado. The event is sponsored by CO-LABS and will honor NOAA and CIRES award recipients for both the Pathfinder Partnership and Technology Transfer award categories. The Technology Transfer Award recognizes research that resulted in a technological solution with widespread and measurable societal use, with related impact on a global challenge or issue. This year’s recipients developed a first-of-a-kind Whole Atmosphere Model and Ionosphere Plasmasphere Electrodynamics Model (WAM-IPE), which allows forecasters to provide better information to the public about potential impacts from solar storms. Collaboration with CIRES, CU Boulder, NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, and NOAA’s Environmental Modeling Center has brought this new model forward to provide crucial insight to various economic sectors—including communications, satellite and airline operations, human space flight, and navigation and surveying to mitigate damages. Read more Story published on December 8, 2022

a technician works with sensors on boat dock

NOAA technology used to research deep-sea volcanic and hydrothermal activity

Featured Story, Hardware & Sensors, Oceans, Coasts & Great Lakes, Technology Transfer, UxS / By Matthew Bryant

As part of the ongoing Tonga Eruption Seabed Mapping Project, a team of scientists conducted a deep-water survey to better understand the impacts of the January 2022 Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcanic eruption on the ocean environment. The research team used a technology developed by NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Lab (PMEL) to determine the level of ongoing volcanic and hydrothermal activity within the post-eruption caldera. The Miniature Autonomous Plume Recorder (MAPR) instruments made it possible for scientists to capture direct measurements of the water column up to 300 meters deep. This is the first time that such a survey has been conducted entirely remotely, using an uncrewed surface vessel that was operated and monitored by engineers and scientists located across the globe. Learn more about this PMEL mission and NOAA’s technological innovation effort. A SeaKit engineer on the dock in Tonga mounting the PMEL MAPRs onto a specifically designed cage to fit on the USV Maxlimer. Photo Credit: Sea-Kit International/NIWA/Nippon Foundation

world map with locations highlighted across Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean

Eruption highlights how NOAA technological innovation powers public safety, economic development, and scientific discovery

CRADA Success, Featured Story, NOAA Licensed Technology, NOAA Patented Technology, Oceans, Coasts & Great Lakes, Partnerships, Technology Transfer, Technology Transfer Success, UxS / By Suzi Webster

When a volcano in the South Pacific Ocean erupted in January 2022, NOAA researchers were well-equipped to study the multi-hazard event by sky and by sea. Key technologies and strategic partnerships made it possible for NOAA to issue warnings that saved lives around the world, while also collecting scientific data that will improve forecasting models and disaster response for future events.