§8518 — Title 15 Commerce and Trade | U.S. Code

Summary

The Under Secretary must consider leases that last several years instead of buying supercomputers outright when leasing makes sense and saves money. Lease end dates should line up with when the equipment is expected to get old or when much better leased options are likely to be available. The Under Secretary may run one or more pilot programs to test new technology. Pilots can only try tools that meet NOAA standards for speed, cybersecurity, and reliability or that match or beat NOAA’s current systems. Congress allowed money for these pilots: $5,000,000 for fiscal year 2019, $10,000,000 for fiscal year 2020, and $5,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2021 through 2023, using funds from the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service, to remain available until spent. No later than 1 year after January 7, 2019, and then every three years after that until the date six years after the first report, the Under Secretary, working through NOAA’s Chief Information Officer and with the heads of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research and the National Weather Service, must publish a public report. The report must explain how NOAA will keep upgrading to fast, cost-effective high performance computing for weather prediction; balance research and reliable operational models; test next-generation models with users; make better use of current computers; hire outside expertise if needed; use cloud computing; and plan to move weather model code to modern, widely used programming languages.

Title 15, §8518

Commerce and Trade — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)(1)In acquiring computing capabilities, including high performance computing technologies and supercomputing technologies, that enable the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to meet its mission requirements, the Under Secretary shall, when appropriate and cost-effective, assess and prioritize options for entering into multi-year lease agreements for computing capabilities over options for purchasing computing hardware outright.

(2)In carrying out the requirements of paragraph (1), the Under Secretary shall structure multi-year lease agreements in such a manner that the expiration of the lease is set for a date on or around—

(A)the expected degradation point of the computing resources; or

(B)the point at which significantly increased computing capabilities are expected to be available for lease.

(3)(A)In order to more efficiently and effectively meet the mission requirements of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Under Secretary may create 1 or more pilot programs for assessing new or innovative information and technology capabilities and services.

(B)Any program created under paragraph (3) shall assess only those capabilities and services that—

(i)meet or exceed the standards and requirements of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, including for processing speed, cybersecurity, and overall reliability; or

(ii)meet or exceed, or are expected to meet or exceed, the performance of similar, in-house information and technology capabilities and services that are owned and operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration prior to the establishment of the pilot program.

(C)There is authorized to be appropriated, out of funds appropriated to the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service, to carry out this paragraph $5,000,000 for fiscal year 2019, $10,000,000 for fiscal year 2020, and $5,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2021 through 2023, to remain available until expended.

(b)Not later than 1 year after January 7, 2019, and triennially thereafter until the date that is 6 years after the date on which the first report is submitted, the Under Secretary, acting through the Chief Information Officer of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and in coordination with the Assistant Administrator for Oceanic and Atmospheric Research and the Director of the National Weather Service, shall produce and make publicly available a report that explains how the Under Secretary intends—

(1)to continually support upgrades to pursue the fastest, most powerful, and cost-effective high performance computing technologies in support of its weather prediction mission;

(2)to ensure a balance between the research to operations requirements to develop the next generation of regional and global models as well as highly reliable operational models;

(3)to take advantage of advanced development concepts to, as appropriate, make next generation weather prediction models available in beta-test mode to operational forecasters, the United States weather industry, and partners in academic and Government research;

(4)to use existing computing resources to improve advanced research and operational weather prediction;

(5)to utilize non-Federal contracts to obtain the necessary expertise for advanced weather computing, if appropriate;

(6)to utilize cloud computing; and

(7)to create a long-term strategy to transition the programming language of weather model code to current and broadly-used coding language.

Editorial Notes

Amendments

2019—Pub. L. 115–423 amended section generally. Prior to amendment, section related to annual report on computing resources prioritization.

§8518 Computing resource efficiency improvement and annual report

Summary

Title 15, §8518

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

Citations & Metadata