A fiscal 2010 budget shortfall at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will likely create a gap in weather and climate data that could last between 18 and 30 months, according to an internal audit at the Commerce Department.

Inadequate funding, and poor program staffing--the latter due to uncertainty caused by the series of continuing resolutions Congress used to appropriate funds during the current fiscal year--has left NOAA unprepared for the end of the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System's lifecycle and behind in planning its transition to the Joint Polar Satellite System-I.

"Remaining FY 2010 funds of approximately $682 million were inadequate to support both the ongoing development work and needed JPSS transition activities," said Todd Zinser Commerce inspector general in a June 10 memo to NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco.

NOAA's ability to make up lost ground on its satellite projects depends largely on whether or not it receives additional funding for fiscal 2011 and fiscal 2012 JPSS appropriations.

"Should NOAA receive its total request for FY 2012 (with no additional funds in FY 2011), then we estimate the gap would be reduced to between 12 and 24 months based on an earlier launch date in 4th quarter of FY 2017 for JPSS-I," wrote Zinser.

The president's fiscal 2012 budget request for NOAA's National Environmental Satellite Service is $118 million--$81 million less than it enacted in 2010 and $82 million less than the projected fiscal 2011 amount for the account. Only $382 million was appropriated for the program under the final continuing resolution Congress approved for the current fiscal year in April, according to the memo.

Beyond the expected gap between NPOESS0 and JPSS-I, Zinser also warned of a nearer-term gap. Although NPOESS is thus far on track to launch in 2013, in order to relieve the current satellite NOAA-19, it still needs to go through compatibility testing this summer. Were testing to run into problems or delays expenses would soar.

"Costs for delays of more than 1 month are not linear with costs for a single-month delay. For example, cost for a single-month delay is $7.3 million; cost for a 2-month delay is $12.0 million (less than two times as much); and cost for a 5-month delay is $41.4 million (more than five times as much)," according to the memo.

Budget problems with the NPOESS launch would also further compound funding problems affecting the JPSS-I launch.

For more:
- see the Commerce OIG memo

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