Neil Jacobs, who leads the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on an acting basis, noted the importance of industry in the agency's mission, Space News reported Wednesday.
He said at a Maryland Space Business Roundtable event that the private sector is now supporting NOAA's core efforts, expanding the sector's original role as a value-added service provider. Jacobs added that NOAA is working to identify more ways to further grow its partnership with industry and academia.
A possible target area for NOAA's public-private engagements is the purchase of commercial weather data including that of GPS radio occultation, the report noted. The agency has also been forming partnerships with Microsoft, Google and Amazon for weather data hosting on the cloud, Jacobs said.
