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4.0 The Partnership in Atmospheric Science

Atmospheric science is characterized by an array of partnerships at the local, national, and international levels. These mutually beneficial ties link the federal agencies, the universities, professional societies, the private sector, and volunteer American citizens, as well as international agencies. It is extremely important that these interdependent relationships be understood in the formulation of policy because of the many ways in which they interact. 

At the local level in the United States, the severe weather and flood warning system relies heavily on an extensive system of "spotters" who observe and report severe weather to the National Weather Service and civilian authorities. These individuals and groups are frequently ham radio operators, police, farmers, and other concerned American citizens. There are 150,000 individuals throughout the United States who support the National Weather Service in this way on a volunteer basis. The climate of the United States is being recorded by 11,000 cooperative observers. Without this group of volunteers, much of the detail of the climate of this country would not be known.

Weather services for the people of the United States are provided through the joint efforts of the National Weather Service and a group of private meteorological services. The government provides the warnings of severe weather and floods as well as public weather forecasts; the private meteorologists provide the specific services required by industry. Radio and television are the primary ways of disseminating warnings and forecasts to the public, and are a key public/private partnership. The observational systems and the central computing centers, which also support private meteorologists, are provided primarily by the National Weather Service in cooperation with the departments of Defense and Transportation.

Another key partnership is among the universities (which educate and train new scientists, engineers, and technicians, and perform much of the basic research), the federal weather services, and research laboratories (particularly those in NOAA, NASA, and the NSF's National Center for Atmospheric Research). The tie between basic research and operations in the field of meteorology is more direct than that of virtually any other field. 

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