A year of science and innovation: Reflections from 2024

NOAA employs research vessels, buoys, and a host of other tools to study Earth. Credit: NOAA

Changes in our weather, air quality, ocean, and Great Lakes continue to affect almost every aspect of society. Throughout 2024, NOAA Research has continued to study the Earth to better understand the challenges Americans are facing, such as impacts of droughts, flooding, severe weather, heat waves and other environmental hazards that put lives, property and ecosystems at risk. Learn about how NOAA Research is working to protect economic prosperity, national security, human and environmental health through our science and innovations.

Severe weather poses an increasingly significant threat to communities across the United States. From tornadoes in the Great Plains to hurricanes along the coasts and everything in between, timely and accurate weather forecasts are crucial to protecting lives and property.

Throughout the 2024 hurricane season, NOAA scientists set new records in tropical cyclone research during 67 missions aboard Hurricane Hunter aircraft. In addition to deploying instruments from Hurricane Hunter aircraft, Saildrones and underwater gliders collected data in inaccessible areas, critical for improving storm forecasts.