Interagency science informed the synthesis of actionable research to support Federal responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In March 2020, DoD began working with interagency partners to synthesize actionable research on potential environmental drivers impacting the life and spread of the COVID-19 virus. From this collective research, representatives from the Air Force Directorate of Weather worked with DoD’s operational climate services unit, the 14th Weather Squadron in Asheville, NC, to produce actionable products for senior DoD leaders on potential environmental drivers of COVID-19, as well as an assessment of potential extreme weather and climate events that could impact DoD’s response. Through USGCRP’s CCHHG, the Air Force Directorate of Weather coordinated with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Johns Hopkins University, NOAA, and other medical subject matter experts in academia and the U.S. Government. Finally, representatives from the Air Force Directorate of Weather participated on a science panel at a World Meteorological Organization virtual symposium on climatological, meteorological, and environmental factors in the COVID-19 pandemic in August 2020.