In the first ever NOAA: Year in Review, an analysis of the great work our nation’s oceans and atmospheres agency has done in 2025 is discussed and detailed, including advancements inn ocean exploration, successes by the agency’s own military in the NOAA corps, and various other technology and programmatic accomplishments.

Celebrating the anniversary of the 50th year since the first woman became a Navy Diver by recalling some of the trailblazing women who began the journey for others, discussing what they have had to endure to get to this point, and some of the incredible adjustments and advancements in diving technology that have been made over the years due to the experiences of these women.

Prior to last week’s release of the report on the effects of greenhouse gases (GHGs) on U.S. climate, health, and welfare by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, I was asked to review it. As a national authority on science, I was overall disappointed.

The fatal flooding this weekend in Central Texas was a tragedy. As of this writing, at least 80 are dead. After every such crisis, it’s important to assess how it occurred and identify ways to prevent loss of life in the future.

While the Trump administration’s national security strategy remains a work in progress, interim guidance issued by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth prioritizes China as the sole pacing threat. Yet, the threat China poses involves more than its military. Its diplomatic and economic coercion are evident in every region, as are its offensive cyber operations and attacks on undersea infrastructure.

During the first week of his second term, President Trump signed an executive order (EO) directing the development and deployment of a next generation missile defense shield to deter and defend against a foreign aerial attack against mainland United States, a system now touted as the Golden Dome for America. However, as with the employment of any DoD capability, environmental and weather conditions must be considered in order for operation of this Golden Dome to actually be effective.

During the devastating earthquake that struck Myanmar and Thailand this weekend, horrified viewers around the world watched a 30-story Bangkok high-rise collapse in a scene reminiscent of the New York twin Towers on 9/11. The 7.7 magnitude tremor has killed more than 2,700 and caused widespread destruction in the region. Updated models and AI-bolstered programs can more accurately predict disasters such as these than ever before.

Recently, the White House Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) joined forces to fire several hundred federal employees of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Not only does this slash and burn approach run counter to the Trump Administration’s stated policies, but the resulting loss of hundreds of meteorologists and technicians in NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS) only puts more U.S. citizens in danger.

During President Trump’s first term, one of his earliest official actions was to sign the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017. Now, nearly a decade later, the U.S. weather industry has grown exponentially and embraced the full power of artificial intelligence, the proliferation of space-based weather sensors, and advances in all-domain autonomous systems for data collection. These 21st century technologies have elevated forecasting accuracies like never before, and now President Trump can build on these successes by urging the reintroduction of the Weather Act in the 119th Congress and passing it though both chambers.

The first congressional hearings on unidentified anomalous phenomena — UAP, the government’s new name for UFOs — included sworn statements by myself, a former NASA official, an investigative journalist and Luis Elizondo, a former senior leader of the Pentagon’s secret UAP office, known as the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program. This formal government acknowledgement of UAP experiences is a step in the right direction, but a greater push for full disclosure is necessary in the interest of national security.

Earlier this year, the trailer for a government-backed Taiwanese TV show depicting a Chinese invasion sparked worldwide attention. The ten-part series Zero Day opens by identifying China’s two primary considerations to move on the island nation. The first involves a political power vacuum following an election loss by an incumbent U.S. President. The second is a geophysical consideration and might surprise the average American as being important enough to include in the introduction—the suitability of the ocean currents in the Taiwan Strait for a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) landing.

This Friday Americans across the country will honor National Prisoner of War/Missing in Action (POW/MIA) Recognition Day. A year ago on that day, I attended a wreath-laying ceremony and film screening at the United States Navy Memorial in Washington D.C. to recognize our nation’s POWs and MIAs.

Considering both historical information and the fact that the U.S. has pledged to defend Taiwan in the event of an invasion by China, it is worth comparing the capabilities of the U.S. and the PRC to observe, predict, and plan for the environmental conditions which can determine the difference between victory and defeat on the battlefield.

Disputes over fisheries have the potential to turn into larger conflicts and to exacerbate existing ones, just as disputes over oil, water, and grain have done in the past. Fisheries are finite natural resources that provide sustenance to billions of people; its products are among the world’s most highly traded food commodities. It is not hard to imagine how, in this context, a fish-related fight could spiral.

In the latest round of confrontation between the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Philippines over Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea, Beijing has gone so far as to accuse Manila of damaging the coral reef ecosystem at the location. The U.S. should join the Philippines in condemning Beijing’s sanctimonious statement, but also bring attention to China’s wide-ranging record of other environmental abuses, a tally of which is troubling.

This World Ocean Day, conservation groups, scientists and average citizens across the globe will take part in activities to focus attention on the many threats to the marine environment. As with our ocean, there is another at-risk resource that requires our attention. America’s military Veteran community is suffering from high suicide rates and other mental health challenges caused by post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Here, Gallaudet discusses how these two issues can be fought in tandem, citing successful examples such as nonprofit Force Blue.

Later this month will mark a year from a day that shocked the Veteran community. On March 27, 2023, I along with many Americans were saddened to learn of the unfortunate passing of Navy SEAL Veteran Douglas “Mike” Day. In communicating our shared grief over this soul taken too soon, we have realized that more can be done to combat the crisis of Veteran suicides, and every American can play a part.

Research and attention regarding Unidentified Aerial Phenomena are almost entirely focused on their aerial occurrences. Yet instances of UAP at sea, whether under the surface or traveling “transmedium”—between the atmosphere and the ocean—are also known to occur, and these instances should not be ignored; rather, they should be emphasized, and perhaps even explored further than those in the air.