Within this theme, the ASM seeks to support research and applications that take greater advantage of novel and traditional environmentalobservations particularly those that close observational gaps in NOAA operational network that limit WRN forecast metrics. For example, accelerating techniques for sensing the lowest 5,000 feet of the atmosphere and applying that data into operational forecast systems to help NOAA achieve recommendations from The National Academy of Sciences report, From the Ground Up (The National Academies Press, 2009). These recommendations address critical observations needed by NOAA to improve the accuracy of short term severe weather forecasts.