; (D) increase the amount of non-Federal weather data available to the Federal Government by orders of magnitude; and (E) improve understanding of the impact, size, and duration of mesoscale weather events. (2) The National Mesonet Program is a critical component of Administration operations and provides reliable, real-time observation capabilities for the physical environment that enhances prediction, preparedness, and response strategies to severe weather events. (3) The National Mesonet Program is a primary input, ingest, and quality-assurance/quality-control for non-Federal weather data that are critical to operations, including situational awareness, forecasting, decision support, research, in-situ verification and validation for emerging satellite technologies, and numerical weather prediction modeling. (b) Program There is in the National Weather Service a program to be known as the National Mesonet Program (in this section referred to as the Program ). The Program shall— (1) be administered by the Under Secretary