OUR ABILITY TO PREDICT WEATHER AND SEA ICE CONDITIONS REQUIRES IN SITU OBSERVATIONS OF SURFACE METEOROLOGY AND SEA ICE MOTION (SIM). THESE OBSERVATIONS ARE ASSIMILATED INTO NUMERICAL WEATHER PREDICTION (NWP) MODELS THAT ARE USED TO FORECAST WEATHER ON SYNOPTIC TIME SCALES AND INTO THE MANY LONG-TERM ATMOSPHERIC REANALYSES SUCH AS NASA S MODERN-ERA RETROSPECTIVE ANALYSIS FOR RESEARCH AND APPLICATIONS (MERRA KOSTER ET AL. 2016) AND THE NCEP/NCAR REANALYSIS (KALNAY ET AL. 1996) THAT ARE USED FOR INNUMERABLE CLIMATE STUDIES. THE IMPACT OF THESE IN SITU OBSERVATIONS CAN BE SEEN IN FIG. 1 WHERE INOUE ET AL. (2009) SHOWS THAT THE STANDARD DEVIATION IN GRIDDED SEA LEVEL PRESSURE (SLP) REANALYSES FIELDS OVER THE ARCTIC OCEAN WAS OVER 2.6 HPA IN AREAS WHERE THERE WERE NO BUOY OBSERVATIONS TO CONSTRAIN THE REANALYSES AND THIS UNCERTAINTY IN THE SLP FIELDS SPREADS TO COVER THE ENTIRE ARCTIC WHEN THE OBSERVATIONS FROM BUOYS ARE REMOVED FROM THE REANALYSES. THE BUOY OBSERVATIONS ALSO HELP CONSTRAIN OF ESTIMATES OF WIND AND HEAT. IN SITU OBSERVATIONS OF SEA ICE MOTION ARE ALSO IMPORTANT FOR ESTIMATING THE DRIFT OF VARIOUS AREAS AND TYPES OF SEA ICE AND FOR UNDERSTANDING THE DYNAMICS OF RIDGING AND RAFTING OF THIS ICE WHICH CHANGES THE AGE AND THICKNESS DISTRIBUTION OF SEA ICE. FOR EXAMPLE THE ANALYZED FIELDS OF SEA ICE MOTION (SIM) THAT KWOK AND CUNNINGHAM (2016) KWOK (2015) AND TSCHUDI ET AL. (2016) PRODUCE ARE BASED ON RETRIEVALS OF ICE MOTION FROM SEQUENTIAL SATELLITE IMAGES AND BUOY DRIFT. OVER THE ARCTIC OCEAN THIS FUNDAMENTAL OBSERVING NETWORK IS MAINTAINED BY THE IABP AND IS A CRITICAL COMPONENT OF THE ARCTIC OBSERVING NETWORK (AON) POLAR PREDICTION PROGRAM YEAR OF POLAR PREDICTION [IN 2018 2019] MULTIDISCIPLINARY DRIFTING OBSERVATORY FOR THE STUDY OF ARCTIC CLIMATE (MOSAIC IN 2019]. THE UNITED STATES CONTRIBUTION TO THE IABP IS COORDINATED THROUGH THE UNITED STATES INTERAGENCY ARCTIC BUOY PROGRAM (USIABP) WHICH IS MANAGED BY THE NATIONAL ICE CENTER (NIC) AND THE PSC/APL/UW. THE USIABP IS A COLLABORATIVE PROGRAM THAT DRAWS OPERATING FUNDS AND SERVICES FROM A NUMBER OF U.S. GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONS AND RESEARCH PROGRAMS WHICH INCLUDE THE DOE NASA NOAA NSF ONR AND THE U.S. COAST GUARD. FROM THESE CONTRIBUTIONS THE USIABP ACQUIRES AND DEPLOYS BUOYS ON THE ARCTIC OCEAN AND SUPPORTS THE COORDINATION DATA MANAGEMENT AND ENHANCEMENT FOR THE IABP BY THE PSC/APL/UW. THE OBSERVATIONS FROM THE IABP HAVE BEEN ESSENTIAL FOR: 1.) MONITORING ARCTIC AND GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE (MANY OF THE CHANGES IN ARCTIC CLIMATE WERE FIRST OBSERVED OR EXPLAINED USING DATA FROM THE IABP); 2.) FORECASTING WEATHER AND SEA ICE CONDITIONS; 3.) FORCING ASSIMILATION AND VALIDATION OF GLOBAL WEATHER AND CLIMATE MODELS; 4.) VALIDATION OF SATELLITE DERIVED ESTIMATES OF SIM SURFACE TEMPERATURE SEA ICE THICKNESS ETC. THIS PROPOSAL IS FOR THE RENEWAL OF NASA FUNDING OF THE IABP THROUGH THE USIABP AND ANCILLARY FUNDING FOR THE US INTERAGENCY PROGRAM FOR ANTARCTIC BUOYS. THROUGH THIS PROPOSAL WE PLAN TO: 1) MAINTAIN THE FUNDAMENTAL IABP/USIABP AON; 2) CONTINUE OUR ASSESSMENTS OF THERMISTORS AND OTHER SENSORS USED BY THE IABP; AND 3) PRODUCE MORE ACCURATE GRIDDED FIELDS OF SURFACE METEOROLOGY (PRIMARILY SURFACE TEMPERATURE) THAT THE COMMUNITY USES FOR RESEARCH. IN 2016 OVER 30 PAPERS WERE WRITING USING DATA PROVIDED BY THE USIABP/IABP. DURING THE PAST 3 YEARS OVER 58 PAPERS HAVE BEEN WRITTEN WHICH ACKNOWLEDGE FUNDING FROM NASA AND SINCE 1979 OVER 800 PAPERS HAVE BEEN WRITTEN USING THE OBSERVATIONS AND DATA SETS PRODUCED BY PSC/APL FOR THE IABP (SEE REFERENCES FOR SELECTED PUBLICATIONS AND HTTP://IABP.APL.WASHINGTON.EDU/ PUBLICATIONS.HTML). THESE OBSERVATIONS PROVIDE THE LONGEST CONTINUING RECORD FOR THE ARCTIC AND HAVE BEEN ONE OF THE CORNERSTONES FOR ENVIRONMENTAL FORECASTING AND STUDIES OF CLIMATE AND CLIMATE CHANGE.