The Citizen Weather Observer Program is a group of ham radio operators and other private citizens around the country who have volunteered the use of their weather data for education, research, and use by interested parties. There are currently over 12,000 registered members worldwide and over 900 different user organizations. Their weather data are used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and distributed to user organizations.
The Citizen Weather Observer Program is a public-private partnership with three main goals:
1. Collect weather data contributed by citizens
2. Make these data available for weather services and homeland security
3. Provide feedback to the data contributors so that they have the tools to check and improve their data quality.
