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Company wants National Hurricane Center to pay for use of computer model(South Florida Sun-Sentinel (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Jun. 6--The National Hurricane Center might not have an important forecasting tool in its arsenal this year: the Super Ensemble, a powerful computer model developed by Florida State University. FSU sold exclusive rights for the model's data to Weather Predict, of Raleigh, N.C., six years ago. Now the company wants the federal government to pay for the information, and that isn't likely to happen, officials said. The Super Ensemble helped the hurricane center achieve record-breaking accuracy during the tumultuous 2004 season and performed admirably last year, the busiest and most destructive on record, officials said. If an agreement can't be worked out between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, FSU and the company, the hurricane center would rely on 10 other models to mold predictions, Greg Romano, NOAA spokesman, said Monday. Whether the loss of the Super Ensemble would erode the hurricane center's accuracy would remain to be seen, he said. "If we don't have access to it, we won't know what impact it will have," he said. Until this year, the National Hurricane Center, which is in Miami-Dade County, had received data from the Super Ensemble for free. Then FSU notified the federal government that the company expected compensation as of this year, Romano said. Because the government provided grant money to FSU to develop the Super Ensemble's technology, which the university has patented, NOAA is exploring legal action, Romano said. "Lawyers are talking to lawyers to try to get it resolved," he said. After being contacted by news organizations, Weather Predict officials said they would not withhold the model's data from the hurricane center if a major storm were approaching the U.S. coastline. Still, officials of FSU were surprised that NOAA is blaming them in the flap. Jill Elish, an FSU spokeswoman, said it is common for universities to sell research developments and enter into licensing agreements with private companies. "This is how sponsored research is done," she said. "If one of our researchers develops a formula for a drug, we don't manufacture the pills and hand them out." Ken Kaye can be reached at [email protected] or 954-385-7911. |