In 2003, Transportation Secretary Minetta, announced a new interagency initiative called the Joint Planning Office (JPO) for the Next Generation Air Transportation System (now called NextGen). This was done in acknowledgment that the National Airspace System (NAS) is expected to triple in size by 2025 and that, at the expected rate of growth, it would exceed its capacity by the middle of the next decade. Charter members of this Office were the DOT (FAA), DOC (NOAA), DOD, DHS, NASA, and the White House Office of Science and Technology. Principal representatives were identified by each agency, and the Associate Administrator for Aeronautics Research was named as the NASA principal. A year later, the JPO was redesignated as the Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO), which took-up offices at 1500 K St. NW in Washington, DC.

The JPDO chartered a number of Integrated Process Teams to prepare NextGen plans. ASAP participates in two of these IPTs – Weather and Environmental Impacts. The Weather IPT is lead by Mark Andrews, who is detailed to the FAA under an Interagency Personnel Assignment (IPA) from the NOAA NWS. The Environmental Impacts IPT is lead by Carl Burleson of the FAA.

The primary foci of the Weather IPT include observations, forecasting, Air Traffic Management (ATM) integration and information dissemination, all centered around the development of 4-dimensional, high spatial and temporal resolution, probabilistic weather data for a NextGen Network-Enabled Weather (NNEW) System. John Murray, the NASA ASAP project manager and Mark Weber of MIT Lincoln laboratory were selected in 2003 to co-chair the Weather IPT’s Observations Sub-Team. In 2004, the NASA Science Mission Directorate assigned its Aviation Applications Program manager, John Haynes, as the NASA principal to the Weather IPT. The Observations Sub-Team comprises 35 scientists from government, academia and industry who are working in concert with the NOAA National Weather Service Branch and other JPDO Weather IPT Sub-Teams to develop and manage a NextGen Observations Plan containing an aviation microscale observation matrix for NextGen, which is to be mirrored in the NOAA Consolidated Observations Requirements List (CORL).

In 2006, ASAP co-sponsored the Environmental Impact IPTs first meeting in Cambridge, MA, which was a workshop on the effects of aviation on climate and air quality. In 2007, NASA SMD agreed to formally join the EI IPT, and a number of NASA Applied Sciences and ASAP personnel were assigned. Dr. Teresa Fryberger was invited to join the EI IPT Steering Committee. John Haynes was invited to join the Science and Metrics Sub-Team. ASAP personnel at NASA Langley Research Center are assisting the Sub-Team to develop its road maps for climate and air quality. They have provided a number of scientists to three Science and Metrics working groups – Climate, Air Quality and Particulates, and are also reviewing climate impacts proposals submitted to the FAA in conjunction with their EI IPT activities.