In 1977, Daley accepted a position at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado, where he carried out research on non-linear normal mode initialization and other outstanding problems in the dynamics of large-scale atmospheric flow particularly as they related to global numerical weather prediction.
In 1995, Daley accepted a position as a UCAR Distinguished Scientific Visitor at the Marine Meteorology Division, Naval Research Laboratory, in Monterey, California, and moved his family to the Carmel Valley.
Daley took on a project, in close partnership with Ed Barker, to design and construct a three-dimensional variational data assimilation system specifically meant to serve the needs of the US Navy.
It is known as the NRL Atmospheric Variational Data Assimilation System, or NAVDAS, and went operational at FNMOC and at Navy regional METOC centers in 2003.
[6] NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center also recognized Daley's achievements by naming their new SGI Origin 3800 supercomputer after him.
This 512-processor computer went into service at Goddard's Data Assimilation Office in 2001 to create significantly improved models of how the Earth's climate works.