Earth Science and Applications from Space: Urgent Needs and Opportunities to Serve the Nation -- A US National Academy of Sciences Report. (January 20, 2007)

    The US National Academy of Sciences on January 15 published their two year study on the state of the current U.S. civilian Earth observing system, operated by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and has come to the overall conclusion it "is at risk of collapse".

The report continues:

Although NOAA has plans to modernize and refresh its weather satellites, NASA has no plan to replace its Earth Observing System (EOS) platforms after their nominal six year lifetimes end beginning in 2005, and it has cancelled, scaled back, or delayed at least six planned missions. These decisions appear to be driven by a major shift in priorities at NASA to implement a new vision for space exploration, which jeopardizes its ability to address other important presidential initiatives, such as the Climate Change Research Initiative and the subsequent Climate Change Science Program. Moreover, a substantial reduction in Earth observation programs today will result in a loss of U.S. scientific and technical capacity, which could decrease the competitiveness of the United States internationally for years to come.

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Research and Analysis. It appears that significant resources for the research and analysis (R&A) programs that sustain the interpretation of Earth science data have been reallocated. Because the R&A programs are carried out largely through research universities, there will be an immediate and deleterious impact on graduate student, postdoctoral, and faculty research support. This development jeopardizes U.S. leadership in Earth science and observations, and undermines the vitality of the government-university-private sector partnership that has made so many contributions to society.

For those who need an interpretation of the Academy's summary, the American Physical Society's Bob Park gives this translation:

 We can count polar bears, stick thermometers in the ocean, and measure the hair on woolly caterpillars, but the only way to find out what's going on with global warming is to study Earth from space. The Academy report finds that NASA's earth science budget has fallen by 30 percent, while the number of operating Earth-observing instruments on NASA satellites will fall by 40 percent by 2010. The funds are being siphoned off to prepare for a manned science station on the moon. NASA seems unable to describe just what science will be done.

And to emphasis the US administration's attitude to Earth science Professor Park reports, "The Earth's albedo, or reflectivity, is fundamental to global climate. We don't know what it is. The only instrument capable of measuring and continuously monitoring the albedo is the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR). Already built and paid for, it sits in a warehouse at Goddard Space Flight Center waiting to be delivered to the Lagrange-1 point [the point where the gravity of Earth and the Sun are balanced], about a million miles in the direction of the sun*. We understand why President Bush may not like DSCOVR. But not much has been heard from Congress or the public."

*The average distance of the Moon's orbit from Earth is ~238,000 miles.