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Assessment of Satellite Earth Observation Programs 1991
Assessment of Satellite Earth
Observation Programs
1991
NOTICE
MEMBERSHIP
FOREWORD
SUMMARY
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
REFERENCES
Committee on Earth Studies
ABBREVIATIONS AND
Space Studies Board
ACRONYMS
Commission on Physical Sciences,
APPENDIX
Mathematics, and Applications
National Research Council
NOTICE
MEMBERSHIP
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Assessment of Satellite Earth Observation Programs 1991
FOREWORD
SUMMARY
1. INTRODUCTION
2. EARTH SCIENCE FROM SPACE
Introduction
Atmospheric Sciences
Climate Studies
Physical Oceanography
Cryospheric Research
Hydrology
Geology
Geodynamics
Global Biology, Ecology, and Biogeochemical Cycles
3. APPLICATIONS PROGRAMS AND OTHER MAJOR ISSUES
Applications Programs
Earth Probe Mission Line
Data Management
Research and Analysis
Relation of Space, Airborne, and Ground Measurements
REFERENCES
ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS
APPENDIX
NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS, 1991
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Assessment of Satellite Earth Observation Programs 1991 (Notice)
Assessment of Satellite Earth Observation Programs
1991
NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the
Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn
from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of
Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee
responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with
regard for appropriate balance.
This report has been reviewed by a group other than the authors
according to procedures approved by a Report Review Committee consisting of
members of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of
Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.
The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-
perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and
engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology
and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted
to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to
advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Frank
Press is president of the National Academy of Sciences.
REPORT MENU
NOTICE
The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the
MEMBERSHIP
charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of
FOREWORD
outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection
SUMMARY
of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility
CHAPTER 1
for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also
CHAPTER 2
sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages
CHAPTER 3
education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers.
REFERENCES
Dr. Robert M. White is president of the National Academy of Engineering.
ABBREVIATIONS AND
ACRONYMS
APPENDIX
The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National
Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate
professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the
public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy
of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal
government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care,
research, and education. Dr. Kenneth I. Shine is president of the Institute of
Medicine.
The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy
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Assessment of Satellite Earth Observation Programs 1991 (Notice)
of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology
with the Academy's purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal
government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the
Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the
National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in
providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and
engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies
and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Frank Press and Dr. Robert M. White are
chairman and vice chairman, respectively, of the National Research Council.
Support for the Space Studies Board was provided through Contract
NASW-4102 between the National Academy of Sciences and the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Copies of this report are available from
Space Studies Board
National Research Council
2101 Constitution Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20418
Printed in the United States of America
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Assessment of Satellite Earth Observation Programs 1991 (Membership)
Assessment of Satellite Earth Observation Programs
1991
Membership
COMMITTEE ON EARTH STUDIES
Byron D. Tapley, University of Texas, Austin, Chairman
John R. Apel, Johns Hopkins University
William P. Bishop, Desert Research Institute
Kevin C. Burke, National Research Council
Janet W. Campbell, Bigelow Laboratory of Oceanic Science
Charles Elachi, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
William J. Emery, University of Colorado
Diana W. Freckman, University of California, Riverside
Richard E. Hallgren, American Meteorological Society
Kenneth C. Jezek, Ohio State University
Edward T. Kanemasu, University of Georgia
Vic Klemas, University of Delaware
REPORT MENU
Conway Leovy, University of Washington
NOTICE
John S. MacDonald, MacDonald-Detwiller Associates
MEMBERSHIP
Alfredo E. Prelat, Texaco E&P Technology Division
FOREWORD
John M. Wahr, University of Colorado
SUMMARY
CHAPTER 1
Staff
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
REFERENCES
Paul F. Uhlir, Senior Program Officer
ABBREVIATIONS AND
Altoria L. Bell, Administrative Secretary
ACRONYMS
APPENDIX
SPACE STUDIES BOARD
Louis J. Lanzerotti, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Chairman
Philip Abelson, American Association for the Advancement
of Science
Joseph A. Burns, Cornell University
John R. Carruthers, INTEL
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Assessment of Satellite Earth Observation Programs 1991 (Membership)
Andrea K. Dupree, Harvard-Smithsonian Institution
John A. Dutton, Pennsylvania State University
Larry Esposito, University of Colorado
James P. Ferris, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Herbert Friedman, Naval Research Laboratory
Richard L. Garwin, IBM Corporation
Riccardo Giacconi, Space Telescope Science Institute
Noel W. Hinners, Martin Marietta Civil Space & Communication Company
James R. Houck, Cornell University
David A. Landgrebe, Purdue University
Elliott C. Levinthal, Stanford University
William J. Merrell, Jr., Texas A&M University at Galveston
Richard K. Moore, University of Kansas
Robert H. Moser, The NutraSweet Company
Norman F. Ness, University of Delaware
Marcia Neugebauer, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Sally K. Ride, University of California at San Diego
Robert F. Sekerka, Carnegie Mellon University
Mark Settle, ARCO Oil and Gas Company
L. Dennis Smith, University of California at Irvine
Byron D. Tapley, University of Texas at Austin
Arthur B.C. Walker, Jr., Stanford University
Marc S. Allen, Staff Director
COMMISSION ON PHYSICAL SCIENCES,
MATHEMATICS, AND APPLICATIONS
Norman Hackerman, Robert A. Welch Foundation, Chairman
Peter J. Bickel, University of California, Berkeley
George F. Carrier, Harvard University
Herbert D. Doan, The Dow Chemical Company (retired)
Dean E. Eastman, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
Marye Anne Fox, University of Texas
Phillip A. Griffiths, Duke University
Neal F. Lane, Rice University
Robert W. Lucky, AT&T Bell Laboratories
Christopher F. McKee, University of California, Berkeley
Richard S. Nicholson, American Association for the Advancement
of Science
Jeremiah P. Ostriker, Princeton University Observatory
Alan Schriesheim, Argonne National Laboratory
Roy F. Schwitters, Superconducting Super Collider Laboratory
Kenneth G. Wilson, Ohio State University
Norman Metzger, Executive Director
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Assessment of Satellite Earth Observation Programs 1991 (Foreword)
Assessment of Satellite Earth Observation Programs
1991
Foreword
This report is one in a series written by the standing discipline committees
of the Space Studies Board. The purpose of this new series is to assess the
status of our nation's space science and applications research programs and to
review the responses of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and
other relevant federal agencies to the Board's past recommendations.
It is important, periodically, to take stock of where research disciplines
stand. As an advisory body to government, the Space Studies Board should
regularly examine the advice it has provided in order to determine its relevance
and effectiveness. As a representative of the community of individuals actively
engaged in space research and its many applications, the Board has an abiding
interest in evaluating the nation's accomplishments and setbacks in space.
In some cases, recurring budget problems and unexpected hardware
REPORT MENU
failures have delayed or otherwise hindered the attainment of recommended
NOTICE
objectives. In other cases, space scientists and engineers have achieved
MEMBERSHIP
outstanding discoveries and new understandings of the Earth, the solar system,
FOREWORD
and the universe. Although the recent past has seen substantial progress in the
SUMMARY
nation's civil space program, much remains to be done.
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3 These reports cover the areas of earth science and applications, solar
REFERENCES
system exploration (and the origins of life), solar and space physics, and space
ABBREVIATIONS AND
biology and medicine. Where appropriate, these reports also include the status of
ACRONYMS
data management recommendations set forth in the reports of the Space Studies
APPENDIX
Board's former Committee on Data Management and Computation. The Board
has chosen not to assess two major space research disciplines—astronomy and
astrophysics, and microgravity research—at this time. Astronomy and
astrophysics was recently surveyed in a report under the aegis of the Board on
Physics and astronomy, The Decade of Discovery in Astronomy and
Astrophysics (National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 1991); the Space
Studies Board is currently developing a strategy for the new area of microgravity
research.
On completion of the four reports, the Board will summarize the contents
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Assessment of Satellite Earth Observation Programs 1991 (Foreword)
of each volume and produce an overview. The Space Studies Board expects to
repeat this assessment process approximately every three years, not only for the
general benefit of our nation's space research program, but also to assist the
Board in determining the need for updating or revising its research strategies and
recommendations.
Louis J. Lanzerotti
Chairman, Space Studies Board
Last update 12/18/00 at 10:12 am
Site managed by Anne Simmons, Space Studies Board
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Assessment of Satellite Earth Observation Programs 1991 (Summary)
Assessment of Satellite Earth Observation Programs
1991
Summary
During the past decade, the Space Studies Board, its Committee on Earth
Studies (CES), and other bodies of the National Research Council have provided
the federal government with a substantial body of advice on the study of the
Earth from space. Together, these documents have contained an overall strategy
for science and applications using Earth observation spacecraft and have
established a set of specific recommendations for implementation of the strategic
advice. This report assesses the status of the nation's civil Earth observation
programs in relation to this existing body of advice and provides additional advice
on how to address the unfulfilled objectives and recommendations in the current
scientific and programmatic context.
Specifically, the report reviews the content of the satellite Earth
observation programs of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the
REPORT MENU
Landsat system operated by the Earth Observation Satellite (EOSAT) Company
NOTICE
as of the spring of 1991. The NASA programs are within the agency's Mission to
MEMBERSHIP
Planet Earth initiative, which includes the Earth Observing System (EOS) and its
FOREWORD
related data and information system, the Earth Probe small- and moderate-size
SUMMARY
mission line, and a number of "precursor" missions such as the Upper
CHAPTER 1
Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) and the Ocean Topography Experiment
CHAPTER 2
(TOPEX/Poseidon). The NOAA programs include the two meteorological satellite
CHAPTER 3
series, the Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellites (POES) and the
REFERENCES
Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES). Also considered in
ABBREVIATIONS AND
this assessment are some of the Defense Department's operational and
ACRONYMS
experimental spacecraft, including the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program
APPENDIX
(DMSP), the Global Positioning System (GPS), and the completed Geosat
mission. Finally, because the U.S. programs should be viewed in the broader
international context, the experimental, operational, and commercial satellite
programs of other countries are also discussed briefly.
The committee has found that substantial progress has been made in
recent years in the earth science programs of NASA, although many of the
science objectives previously established by this and other science advisory
committees have not yet been fully achieved. More importantly, a majority of past
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Assessment of Satellite Earth Observation Programs 1991 (Summary)
CES recommendations are expected to be addressed by the funded and planned
missions and related research programs that have been proposed for this decade
through the nationally and internationally coordinated U.S. Global Change
Research Program (USGCRP) and Mission to Planet Earth. The committee
concludes that with the implementation of Mission to Planet Earth, together with
the planned modernization of the NOAA environmental satellite programs and the
continuation of vigorous research and development of remote sensing and
related technologies, the United States will ensure its leadership in Earth
observations from space.
The committee has found NASA's plans for Mission to Planet Earth to be
responsive to the scientific objectives and recommendations established in past
NRC reports, with the exception of several shortcomings noted below and some
additional ones expressed in the body of the report. Development of the EOS-A
spacecraft and instrument complement, as well as the missions currently planned
under the Earth Probe line, should proceed without delay in order to achieve the
recommended science objectives. The committee also supports the instrument
complement under consideration for EOS-B, but recommends that NASA
carefully consider the optimum platform and orbit configuration in light of all
scientific requirements.
For spaceborne studies of the atmosphere and climate, the most
significant scientific objectives will be supported by the data collected by NASA
and NOAA spacecraft. Substantial progress also has been made by NASA and
NOAA programs in fulfilling the space-related scientific objectives for physical
oceanography, cryospheric studies, studies of tectonic deformation and variations
in the Earth's rotation, and certain aspects of global biology, ecology, and
biogeochemical cycles. Particularly noteworthy are NASA's support of general
research and analysis (R&A) programs in the earth sciences during the past
decade in the absence of many flight programs, and the high-priority attention
now given by that agency to data management.
Areas of scientific research where considerably less progress has been
made with Earth observation spacecraft include hydrology, land-surface geology
and vegetation, and the Earth's gravitational and magnetic fields. Research in the
first two of these areas has been hampered largely by the high cost of obtaining
data from commercially operated remote sensing systems such as Landsat. In
the future, they would be further impeded by NASA's delays in flying advanced
land-surface sensors such as the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and the High-
Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (HIRIS) under the EOS program. The
continued development and earliest possible deployment of the HIRIS and SAR
instruments would significantly improve our ability to perform process studies and
research in these areas. Exclusive reliance on sun-synchronous polar-orbiting
satellites in the EOS program would also be inadequate for monitoring a number
of important processes—such as the Earth's radiative balance, the formation of
clouds, and biological productivity—that vary extensively throughout the diurnal
cycle. Insufficient progress in the study of the Earth's gravitational and magnetic
fields has been due to the lack of specific flight opportunities, despite long-
standing recommendations by the scientific community to address them.
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Assessment of Satellite Earth Observation Programs 1991 (Summary)
Maintaining an accurate reference system based on space geodesy techniques
would be useful for monitoring long-term global change indicators such as mean
sea-level change.
In meeting the goals of the Mission to Planet Earth and the USGCRP, the
agencies still need to complete development of a comprehensive observational
strategy that preserves long-term continuity of the highest-priority measurements
and makes the best use of existing resources. In light of limited federal budgetary
resources, the committee considers it important for NASA, NOAA, and their
space agency partners to:
Maximize observational coverage by (1) eliminating gaps in coverage
of the electromagnetic spectrum through better coordination of their respective
programs and (2) reducing redundancies, with the exception of those
redundancies that either help maintain continuity of key measurements or that
provide multiple observations of variables with significant diurnal variations.
Mount a special effort to ensure the absolute calibration and
intercalibration of all Earth observation instruments to the highest achievable
accuracy.
Formulate a backup plan to be implemented in case of an instrument
failure, to help ensure continuity in long-term observations such as those planned
for EOS. This strategy may consist of the generation of alternative geophysical
parameters, albeit less effective ones, either from complementary EOS
instruments or from sensors flying on other NASA, U.S., or foreign spacecraft.
Develop a plan for the surface and in situ data-gathering technologies
and programs that are needed to complement Earth observations from space.
The NASA aircraft and suborbital programs should be an integral part of this plan.
Continue to transfer historical data sets onto secure media and
improve the maintenance of long-term data archives.
Both the development and implementation of this comprehensive observational
strategy should be done in consultation with the scientific community.
The implementation of the EOS Data and Information System (EOSDIS)
and related NOAA data management initiatives is crucial to the success of future
earth science and environmental research. It is important for NASA to continue to
develop existing "pathfinder" data sets in cooperation with NOAA, and to include
the data sets that will be collected by the European Earth Remote-Sensing
Satellite, UARS, and TOPEX/Poseidon for prototype studies in developing the
EOSDIS.
The organizational emphasis on data systems and modeling in the recent
reorganization of NASA's Earth Science and Applications Division is appropriate.
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Assessment of Satellite Earth Observation Programs 1991 (Summary)
The loss of identity of the traditional earth science disciplines, however, raises
concerns that a balanced treatment among the disciplines may be difficult to
maintain. The responsibilities of the new organizational units ought to be
sufficiently broad to accommodate the requisite elements of the previous
discipline structure.
The status of operational and commercial applications is in a less healthy
state. Although NOAA's POES program is on track and progressing in the
development of next-generation spacecraft and sensors, the agency's GOES
series has encountered serious difficulties. The two-satellite GOES system is
currently operating with only one spacecraft, and the development of the new
GOES series, which is being carried out in conjunction with NASA, is severely
over budget and behind schedule.
A number of instruments developed by NASA in the past, such as the
Earth Radiation Budget Experiment scanner, the Coastal Zone Color Scanner,
and the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer, have not been adopted by NOAA
for operational implementation despite the demonstrated maturity of the
technology and the well-recognized need for such continuous measurements.
Although NASA and NOAA have reached a tentative agreement on the
designation of several EOS instruments as "pre-operational," the framework of
the eventual transfer has not been worked out and the agencies have not yet
agreed on the future status of the important Moderate-Resolution Imaging
Spectrometer (MODIS) instrument. Past difficulties in transferring well-tested
experimental instruments to operational status underscore the imperative for the
federal government to arrive at a firm and comprehensive agreement on NASA's
and NOAA's responsibilities, and on funding for the eventual transfer of key EOS
instruments to a long-term monitoring program.
The transfer of the Landsat system from NOAA to the private sector in
1985 was premature and poorly executed. Significant doubts about the future of
this important remote sensing asset remain, and existing policies appear to be
ineffective in assuring the future continuity of Landsat observations. The
integration of the Landsat data into the research framework of the Mission to
Planet Earth and USGCRP is especially important.
Support of research and development of the applications of remote
sensing data has been reduced substantially at NASA during the past decade.
Although NOAA and the commercial sector have primary responsibility for
operational remote sensing, NASA has a mandate for supporting research in, and
development of, broader remote sensing applications. It is important for the
agency to incorporate potential applications of EOS into its planning for the
program, while preserving the primacy of the EOS program's scientific goals and
objectives. These activities would best be coordinated with industry and with the
commercial and government applications communities.
The text that follows expands on the issues and recommendations
highlighted in this summary, and contains a number of additional suggestions for
improving our nation's satellite Earth observation programs.
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