Space Studies Board Annual Report 1999 (2000) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
4. Short Reports
4. Short Reports
Pages 59-74
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 59... ...
The task group also held discussions with the chairs of three recent NRC studies pertinent to the current assessment and with several of the authors of the Easton workshop report) that evaluated NASA' s post-2002 mission scenario (Appendix D shows Charles Kennel et al., Report of the Workshop on NASA Earth Science Enterprise Post-2002 Missions, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C., November 12, 1998.
|
From page 60... ...
, NASA necessarily built on the very extensive heritage of NRC and NASA studies and reports, as well as 10 years of EOS Science Team operations. NASA, the USGCRP, and the NRC Pathways Report The task group's evaluation of the process and outcomes of the Easton workshop relies heavily on the recent NRC publication, Global Environmental Change: Research Pathways for the Next Decade.2 This approach is consistent with NASA's intent to rely on Pathways for guidance during the Easton process; it also conforms to the charge for this review.
|
From page 61... ...
See footnote 4. 40verall direction and executive oversight of the USGCRP are provided by the interagency Subcommittee on Global Change Research of the National Science and Technology Council's Committee on Environment and Natural Resources.
|
From page 62... ...
The task group endorses NASA's call for a high-level process to develop a national policy to ensure that the long-term continuity and quality of key data sets required for global change research are not compromised in the process of merging research and operational data sets. · The task group recommends that NASA establish a broadly based Science Integration Team charged with developing the requirements for data integration and for reviewing NASA's plans for sensor design, data acquisition, and data management to determine if they are consistent with expected scientific uses of the data.
|
From page 63... ...
These and other opportunities would complement the existing program. The development of a coherent overall EOS program depends on the development of a fully integrated science plan.
|
From page 64... ...
The task group reviewed NASA' s plan for post-2002 missions based on provided text material, presentations by NASA and NPOESS personnel, and with reference to the recent NRC reports noted below, especially the Pathways report: "On Climate Change Research Measurements from NPOESS," letter, May 1998; The Atmospheric Sciences: Entering the Twenty-First Century, October 1998; · Global Environmental Change: Research Pathways for the Next Decade, prepublication copy, November 1999 (the Pathways report)
|
From page 65... ...
Deficiencies in the latter two elements can be traced to the rapidity of the Easton process, the absence of a completed science plan, and the need for further integration with the USGCRP. Although the full Pathways report, with detailed information on research and observations in each thematic area, was not available at the time of the Easton workshop, the published Overview volume presented the full set of Scientific Questions from which it should have been possible to elaborate a "focused" and "coherent" effort.
|
From page 66... ...
26~. The task group was made aware of NASA's call for a high-level process to develop a national policy to ensure that the long-term continuity and quality of key data sets required for global change research are not compromised in the process of merging research and operational data sets.
|
From page 67... ...
However, in executing the ESE mission scenario, NASA assumes integration of its global observation program with the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) program.
|
From page 68... ...
26~.~6 The task group endorses NASA's call for a high-level process to develop a national policy to ensure that the long-term continuity and quality of key data sets required for global change research are not compromised in the process of merging research and operational data sets. It also concurs with NASA that "the Nation lacks a strategy for ensuring the availability of long-term, well-calibrated satellite obser~rations."~7 5.
|
From page 69... ...
In addition, given the emerging science strategy of having a number of distinct PI-led missions, the task group recommends that NASA establish a broadly based Science Integration Team charged with developing the requirements for data integration and for reviewing NASA's plans for sensor design, data acquisition, and data management to determine if they are consistent with expected scientific uses of the data. The broadest use of NASA sensor data, and support for the NASA systems, will be facilitated by including interagency and international investigators on the team.
|
From page 70... ...
6. Evaluation of the efficacy of the process employed by NASA to solicit ideas and to distill them to frame the proposed mission set.
|
From page 71... ...
This will require reviewing and mapping the USGCRP activities against the set of Research Imperatives and unanswered Scientific Questions presented in the Pathways report to help set optimal programmatic priorities, as well as considering implications for the research strategy from new policy developments. The detail provided in the full Pathways report that was unavailable at the time of the Easton workshop should be helpful in guiding development of science-driven Earth observation missions.
|
From page 72... ...
Global Change Research Program, U.S. Global Change Research Program Office, Washington, D.C., 1997.
|
From page 73... ...
The CAA recommends that the modified FIP should require a substantial amount of observing time in return for instrument support and that the NSF in its Request for Proposals should set a minimum acceptable return factor. Such a modified program would retain the essential features of the OIR report's recommended program but would more fairly reward the independent observatories for their success in obtaining observatory construction and operating funds.
|
From page 74... ...
Prince sent the following letter to Dr. Hugh Van Horn, director of the National Science Foundation's (NSF'sJ Division of Astronomical Sciences, and Dr.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.