Assessment of the Usefulness and Availability of NASA's Earth and Space Science Mission Data (2002) / Chapter Skim
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1 NASA: A Knowledge Agency
1 NASA: A Knowledge Agency
Pages 10-23
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Development of Space, and (5) Space Science.2 This report is concerned with the Earth Science and Space Science Enterprises.
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SPACE SCIENCE ENTERPRISE The science objectives of NASA's Space Science Enterprise are to "solve mysteries ofthe universe, explore the solar system, discover planets around other stars, search for life beyond Earth from origins to destiny, chart the evolution of the universe and understand its galaxies, stars, planets, and life."3 The Space Science Enterprise, managed by the Office of Space Science (OSS) , is divided into four science themes: (~)
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Some of this ultraviolet light is absorbed by dust grains in interstellar space in the galaxies and is re-emitted as infrared radiation. One of the goals of the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF)
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Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF)
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the Hubble Space Telescope mission archive, 1995-2001. Note that data flow out of the archive at a rate about four times higher than that of ingest.
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Two of the instruments, the Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment and the FarTnfrared Absolute Spectrometer, collected data that were subsequently mined from the archives for another purpose: to detect infrared light from galaxies at cosmological distances. This measurement demonstrated that substantial amounts of material had undergone nuclear processing inside massive stars and that substantial nucleosynthesis occurred at large redshift that is, when the universe was very young.
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Comparative planetology can provide real clues as to how the Earth itself and its habitability will be affected by changes in the total energy output of the Sun, climate change, increasing abundance of greenhouse gases, asteroid impacts, and so on. Planetary research has been one of the primary beneficiaries of the recent change in NASA philosophy to support a diverse set of missions of moderate scale.
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This uniquely consistent archive of solar data has been mined to produce several new insights into solar phenomena. One example is the realization that coronal mass ejections (CMEs~eruptions of gas that disrupt the flow of the solar wind and produce disturbances that strike the Earth causing electrical power outages, damaging communications satellites, and producing auroral displays involve an unexpectedly large portion of the solar surface and that several spatially separate regions participate in the process.
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Studies the composition of local interstellar matter and solar material and the transport of magnetospheric charged particles into the Earth's atmosphere. Studies the internal structure of the Sun, its outer atmosphere, and the origin of the solar wind.
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National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2000, Understanding Earth System Change: NASA's Earth Science Enterprise Research Strategy for 2000-2010, January 2001, 46 pp.; National Research Council, 2000, Review of NASA 's Earth Science Enterprise Research Strategyfor 2000-2010, National Research Council, Washington, D.C.,33 pp. nonnational Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2000, Understanding Earth System Change: NASA's Earth Science Enterprise Research Strategy for 2000-2010, January 2001, 46 pp.
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Global Change Research Program, Washington, D.C., 74 pp. ~2National Research Council, 2000, Review of NASA 's Earth Science Enterprise Research Strategy for 20002010, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 33 pp.
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The net effect of clouds on climate change depends on which cloud types change, and whether they become more or less abundant, thicker or thinner, and higher or lower in altitudes Different instruments measure different characteristics of the clouds, and dete:~ination of the full impact of clouds requires that these measurements be merged. Uncierstanding of the evolution of cloud-type cover, how cloud types are being affected by climate change, and how they in turn affect climate change requires access to long-time histories of space-based and ground data and the ability to apply new algorithms to original data to extract data relevant to cloud types.
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Determine decadal variation of ice sheet thickness over Greenland and Antarctica, altitude and thickness of clouds, vegetation heights, land topography, and ocean surface and sea ice altimetry. Monitor the global distribution of aerosols, ozone, and other trace gases in the Earth's atmosphere.
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From page 23... ...
Purdom, fall 2001. THE CHANGING PARADIGM FOR NASA With the adoption of the scientific goals of the Earth Science and Space Science Enterprises, NASA can no longer be viewed primarily as a technology-demonstration agency.
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