Assessment of NASA's Draft 2003 Earth Science Enterprise Strategy Letter Report (2003) / Chapter Skim
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Responses to the Five Questions
Responses to the Five Questions
Pages 7-18
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At the highest level, the ESE draft document outlines a program to study Earth as a global system, integrating technology-enabled measurements and comprehensive moclels to yield greatly improved predictive capabilities for climate, weather, and natural hazards. The draft document extends beyond scientific research to include the ESE program's Earth Science Applications theme, which identifies a set of application areas, partner agencies, and activities, including education.
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Where appropriate sidebars or similar formatting techniques could be used to present anecdotal examples or additional detail without detracting from the flow, structure, or logic of the main text. Realizability of the Draft Document's Projected Outcomes It is essential that the ESE outcomes projected in the six science focus areas be viewed as realizable ant} attainable within the resources and time specified, and that they be desirable and practical for partner agencies.
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and/or reword this section to suggest that these are hoped-for capabilities that is, something to strive for and to use as guideposts. The ESE draft document does not make clear whether the ~ 0-year outcomes for each of the six science focus areas (articulated in the roadmap charts in Section ITI)
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of the drabs document addresses "identifying and prioritizing frontier science questions" as an essential component of the ESE framework, the draft document describes neither the criteria nor the processes for setting relative priorities among the six science focus areas. Similarly, the draft document gives no inclication of the relative priorities of the three elements of the ESE's Earth Science Applications theme, nor does it prioritize between the ESE program's Earth System Science and Earth Science Applications themes.
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2. Does the ESE draft document effectively respond to the NASA Strategic Plan?
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3.Does the ESE draft document describe an endeavor that stands as an important scientific program and makes needed contributions to broader national priorities? The ESE draft document describes a program that has two parts, Earth System Science and Earth Science Applications, and that is clearly important both scientifically and in terms of its contribution to broacler, societally relevant national priorities.
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However, the reader is left with questions as to how and why these six were selected. A concise summary of the planning processes that resulted in the six science focus areas and the 12 applications focus areas, along with references to supporting lower-level documentation, would strengthen the draft document by demonstrating ESE's expertise at managing planning processes involving input from broad and diverse communities of implementers and stakeholders.
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Interdisciplinary Aspects The draft document emphasizes many interdisciplinary aspects, beginning most importantly with the compelling need to treat Earth as a single system consisting of continents, atmosphere, oceans, ice, and life and extending to the influence of solar variability on Earth in collaboration with NASA's Space Science Enterprise. Each of the identified six science focus areas is, inclependently, also fundamentally interdisciplinary.
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Connections between seemingly unrelated activities such as the precise measurement of gravitational fields and hydrology/precipitation would help the reader understand the synergies between solid Earth science and the other science focus areas. The importance of ESE's geodetic infrastructural instrumentation, such as its Global Positioning System, Satellite Laser Ranging, and Very Long Baseline Interferometry capabilities, for pursuing such objectives as well as other applications as diverse as monitoring ocean level and atmospheric temperatures and weather forecasting should be emphasized.
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that ESE's ability to achieve broad Earth science objectives may be compromised because no single organization is responsible for coordinating the efforts of the many partners. In light of this concern the committee recommends that ESE describe how it will take the steps necessary to ensure that all important scientific components are identified, and that NASA work with other relevant agencies to ensure that the specific roles of partner organizations are defined and activities properly coordinated.
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Some elaboration of why the particular application areas were chosen rather than others would also improve the document. Recommenclation 5 of the NRC's Review of NASA 's Earth Science Enterprise Research Strategy for 2000-201 03i recommends "matrices that map the detailed science questions to measurement parameters, implementation procedures, models, caTibration/validation/venfication requirements, and potential partners." The ESE draft document should address these issues in order to demonstrate the links between key science questions and the research missions clesignect to address them.
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· Living on a Restless Planet, Solid Earth Science Working Group, NASA, 2002. Available online at |
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