Space Studies Board Annual Report 2003 (2004) / Chapter Skim
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3 Summaries of Major Reports
3 Summaries of Major Reports
Pages 40-72
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From page 40... ...
The committee is primary recommendation is that a high-level joint NASA-NOAA planning and coordination office should be established to focus specifically on the transition process. The ability to observe and predict Earth's environment, including weather, space weather, and climate, and to improve the accuracy of those predictions in a complex society that is ever more dependent on environmental variability and change, has heightened the importance and value of environmental observations and information.
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From page 41... ...
Along with the successes, however many of which have occurred in spite of a relatively ad hoc, unplanned, or inefficient process there have been research missions with opportunities for practical applications that have been slow to be realized or that have gone unrealized altogether. Given the large cost (several billion dollars per year)
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From page 42... ...
Conversely, the collection, processing, and archiving of operational data should take into consideration the needs of the research community as well as the operational impact of the data. Test beds, in which assimilation methods and algorithms using research results and data are developed and evaluated prior to and during research missions, are an important component of the transitioning process.
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From page 43... ...
Recommendation 3: All NASA Earth science satellite missions should be formally evaluated in the early stages of the mission planning process for potential applications to operations in the short, medium, or long term, and resources should be planned for and secured to support appropriate mission transition activities. The evaluation process should include engaging in dialogue with the research and operational communities and obtaining input from possible users of the observations.
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From page 44... ...
Operational centers or associated test beds should use and evaluate the research observations in developing their products and should provide feedback to researchers. Test beds such as the Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation and the Joint Hurricane Testbed should be supported as a way to bridge the final steps in the gap between research and operations.
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From page 45... ...
3NASA's Earth Explorers Program is "the component of Earth Science Enterprise that investigates specific, highly focused areas of Earth science research. It is comprised of flight projects that provide pathfinder exploratory and process driven measurements, answering innovative and unique Earth science questions." Currently, the components of the Earth Explorers Program are the Earth System Science Pathfinder; the Rapid Spacecraft Development Office; the Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE)
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From page 46... ...
Recommendation: NASA's Earth Science Enterprise should continue to employ PI-led missions as one element of the ESE observation system. It should ensure regular review and improvement of the programs that employ or are associated with PI-led missions to increase their effectiveness and value to ESE and the science community.
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From page 47... ...
Recommendation: NASA's Earth Science Enterprise should include within the solicitation for PI-led missions a component, following the Solar System Exploration Discovery model, that provides limited technology funding for high-priority non-selected PI-led mission proposals to increase their technology readiness for the next proposal round. Finding: The Earth science community, particularly the university-based community, has historically produced only a small number of scientists with the in-depth space engineering and technical management experience that is required to lead a project in a PI mode of operation.
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From page 48... ...
Finding: Effective communication and the transfer of lessons learned between the Earth Explorers Program Office, current flight projects, and potential PI proposers can both increase the number of qualified proposers and reduce the risk associated with proposed projects. Recommendation: NASA's Earth Science Enterprise should continue to emphasize and promote communication and the transfer of lessons learned between the Earth Explorers Program Office, current flight projects, and potential PI proposers.
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From page 49... ...
Proposers are motivated to avoid overly optimistic costing if they respect the cost-review process; reviewers are more diligent when their recommendations are likely to be accepted by the selection official; and the selection official relies more readily on reviewer recommendations when the proposal and review process is effective at identifying the best mission candidates. Recommendation: NASA's Earth Science Enterprise should strengthen the complementary roles of proposers, reviewers, and the selection official in the selection process for PI-led missions, improving the critical balance between the three roles and focusing on clear traceability of the selection process to independent reviews and established ESE priorities.
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From page 50... ...
Split as opposed to shared authority is appropriate for achieving mission success and is healthy for the PI community; split authority and the resulting allocation of responsibility should be explicitly recognized in the project plan and should also reflect the philosophy inherent in PI-led missions that the mission is to be defined and developed by the science community itself. Recommendation: NASA's Earth Science Enterprise should explicitly recognize that mission success is a combined responsibility of the PI team and NASA and should establish project management plans, organizations, and processes that reflect an appropriate split, not a sharing, of authority, with the PI taking the lead in defining and maintaining overall mission integrity.
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From page 51... ...
What physical processes are responsible for coronal heating and solar wind acceleration, and what controls the development and evolution of the solar wind in the innermost heliosphere?
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From page 52... ...
wavelengths, to image coronal mass ejections in white light, to do helioseismology, and to measure the solar wind plasma, magnetic field, and energetic particle variations in near-Earth interplanetary space. The panel supports the continued active tracking of the Wind mission for targeted research topics and as a backup to the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE)
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From page 53... ...
Remote sensing observations and in situ sampling of the solar wind far from the Sun have provided tantalizing glimpses of the physical nature of this region. However, to understand how the solar wind originates and evolves in the inner heliosphere requires direct in situ sampling of the plasma, energetic particles, magnetic field, and waves, as close to the solar surface as possible the panel's top science priority for the coming decade.
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From page 54... ...
Solar wind disturbances driven by CMEs are inherently complex three-dimensional structures. Our understanding of the evolution and global extent of these disturbances has largely been built on single-point in situ measurements obtained at and beyond 1 AU, although some multispacecraft observations of heliospheric disturbances have been obtained and STEREO will provide stereoscopic imaging and two-point in situ measurements of CME-driven disturbances.
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From page 55... ...
an interstellar probe, to pass through the boundaries of the heliosphere and penetrate directly into the interstellar medium with state-of-the-art instrumentation; (2) a multispacecraft mission to obtain a global view of the Sun, to reveal the Sun's polar magnetic field and internal flows, to provide three-dimensional views of coronal mass ejections, and to observe internal flows, surface magnetic fields, and the birth of active regions everywhere; and (3)
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From page 56... ...
MAGNETOSPHERES Planetary magnetospheres are particularly accessible settings for studying the processes occurring in magnetized plasmas, providing unique insights into basic physical processes not amenable to direct probing, processes such as particle acceleration, shock formation, and magnetic reconnection. The solar wind interaction with a magnetosphere produces thin boundaries, separating large regions of relatively uniform plasma.
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From page 57... ...
At unmagnetized planets the mechanism for the formation of induced magnetospheres is relatively well understood but the atmospheric loss is poorly understood. INTRINSIC AND INDUCED Magnetospheres can be divided into two types: induced, if any intrinsic magnetic field of the body is so weak that the ionosphere is directly exposed to the flowing solar wind plasma, and intrinsic, if the body has an internal magnetic field sufficiently strong to deflect the plasma that flows against it.
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From page 58... ...
This theme also includes the disruption of some of these currents and reconnection of the magnetic field across current layers, at the magnetopause, in the magnetotail, and in planetary magnetodisks. Under the second theme is the role that induced and intrinsic magnetic fields play in deflecting the solar wind and the energetic particle populations coming from the Sun.
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From page 59... ...
· Understanding the complex interaction between the solar wind and the polar ionosphere. Achievement of this objective requires the establishment at high latitudes of the long-awaited Advanced Modular Incoherent Scatter Radar (formerly known as the Relocatable Atmospheric Observatory)
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From page 60... ...
During these explosive events, Earth is engulfed in intense high-frequency radiation, vast clouds of energetic particles, and fast plasma flows with entrained solar magnetic fields. Even though only a small fraction (generally <10 percent)
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From page 61... ...
Data assimilation technologies are crucial for integrating new observations into research and operational models of the space environment. The problems associated with the transition of research models and data sets to operations must be specifically addressed in the planning and implementation of research programs aimed at improving space weather forecasting and specification.
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From page 62... ...
The NSWP is a multiagency endeavor to understand the physical processes, from the Sun to Earth, that result in space weather and to transition scientific advances into operational applications. NASA's new LWS program represents an important opportunity to provide measurements and develop models that will clarify the relationship between sources of space weather and their impact.
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From page 63... ...
NASA Orbital Programs The Explorer Program has since the beginning of the space age provided opportunities for studying the geospace environment just as the Discovery Program now provides opportunities in planetary science. The continued opportunities for University-Class Explorer (UNEX)
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From page 64... ...
are discouraged about the poor proposal success rate as well as the low number of launch opportunities. The sounding rocket program was commercialized in 2000; in this changeover, approximately 50 civil service positions were lost and the cost of running the program increased.
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From page 65... ...
NPOESS should be developed to provide ionosphere and upper atmosphere observations to fill gaps in measurements needed to understand the A-I-M system. An L1 monitor should be a permanent facility that provides the solar wind measurements crucial to determining the response of the A-I-M system to its external driver, and the NSWP should be strengthened and used as a template for interagency cooperation.
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From page 66... ...
Theory, Modeling, and Data Assimilation Theory and modeling provide the framework for interpreting, understanding, and visualizing diverse measurements at disparate locations in the A-I-M system. There is now a pressing need to develop and utilize data assimilation techniques not only for operational use in specifying and forecasting the space environment but also to provide the tools to tackle key science questions.
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From page 67... ...
For example, the heliosphere contains cosmic rays, solar wind, neutral atoms, and pickup ions, each of which interacts with the others but needs its own set of equations and coupling terms. Similarly, the ionosphere-thermosphere and magnetosphere are different regions governed by distinct physical processes.
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From page 68... ...
THE GUEST INVESTIGATOR INITIATIVE Related to the five tasks listed in Recommendation 1, data and theory face challenges in two areas: · Integrating theory, modeling, and space- and ground-based observations and · Data exploration and assimilation. To address these points in the context of solar and space physics modeling and data analysis, the panel offers a second recommendation: Recommendation 2.
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From page 69... ...
The panel strongly supports and endorses the current NASA Guest Investigator program and would like to see it strengthened, with similar programs created in other agencies. The implementation of this recommendation would address the very real concerns expressed by many experimentalists that too few theorists play an active role in exploring, interpreting, refining, and extending the observations returned by expensive missions.
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From page 70... ...
Despite the many solar, heliospheric, and geospace models that can potentially be used for operational space weather forecasting, relatively few have so far been transitioned into operation at the NOAA and Air Force space weather centers. This is due to inadequate resources to support transition efforts, in particular at the NOAA Space Environment Center.
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From page 71... ...
Solar and space physics also needs to recruit and retain excellent students for graduate study as well, since there is a need for more individuals with graduate science degrees in general, as well as a next generation of solar and space physicists, particularly as issues such as space weather become more important to our society. Based on these considerations and on information gathered at several meetings with leaders in education, policy, and science, and with members of the solar and space physics community, the panel decided on four recommendations to help guide the community's next decade of education efforts.
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From page 72... ...
However, there should be a careful evaluation of lessons learned over the past few years, particularly regarding the involvement of scientists in EPO activities, as well as increased coordination of NASA EPO efforts with other large projects in science education reform, especially NSF initiatives. During the past few years NASA's OSS has begun to commit significant resources to education and public outreach.
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