Review of NASA's Earth Science Enterprise Research Strategy for 2000-2010 (2000) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix B: NASA Document
Appendix B: NASA Document
Pages 18-31
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From page 18... ...
Recommendation ~ on Research Priorities (CGCR, 1999) Research priorities and resource allocations must be re-assessed with the objective of tying available resources directly to the major unanswered scientific questions (identified in the Pathways report)
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From page 19... ...
and to diagnose significant changes in the behavior of major components of the Earth system, but certainly not characterizing any and all aspects of global change. In this matter, NASA followed specifically the recommendation of the Pathways report: "Priority must be given to identifying and obtaining accurate data on key variables carefully selected in view of the most critical scientific questions and practically feasible measurement capabilities".
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Climate Parameters Science Surface meteorology Surface air temperature/humidity Surface wind Sea level pressure Precipitation Snow cover Sea ice Upper air Temperature profiles Humidity/water vapor profiles Hydrology Streamflow Land water reservoirs & groundwater Vegetative cover Oceans Sea level Sea surface temperature Upper ocean temperature/salinity Deep ocean temperature profile Climate Impacts Systematic Observation Priorities in NASA and follow-on NPOESS Programs Surface Meteorology Ocean surface w~nds Global precipitation Snow extent Sea ice extent Incident solar radiation (total anal spectral Upper air Atmospheric temperature Atmospheric humidity Hydrology High and moderate resolution global mapping Oceans Ocean surface topography Sea surface temperature Ocean primary productivity Atmospheric Chemistry Ozone (total and profiles) Stratospheric chemistry .
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Ice in the Earth System, and Atmospheric Chemistry, Aerosols and Solar Radiation research themes, along with a coreprogram on Global Earth System Modeling address climate and climate change prediction on all time scales relevant to human activities, thereby eliminating unnecessary separation between seasonal-to- interannual and decadal-to-century time scales. Finally the Global Water and Energy Cycle and Atmospheric Chemistry, Aerosols and Solar Radiation research themes, in particular, have clearly engaged in investigating the linkages among radiation, atmospheric dynamics and chemistry, and climate change.
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The NASA research questions cut across the research imperatives and scientific questions formulated in NRC reports, which tend to be organized along disciplinary lines. The breadth of the science domain embraced by the ESE research strategy (and supporting research implementation plan)
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Global Change Prediction or Assessments P ~ To what extent can weather forecasting be improved by new global observations and advances in satellite data assimilation?
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The atmospheric science community and relevant federal agencies should develop a specific plan for optimizing global observations of the atmosphere, oceans, and land. This plan should take into account requirements for monitoring weather, climate, and air quality, and for providing the information needed to improve predictive numerical models used for weather, climate atmospheric chemistry, air quality, near-Earth space physics activities.
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2. Maintaining and improving global measurements of absolute and relative sea-level, surface wind stress, sea-ice extent and concentration, and satellite altimetry missions.
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- which has responsibility for maintaining the same measurement capabilities in the future. The ESE has selected a set of key environmental variables that have the highest significance for identifying giobal-scaTe changes in the major components of the Earth system or documenting critical forcings (atmospheric temperature and humidity fields, global precipitation, sea surface temperature, ocean winds, ocean circulation and extent of sea ice, the mass balance of ice sheets, land cover and land use, primary productivity of terrestnal and oceanic ecosystems, stratospheric ozone and related trace constituents, solar radiation, distribution of aerosols)
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From page 27... ...
through a series of dedicated altimetr~c satellite missions on the optimum TOPEX/Poseidon inclined orbit, realized in cooperation with NOAA and international partners, as a contribution to the deployment of a permanent space-based and in situ Integrated Ocean Observing System. More Agile Research Missions The development and demonstration of innovative new technologies to reduce the cost for implementing existing measurements or enable new measurements is a major objective of the NASA Earth Science Enterprise.
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From page 28... ...
g. advanced microwave aperture synthesis and radar systems to probe the moisture content of soils, advanced Doppler lidar systems to directly measure tropospheric winds in clear air, advanced differential absorption lidars to probe the composition of the lower troposphere, or advanced gravity sensors to detect the gravitational signature of changes in the Earth global environment)
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The NASA Earth Science Enterprise is supporting principally three major global modeling and data assimilation efforts at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the Goddard Space Flight Center (and a focused global ocean circulation data assimilation project at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
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Climate Modeling to Support Climate Change Assessment Activities; National Research Council, Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, Climate Research Committee.
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OSB, 1997: The Global Ocean Observing System; National Research Council, Ocean Studies Board. OSB, ~ 999: From Monsoons to Microbes, Understanding the Ocean 's Role in Human Health; National Research Council, Ocean Studies Board.
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