Toward New Partnerships In Remote Sensing
Government, the Private Sector, and Earth Science Research
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, D.C. www.nap.edu
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
500 Fifth Street Washington, DC 20001
NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
Support for this project was provided by National Aeronautics and Space Administration Contract Nos. NASW-96013 and 01001, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Contract No. 50-DKNA-6-90040, Stennis Space Center Order Nos. NS-7426 and NS-7570, Environmental Protection Agency Grant No. X-82821401, Department of Transportation Order No. DTRS56-00-P-70077, U.S. Geological Survey Cooperative Agreement No. 00HQAG0204, and Department of the Army Order No. DACA89-99-M-0147. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsors.
The cover was designed by Penny Margolskee.
Cover images (left to right):
-
IKONOS satellite image of Mount Etna, Sicily, showing the prominent white smoke plume rising from the volcano. SOURCE: Image courtesy of Space Imaging, Inc., Denver, Colo.
-
Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-View Sensor (SeaWiFS) true-color image, centered on the Chesapeake Bay and the Carolina capes region of the eastern seaboard, showing the effects of Hurricane Floyd on the coastal waters. SOURCE: SeaWiFS Project, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and OrbImage.
-
Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image showing levels of chlorophyll fluorescence in phytoplankton in the Arabian Sea. SOURCE: Scientific Visualization Studio, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
International Standard Book Number 0-309-08515-2
Copies of this report are available free of charge from:
Space Studies Board
National Research Council
2101 Constitution Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20418
Copyright 2002 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
Advisers to the Nation on Science, Engineering, and Medicine
The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Bruce M. Alberts is president of the National Academy of Sciences.
The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. Wm. A. Wulf is president of the National Academy of Engineering.
The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg is president of the Institute of Medicine.
The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy’s purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Bruce M. Alberts and Dr. Wm. A. Wulf are chair and vice chair, respectively, of the National Research Council.
STEERING COMMITTEE ON SPACE APPLICATIONS AND COMMERCIALIZATION
ROBERTA BALSTAD MILLER,
Columbia University, Chair
MARK R. ABBOTT,*
Oregon State University
ALEXANDER F.H. GOETZ,
University of Colorado
LAWRENCE W. HARDING, JR.,
Horn Point Laboratory
JOHN R. JENSEN,
University of South Carolina
CHRIS J. JOHANNSEN,
Purdue University
MOLLY MACAULEY,
Resources for the Future
JOHN S. MacDONALD,
Institute for Pacific Ocean Science and Technology
JAY S. PEARLMAN,
TRW, Inc.
Staff
PAMELA L. WHITNEY, Study Director
JULIE ESANU, Program Officer
KIRSTEN ARMSTRONG, Research Assistant
DINA KAMPMEYER, National Research Council Intern
CARMELA J. CHAMBERLAIN, Senior Project Assistant
SPACE STUDIES BOARD
JOHN H. McELROY,
University of Texas at Arlington (retired),
Chair
ROGER P. ANGEL,
University of Arizona
JAMES P. BAGIAN,
Veterans Health Administration’s National Center for Patient Safety
JAMES L. BURCH,
Southwest Research Institute
RADFORD BYERLY, JR.,
University of Colorado
ROBERT E. CLELAND,
University of Washington
HOWARD M. EINSPAHR,
Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute
STEVEN H. FLAJSER,
Loral Space and Communications Ltd.
MICHAEL FREILICH,
Oregon State University
DON P. GIDDENS,
Georgia Institute of Technology/Emory University
RALPH H. JACOBSON,
The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory (retired)
CONWAY LEOVY,
University of Washington
JONATHAN I. LUNINE,
University of Arizona
BRUCE D. MARCUS,
TRW, Inc. (retired)
RICHARD A. McCRAY,
University of Colorado
HARRY Y. McSWEEN, JR.,
University of Tennessee
GARY J. OLSEN,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
GEORGE A. PAULIKAS,
The Aerospace Corporation (retired)
ROBERT ROSNER,
University of Chicago
ROBERT J. SERAFIN,
National Center for Atmospheric Research
EUGENE B. SKOLNIKOFF,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MITCHELL SOGIN,
Marine Biological Laboratory
C. MEGAN URRY,
Yale University
PETER VOORHEES,
Northwestern University
JOHN A. WOOD,
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
JOSEPH K. ALEXANDER, Director
Preface
The technical, scientific, policy, and institutional environment for conducting Earth science research has been changing rapidly over the past few decades. Changes in the technical environment are due both to the advent of new types and sources of remote sensing data, which have higher spatial and spectral resolution, and to the development of vastly expanded capabilities in data access, visualization, spatial data integration, and data management. The scientific environment is changing because of the strong emphasis on global change research, both nationally and internationally, and the evolving data requirements for that research. And the policy and institutional environment for the production of Earth observation data is changing with the diversification of both remote sensing data and the institutions that produce the data. In this report, the Space Studies Board’s Steering Committee on Space Applications and Commercialization explores the implications of this changing environment, examining the opportunities and challenges it presents.
As part of its data-gathering activities, the steering committee convened a workshop, “Remote Sensing and Basic Research: The Changing Environment,” in March 2001 at the National Academies’ facilities in Washington, D.C. The objectives were to identify and explain the opportunities and barriers to scientific research and the science policy issues that stem from the increased emphasis on commercialization of remote sensing data for scientific research; identify the range and types of users and those who are affected by the changing environment of remote sensing; and facilitate information exchange and discussion of existing and potential remote sensing applications among the science community, com-
mercial firms, and members of federal and local government agencies. The second in a series of three workshops organized by the steering committee, the March 2001 workshop provided a forum for discussion of the changing environment and evolving collaboration among researchers, government, and data providers. It brought together representatives of academia, the government, and the commercial remote sensing sector for one and a half days of presentations, panel discussions, and topical breakout sessions.1
The steering committee’s first workshop, held in May 2000, focused on the development of applications of remote sensing data and the nature of technology transfer in that development. The third and final workshop will focus on issues related to the adoption and use of remote sensing data by state and local governments. Transforming Remote Sensing Data into Information and Applications2 was published as the first of three reports that draw, in large part, on the respective workshops.
The purpose of the current report, the second in the series, is to summarize the critical issues and perspectives most relevant to understanding the relationships evolving among and between the scientific community and data providers in the public and private sectors in the United States. The report aims to enhance understanding of these relationships so that they can be improved where needed, advanced where appropriate, and strengthened so as to improve the resources available for basic research. It focuses primarily on public and private sector interactions and relationships for the production and delivery of satellite remote sensing data for scientific research. Such relationships can include public-private partnerships, redistributor-end user relationships, and those involving “anchor tenancy” (advance purchases of data from companies developing remote sensing systems). The steering committee uses the generic term “public-private partnerships” to describe all of these relationships.
Although it recognizes that the long and successful commercial experience in aerial remote sensing provides valuable data for research and applications, the steering committee regards it as a type of enterprise that is, by virtue of its small capitalization requirements and scale of operation, essentially different from the
1 |
The workshop was attended by a broad spectrum of scientists from academia and private industry; officials from federal agencies; representatives from not-for-profit organizations; and commercial photogrammetry, commercial remote sensing, and value-added companies (see Appendix C). Sponsorship for the workshop was provided by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) headquarters, NASA Stennis Space Center, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Ocean Service and National Environmental Satellite and Data Information Service, the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Transportation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the U.S. Geological Survey. |
2 |
Space Studies Board and Ocean Studies Board, National Research Council, Transforming Remote Sensing Data into Information and Applications, Washington, D.C., National Academy Press, 2001. |
emerging commercial satellite remote sensing industry. Moreover, the changes in the remote sensing environment that motivated this report and have stimulated the development of new types of public-private partnerships are occurring largely in the world of satellite remote sensing. Nevertheless, aerial remote sensing firms that are involved in public-private partnerships to provide data for scientific research, such as those firms participating in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA’s) Science Data Buy, were included in the workshop presentations and discussions and are reflected in this report.
The steering committee focused on public-private partnerships both because of the current national policy emphasis on such partnerships and because two multiyear public-private partnerships now exist to provide remote sensing data for scientific research and thus can serve as case studies of how such partnerships work. An alternative approach, such as examining the scientific impacts of the use of commercial satellite remote sensing data for science, was not feasible because of the short time frame in which purely commercial remote sensing data have been available. At the same time, the steering committee found that its examination of public-private partnerships to provide remote sensing data for scientific research raised many of the issues that might be anticipated in looking at the role of purely commercial firms in providing scientific data. In particular, the steering committee’s examination of public-private partnerships highlighted basic differences in the ways that commercial and scientific enterprises function and potential problems resulting from those differences.
Workshop and steering committee discussions focused on the provision of civil remote sensing data, because it is in the civil sphere that legislative and administrative policy has attempted to foster new types of partnerships to provide data for scientific research. NASA is the government agency most deeply involved in public-private partnerships for producing Earth observation data for research, but the term “government” rather than “NASA” is used in this report to describe these activities, because other government agencies may become involved in such partnerships in the future. The international implications of public-private relationships in remote sensing, which were not the focus of this report, should also be examined as the remote sensing environment evolves.
Acknowledgment of Reviewers
This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the National Research Council’s Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We wish to thank the following individuals for their review of the report:
Francis Bretherton, University of Wisconsin, Madison,
Curtiss Davis, Naval Research Laboratory,
Samuel Goward, University of Maryland, College Park,
David Linden, DSL Consulting, and
Earnest D. Paylor II, Pacific Disaster Center.
Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recommendations, nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by William J. Merrell, Jr., H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment. Appointed by the National Research Council, he was responsible for making certain that an independent