National Academies Press: OpenBook

Space Studies Board Annual Report 2019 (2021)

Chapter: 6 Congressional Testimony

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Suggested Citation:"6 Congressional Testimony." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Space Studies Board Annual Report 2019. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26073.
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6
Congressional Testimony

Members of Space Studies Board (SSB) committees of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine may be invited to testify before committees of the U.S. House of Representatives or the U.S. Senate about the findings and recommendations of their reports. During 2019, one hearing was held where a member of the SSB or its committees testified to Congress.

DISCOVERY ON THE FRONTIERS OF SPACE: EXPLORING NASA’S SCIENCE MISSION

On June 11, 2019, the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Space (Committee on Science, Space and Technology) held a hearing titled “Discovery on the Frontiers of Space: Exploring NASA’s Science Mission.” Chelle Gentemann, co-chair of the Committee on Earth Science and Applications from Space (CESAS), provided testimony on behalf of the National Academies’ Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences and the SSB. More information and the full testimony is available at https://science.house.gov/hearings/discovery-on-the-frontiers-of-space-exploring-nasas-science-mission and is reprinted, unedited, below.

Chairwoman Horn, Ranking Minority member, and members of the Committee, I want to thank you for the opportunity to testify today at the hearing on “Discovery on the Frontiers of Space: Exploring NASA’s Science Mission.” My name is Chelle Gentemann and I am a Senior Scientist at Earth and Space Research, a nonprofit research institute located in Seattle, Washington, an Affiliate at the University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory, Co-Chair of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) Standing Committee on Earth Science and Applications from Space (CESAS), and acting Chair of NOAA’s Science Advisory Board’s Data Archive and Access Requirements Working Group. I live in Santa Rosa, California, which you may recall was devastated in 2017 by wildfires.

I am a remote sensing physical oceanographer specializing in measuring ocean temperature from space and using those observations to advance our understanding of the upper ocean and how ocean variability imprints onto atmospheric weather. I’ve led several large commercial, governmental, and academic scientific coalitions funded by the National Oceanographic Partnership Program, NASA, NOAA, and the Office for Naval Research. This includes leading U.S. participation in an international science team organized to advance utilization of satellite observations.

Although parts of my testimony follow the specific recommendations and supporting text in the 2017-2027 Decadal Survey for Earth Science and Applications from Space (ESAS; “Decadal Survey”), the opinions I express should be attributed to me unless stated otherwise. I will provide thoughts on the scientific aspects of the Science Mission Directorate (SMD) portfolio to the subcommittee below.

Earth science and derived Earth information have become an integral component of our daily lives, our business successes, and society’s capacity to thrive. The Decadal Survey and the popular version of that report that we’ve provided at this hearing enumerate, in much greater detail than I can provide here, the benefits to the nation from a robust earth science program at NASA, as well as the earth observation programs at NOAA and the US Geological Survey.

Suggested Citation:"6 Congressional Testimony." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Space Studies Board Annual Report 2019. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26073.
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Some 100 of the nation’s leading earth scientists, space system engineers, and policy experts worked over nearly two years in developing the community consensus on earth science priorities that informs the Decadal Survey’s recommendations for U.S. investments in support of earth science from space. The Decadal Survey builds on, and has as its highest priority, the completion of the Program of Record (POR). The POR includes both PACE and CLARREO Pathfinder (see more details below). Elimination of these missions in the POR undermines the entire Decadal Survey planning and prioritization process. PACE in particular supports multiple research thrusts and is a key element in the survey’s planned constellation of earth observation satellites that will give scientists and policymakers a clearer understanding that will help prioritize climate change mitigation options and strategies. CLARREO Pathfinder will provide the ability to inter-calibrate instruments in space at accuracies 5 to 10 times beyond current capabilities. As you consider NASA’s reauthorization, I hope that the committee sees the value of the Decadal Survey process and enables NASA to continue its implementation for all our benefit.

Finally, I note that rapid advancements in using commercial cloud computing and open source software for science have outpaced planned activities. I believe there are public-private partnership opportunities in cloud computing and open source software that could lead to breakthrough science and new commercial applications.

What are some of the most compelling scientific questions and opportunities in earth science and applications today?

The most recent National Academies’ “Decadal Survey” for Earth Science and Applications from Space (ESAS), produced the report, Thriving on Our Changing Planet: A Decadal Strategy for Earth Observation from Space. A summary of this community report is appended to my testimony. The report begins by noting that understanding our planet, and how it is changing, is critical for our nation’s economy, security, and safety. As individuals, we rely on Earth information in our daily lives for applications ranging from internet mapping and weather forecasting to agricultural productivity and transportation. These ever-growing capabilities are due in large part to the United States’ sustained commitment to satellite-based earth observations.

Satellite observations provide a global perspective of Earth that transforms our scientific understanding of the planet and enables powerful societal applications that help individuals, businesses, the nation, and the world. The report identifies and prioritizes the science and applications and observations that are needed to understand the dynamic Earth over the next decade. Pursuing these identified priorities will impact all our lives.

A major component of the Decadal Survey’s recommendations included a commitment to a set of observational capabilities to enable substantial progress in all of the following science and applications areas:

  • Providing critical information on the make-up and distribution of aerosols and clouds, which in turn improve predictions of future climate conditions and help us assess the impacts of aerosols on human health;
  • Addressing key questions about how changing cloud cover and precipitation will affect climate, weather, and Earth’s energy balance in the future, advancing understanding of the movement of air and energy in the atmosphere and its impact on weather, precipitation, and severe storms;
  • Determining the extent to which the shrinking of glaciers and ice sheets, and their contributions to sea-level rise, is accelerating, decelerating, or remaining unchanged;
  • Quantifying trends in water stored on land (e.g., in aquifers) and the implications for issues such as water availability for human consumption and irrigation;
  • Understanding alterations to surface characteristics and landscapes (e.g., snow cover, snow melt, landslides, earthquakes, eruptions, urbanization, land-cover and land use) and the implications for applications such as risk management and resource management;
  • Assessing the evolving characteristics and health of terrestrial vegetation and aquatic ecosystems, which is important for understanding key consequences such as crop yields, carbon uptake, and biodiversity; and
  • Examining movement of land and ice surfaces to determine, in the case of ice, the likelihood of rapid ice loss and significantly accelerated rates of sea-level rise, and in the case of land, changes in strain rates that impact and provide critical insights into earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, and tectonic plate deformation.
Key issues for Congress regarding the future of space and earth science.

The overarching challenge continues to be how to sustain the baseline and implement the new, critical programs at NASA, NOAA and USGS that are recommended in the Decadal Survey. This will require a combination of continued and perhaps expanded levels of Congressional support, leveraging the emerging opportunities associated with “new space,” the commercial sector, and building on the revolution in how data are accessed, managed, and analyzed.

Finally, and most importantly, climate change poses enormous challenges to our way of life and security. The role of earth observations in understanding where and how fast changes will occur, along with informing options for mitigation and adaptation, must be a key element of all observational programs.

Suggested Citation:"6 Congressional Testimony." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Space Studies Board Annual Report 2019. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26073.
×
What may impact addressing the most compelling scientific questions and opportunities?
Endangered POR components:

PACE mission. PACE (Plankton, Aerosols, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) is a critical mission for quantifying the role of the ocean ecosystem in the global carbon cycle. When launched, it will give us unprecedented insight into Earth’s ocean and atmosphere. Collecting data on these systems is critical to understanding their effects on climate and Earth’s habitability. The instruments on PACE will allow for a more detailed understanding of the carbon uptake by the various phytoplankton species. This data will allow scientists and policymakers a stronger position when prioritizing climate change mitigation strategies.

CLARREO-Pathfinder mission. CLARREO-Pathfinder (CPF) is designed to demonstrate in space satellite inter-calibration, traceable to the International Standard of Units. Instrument calibration is essential to providing accurate, well-characterized data. Currently, after launch, instrument scientists often rely on overlapping periods of data from similar sensors, models, evaluating data with collocated in situ observations (when possible), or other suboptimal methods to calibrate satellite instruments. CPF will provide the ability to inter-calibrate instruments in space at accuracies 5 to 10 times beyond current capabilities, allowing them to be combined into accurate data products for weather forecasting and climate modeling. CPF is part of the survey’s assumed baseline program of record.

Endangered technological advancements

Continue STEM education. Although one of the richest countries in the world, the U.S. scores in STEM are consistently below average among similar countries. Within the digital world, national borders mostly disappear, and without a competitive and educated workforce the next ‘Silicon Valley’ could be overseas. Remaining the global leader in technology requires training students in advanced STEM skills.

Enabling Breakthrough Science

The Decadal Survey report stated “Breakthrough science will be done by virtual science teams collaborating through complex, multi-observation data sets,” but didn’t go farther to explore this as it was determined to be beyond scope. Right now, we are witnessing the rapid, revolutionary transition into a new era in science. Open-source software, cloud data storage, and cloud computing have the potential to enable more widespread and efficient utilization of public data for a myriad of commercial and scientific applications, and new approaches to understanding complex interconnections between our economy, ecosystem, weather, and environment.

The Decadal Survey authors didn’t plan for the additional resources needed for a wholesale move of NASA data assets onto the cloud, support for the open source software libraries that underpin rapid scientific advancements and commercial data applications, or how to enable the interdisciplinary science and commercial applications that will subsequently flourish. In my view, this is one example where comparatively small new investments have the potential to deliver outsized benefits. NASA’s vast data resources and robust research community make it well-poised to be a global leader in this effort. Jump-starting these activities in NASA could grow the private-public cloud partnership and energize the research community.

There are a couple studies that would help cloud-migration efforts. NASA’s data is more than just the observation value, there is also metadata (data about the data) and uncertainty estimates. There are many different approaches to estimate the uncertainty in a measurement, from using artificial intelligence to a careful detailed analysis of how each step contributes to uncertainty. As data moves onto the cloud, the calculation of uncertainty and how it is communicated becomes even more important.

The organization of Federal agencies and funding opportunities directly impact how science is accomplished and can act as either a barrier or enabler for new approaches. A movement of data onto the cloud can easily propagate a ‘business as usual’ approach to science, but early adopters have found that by removing many of the barriers to data access, how science is accomplished is changing. It changes the type of questions that can be asked, how they are answered, the reproducibility of science, and the dynamic of collaborations. This enables more interdisciplinary research. Capturing all the advantages of cloud computing and open source software will require a re-imagining of how science is organized.

How does CESAS monitor the implementation of the Earth Science Decadal Survey, and what is CESAS’s assessment of NASA’s progress in implementing the decadal to date?

At twice yearly meetings, NASA is invited to present on their progress and decisions regarding the implementation of the Decadal Survey recommendations. During these presentations, and afterward, there is substantial back-and-forth with CESAS. Afterward, the committee may submit a report to NASA outlining any areas of concern or ask for additional meetings to address specific questions.

Suggested Citation:"6 Congressional Testimony." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Space Studies Board Annual Report 2019. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26073.
×

NASA is following the Decadal Survey guidance and has as its first priority the completion of the POR. It has also started studies on the implementation of all the recommended “Designated Observables,” a program element for Decadal Survey-designated cost-capped medium- and large-size missions to address observables that are essential to the program, directed or competed at the discretion of NASA. However, it now appears that implementation of the rest of the recommended program will require appropriations beyond that assumed by the Decadal Survey committee. In particular, additional funds would be needed to initiate the Earth System Explorer line, a new program element involving competitive opportunities for cost-capped medium-size instruments and missions serving specified Decadal Survey-priority observations.

How, if at all, do emerging capabilities in the commercial sector affect the future of earth science and applications?

NASA has contracts with three private companies (Planet, DigitalGlobe, Spire) to buy existing data related to climate variables. These are being evaluated by a broad set of NASA researchers to determine the value of the geophysical information for advancing NASA research and application objectives. These scientists are exploring uses for this data. If these commercial data providers are able to demonstrate products that add value to research and are cost-effective, it will make sense to continue buying and using their data. Yet, in the scientific community, a high level of concern persists about the potential impacts of long term reliance on commercial space companies and loss or internal expertise. At the same time, it is apparent that commercial partners may be more agile and experimental, which impacts possible solutions, cost, and risk.

Emerging capabilities hold promise, but there must be a close collaboration. It is important to consider in detail the design of the data-producing instrument when evaluating data quality. Maximizing data utilization requires close collaboration between data users and data providers, which should begin well before the point when flight data are actually available. Ideally, the engineering process should include the involvement of potential users in the design, development and pre-flight calibration of an instrument. At an absolute minimum, the data users should have access to the detailed engineering design and test results for instruments that measure the data they are buying. This runs into issues of company equipment and security and has the potential to weaken the strength of the average datum used in scientific research.

Suggested Citation:"6 Congressional Testimony." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Space Studies Board Annual Report 2019. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26073.
×
Page 90
Suggested Citation:"6 Congressional Testimony." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Space Studies Board Annual Report 2019. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26073.
×
Page 91
Suggested Citation:"6 Congressional Testimony." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Space Studies Board Annual Report 2019. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26073.
×
Page 92
Suggested Citation:"6 Congressional Testimony." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Space Studies Board Annual Report 2019. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26073.
×
Page 93
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The Space Studies Board (SSB) is a unit of the Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. SSB provides an independent, authoritative forum for information and advice on all aspects of space science and applications and serves as the focal point within the National Academies for activities on space research.

Space Studies Board Annual Report 2019 describes the projects and activities of SSB; explains the SSB's collaboration with other National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine units; and assures the quality of the SSB reports.

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