To preserve and improve Earth's environment for future generations, governments around the world need policies based on the strongest possible scientific understanding. Commercial firms, natural resource managers, and educators rely on a dependable stream of this same new knowledge. The unique vantage point of space provides information about Earth's land, atmosphere, ice, oceans, and biota that is obtainable in no other way. In concert with the global research community, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra-tion and the other agencies participating in the U.S. Global Change Research Program, the Earth Science Enterprise is developing the understanding needed to support the complex environmental policy and economic investment decisions that lie ahead.

Questions to Address

Earth Science addresses the fundamental question: How can we utilize the knowledge of the Sun, Earth, and other planetary bodies to develop predictive environmental, climatic, natural disaster, and natural resource models to help ensure sustainable development and improve the quality of life on Earth?

Goals

The goals of the Earth Science Enterprise are as follows:

Strategies and Outcomes

To accomplish these goals, the Earth Science Enterprise employs a strategy that establishes science priorities with near-term product milestones on a path of long-term inquiry; develops advanced technologies that lead to new and lower cost scientific investigations; promotes extensive international collaboration and cooperation with other Federal agencies; contributes to national and international assessments of the environment; fosters commercial use of remote-sensing data and leverages the resources of the commercial remote-sensing industry to lower the cost of acquiring data; and strengthens Earth science education and public awareness.

These goals, and the strategies that follow, implement the President's National Space Policy of September 1996. This Policy requires NASA to undertake "a program of long-term observation, research, and analysis of the Earth's land, oceans, atmosphere and their interactions, including continual measurements from the Earth Observing System. . . . In carrying out these activities, NASA will develop new and innovative space technologies and smaller more capable spacecraft to improve the performance and lower the cost of future space missions."

Through 2002, the Enterprise will deploy the first series of Earth Observing System (EOS) missions, including Landsat 7. These will join our currently operating spacecraft, such as the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). This period will also see the first launches of Earth System Science Pathfinder small satellite missions for new scientific investigations. In tandem, a strong program of aircraft and other field campaigns will validate and supplement spacecraft measurements. Modeling and assessment activities will turn the data collected into widely useful information products for research and applications. These programs are detailed in the Earth Science Strategic Enterprise Plan and supporting strategy documents.

The Enterprise is responsible for technology development needed for the next generation of Earth remote-sensing systems and is defining a science-driven strategy to guide technology investment choices. Participation in the New Millennium program is one example of the Enterprise's technology investment approach. In the near term, technology investments will be driven by the need for smaller, less expensive instruments to continue the EOS first series measurements and to enable key new measurement capabilities such as Light Intersection Direction and Ranging (LIDAR) for atmospheric winds. Highly distributed, advanced Internet capabilities must be developed to enable the widespread

 

application of environmental data. In the midterm, new measurement and modeling capabilities will be pursued to enable the three-dimensional characterization of Earth's atmosphere and ecosystems. Supercomputing initiatives will allow for large-scale modeling and visualization to advance weather prediction and forecasting of seasonal phenomena, such as El Niño and the resulting impacts on a regional level. In the long term, sensor concepts and spacecraft systems technologies will be advanced to cost-effectively support the transition of measurements to operational systems. Capacity and performance improvements in information systems technologies will be developed to enable coupled climate models for change prediction and to improve weather forecasts over all time scales. 

The ultimate beneficiaries of Earth Science are the present and future generations of the people on Earth. The primary customers are researchers seeking answers to key Earth science questions, commercial firms using Earth Science data and technology to help their businesses grow, public sector managers exercising stewardship of our natural resources, and educators teaching the next generation of scientists, engineers, and citizens. The Earth Science Enterprise and its partners provide a sound, scientific foundation for public and private sector choices on the road to sustainable development.

The EOS-AM1 spacecraft (named to indicate its morning equatorial crossing time) will be launched in mid-1998. Its instrument complement is designed to obtain data on key parameters of global climate change: the physical and radiative properties of clouds; air-land and air-sea exchanges of energy, carbon, and water; measurements of important trace gases; and volcanology.

 

This image of Hurricane Fran was taken from the NOAA/National Weather Service's GOES-8 (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite) on September 4, 1996, at 1:15 p.m. EDT, less than 7 hours before the eye went ashore at Cape Fear, North Carolina. The image was enhanced and rendered at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Laboratory for Atmosphere, Greenbelt, Maryland.

 

NASA's ER-2 is the country's premier high-altitude civilian research aircraft. Flying in the lower stratosphere, it allows scientists to make in situ measurements for the study of atmospheric chemistry, such as ozone breakdown. It also serves as a testbed for instruments planned for future Earth-orbiting spacecraft.

Roles and Responsibilities

The NASA Centers' primary missions to support the Earth Science Enterprise are listed in the table below.

Center	Mission
Goddard Space Flight Center	Earth System Science
Jet Propulsion Laboratory	Instrument Technology
Langley Research Center	Atmospheric Science
Stennis Space Center	Commercial Remote Sensing

 

See Roadmap.