WASHINGTON -- A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine offers NASA a framework for prioritizing satellite observations and measurements of Earth based on their scientific value.
NASA's Earth Science Division conducts a coordinated series of satellite and airborne missions for long-term global observations of the land surface, biosphere, solid Earth, atmosphere, and oceans. Data from these observations are used to understand Earth as an integrated system and to support critical societal applications, including resource management, weather forecasts, climate projections, agricultural production, and natural-disaster response.
Like all federal agencies, NASA is operating in a constrained budgetary environment that necessitates making difficult choices among competing priorities for investment. For the Earth Science Division, this challenge is exacerbated by increasing demands for the information provided by its programs and missions, as well as by congressional and executive branch direction to undertake responsibility for sustaining a number of measurements that were formerly supported by other federal agencies.
NASA's current process for making decisions about Earth-observation priorities is primarily qualitative. As an alternative, the framework presented in the new report provides a partially quantitative and transparent approach that rates the relative importance of different measurements based on their scientific value. (The report does not tell NASA which observations to prioritize, but instead offers methodologies and metrics that NASA can use to establish priorities.)
The report recommends that NASA begin by developing a small set of quantified objectives for its earth science measurements, using the same sources it uses to develop its program plan - the consensus priorities of the scientific community expressed in the Academies' decadal surveys, as well as guidance from the executive and congressional branches. The report offers examples to illustrate the form of a quantified objective, such as determining the rate of global mean sea-level rise or the change in ocean heat storage within a quantified range of uncertainty. NASA should then rate the benefit of a particular measurement to meeting a quantified objective based on a small set of characteristics -- importance, utility, quality, and success probability. Considering these ratings, as well as affordability, will enable NASA to distinguish the relative value of competing measurements.
The report illustrates use of the framework with science objectives, but notes that it could also be applied to help NASA prioritize measures in terms of their relationship to societal benefits. However, this use of the framework would require NASA to determine how to identify and assess quantified objectives in this area.
The study was sponsored by NASA. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are private, nonprofit institutions that provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions related to science, technology, and medicine. The Academies operate under an 1863 congressional charter to the National Academy of Sciences, signed by President Lincoln. For more information, visit http://national-academies.org. A committee roster follows.
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Copies of Continuity of NASA Earth Observations from Space: A Value Framework are available at http://www.nap.edu. Reporters may obtain a copy from the Office of News and Public Information (contacts listed above)
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES OF SCIENCES, ENGINEERING, AND MEDICINE
Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences
Space Studies Board
Committee on a Framework for Analyzing the Needs for Continuity of NASA-Sustained Remote Sensing Observations of the Earth from Space
Byron D. Tapley1 (chair)
The Clare Cockrell Williams Centennial Chair, and
Director
Center for Space Research
University of Texas
Austin
Michael D. King1 (vice chair)
Senior Scientist Emeritus
NASA; and
Senior Research Scientist
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics
University of Colorado
Boulder
Mark R. Abbott
Dean and Professor
College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences
Oregon State University
Corvallis
Steven A. Ackerman
Professor of Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences, and
Director
Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies
University of Wisconsin
Madison
John J. Bates
Principal Scientist
National Climatic Data Center
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Asheville, N.C.
Rafael L. Bras1
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta
Robert E. Dickinson1,2
Professor of Geosciences
Department of Geological Sciences
University of Texas
Austin
Randall R. Friedl
Manager
Earth System Science Formulation Office
Earth Science and Technology Directorate
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Pasadena, Calif.
Lee-Lueng Fu1
JPL Fellow
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Pasadena, Calif.
Chelle L. Gentemann
Senior Principal Scientist
Remote Sensing Systems
Santa Rosa, Calif.
Kathryn A. Kelly
Professor and Principal Oceanographer
Air Sea Interaction and Remote Sensing Department
Applied Physics Laboratory
University of Washington
Seattle
Judith L. Lean2
Senior Scientist
Sun-Earth System Research
Naval Research Laboratory
Washington, D.C.
Joyce E. Penner
Ralph J. Cicerone Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science, and
Associate Chair
Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Sciences
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor
Michael J. Prather
Fred Kavli Chair and Professor
Department of Earth System Science
University of California
Irvine
Eric J. Rignot
Professor of Earth System Science
Department of Earth System Science
University of California
Irvine
William L. Smith
Distinguished Professor
Department of Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences
Hampton University
Hampton, Va.
Compton J. Tucker
Senior Scientist
Laboratory for Terrestrial Physics
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Md.
Bruce A. Wielicki
Senior Scientist for Radiation Sciences
Science Directorate
NASA Langley Research Center
Hampton, Va.
STAFF
Arthur A. Charo
Study Director
1Member, National Academy of Engineering
2 Member, National Academy of Sciences