Ensuring the Climate Record from the NPOESS and GOES-R Spacecraft Elements of a Strategy to Recover Measurement Capabilities Lost in Program Restructuring (2008) / Chapter Skim
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sensors that would provide crucial continuity to certain long-term climate records, as well as other sensors that would have provided new measurement capabilities, were not funded in the certified NPOESS program. Since the 1970s, NOAA has operated geostationary satellites that provide images and data on atmospheric, oceanic, and climatic conditions over the continental United States and Hawaii from ~22,000 miles above the equator.
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The hyperspectral sounder was intended to greatly advance current operational geostationary sounding capability; its cancellation will instead end the long-term geostationary sounding record started by GOES-I. The coastal waters imager component was planned primarily to benefit coastal monitoring, management, and remediation applications.
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For example, although a sensor with the capability to improve resolution of fast climate processes is of interest to both the weather forecasting and the climate research communities, it is the value to the latter that would inform the committee's ranking. • The particular strategy for recovery and the cost of recovery of a measurement/sensor would not be a factor in the ranking. • Measurements/sensors on NPOESS would not be ranked against measurements/sensors on GOES-R; however, the criteria used in ranking measurements/sensors for either program would be identical.
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; they allow a prioritization across the diverse information requirements for climate science, for example, long-term measurements, new measurements, measurements of climate forcings and responses, measurements to improve scientific understanding and reduce key uncertainties, and measurements to improve climate predictions. The questions are also consistent with the ranking criteria employed by the panels of the NRC Earth Science and Applications from Space decadal survey (NRC, 2007)
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. With respect to the changes in the GOES-R program, the committee considered: • Geostationary coastal waters imagery and the HES-CWI sensor, and • Geostationary hyperspectral sounding and the HES sensor.
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However, it can be roughly stated that considering climate science contributions alone, geostationary hyperspectral sounding compares to the NPOESS capabilities prioritized as Tier 2, and coastal waters imagery falls into Tier 4. After completing the relative prioritization, the committee considered a wide range of options for recovery of the lost capabilities, including the remanifesting of sensors onto NPOESS platforms, accommodation of sensors on free flyers or flights of opportunity, and the use of formation flight to combine multiple, synergistic, measurement types without incurring the cost, complexity, and risk of large facility-class observatories.
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Lost or Degraded Climate Capability in GOES-R Geostationary Earth Orbit Recommendation Tier 2 Geostationary Hyperspectral Sounding NASA and NOAA should plan an earliest-possible demonstration flight of a geostationary hyperspectral sounder, supporting operational flight in the GOES-T time frame. Tier 4 Geostationary Coastal Waters Imagery Provision for coastal waters imaging should be considered by the agencies based on non‑climate applications.
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Elements of this needed national policy include clear roles and responsibilities for agencies, international coordination, and community involvement in the development of climate data records. Clear Agency Roles and Responsibilities In the NRC decadal survey Earth Science and Applications from Space, the authors stated, "The committee is concerned that the nation's civil space institutions (including NASA, NOAA, and USGS)
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Finally, it is important to note that community concerns about the adequacy of NPOESS for climate research existed even before the 2006 program restructuring. For example, in the 2007 NRC decadal survey Earth Science and Applications from Space (NRC, 2007, p.
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