Thriving on Our Changing Planet A Midterm Assessment of Progress Toward Implementation of the Decadal Survey (2024) / Chapter Skim
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2 Accomplishments and Challenges in a Changing Earth Sciences Operating Environment
2 Accomplishments and Challenges in a Changing Earth Sciences Operating Environment
Pages 15-32
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From page 15... ...
, and discusses challenges posed by NASA's ESD budget and oppor tunities for collaboration on international and commercial missions. SCIENTIFIC HIGHLIGHTS FROM NASA EARTH SCIENCE DIVISION MISSIONS Because new satellite missions often lead to progress in fields beyond the ones they were designed for, the committee sent out a request for information (RFI)
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The capability for Landsat to retrieve large methane and NOx point sources has recently been demonstrated, leading to the potential for retrospective analysis of the multi-decadal record of Landsat observations for long-term pollution trends. 1 ECOSTRESS, Ecosystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station; EMIT, Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation; GEDI, Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation; ICESat-2, Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite-2; MODIS, Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer; MOPITT, Measurement of Pollution in the Troposphere; OCO, Orbiting Carbon Observatory; SMAP, Soil Moisture Active Passive; SWOT, Surface Water and Ocean Topography.
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Hurricane intensity missions/sentinel-6 Landsat-9 September 2021 V/SWIR/TIR Surface biology and Agriculture https://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/ polar geology Land use satellites/landsat-9 Climate and carbon Ecosystem, etc. OMPS-L November 2022 UV/Visible Ozone and trace gas Ozone mapping https://ozoneaq.gsfc.nasa.gov/ polar profiles omps SWOTc December 2022 RADAR Sea level Floods -- drought https://swot.jpl.nasa.gov polar SWATH Surface water height Reservoirs Marine operations PACE February 2024 UV/V/IR hyperspectral Ocean ecosystem Air quality https://pace.gsfc.nasa.gov polar Aerosols Water resources NASA ESSP and Venture Program of Record ECOSTRESS June 2018 TIR Terrestrial ecosystem Drought https://ecostress.jpl.nasa.gov ISS Land management GEDI December 2018 LIDAR Terrestrial ecosystem Drought https://gedi.umd.edu ISS structure Land management OCO-3 May 2019 Hyperspectral regions Greenhouse gases, Crop health https://ocov3.jpl.nasa.gov ISS in NIR and SWIR CO2 CO2 sources and sinks EMIT July 2022 Vis/SWIR Surface biology and Greenhouse gas mapping https://earth.jpl.nasa.gov/emit ISS hyperspectral geology Snow/water resources TEMPO April 2023 UV/V/SWIR Aerosols North America air quality https://tempo.si.edu GEO Ozone and trace gases TROPICS May 2023 Microwave Planetary boundary Terrestrial weather disasters, https://weather.ndc.nasa.gov/ 30 degrees incl.
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SOURCES: Data from NASA and NOAA. BOX 2-1 SURFACE WATER AND OCEAN TOPOGRAPHY MISSION The Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission (SWOT)
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Cretaux, et al., 2024, "The Surface Water and Ocean Topography Mission: A Breakthrough in Radar Remote Sensing of the Ocean and Land Surface Water," Geophysical Research Letters 51(4) :e2023GL107652, https:// doi.org/10.1029/2023GL107652.
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The GEDI instrument provides precise height measurements of surface water, ice, vegetation, and land surface to support forest management, carbon cycling, water resource management, wildfire preparedness, and weather prediction applications as well as the global mapping of topography and surface deformation. GEDI data products have supported the global mapping of forest canopy height (Figure 2-2-1)
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Mahowald, C Ung, et al., 2020, "The Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation: An Earth Science Imaging Spectroscopy Mission," IEEE Aerospace Conference, Big Sky, MT, U.S.A., pp.
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The narrow bands and high spectral dimensionality expected from SBG-VSWIR will be used to identify significantly more plant species, genera, and families based on spectral properties than multispectral instruments, and can characterize alpha and beta diversity based on spectral heterogeneity. Methane Carbon Dioxide FIGURE 2-3-2 NASA's Surface Biology and Geology VSWIR methane and carbon dioxide point source measurement capability.
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INCREASED DEMAND FOR EARTH OBSERVATIONS FROM SPACE Widespread Impact of Climate Change Global temperatures have continued to rise as documented by complementary analyses by NASA (GISTEMP Team 2024) , NOAA (NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information 2024a)
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That is about double the pace of the first decade on record, 1993–2002, leading to a total increase of more than 10 cm since the early 1990s. Awareness of the importance of observing methane from space, the second most important greenhouse gas emitted from human activities, has also increased substantially since 2017.
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SOURCE: NASA Earth Observatory image by Michala Garrison using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/ Worldview, https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/152486/making-sense-of-holes-in-the-clouds.
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In addition to devastating impacts on communities and human health, wildfires contribute to climate change by reducing the capacity of land ecosystems to sequester carbon dioxide in vegetation, lower shortwave albedo, and reduce soil moisture by increasing overland flows. The United States has committed to dramatically reduce national greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 with a goal of reaching net zero emissions in 2050.2 In support of this strategy, the United States has invested billions in supporting adoption of climate smart agricultural practices, managing forestry to reduce wildfire risks, and converting to cleaner energy alternatives.
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Greenhouse Gas Center, to improve ability to document progress toward these ambitious goals.3 Because methane is extremely potent at trapping heat, mitigation of methane emissions has emerged as a policy priority to limit near-term climate change. Internationally, 155 countries have adopted the Global Methane Pledge to reduce methane emissions by 30 percent by 2030 in an effort to limit near-term warming.4 The increasing demand for policy-relevant greenhouse gas data and associated implications for NASA are discussed in Box 2-4.
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of urban- and facility-level emissions sources. Private and philanthropic sector efforts to monitor methane emissions from point sources are increasingly providing policy relevant data sets at facility scales, joining public assets like NASA's Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT)
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CHALLENGES WhileOthe IN A CHANGING InflationENVIRONMENT PERATING Reduction Act included more than 13 $3 billion of investment in NOAA's efforts, it did not include new funding for satellite missions at NOAA/ FIGURE 2-6 Actual NASA Earth Science Division (ESD) budget since fiscal year (FY)
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It is imperative that NASA's Earth Science Division develop the framework to quickly assess and communicate what must be sac rificed when requirements imposed by its other stakeholders supplant the science and applications community's priorities as expressed in the decadal survey. INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION NASA has made regular practice of engaging with international partners to share mission costs and expand science opportunities beyond what would have been possible by working independently.
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Commercial data sets often target applications of great interest to the Earth science community, but they need to be properly vetted and this is done through the CSDA program.7 Opportunities to support commercial data acquisitions, 5 The European Copernicus program is funded by the European Union to ensure continuity of services reliant upon Earth observa tions. The program leverages the European Space Agency's capabilities to execute missions and the European Meteorological Satellite Agency's (EUMETSAT's)
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32 THRIVING ON OUR CHANGING PLANET where appropriate, should be enhanced given the dramatic increase in commercial ventures collecting satellite observations of Earth. This work should be grounded in science-based evaluation of data quality, value, access, cost, and scalability.
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