Taking the Pulse of Our Planet: New Strategy for Earth Observations | The White House
by Peter Colohan (he’s awesome!), Office of Science and Technology Policy, Executive Office of the President, April 19, 2013
Ever wonder where the Weather Channel gets its data? Where the satellite images for Google Earth come from? These data and much more come from a complex array of satellites, ocean buoys, stream gauges, human surveys, and other platforms for collecting what the scientific community calls Earth observations. These data are used every day to protect life and property and answer key questions about our planet.Today, the Obama Administration’s National Science and Technology Council released a National Strategy for Civil Earth Observations—a framework for increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the Nation’s Earth-observation enterprise. Currently, 11 Federal departments and agencies engage in Earth observation activities, collecting volumes of important data about the Earth on an ongoing basis, using an array of sophisticated tools and systems. The new Strategy outlines a process for evaluating and prioritizing Earth-observation investments according to their value to society in critical areas such as agriculture, global change, disasters, water resources, and weather.Each year, the U.S. Government invests significant resources in Earth-observations systems to collect data about Earth’s land, oceans, ecosystems, and atmosphere. Together, these systems take the pulse of our planet, providing critical Earth-system data that scientists and analysts can then turn into usable information about climate and weather, disaster events, land-use changes, ecosystem health, natural resources, and more. Ultimately, information and services derived from Earth-observation data—including some as ubiquitous as weather forecasts and GPS-navigation—are used by policy makers, resource managers, business leaders, first-responders, and citizens to make important day-to-day decisions.But as the Nation’s Earth-observation capacity has grown, so has the complexity of the Earth-observation endeavor. The demand for data, the complexity of the tools required to collect those data, and the sheer amount of data being collected, all are increasing. The National Strategy for Civil Earth Observations aims to help Federal agencies face these challenges by better-organizing existing Earth-observation systems and information, and coordinating plans for future projects. In support of the Obama Administration’s Open Data Initiatives, this Strategy also provides specific guidance on how agencies can make these Earth observations more open and accessible to the public.Going forward, the Strategy will be used as a basis to inform a broad National Plan for Civil Earth Observations—a blueprint for future investments in US Earth-observing systems, including agency roles and responsibilities, and creative solutions to challenges related to maintaining the Nation’s Earth-observing systems. It will also reinforce the United States’ ongoing commitment to work with international partners through the multi-national Group on Earth Observations GEO.The Strategy released today provides an evidence-based framework for routine assessment and planning across the entire family of Federal agencies engaged in Earth observations. It will help agencies compare notes, prioritize activities, and improve the quality of data about the planet—with the ultimate goal of meeting society’s most pressing data and information needs. Read the Strategy here.Learn more about global Earth-observation efforts here.Peter Colohan is a Senior Policy Analyst at OSTP
via Taking the Pulse of Our Planet: New Strategy for Earth Observations | The White House.
Reflections on the value of ethics in relation to Earth observation
Abstract:
Earth observation is a science and technology with tremendous power to collect data over the whole of the Earth at many wavelengths and at many spatial resolutions. But does this science and technology, or rather the use of this science and technology, have an ethical dimension? This article explores the application of ethical concepts to Earth observation. Three main aspects of ethics are examined: duty theories of ethics, consequentialist ethics, and environmental ethics. These ethical ideas are then applied to the UN Principles on Remote Sensing, the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters and to Google Earth, and also to questions of security and privacy. The article concludes that there is no absolute ethical position in relation to Earth observation, but a dependency on the perspective of the observer. For link to the article (but it’s behind a $58 paywall, seriously), click here.
Author: Ray Harris
Source: International Journal of Remote Sensing, Volume 34, Number 4, 2013 , pp. 1207-1219(13)
Publisher: Taylor and Francis Ltd
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01431161.2012.718466
Publication date: 2013-02-20
NASA’s Landsat Data Continuity Mission Launch
by Dina Spector, Business Insider, Feb 11, 2013
The eighth satellite in NASA’s Earth-watching Landsat fleet will launch Monday, Feb. 11 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California…. The joint program between NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey is the longest-running data record of Earth observations from space. …The Landsat program enables scientists to track major changes of Earth’s surface, including melting glaciers, urban explosion and the effects of natural disasters.
Read more from Business Insider NASA’s Landsat Data Continuity Mission Launch – Business Insider.
For the latest Landsat news go to it’s NASA mission page here.
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- Landsat Data Continuity Mission Awaits Liftoff (spacedaily.com)
Weather, Climate Forecasts Imperiled as Programs Cut
by Andrew Freedman, Climate Central, May 8, 2012
A “near-perfect storm” of factors has contributed to a rapid decline in America’s Earth observation capabilities, as long-running satellite missions end and new ones struggle to get off the ground, according to a new report from the National Research Council (NRC). If recent trends continue, there could be major ramifications in the form of less accurate weather and climate forecasts, as well as blind spots in monitoring a wide range of natural hazards. … During just the next eight years, U.S. Earth observation capabilities are likely to decline to roughly 25 percent of current levels, Hartmann said.
For full text of the article, visit Weather, Climate Forecasts Imperiled as Programs Cut | Climate Central.
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- WPost Wants Earth Observation Satellites to Get More Political Attention (geodatapolicy.wordpress.com)
- U.S. In Danger of Losing Earth-Observing Satellite Capability (science.slashdot.org)
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Congress Asks NOAA to Consider Charging for Data
David Malakoff, Science Magazine, December 2011 (Vol. 334, no. 6051, p. 1337)
For decades, scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have been carving satellite data into customized chunks that help other federal agencies solve some unusual problems—at no cost to the users. But faced with soaring NOAA satellite costs and a bleak budget outlook, lawmakers last month ordered the agency to explore ways of charging other federal agencies—and perhaps even some large consortiums of academic scientists that partner with government agencies—for its “specialized data products.” It’s time, they argue, for beneficiaries to help NOAA sustain a cash-strapped satellite program. A storm is brewing over the suggestion.
For full text of the article, visit Congress Asks NOAA to Consider Charging for Data.
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- NOAA app delivers aerial, satellite imagery to first responders’ mobile devices (geodatapolicy.wordpress.com)
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34th International Symposium for Remote Sensing of the Environment
34th International Symposium on Remote Sensing of Environment
Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre
10-15 April 2011
The GEOSS Era: Towards Operational Environmental Monitoring
Final Program
We are proud to invite International Airborne Science Community Researchers and Platform Users to participate in the symposium as well as the annual meeting of ISPRS WG I/1: Standardization of Airborne Platform Interface which will be convened in conjunction with ISRSE34.
Invitation
The Organizing Committee of the 34th International Symposium for Remote Sensing of the Environment (ISRSE) cordially invites you to visit Sydney and participate in what promises to be an excellent high quality Symposium on Remote Sensing of the Environment. The first of these Symposia was held in 1962 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA under the direction of the Willow Run Laboratories of the University of Michigan and it has continued in a similar form ever since. The Symposia series is now guided by the international committee (ICRSE) comprising experts in the field of remote sensing who represent most of the world’s national space agencies. ISRSE has become one of the main forums for programmatic discussions on remote sensing components of the ‘Global Earth Observation system of Systems- GEOSS”, currently being implemented through the Group on Earth Observation GEO, which (at the time of preparation) is composed of 80 member countries, 58 participating organizations and 5 observers.
For more information and program via 34th International Symposium for Remote Sensing of the Environment.
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- India to launch advanced remote sensing satellite April 20 (news.bioscholar.com)
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Op-Ed: Earthquakes and climate change: get the data
by Lou Friedman, The Space Review, Monday, March 21, 2011
The earthquake and tsunami in Japan are the type of events that impact every aspect of life. Catastrophic events are not new on Earth—an argument that climate change deniers like to make to support their position that we should not worry about climate change’s impact. But what is so different now from even a century ago, let alone over the millennia of recorded history, is both the size of our population and its dependence on technology. Both change what were limited local problems into global ones. …
For full text of the article, visit The Space Review: Earthquakes and climate change: get the data.
State of Remote Sensing Law Conference Papers Online
Journal of Space Law Volume 34 (2008) Now Available Online Without Charge
by Joanne Irene Gabrynowicz, ResCommunis Blog, National Center for Remote Sensing, Air, and Space Law, March 11, 2011
The Journal of Space Law Volume 34 (2008) is now available on-line. The first part of the volume contains the papers from the The 2nd International Conference on the State of Remote Sensing Law: A Comprehensive Look at the State of Remote Sensing Law held at at the National Center for Remote Sensing, Air, and Space Law at the University of Mississippi School of Law, 16-18 January 2008. The second part of the volume features a special section: The 50th Anniversary of the National Aeronautics and Space Act. …
For full text of the article, visit Journal of Space Law Volume 34 (2008) Now Available Online Without Charge « Res Communis.
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