The debate over climate change continues
to rage, with some arguing that forecasted growth in
the population will place strains on the supplies of fuel
and food, triggering an increase in hydrocarbons as food
production increases to keep up with demand. As energy
needs increase to satisfy the global need for food, climate
change will become a greater reality. The counterargument
is that there is not enough scientific evidence to back up
these forecasts, and computer models have not provided the
level of accuracy to determine if climate change is not just
a fear tactic. According to De Wayne Cecil, chief of science
applications for the U.S. Geological Service’s (USGS) Global
Change Program Office, “to pick one (climate change model)
of those that is the best is not appropriate, because it depends
on what region you are looking at and what kind of data you
have for input, so it’s a very complicated process. Those kinds
of decisions that have to be made with our best estimate on
how a climate is changing for a region are being made now
with those decisionmakers at the table with the scientist and
engineers. I think that’s a huge improvement, especially in the
United States.” Cecil acknowledges that “with ground sensors,
coupled with satellite data, we can start looking at changes
in greenhouse gases, changes in air temperature and changes
in the precipitation patterns. Those are just a few ways that
satellites are augmenting climate change data, and in some
cases, satellites are the only or the best data that we have.”
Can Orbiting Assets Determine the Truth?
NASA’s studies to date have not drawn a clear global profile
of carbon dioxide. For example, is there a direct relationship
between greenhouse gas and the rise in the average global
temperature? Scientists state that 40 percent of the non-human
emissions of carbon dioxide stay in the atmosphere and the rest
are absorbed by the oceans and the soil but cannot state with
any certainty where the carbon is going on the land masses.
An attempt was made to correct this. Funded by the United
States, France, and Canada, the Orbiting Carbon Observatory
was designed to make the first space-based measurements of
atmospheric carbon dioxide and better define the carbon
gaps or “sinks” and monitor changes in them. Unfortunately,
the Orbiting Carbon Observatory, built by Orbital Sciences
Corp. under contract to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
was destroyed in a February launch failure of Orbital’s Taurus
launch vehicle. The spacecraft also was to operate as part
of the Earth Observing System Afternoon Constellation, or
A-Train, a formation of six satellites that included NASA’s
Aqua, CloudSat, Calipso, Parasol and Aura spacecraft. The
formation was intended to enable researchers to correlate
data collected by the spacecraft.
While the data that would have been collected by the
Orbiting Carbon Observatory cannot be replicated entirely, Japan’s Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (Gosat),
reached orbit in January. The spacecraft, built by Mitsubishi
and operated by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency,
will measure sources of carbon dioxide. Gosat will record
greenhouse gas emissions in 56,000 locations across the
globe while orbiting the planet once every three days. An
initial analysis of carbon dioxide and methane concentrations has been obtained during testing and validation of the
spacecraft. Once Gosat is fully operational, the data will
be updated every three days and analyzed by researchers
at the Japanese Environment Ministry and the Japanese
National Institute for Environmental Studies before being
distributed freely to scientists around the globe.
The United States government also is funding multiple programs that will contribute to monitoring efforts. The final Polar
Operational Environmental Satellite (POES) was launched
in February for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA). The spacecraft, NOAA- 19, provides
measurements of reflected solar and radiated thermal energy
from land, sea, clouds and the atmosphere; atmospheric soundings of temperature and humidity; measurements of global sea
surface temperature, aerosol distribution data, ozone concentration data and soil moisture data. Additionally, POES satellites
provide direct broadcast of environmental data worldwide.
POES will be replaced by the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS), which combines weather satellite operations operated by NOAA and the
U.S. Air Force. A series of spacecraft developed by prime contractor Northrop Grumman will provide data to the international community to support weather forecasting as well as
continuity of critical data for monitoring, understanding and
predicting climate change and assessing the impacts of climate
change on seasonal and longer time scales. Subcontractor
Raytheon was involved in the development on Visible/Infrared
Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), the primary sensor for the
operational NPOESS weather/climate satellites and NASA’s
NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP). Some of the VIIRS Environmental Data Records will help in understanding and modeling global climate change. NOAA works routinely with NASA
and the U. S. Department of Defense on current development
efforts and on “addressing strategic ways to manage the program more effectively,” says John Leslie, a spokesman for
NOAA. “… Recent decisions have been made which provide
NOAA a greater stake (in NPOESS) by using the data from the
NPP satellite in an operational capacity. This is expected to
provide NOAA with immediate improvements in its environmental satellite monitoring and imaging capabilities.”
Global Cooperation
Another effort, the Global Earth Observation System of
Systems (GEOSS), will be built on existing observation
systems. The program will connect producers of environmental
data and decision support tools with end users to enhance
the reality of Earth observation to global issues. More than
125 countries and organizations will provide the systems,
services and expertise required to make the program work.
According to Vladimir Gershenzon, director of ScanEX, a
