Just two days after the Bush Administration announced new plans to address Climate Change (in anticipation of the G8 Summit, hosted by Germany's Angela Merkel, a proponent of the new EU Climate Change accord), both NOAA and NASA experts have announced that the Bush Administration is:
drastically scaling back efforts to measure global warming from space, just as the president tries to convince the world the U.S. is ready to take the lead in reducing greenhouse gases.
[Insert exploding head here]
More below the fold...
From MSNBC/AP:
A confidential report to the White House, obtained by The Associated Press, warns that U.S. scientists will soon lose much of their ability to monitor warming from space using a costly and problem-plagued satellite initiative begun more than a decade ago.
Because of technology glitches and a near-doubling in the original $6.5 billion cost, the Defense Department has decided to downsize and launch four satellites paired into two orbits, instead of six satellites and three orbits.
The satellites are needed, now more than ever, to gather date for climate modeling and long term weather forecasting.
Can you spell H-u-r-r-i-c-a-n-e S-e-a-s-o-n?
::sigh::
"Unfortunately, the recent loss of climate sensors ... places the overall climate program in serious jeopardy," NOAA and NASA scientists told the White House in the Dec. 11 report obtained by the AP.
December 11th, 2006...
So, I'm guessing George W. knew about this CONFIDENTIAL report that we weren't supposed to know about (which has just been leaked to the AP) before he announced his big climate change initiative?
(Unless, of course, Rove and Cheney were the only ones left in his bubble to tell him).
Of course, it's not only the Bush Administration that needs to be taken to task for this debacle. According to the report, the White House requested $331 million for their scaled back version of the satellite system in their 2008 budget.
The MSNBC report states that Congress has yet to address it (look at it, maybe?)...
The AAAS [The American Association for the Advancement of Science] issued a Board Statement on April 27, 2007, regarding this pending Climate Satellite crisis:
The network of satellites upon which the United States and the world have relied for indispensable observations of Earth from space is in jeopardy. These observations are essential for weather forecasting,
hurricane warning, management of agriculture and forestry, documenting and
anticipating the impacts of global climate change, and much more.
Maintenance of an adequate constellation of Earth-observing satellites and the instruments they carry is now threatened by budget cuts and reallocations in the two federal agencies that share the primary responsibility for them, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The situation is already causing harm, and it will become rapidly worse unless the Congress and the Administration take prompt action to reverse the recent trends.
http://www.aaas.org/...
A major study has just been completed by the National Research Council, entitled:
Earth Science and Applications from Space: A Community Assessment and Strategy for the Future:
The Space Studies Board, in consultation with other units of the NRC, will lead a study to generate consensus recommendations from the Earth and environmental science and applications community regarding a systems approach to space-based and ancillary observations that encompasses the research programs of NASA and the related operational programs of NOAA
From the AASS:
The NRC study offered detailed recommendations for restoring U.S. capabilities in Earth observations from space to acceptable levels, including:
- reconstituting specific key observation capabilities that have recently been deleted from scheduled NOAA satellite series
- accelerating NASA’s current launch schedule to shrink the data gaps implied by current plans
- committing to the 17 highest-priority new Earth-observation missions, out of more than 100 candidates evaluated for the 2010-2020 time period.
The study concluded that its recommendations could be funded until 2020 by
returning the Earth-science budget at NASA to its FY 1998-2000 level and stabilizing the budget of NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite Data, and Information Service at only slightly above the FY2007 level, adjusted for inflation.
From MSNBC:
Jerry Mahlman, a former scientist at NOAA who is now at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, said he and other colleagues warned of problems as far back as 1995.
He compared the preparations for the satellites to a "planned train wreck."
The planned satelittes Mahlman is referring to? The National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System, or NPOESS, which was first announced in 1994. This system was supposed to combine the Defense Department's weather forecasting with NOAA's climate data gathering. There was also a provision for involving Europe and Japan's Meteorological Satellites.
In 2005, however, the GAO found cost overruns to the tune of 9.7 billion (with a B) in an effort that was over a year behind schedule.
The Pentagon weighed in last year, citing the program at 11.5 billion and even further behind schedule.
The White House's answer?
Science Advisor Marburger: "We’re obviously very concerned about this," he told the AP. "It got in trouble and we couldn’t fit all those instruments on it ..."
The Pentagon, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA have announced they will have to rely on European satellites for most of the climate data until they figure this all out.
Right now, all I can say about this?
Someones's doing a heckofajob...
Here's the link to the MSNBC/AP Report.
A link to the AAAS Report.
A link to the NRC Report.
[Update] from The Cunctator below: NPOESS (The National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System) Congressional Hearing Thursday, June 7, 1 PM. Here's the link.
(I'm going to go cry now).
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