>NASA

EOS

Earth Observing System

Remembering a first generation visionary who worked over decades in the 21th century to create a system of earth science through a multi-satellite mission

George E. Brown Jr

The Earth Observing System (EOS)

The mission of the Earth Observing System that became a core element of the ongoing NASA earth science programs was first envisioned in the 1970s. The constellation of satellites that now comprise a connected matrix of ongoing earth imaging programs (see the latest here) came about as the U.S.

Congress realized in the years following NASA's establishment that Planet Earth was central to NASA's work. The initial NASA mission statement spoke of this study of Planet Earth as a key goal of NASA programs. A new science, space and technology Congressional Committee was created to envision and oversee these programs and one of the first realizations about the need for earth science came about through the LANDSAT program (see here). A historic moment brought into existence digital mapping, that is, multi-spectral imaging of earth from an orbiting satellite in space, envisioned and designed to collect and 'save' data of earth's living systems. This databank was considered to be essential by committee member George E. Brown who, as a physicist and engineer, began his three-decade + career in Congress. George eventually became known for his "big science" initiatives. What few knew back then at the beginning was how essential this data would become as climate science came into the light (in 1977 and '78 with George's work central to the drafting and passage of the first National Climate Act.)

In the 1980s, the Earth Observing System (EOS) work began in earnest.

NASA's Project Science Office years later described its beginning with this statement:

>Results from early missions shed light on critical components of the Earth system while prompting further, more advanced investigations. The NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) program was conceived in the 1980s and began to take shape in the early 1990s. EOS is comprised of a series of coordinated polar-orbiting satellites designed to monitor and understand key components of the climate system and their interactions through long-term global observations. The EOS missions focus on the following climate science areas: radiation, clouds, water vapor, and precipitation; the oceans; greenhouse gases; land-surface hydrology and ecosystem processes; glaciers, sea ice, and ice sheets; ozone and stratospheric chemistry; and natural and anthropogenic aerosols.

NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) Reference Handbook

• https://eospso.gsfc.nasa.gov/mission-category/3

In June 1992, the National Space Policy Council issued National Space Policy Directive and EOS became part of a global change observation system.

Continuity of satellite missions gathering data over years established what is known as a longitudinal trendline of observations, the goal set forward in the late 1970s and 80s with LANDSAT, weather satellites and many others in the first generation of environmental science research with space-based remote imaging. This long vision would empower scientists and others to measure and monitor dynamic changes over time, a critical factor in enabling policies to be drafted to manage earth's systems. George Brown was a key factor in these decisions. He saw, as did your GreenPolicy360 siterunner who was following his work through the years, that data and sharing of data would build educational resources, science and new opportunities. Previous military intelligence programs from space, for example, were revisioned/rethought and ideas such as a Global Positioning System GPS with all of navigational potential on earth came into being under President Reagan in the 1980s. Later in the 1990s under Democratic administration the Next Generation Operational Control System acted toward increasing GPS positional accuracy. New mapping and navigation tools, now in most all new cars, were results of these programs that George Brown helped set in motion saw coming into existence before his passing away in 1999.

The Terra satellite, the first of 26 satellites that have orbited or continue to obit as a formal part of the EOS progam was launched on Dec. 18, 1999. Terra (originally known as EOS-1) was designed for a five-year mission life, but continued to orbit for more than another decade.

George was alive as the launch of the Terra EOS program happened in December 1999. He knew that his mission, his work, was continuing on as a legacy.

Again, we at GreenPolicy360 tip our hat to the vision of Planet Citizen George E. Brown, a generational thinker and doer, mover and shaker...

🌎

Atmospheric Science

Earth Science to Protect & Preserve a Sustainable Earth

Back to the Beginnings: Earth Science, New Visions of Security

Climate Policy

Time to act to make a positive difference

Planet Citizens, Planet Scientists, Preserving & Protecting the Home Planet Earth

GreenPolicy360 Siterunner / SJS: In the 1960s and 1970s, Representative George E. Brown proposed and set in motion a first generation of Earth Science missions and programs that continued over the decades. When one looks at today's Earth Science Research from Space and accumulative science data acquired over the decades, we are seeing the results of George's vision. As an engineer with a physics background, he knew we would need good scientific data to make the decisions guiding how we respond to the great challenges of our times, the existential threats on multiple fronts, and we are tapping into the results of programs designed to produce the knowledge base George Brown knew would be needed to make wise decisions. Whether we make the necessary decisions is up to our generation. Every generation has a 'generational responsibility' as we, at GreenPolicy360 see the challenges all of us must face, as Planet Citizens. George Brown was first to see and act as he drafted the National Climate Program Act legislation in 1978. He pushed to set up a new Science and Technology Office to press President Carter on the climate change danger (see their letter, attached here, and he continued to support and press forward with an array of scientific research programs and missions with vision over the 1980s and 1990s.

George E. Brown - Wikipedia

GreenPolicy360's founder was fortunate, beginning in the 1960s, to listen to Congressman Brown Congressman George E. Brown point to the NASA plan and explain how he saw Congress put into action the reality of a multi-year, coordinated, multi-agency program to achieve mission goals.

Earth science, measuring and monitoring Earth's life-enabling systems was given highest priority. Landsat's program was set in motion as a decades long, first-ever digital scanning remote satellites data collecting study. An array of satellites began to launch, creating and combining the expanding resources of NASA, USGS, NOAA, and an array of educational and scientific institutions and aeronautics business.

Fifty+ Years On

• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/File:Earth_Information_Center_from_NASA.jpg

• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/File:Earth_Information_Center_-_2022_Graphic_NASA.png

Update: July 2022

* https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/File:Landsat_launched_50_years_ago_today.png

* https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/File:Landsat,_a_50_year_legacy.png

The overall goal, Representative Brown would continue to explain in his Congressional Science, Space & Technology leadership roles over the decades, was to understand, preserve and protect our planet as we, humanity, develop the science to look beyond the Earth and study 'the heavens'. The Earth Science data, imaging of the home planet, was intended to be a trove for today's research of Earth's connected life-supporting systems and a 'longitudinal study', a timeline tracking dynamic changes in Earth systems over the years...

Here's to George Brown and the many visionaries, thinkers and doers who have carried on preserving and protecting our home planet.

Environmental protection

As George and I worked over many years we both grew in our politics as together and separately we advocated for peace and environmental protection. Big science was at the center of much of George's future-looking agenda. He believed in green politics and was a mentor to me and many.... He became a leader in Congress from California who helped shape the modern environmental movement.

California out in front in a Green future

• Environmental Laws, Models Going Forward

• US National Environmental Policy Act, a "Magna Carta"

Today many of the actions of George Brown continue as models for citizens, cities and nations of the world. California and a green political/environmental protection movement that George helped to begin continue to be out in front with ideas to improve quality of life.

In our GreenPolicy360 work, George's work continues. Even as political opposition to environmental work, anti-nuclear work, anti-war work is at risk, as we look out at a strategic horizon with pressing demands, the foundations put in place by an earlier generation remain strong.

Planet Citizens | Planet Citizens, Planet Scientists

George Brown's work remains with us in his legacy of accomplishment. I miss him often but know he is still around. I feel him when I write of green ideas and look to our kids and education and our shared future...

Let's look at some of what George accomplished before his untimely passing in 1999:

George was instrumental in proposing and establishing the Presidential Office of Science and Technology Policy in 1976. He was working alongside the National Academy of Sciences as they released a first-ever climate report in 1977. In 1977 he and the new Office of Science and Technology sent a first government warning of "climatic fluctuation" and "catastrophic" change to President Carter:

Congressman Brown Out in Front of Climate Action

At the Beginning of U.S. Science on Global Warming, Strategies & Planning

1978, the First Climate Actions

National Climate Program Act, Public Law 95-367

National Climate Program Act of September 1978

In 1979 came the first follow-on National Science Academy report. This study and report of national scientists was prescient and accurate in its global warming predictions.

First National Climate Act, Historic Work, 1978

GreenPolicy360 Siterunner / SJS: The beginnings of modern environmental and climate science can be traced to the 1960s and 1970s. The U.S. National Academy of Sciences played a key role in laying a foundation of scientific reports and data.

Energy and Climate Report, 1977, National Academy of Sciences / 175 pp. / PDF via GreenPolicy360

Rep. George Brown took the findings of the 1977 Energy and Climate Report from the Academy of Sciences and made the science actionable. In a historic moment, he proposed and drafted the legislation of the first U.S. National Climate Program and shepherded its passage in 1978.

This first federal program established to study and assess scientifically the issues and risks of human-caused climate change became a foundation for comprehensive initiatives, with an array of new Earth Science missions led by NASA and NOAA, the EPA and USGS.

○

In his rumpled suits and quiet way George E. Brown moved to form coalitions few thought could be formed and garnered support for the first set of U.S. Congressional acts that served as foundation legislation for decades of green progress.

The First Earth Day: Personal Memories by Steven Schmidt of George's Role

🌎