Category:Earth Observations

Updated Q4 2015

OCO-2 CO2 Observations-Data

The history-making emissions-monitoring, climate change satellite begins making its earth atmospheric science available via JPL-NASA.... Sept 2015

Look more closely at our 'thin blue layer' ... http://oco.jpl.nasa.gov/science/OCO2DataCenter/

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Shifting from earth's atmosphere studied from space (in this first-generation of earth-satellite observation), we now look at earth's water sources as studied from space...

One of the issues rarely confronted when considering high intensive agriculture is the use of water in unsustainable irrigation. The draw down and depletion of aquifers is a rising cost and only recently, with the advent of earth observation and monitoring systems, are technologies becoming available to measure the extent of groundwater basins and recharging capabilities. The new satellite measurements of aquifers/ground water globally, as are now being reported with NASA GRACE satellites, comprise both a warning and a capability of needed sustainable environmental security. Water saving and water security are essential to a sustainable agriculture policy and larger goals of environmental security

http://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Aquifers

"Time to depletion" -- "Significant segments of Earth's population are consuming groundwater quickly without knowing when it might run out..."

"Available physical and chemical measurements are simply insufficient," said UCI professor and principal investigator Jay Famiglietti, who is also the senior water scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "Given how quickly we are consuming the world's groundwater reserves, we need a coordinated global effort to determine how much is left."

The studies are the first to comprehensively characterize global groundwater losses with data from space, using readings generated by NASA's twin GRACE satellites.

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Groundwater Basins in Distress

The GRACE mission reports home -- http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-83799955/ -- http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11466534

http://mashable.com/2015/06/16/groundwater-aquifers-depleted/ -- http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/06/16/new-nasa-studies-show-how-the-world-is-running-out-of-water/

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Earth Observation Science Initiatives Grow in Importance

U.S. Congress acts to cut earth observation science

U.S. Congress/Science Committee News (Not Good News)

Earth Science Politics

Science Orgs Respond to Attacks by Science Com't

Environmental Security

Climate News

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Environmental Security: Earth Science Programs Budget Slash

http://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/File:Presidents_budget_see_earth_science.jpg

http://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/File:House_budget_see_earth_science.jpg

Re: funding cuts to NASA's critical Earth science and space technology programs

On May 1, 2015, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Dr. John P. Holdren issued the following statement on proposed funding cuts to NASA's critical Earth science and space technology programs:

"If enacted, the NASA authorization bill headed to the House floor later this month would do serious damage to the Nation’s space program, as well as to Earth-observation and Earth-science programs essential for predicting, preparing for, and minimizing the damage from disasters both natural and human-induced.

The House bill would also gut the NASA “mission to planet Earth”—the satellite observations and related research that provide key measurements and insights relevant to forecasting and tracking hurricanes, fighting wildfires, observing the state of the world’s farms and forests, mapping the extent of droughts, measuring the stocks of groundwater, and monitoring the likelihood of landslides. The draconian cuts in the House bill would also delay advances in our ability to research and prepare for volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and tsunamis and blind us to changes in the Earth’s oceans and ice sheets that can be discerned only from space."

New Definitions of National Security

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http://www.greenpolicy360.net/mw/images/You_can_manage_only_what_you_can_measure_Dr_David_Crisp%2C_OCO-2%2C_June_2014_m.jpg

http://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Earth_Right_Now

Earth Right Now

https://twitter.com/hashtag/EarthRightNow?src=hash

http://science.nasa.gov/earth-science/

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/index.html

http://www.nasa.gov/smap/

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GPM/main/index.html

http://www.nasa.gov/rapidscat/

http://www.nasa.gov/cats/

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/oco2/index.html - https://twitter.com/iamoco2

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December 2014

Historic Orbiting Carbon Observatory Satellite Sends Back Most Detailed CO2 View Ever / Dec 18, 2014

Initial OCO-2 data available in March for scientists and public to download and explore

Phys.org - Discovery - Weather - Nature

Sample Data -- OCO-2 Data Portal

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November

Counting carbon over Southern California - OCO-2 at work

October

Mission status report

September

OCO Orbit

Megacities

August

August 13th/Climate Central news report of first data

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist who develops software algorithms for OCO to retrieve information about carbon dioxide in our atmosphere

July 2 2014

Watching the Planet Breathe

NASA Launches New Carbon-Sensing Mission to Monitor Earth’s 'Breathing'

"Climate change is the challenge of our generation," says NASA Administrator Charles Bolden

Follow the OCO-2 Mission

Follow the tweets of the OCO-2 bird

Follow the NASA climate blog

http://climate.nasa.gov/blog/1105/ -- http://climate.nasa.gov/blog/

Earth Right Now

Climate.NASA

OCO Mission teams

"Game changing" science Unraveling mysteries

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Climate Change, Global Warming

Observing Global Warming with #OCO-2

Historic launch #PlanetCitizen mission to study #EarthsAtmosphere

"First Light!" [1] [2] OCO-2 announces 'We have data!'

OCO-2 tweets - https://twitter.com/IamOCO2

What monitoring a potential existential crisis looks like...spectra from #OCO-2 #Earth360

Earth observing satellites, Orbiting Carbon Observatory the "Afternoon Constellation", the "A-Train" joined by ‪#‎OCO-2 newly launched and historic in its mission to study global warming

"Watching the Earth Breathe from Space" [3] [4] [5] [6]

About the Earth Observatory Mission

Where the Trees Are - US

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History-making Science

With the launch of OCO-2, a "game changer", the data of #Earth360 will grow in unprecedented ways

#Earthdata enables informed decisions and policy

"You can manage only what you can measure"

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Eyes on the Earth [7] [8] [9] [10]

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Global Earth Science Data Links

eGY -- electronic Geophysical Year / http://www.egy.org/ -- An Earth and Space Science Information Commons Initiative: International Co-operation for Open Access to Data

GEO -- Group on Earth Observations / http://www.earthobservations.org/index.php -- Established in 2005, GEO is a voluntary partnership of governments and organizations that envisions “a future wherein decisions and actions for the benefit of humankind are informed by coordinated, comprehensive and sustained Earth observations and information.”

CEOS -- Committee On Earth Observation Satellites / http://ceos.org/ -- 2015 - CEOS was established in September, 1984 in response to a recommendation from a Panel of Experts on Remote Sensing from Space and set up under the aegis of the G7 Economic Summit of Industrial Nations Working Group on Growth, Technology, and Employment.

This Panel recognized the multidisciplinary nature of space-based Earth observations and the value of coordinating international Earth observation efforts to benefit society. Accordingly, the original function of CEOS was to coordinate and harmonize Earth observations to make it easier for the user community to access and use data. CEOS initially focused on interoperability, common data formats, the inter-calibration of instruments, and common validation and inter-comparison of products. However, over time, the circumstances surrounding the collection and use of space-based Earth observations have changed.

The number of Earth-observing satellites has vastly increased.

Onboard instruments are more complex and are capable of collecting new types of data in ever-growing volumes.

The user community has expanded and become more diverse as different data types become available and new applications for Earth observations are developed.

Users have become more organized, forming several international bodies that coordinate and levy Earth observation requirements.

CEOS WGISS -- Committee On Earth Observation Satellites / http://ceos.org/ourwork/workinggroups/wgiss/ -- Working Group on Information Systems and Services - WGISS stimulates, coordinates, monitors, and promotes collaboration on the development of the systems and services that manage and supply satellite Earth observation (EO) data and information.

CEOS IDN -- Committee On Earth Observation Satellites / http://idn.ceos.org/ -- International Directory Network (IDN) / http://idn.ceos.org/portals/Home.do?Portal=idn_ceos&MetadataType=0 -- The CEOS International Directory Network (IDN) is a Gateway to the world of Earth Science data and services. The CEOS IDN is an international effort developed to assist researchers in locating information on available datasets and services. The directory is sponsored as a service to the Earth science community.

GCMD -- Global Change Master Directory / http://gcmd.nasa.gov/

DIF -- DIF Writer's Guide / http://gcmd.gsfc.nasa.gov/add/difguide/index.html -- Directory Interchange Forma... The DIF does not compete with other metadata standards. It is simply the "container" for the metadata elements that are maintained in the IDN database, where validation for mandatory fields, keywords, personnel, etc. takes place. The DIF is used to create directory entries which describe a group of data. A DIF consists of a collection of fields which detail specific information about the data. Eight fields are required in the DIF; the others expand upon and clarify the information. Some of the fields are text fields, others require the use of controlled keywords...Directory Interchange Format (DIF) Writer's Guide, 2015. Global Change Master Directory. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. http://gcmd.nasa.gov/add/difguide/ - http://gcmd.nasa.gov/ -- Global Change Master Directory

GGOS -- GGOS at the GFZ Potsdam / http://www.ggos.org/ -- GGOS is the Observing System of the International Association of Geodesy (IAG). GGOS works with the IAG components to provide the geodetic infrastructure necessary for monitoring the Earth system and for global change research. It provides observations of the three fundamental geodetic observables and their variations, that is, the Earth's shape, the Earth's gravity field and the Earth's rotational motion. GGOS integrates different geodetic techniques, different models, different approaches in order to ensure a long-term, precise monitoring of the geodetic observables in agreement with the Integrated Global Observing Strategy (IGOS)

IVOA -- International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA) / http://www.ivoa.net/ -- The Virtual Observatory (VO) is the vision that astronomical datasets and other resources should work as a seamless whole. Many projects and data centres worldwide are working towards this goal. The International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA) is an organisation that debates and agrees the technical standards that are needed to make the VO possible.

DLR -- Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt / http://www.dlr.de/dlr/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-10002/

JPL -- Jet Propulsion Laboratory - California Institute of Technology / http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/

PO.DAAC -- Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center PO.DAAC / http://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/

INDIGO -- Inter-service Data Integration for Geodetic Operations / http://indigo.nasa.gov/

UTCSR -- University of Texas at Austin - Center for Space Research / http://www.csr.utexas.edu/ - GRACE mission status / http://www.csr.utexas.edu/grace/operations/mission_status/ - http://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/grace/ - http://isdc.gfz-potsdam.de/index.php?module=pagesetter&func=viewpub&tid=1&pid=35

DGFI -- Deutsches Geodätisches Forschungsinstitut / http://www.dgfi.tum.de/en/

IAG -- IAG Services - International Association of Geodesy / http://www.iag-aig.org/index.php?tpl=text&id_c=1&id_t=102

ICGEM -- International Centre for Global Earth Models / http://icgem.gfz-potsdam.de/ICGEM/ICGEM.html

PV 2007 -- PV 2007: Proceedings and Results / http://pv2007.dlr.de/main/results_en.htm

Paper: The ISDC concept for long-term sustainability of geoscience data and information / http://pv2007.dlr.de/Papers/Ritschel_ISDC.pdf

IUGG 2007 -- Proceedings of IUGG XXIV General Assembly / UNION SYMPOSIA Proceedings - Earth: Our Changing Planet / http://www.iugg2007perugia.it/webbook/download.htm

VOiG -- Virtual Observatories in Geosciences (VOIG) Conference 2007 / http://www.egy.org/VOiG/Home.html

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Earth Observation from Space: GreenPolicy Links - 2014

NASA's Earth Science Enterprise (ESE) -- Originally called "Mission to Planet Earth (MTPE)"

October 2014 http://bit.ly/VitalSignsPulseofthePlanet / Video To fully appreciate the detail of the models, click on the gear symbol and set to 720p resolution and choose full screen video

ESE is dedicated to "understanding the total Earth system and the effects of natural and human-induced changes on the global environment." [11]

Mission to Planet Earth's successor, NASA’s Earth Observing System (EOS), provides long-term global observations of the land surface, biosphere, solid Earth, atmosphere, and oceans.

Earth Observing System Data and Information System - Maps

Suomi NPP - Next-generation Earth-observing satellite system NPP Images Gallery

Next generation NASA-NOAA #EarthMonitoring satellite to launch in 2017

"The ultimate beneficiaries are the present and future generations of the people on Earth..."

The goal of the Earth Observing project is "improved understanding of the Earth as an integrated system."

ESE's Mission: "To improve life here" and "to understand and protect our home planet."

#EarthScience, #GeoScience, #Earth360, #GP360, #EarthPOV

Eyes on the Earth-Earth Right Now, Earth Observing System Project, Earth Data, Earth Observatory, [12], Grace, Grace-JPL, Grace-UTexas

Visible Earth, Global Maps, Visible Earth_2, Visible Earth_3, Visible Earth_4, Earth Mission List

ICESat-2 [13] - [14] Video of ICESat's laser in operation ICESat-2 science at work...

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Earth at Night @GrnPolicy

Monitoring #Earth at night

Americas after Dark

Asian Nights

Nightime Europe & N. Africa

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European space program - earth system monitoring

European Space Agency "Living Planet Programme" managed by Earth Observation Programmes - [15]

GOCE – Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer - launched on March 17, 2009 - [16]

SMOS – Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity satellite - studying ocean salinity and soil moisture; launched in 2 November 2009 - [17]

CryoSat is designed to map the Earth's ice cover. CryoSat-2 was launched 8 April 2010 - [18] - Euro Cryo Satellite/Earth Imaging

Geo-science: Eyes in the Sky Antarctic Ice Loss Antarctic Ice Sheet Expands, Why?

Swarm – Three satellites mapping the Earth's magnetism (also see the US GRACE mission). The SWARM constellation was launched successfully on 22 November 2013 - [19]

Aeolus – Atmospheric Dynamics Mission will use an innovative laser to measure winds. Due for launch in 2015 - [20]

EarthCARE – Earth Clouds Aerosols and Radiation Explorer will examine the formation and effects of clouds. Due for launch in 2016 - [21]

BIOMASS is designed to calculate the amount of carbon stored in the world's forests, and to monitor for any changes over the course of its five-year mission. Due to launch in 2020 - [22]

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Earth Science from Above

from National Geographic News

PUBLISHED OCTOBER 22, 2014

Scientists have uncovered a cache of satellite images of Earth from the 1960s that had been forgotten in storage for nearly 50 years and that push back the first satellite images of our planet a full 17 years.

The trove includes the first publicly available satellite photos of Europe, the earliest aerial views of Antarctica's ice, and a record of Central Asia's Aral Sea before it dried up. There's also a rare photo of the most powerful storm to hit North America in modern times.

The images, when compared with recent satellite photos, show how humankind has changed the planet, from deforestation to changes in sea ice.

(Related: "Maps From Space Show World's Disappearing Forests.")

Among the images from 1964 were views of Antarctica that showed a greater extent of sea ice than ever measured since. That is, until recent weeks, when the 1964 record was broken just as it was discovered to be a record at all. Unlike Arctic sea ice, which has been in decline due to global warming, the extent of Antarctic ice has varied, making the historical data all the more important for scientists trying to understand what drives changes there.

(Related: "Shrinking Arctic Ice Prompts Drastic Change in National Geographic Atlas.")

Earth scientists David Gallaher and Garrett Campbell liberated the data from a National Climatic Data Center archive in North Carolina, uncovering 25 boxes of magnetic tapes and photographic film from three Nimbus weather satellites launched in the 1960s and 1970s.

Gallaher had heard about the data at a conference and called the National Climatic Data Center to request access to some pictures of Greenland. "We have no way of figuring out what's Greenland," came the reply.

That's because the data had never been sorted or digitized. So Gallaher and Campbell took on the painstaking process of digitizing hundreds of thousands of photos and making them publicly available....

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Shrinking Arctic Ice Prompts Drastic Change in National Geographic Atlas

Warming oceans have caused a drastic reduction in sea ice

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