Jack A. Kaye, NASA

Abstract:

The vantage point of space provides a way to look at the Earth globally, with the ability to observe Earth’s interacting components (air, water, land, ice) and both naturally-occurring and human-induced processes.  It lets us look at variability on a broad range of spatial and temporal scales, and, given the decades of accomplishment, has allowed us to characterize and document Earth System variability on time scales from minutes to decades.  The size and complexity of the Earth mean that no one nation, program, vantage point, or observing technique can make all the needed observations to understand Earth’s recent evolution and provide needed information to support prediction about its future evolution. Integration across vantage points (space, airborne, surface) is important given their complementary nature (as well as supporting calibration and validation activities for current and future missions), as is that across programs (national, government/commercial), and approaches (e.g., active, passive).  In this talk, a review of how NASA’s Earth Science Division integrates across vantage points, observing programs, and observing approaches will be presented, with recent examples provided.