Much of the activity in the last few months has centered around study teams formed by Dr. Charles Kennel, Associate Administrator of Office of Mission to Planet Earth, to look at innovative ways to implement the EOS Program in the post-2000 era. The motivation for this activity arises from the following significant events: (i) the Department of Commerce gave its tentative approval, pending identification of construction-of-facility funding, for construction of a NOAA building on the Goddard Space Flight Center "East Campus," adjacent to the new EOSDIS Building (to be opened this summer) and the approved-for-construction Earth System Science Building that will house the majority of Earth Scientists at Goddard; (ii) the realization that NASA in general, and EOS in particular, are likely to be directed to live under a funding cap in the post-2000 era; (iii) the necessity to articulate a mechanism for infusion of new technology into the post-2000 era; (iv) the need to identify an implementation of Landsat capability for a launch readiness date of 2004; and (v) the approval of Administrator Dan Goldin to proceed with the Common Spacecraft procurement with a firm contract for two spacecraft (PM-1, Chemistry-1) and option for two more.
The first element mentioned above arises from both the recent motivation to foster closer collaboration between NASA's research and development missions and NOAA's operational missions, and the converged National Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS-1) to be ready for launch in 2004. Dr. Kennel formed three teams composed of NASA and NOAA personnel to assess an observational and programmatic strategy for the follow-on missions to the first 24 measurement types (MODIS, CERES, GLAS, etc.)--a science team (chaired by Michael King), a flight team (chaired by Chris Scolese), and a data systems team (chaired by John Dalton). In addition, there are 3 teams looking specifically at the NASA and NOAA alignment on a broader scale than EOS and MTPE, each of which are co-chaired by NASA and NOAA personnel.
Following the culmination of these study teams, preliminary recommendations will be presented to the Investigators Working Group meeting in Santa Fe, June 27-29, and will be background information for a review of the U.S. Global Change Research Program by the National Academy of Sciences' Board on Sustainable Resources. This review, to be co-chaired by Ed Frieman (Scripps Institution of Oceanography), and Berrien Moore (University of New Hampshire), and will be conducted in La Jolla, July 19-28, at the request of Congressman Robert Walker.
In the past several months the Earth Observing System Educators' Visual Materials was produced and distributed to NASA's Central Operation of Resources for Educators (CORE), Lorain County Joint Vocational School, 15181 Route 58 South, Oberlin, OH 44074 [(216) 774-1051, ext. 293 or 294], where it is now available for purchase for $60 (plus $6 for shipping and handling). This package was produced as a result of the numerous requests that have been received over the years from educators who desperately needed materials that could be used in the classroom. These materials include descriptions of Earth science themes (e.g., clouds and radiation, ocean productivity, greenhouse gases, ozone depletion), accompanied by 2-7 color slides for each theme; NASA fact sheets on seven different topics (e.g., polar ice, volcanoes, global climate change, El Niño), together with color slides to illustrate each; a glossary; list of acronyms and abbreviations; and a self-explanatory auxiliary set of slides containing satellite images and a description of EOS goals, objectives, expected accomplishments, and sensors that contribute to each of the seven high priority themes.
The EOS Directory, which contains the affiliation, phone and fax numbers and e-mail address of all EOS investigators, associates, project and program personnel, and DAAC users' group personnel, has recently been added to the World Wide Web (http://spso.gsfc.nasa.gov/spso_homepage.html), thereby enabling on-line access to the latest information on EOS investigators. In addition, we have added Adobe Acrobat PDF (portable document format) versions of all Algorithm Theoretical Basis Documents (ATBDs) so that anyone with Acrobat Reader, a freely-distributed pdf reader, can view on-line the entire ATBD document (including equations, figures, and text). Acrobat files are platform independent and supported on Macintosh, Windows, and UNIX computers.
Finally, I would like to express my thanks, on behalf of the Earth Science community, for the marvelous job that Dr. John Klineberg has done as Director of Goddard Space Flight Center. He has been an extraordinarily strong supporter of the Earth Observing System and Mission to Planet Earth, and has paid close attention not only to budget and scheduling challenges but also to scientific priorities. He is an excellent listener who is responsive to input from the scientific community both inside and outside Goddard. His management experience has been invaluable during the past 5 years he has served as Director of Goddard, which culminates 25 years of government service. His interaction with the aerospace industry, Congressional leaders, other NASA Centers, and the University community, will make him a hard act to follow. I would like to extend my best wishes for his continued success in future endeavors.