On September 24, the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate approved the Appropriations Conference Committee bill that provides funding to the Veterans Administration, Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies (including NASA) for FY97. The NASA budget was approved at $13.7 B, of which the Office of Mission to Planet Earth was $1.402 B. After adjustments to the distribution of the overall budget within NASA, the total new obligation authority for MTPE is $1.327 B. Of this budget, $571.1 M is for EOS flights, $250.6 M for EOSDIS, and $368.4 M for science, including both the research & analysis program, the EOS Interdisciplinary Science (IDS) investigations, and $50 M for purchase of MTPE-related data from the commercial sector. This budget represents a $75 M reduction to the Mission to Planet Earth program from that requested by President Clinton. The conference report includes earmarks of $25 M of the MTPE budget for a LightSAR, Windsat, and a museum addition, and a blanket reduction of $100 M to NASA overall (of which $75 M was assigned to Mission to Planet Earth).
The MTPE/EOS Data Products Handbook (Volume 1) has recently been completed. This Handbook, edited by Stephen Wharton and Monica Myers, provides a brief description of the science data products that will be available from the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS). The objective of this Handbook is to promote a broader understanding of how the EOS data products will contribute to science research in the understanding, analysis, and monitoring of global climate change. This volume describes data products that will be produced from instruments onboard the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) and the Earth Observing System (EOS) morning satellite (AM-1), as well as products to be produced from the Four-Dimensional Data Assimilation investigation led by Richard Rood. The data descriptions in this reference, available from the Project Science Office or electronically via the World Wide Web (http://eospso.gsfc. nasa.gov), have been reviewed by the science teams for accuracy. Readers should be aware that this reference is only the "tip of the iceberg" of information available on MTPE/EOS data products to be produced as early as next year.
Plans are now underway to conduct a biennial review of MTPE in Spring 1997. This review is an important element in periodically reassessing the MTPE program status and direction in response to increased scientific understanding, evolving technology, new opportunities in the commercial, international, and operational arenas, and budget constraints. This review will consider progress made in MTPE/EOS since the National Academy of Sciences' Board on Sustainable Development review in July 1995, and will further consider (i) strategies for the second series of missions (AM-2, Chemistry-2, etc.), (ii) the relationship between EOS and the National Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS), (iii) balance in the Research & Development program between basic and applied research, airborne science, modeling, and global observations, (iv) the insertion of new technology through programs such as the New Millennium Program (NMP), Earth System Science Pathfinders (ESSP), and the instrument incubator program, (v) plans under development by international partners, and (vi) data archival and distribution, including EOSDIS plans for federation.
I am happy to report that Michael Freilich, Oregon State University, has been elected chairman of the EOS Oceans Panel, succeeding Jim Yoder who has joined NASA Headquarters as the Ocean Biology Program Manager. Prof. Freilich is the principal investigator of the NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT), recently launched into space on ADEOS, as well as SeaWinds, to be launched in 1999 on ADEOS II. Prior to his election as chair of the Oceans Panel, Prof. Freilich has been supportive in establishing the EOS calibration/validation program, now coordinated and led by the Project Science Office.