Trade-off da – gdi 2011 1 Earth Science D/A 2
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- EOS !—Climate Monitoring
EOS !—Climate MonitoringNASA EOS provides climate, pollution, sea level information NASA, No Date (http://climate.nasa.gov/NasaRole/, accessed 7-1-11, CH) In 2004, NASA's spending on climate science exceeded all other Federal agencies, combined. NASA spent $1.3 billion on climate science that year, out of a $1.9 billion total. The agency provides information on solar activity, sea level rise, the temperature of the atmosphere and the oceans, the state of the ozone layer, air pollution, and changes in sea ice and land ice. NASA scientists regularly appear in the mainstream press as climate experts. So how did the space agency end up taking such a big role in climate science? When NASA was first created by the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958, it was given the role of developing technology for “space observations,” but it wasn’t given a role in Earth science. The agency’s leaders embedded the technology effort in an Earth Observations program centered at the new Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, in the U.S.. It was an “Applications” program, in NASA-speak. Other agencies of the federal government were responsible for carrying out Earth science research: the Weather Bureau (now the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or NOAA) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The Applications program signed cooperative agreements with these other agencies that obligated NASA to develop observational technology while NOAA and the USGS carried out the scientific research. The Nimbus series of experimental weather satellites and the Landsat series of land resources satellites were the result of the Applications program. EOS ocean monitoring key to understanding climate change Hough 10 (Andrew, staff, The Telegraph, 6/9, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/7814345/Nasa-launches-its-first-ever-global-warming-investigation-to-the-Arctic.html, accessed 7-1-11, CH) Researchers from the space agency hope to provide the most detailed research yet on how global warming is devastating the ocean’s ecosystem. Nasa’s said its first "dedicated oceanographic field campaign” on the earth will study the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of seas around the Arctic and its shifting ice conditions. As part of their unprecedented research, scientists will study everything from the Arctic Ocean’s properties to the physiology of phytoplankton, the tiny creatures that are known as the base for marine food chain. Scientists hope their vital research, part of a larger £7 million programme, could pave the way for a better understanding of how the ocean’s chemistry and ecosystems have changed due to climate change. More than 40 scientists will spend just five weeks at sea as part of the "Impacts of Climate on Ecosystems and Chemistry of the Arctic Pacific Environment" mission (Icescape). Paula Bontempi, Nasa’s ocean biology and biogeochemistry program manager, said the expedition, which will leave from Alaska next week, was the space agency’s first field campaign on the ocean. "We're continuing the objective that we have to pioneer scientific discoveries," she said as she announced the programme on Tuesday. "We're trying to understand and protect our home planet." The project, funded by Nasa’s Science Mission Directorate, will concentrate on the Chukchi and Beaufort seas off Alaska, which scientists say are particularly vulnerable to global warming. In early July researchers will head into deeper waters to sample thicker sea ice where they will take samples within and beneath the ocean. Experts say the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide is a leading cause of global warming and to be able to predict future climate change, scientists need to know how the carbon cycle works in different parts of the world. Kevin Arrigo, one of the Icescape’s chief scientists from Stanford University, said the Arctic Ocean, unlike other oceans, was almost completely landlocked making it an ideal location to study ongoing climate changes in a marine ecosystem. “The ocean ecosystem in the Arctic has changed dramatically in recent years and it's changing much faster and much more than any other ocean in the world,” he said. "We're beginning to understand how the melting of Arctic sea ice is related to climate change. Unfortunately, we know very little about what these changes have in store for Arctic marine life." Last year, a study using data from a Nasa satellite showed that Arctic sea ice had thinned dramatically between the winters of 2004 and 2008, with thick older ice shrinking by the equivalent of Alaska's land area. Don Perovich, another chief scientist from the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, said the Arctic sea ice was now "just a thin veneer five to 10 feet thick that is really susceptible to climate change". Scientists will live on the US Coast Guard ship the Cutter Healy, the newest and most technologically advanced polar icebreaker in the American fleet. The Seattle-based ship will provide more than hundreds of square feet of scientific laboratory space. An automated microscope will take continuous digital photographs of phytoplankton cells to observe how many different species are in the Arctic waters and ice. Floats with near-real time satellite communication will be placed in the ocean to measure temperature and biological and optical properties. EOS !—Climate MonitoringEOS lidar are the only way to effectively monitor climate change Winker 6 (David, Science Directorate@NASA Langley Research Center, International Society for Optical Engineering, 6/29, http://spie.org/documents/Newsroom/Imported/270/2006060270.pdf, accessed 7-1-11, CH) Much of the current uncertainty about the effects of aerosols and clouds on Earth’s climate is due to our limited ability to globally monitor aerosols and clouds from satellites. Aerosols over bright surfaces, such as deserts, are difficult to see from space, and the lifetimes and radiative effects of aerosols depend on their altitude. Clouds often occur in multiple layers, which strongly influences their radiative effects. Lidar can overcome these observational difficulties. It can provide vertical profiles of aerosols and multi-layer cloud structures, and can observe thin cloud and aerosol layers that passive instruments cannot detect. The three-year Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) mission was developed as a collaboration between NASA and the French space agency CentreNational d’ ´Etudes Spatiales (CNES). 1 Launched on April 28, 2006, its primary objective is to provide the observations necessary to improve our understanding of the roles clouds and aerosols play in the climate system. The CALIPSO satellite carries a two-wavelength polarization lidar, the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP, pronounced like ”calliope”). The payload also includes a three-channel imaging IR radiometer and a single-channel, wide-field visible imager. The satellite flies with the lidar pointing straight down, so that the instrument measures a vertically-resolved curtain of atmoFigure 1. The CALIPSO payload includes a nadir-pointing lidar and two colocated sensors that image a 60km-wide swath centered on the lidar footprint. spheric data. The two passive sensors image a 60km swath centered on the lidar footprint (see Figure 1). CALIOP is the first satellite lidar optimized for atmospheric sensing, and the first lidar to orbit the Earth along with passive instruments. EOS Glory satellite tracks aerosols, key contributor to global warming Science Daily 11 (2/22, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110221081512.htm, accessed 7-1-11, CH) ScienceDaily (Feb. 22, 2011) — Climatologists have known for decades that airborne particles called aerosols can have a powerful impact on the climate. However, pinpointing the magnitude of the effect has proven challenging because of difficulties associated with measuring the particles on a global scale. Soon a new NASA satellite -- Glory -- should help scientists collect the data needed to provide firmer answers about the important particles. In California, engineers and technicians at Vandenberg Air Force Base are currently prepping Glory for a Feb. 23 launch. Aerosols, or the gases that lead to their formation, can come from vehicle tailpipes and desert winds, from sea spray and fires, volcanic eruptions and factories. Even lush forests, soils, or communities of plankton in the ocean can be sources of certain types of aerosols. The ubiquitous particles drift in Earth's atmosphere, from the stratosphere to the surface, and range in size from a few nanometers, less than the width of the smallest viruses, to several tens of micrometers, about the diameter of human hair. The particles can directly influence climate by reflecting or absorbing the sun's radiation. In broad terms, this means bright-colored or translucent aerosols, such as sulfates and sea salt aerosols, tend to reflect radiation back towards space and cause cooling. In contrast, darker aerosols, such as black carbon and other types of carbonaceous particles, can absorb significant amounts of light and contribute to atmospheric warming. 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