The NASA Earth systems science initiative just entered its 20th year, and to mark the occasion, NASA held a symposium at the National Academy of Science to review some of the scientific accomplishments made possible through the endeavor. Over the course of the three day symposium, scientists presented their research and discussed the impact of the NASA earth systems science initiative on the current understanding for a wide range of social, scientific and economic issues.

   Looking back over the history of the program, it’s hard not to get excited by the extraordinary progress which NASA has made in a relatively short time. In 1966, well before NASA had formalized their Earth science program, they were just starting to turn their eye from the cosmos back to earth. In those early days, a satellite, such as the ESSA-2 (short for the Environmental Science Services Administration) might transmit three photos which covered a 2000 square mile area at a two mile resolution each day. Today, ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer), one of the instruments aboard the TERRA satellite, can measure 14 different wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum at a 15 meter resolution and creates upward of 600 images per day. Other instrumentation in NASA’s fleet of satellites allow scientists to track land based phenomena such as polar ice, fires, deforestation, ocean processes like currents, heating, cooling and acidification, as well as a wide range of atmospheric variables such as carbon monoxide concentrations, cloud distribution and solar reflectance.
   The program spreads its focus across six key study areas: atmospheric composition, weather, carbon cycle and ecosystems, water and energy cycles, climate variability and change and earth surface and interior. Together, these study areas contribute towards answering NASA’s central question,

   The data produced by NASA’s twenty currently operating missions is helping to create entire fields of study. Moreover, the Earth systems science is developing at a time when it is needed most. A range of human induced environmental issues such as anthropogenic induced climate change, deforestation, resource exploitation and extinction are worsening, and are threatening to permanently disrupt many of the natural conditions and processes critical for human existence. There has never been a more pressing time for pertinent and accurate information about how the Earth works.
   Over the next few months, you can follow the EarthTrends blog to learn about some of the Earth systems science research and its applications for environmental and development research and policy initiatives.

Image one is provided by the MODIS Land Group and the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Image two is provided by the USGS EROS Data Center Satellite Systems Branch. The image is part of the ongoing Landsat Earth as Art series.