NASA Rethinking Priorities For Collecting Earth-Observation Data From Space

NASA is reconsidering its priorities for the data it gathers from space for long-term global observations of Earth’s atmosphere, land surface, and oceans. Because federal budget fluctuations can affect extended data sets used in resource management, climate change projections, and natural disaster response, NASA asked the National Academies to review its space-based measurements for scientific value. “NASA’s current process for making decisions about Earth observation priorities is primarily qualitative,” says the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. A report from the academies provides a framework for NASA to establish priorities among the collected data. The report recommends that NASA develop a set of objectives, such as determining the rate of global mean sea-level rise, and rank them based on metrics such as importance, utility, and probability of success to determine their relative value.