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Home Key Climate Sensor Restored to NPOESS
Key Climate Sensor Restored to NPOESS
 Secretary
of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez today declared a commercial
fishery failure for the West Coast salmon fishery due to historically
low salmon returns. The unprecedented collapse of the salmon
population will hit fishermen, their families, and fishing
communities hard, and that is why we have moved quickly to
declare a fishery disaster," Gutierrez said. "Our scientists
are working to better understand the effects that ocean changes
have on salmon populations. We are also working closely with
fishing communities to improve salmon habitat in river systems
to support sustainable fishing.
At
a meeting of the tri-agency NPOESS Executive Committee (EXCOM),
the members agreed to restore the Total Solar Irradiance Sensor
(TSIS), which measures the total amount of solar energy coming
into the Earth's atmosphere, a fundamental element in understanding
climate change. The sensor had been removed during the 2006
restructuring of the NPOESS program.
Yesterday's
decision follows a January 2008 agreement to place another
climate sensor - the Clouds and Earth Radiant Energy System
(CERES) - on the NPOESS Preparatory Project, the precursor
mission for NPOESS. The CERES will complement the TSIS measurements
by shedding light on how clouds influence the Earth's energy
balance and the role they play in regulating climate.
"We
need these sensors to help us better differentiate between
the natural and human causes of climate change, and monitor
the long-term energy shifts tied to climate change," said
retired Navy Vice Admiral Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr., Ph.D,
undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA
administrator.
The
EXCOM decision builds on the Administration's commitment to
restore climate sensors that had been removed from NPOESS.
In April 2007, NOAA and NASA jointly announced they would
restore the Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) Limb,
a critical instrument for measuring the vertical distribution
of ozone, to NPP.
"The
Air Force believes that the NPOESS program has made significant
improvement since its 2006 restructuring. More importantly,
the re-manifesting of TSIS will not jeopardize the program's
schedule or financial baselines," said Gary E. Payton, the
Air Force's Deputy Under Secretary for Space Programs. "NPOESS
is a critical element of our future environmental sensing
capabilities that will benefit the entire nation."
Lautenbacher
added, "NOAA, in collaboration with its partners, stands committed
to addressing satellite-based requirements of the climate
science community, and this latest decision to restore the
priority sensors is a step in the right direction."
NOAA
and NASA, in partnership with the Office of Science and Technology
Policy, are continuing to analyze a range of future satellite
missions to provide continuity in the climate measurements
made by TSIS.
NPOESS
will combine NOAA's current polar-orbiting satellite operations
with the Defense Department's Meteorological Satellite Program
into one system. With the launch of the first spacecraft planned
for 2013, NPOESS will bring improved data and imagery, paving
the way for better weather forecasts, severe-weather monitoring
and improved detection of climate change.
The
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency
of the U.S. Commerce Department, is dedicated to enhancing
economic security and national safety through the prediction
and research of weather and climate-related events and information
service delivery for transportation, and by providing environmental
stewardship of our nation's coastal and marine resources.
Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems
(GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal partners, more than
70 countries and the European Commission to develop a global
monitoring network that is as integrated as the planet it
observes, predicts and protects.
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