US remote-sensing program in decline

Science : Because of budget shortfalls and escalating costs, NASA’s Earth-observing satellite program is deteriorating, concluded a panel of the US National Academies’ National Research Council (NRC). Aging satellites are being replaced too slowly, and new missions are getting delayed or cancelled. The satellites are necessary for monitoring changes in Earth’s climate, natural hazards, and land surface. If the situation does not change, the US may be left with only 25% of its current observing capacity by 2020, said the NRC panel’s report. The responsibility for developing an overarching national strategy of Earth observation, however, is “above NASA, and above [the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration]. It’s at the [White House] Office of Science and Technology Policy level. The course we are on is obvious, and it’s not sustainable,” said Antonio Busalacchi, director of the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center at the University of Maryland, College Park, and a member of the NRC panel that issued the new report.