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A new National Research Council report says that budget shortfalls,cost-estimate growth, launch failures, and changes in missiondesign and scope have left U.S. earth observation systems in a moreprecarious position than they were five years ago. The report cautions that the nation's earth observing system isbeginning a rapid decline in capability, as long-running missionsend and key new missions are delayed, lost, or cancelled. "The projected loss of observing capability will have profoundconsequences on science and society, from weather forecasting toresponding to natural hazards," said Dennis Hartmann, professor ofatmospheric sciences at the University of Washington, Seattle, andchair of the committee that wrote the report. "Our ability to measure and understand changes in Earth's climateand life support systems will also degrade." The report comes five years after the Research Council published"Earth Science and Applications From Space: National Imperativesfor the Next Decade and Beyond," a decadal survey that generatedconsensus recommendations from the earth and environmental scienceand applications community for a renewed program of earthobservations. The new report finds that although NASA responded favorably andaggressively to the decadal survey, the required budget was notachieved, greatly slowing progress. Changes in program scope without commensurate funding, directed bythe Office of Management and Budget and by Congress, also slowedprogress. A further impediment, the report says, is the absence ofa highly reliable and affordable medium-class launch capability. Despite these challenges, NASA has been successful in launchingsome of the missions in development when the survey report waspublished. It has also made notable progress in establishing the"Venture-class" program, as recommended in the decadal survey. The suborbital program and the airborne science program areadditional areas where significant progress is being made. Inaccord with the decadal survey's recommendations, NASA alsoaggressively pursued international partnerships to mitigateshortfalls and stretch resources. In the near term, the report concludes, budgets for NASA's earthscience program will remain inadequate to meet pressing nationalneeds. Therefore the agency should focus on two necessary actions:defining and implementing a cost-constrained approach to missiondevelopment, and identifying and empowering a cross-mission earthsystem science and engineering team to advise on the execution ofdecadal survey missions. The report also reviews the state of NOAA's satellite earthobservation program, an integral part of the decadal survey'soverall strategy and tied to the success of NASA's program. Budget shortfalls and cost overruns in NOAA's next generation ofpolar environmental satellites account for the slow rate ofprogress. An interagency framework, recommended in the decadalsurvey to assist NASA and NOAA in optimizing resources, has yet tobe realized. This framework is even more crucial now that both agencies facefiscal constraints, and its importance is reiterated in the presentreport. I am an expert from swimming-poolcleaners.com, while we provides the quality product, such as Swimming Pool Water Fountains Manufacturer , China Swimming Pool Vacuum Hose, Swimming Pool Cleaners,and more.
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