Decadal survey lays out key Earth science priorities

A new report published by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recommends that NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) should implement a coordinated approach for their space-based environmental observations to further advance Earth science and applications for the next decade.

CU Boulder researchers contributed to the survey, which also recommends building a robust, resilient, and balanced U.S. program of Earth observations from space that will enable the agencies to strategically advance the science and applications with constrained resources. 

“Information about Earth science now plays a significant role in our daily lives, and we are coming to recognize the complex and continually changing ways by which Earth’s processes occur,” said Waleed Abdalati, director of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) and co-chair of the committee. “In order to progress as a society, we must focus on understanding and reliably predicting the many ways in which Earth is changing.”

The decadal NAE survey outlines science priorities, observational needs and opportunities for U.S. space-based Earth observations in the coming decade.

Read more about the report and its recommendations.