Our View of Earth From Space Is in Danger

The Terra satellite was launched in 1999 as the flagship of NASA’s Earth science missions. The satellite provides data on trends in global carbon monoxide and other pollutants as well as monitoring the atmosphere, land, ice, and oceans. The image above shows the extent of the Deepwater Horizon oil slick (the grey galaxy-shaped spot) in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. (NASA Earth Observatory/Jesse Allen)

Earth-observing satellites have completely changed our understanding of our planet and ourselves. But the ability of U.S. scientists to track tornadoes, volcanoes, tsunamis, and climate change from space is now in a steep decline.
“The nation’s Earth observing capability from space is beginning to wane as older missions fail and are not replaced,” according to a new National Research Council report, released May 2 as an update to a 2007 decadal report on Earth-observing capabilities.
While roughly 22 satellite or satellite systems run by NASA, NOAA, and the USGS are currently in orbit, that number could drop to only six by 2020. Of the 18 missions recommended in the original 2007 report, only two have specific launch dates.
This is a dire situation, considering that the U.S. relies on this network of satellites for weather forecasting, climate change data, and important geologic and oceanographic information – not to mention the thousands of amazing pictures of our home planet. Weather-related damage from wildfires, flooding, tornadoes, and heat waves resulted in nearly 600 fatalities and cost the economy approximately $50 billion in 2011, but this number would have been even greater without satellite observations.
Many factors have contributed to this situation, including delays, launch failures, and changes in mission design and scope. But the primary reason is a lack of funding.
The original 2007 report had hoped the Earth-observing program would receive roughly $2 billion per year, the same as it got in 2002. But because of ongoing federal austerity, the budget in 2007 was instead $1.3 billion and it has never risen above $1.5 billion since. While $2 billion may seem a steep price, John McQuaid at Forbes points out that it is “less than dozens of tertiary Defense Department tech programs, or the cost of one super-secret giant NSA data-processing center.”
Earth-observing satellites have hundreds of uses. They are used to monitor groundwater for agriculture, assess forest timber productivity, observe sea level rise, provide an overview of air pollution, and have even helped predict weather conditions that contributed to military operations in the Middle East.
Here, Wired takes a look at the current fleet of Earth observing satellites and shows how each has given us a better understanding of our world.