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Strategic Objective
Understand our home planet.
Strategic Objective
Overview
Earth’s changing environment impacts every aspect of life on our planet and climate change has profound implications on society. Studying Earth as a single complex system is essential to understanding the causes and consequences of climate change and other global environmental concerns. NASA addresses the issues and opportunities of climate change and environmental sensitivity by answering the following questions through our Earth Science programs: How is the global Earth system changing? What causes these changes in the Earth system? How will Earth’s systems change in the future? How can Earth system science provide societal benefits?
NASA’s Earth science programs shape an interdisciplinary view of Earth, exploring the interaction among the atmosphere, oceans, ice sheets, land surface interior, and life itself, which enables scientists to measure global and climate changes and to inform decisions by Government, organizations, and people in the United States and around the world. We make the data collected and results generated by our missions accessible to other agencies and organizations to improve the products and services they provide, including air quality indices, disaster prediction and response, agricultural yield projections, and aviation safety.
Progress Update
NASA, in consultation with the Office of Management and Budget, has determined that performance toward this strategic objective is making noteworthy progress.
Through the Strategic Review and the Agency’s other performance management processes, NASA reviews recent accomplishments and near term plans for the Agency’s strategic objectives and programs. NASA’s Strategic Objective 2.2 is pursued by the Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Earth Science Division, which seeks to develop a scientific understanding of Earth’s system and its response to natural or human-induced changes, and to improve prediction of climate, weather, and natural hazards. NASA’s 2015 Strategic Review found that the Earth Science flight program is making great progress towards Strategic Objective 2.2. For example, NASA recently achieved a significant accomplishment by launching five Earth observing missions in one calendar year, including two that use the ISS as a platform. In addition, significant scientific contributions were noted by the 2014 external expert review. Our critical next steps include continuing the development of several missions, such as the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE) III (which will utilize the International Space Station as a platform), Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite 2 (ICESat-2), Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) Follow-on, and the Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS). Specific performance measures for the next two years can be found in NASA’s FY 2016 and FY 2017 Annual Performance Plans.
The Strategic Review also addresses long-term strategic outcomes, alignment, and key management challenges for each strategic objective, as well as across the NASA’s portfolio of activities. In 10 years, NASA plans that the Agency’s current efforts under Strategic Objective 2.2 will lead to further understanding of the Earth as a system to meet the challenges of environmental change as well as continued improvement of life on Earth. Many of the key challenges for the Earth Science Division are common across all of the SMD divisions—access to space; technology development; project technical, cost, and schedule challenges; partnerships; and mission support services and infrastructure—and are articulated in the 2014 Science Plan. NASA is also facing the challenge of continuing to advance Earth system science (including research endeavors, observational capabilities, and data systems) while simultaneously addressing increasing demands to provide sustained climate observations—all within a constrained budget. The Earth Science Division is pursuing several opportunities to mitigate or address challenges, such as international partnerships, developing new and innovative ways of making Earth observations via the Earth Venture solicitations, utilizing the International Space Station as a platform for observations, and continuing to make technology investments through the Earth Science Technology Program.
For more information, please see http://science.nasa.gov/earth-science/. Highlighted achievements during FY 2015 are detailed in the FY 2015 Agency Financial Report. Additional details on the FY 2015 performance for supporting Performance Goals and Annual Performance Indicators are provided in NASA’s FY 2015 Annual Performance Report. Information on the strategies for achieving this strategic objective can be found in the 2014 NASA Strategic Plan. Additional information on strategies, challenges, implementation, and program-specific detail is available in the NASA 2014 Science Plan.
