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NASA 1
Mon Jun 14, 2004
Listen in RealAudio 
NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe has been in the news quite a bit lately, with the
White House’s new commitment to Destination Mars. But many people may not know
that NASA has many terrestrial concerns as well. Hi, I’m Bryan Yeaton for The Weather
Notebook.
BY: For example, NASA has a huge weather program. I asked Mr. O’Keefe why the
space agency would be concerned with meteorology.
SO: We have a whole range of earth-observing satellites and orbiting capabilities that
can give us a unique perspective from that view, and so there’s 18 satellite orbiter
constellation of earth observing systems that we are operating right now -- that NOAA
and others are operating -- that we’ve put in motion -- have the capacity to measure
atmospheric condition, climate condition, the changes that we’re seeing, across the
global expanse. And so, as a consequence, it’s a very unique perspective that we’ll
draw that from.
BY: O’Keefe added that, although one might think this would put them in competition
with NOAA and the National Weather Service, quite the opposite is true.
SO: It’s DEPENDENT upon NOAA and the National Weather Service and all the other
federal agencies. We have a very close arrangement in order to service those
operational needs. So we are the asset managers, if you will, that puts the capabilities
into those conditions. It uses the research from it but the operational agencies are the
ones we are dependent upon -- their capacity, as well. So it’s a very close working
relationship.
BY: NASA satellites enable scientists to study not only things like the Aurorae and
space weather, but down to earth topics like the death of coral reefs, and why the
planet seems to be running a fever. More on that tomorrow.
The Weather Notebook is produced with funding from the National Science
Foundation, and Subaru: Driven By What’s Inside.
Today's Links
Destination Earth:
http://www.earth.nasa.gov/
Earth Observing System:
http://eos.gsfc.nasa.gov/
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