[audio:http://wamcradio.org/EarthWise/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/EW-07-06-12-Earth-Observing-System.mp3|titles=EW 07-06-12 Earth Observing System]
My most lasting memories of John Glenn’s space flight and Neil Armstrong’s 1969 landing on the Moon were the pictures they took of the Earth. We could see our marvelous blue planet against the black backdrop of outer space.
In the intervening years, a plethora of satellites were launched to monitor the land and ocean surface, providing us with the nightly picture of the weather patterns moving across our nation, allowing forecasts of crop yields, and the loss of sea ice in the Arctic.
Other satellites have allowed us to monitor changes in stratospheric ozone, ocean salinity and productivity, and moisture levels in soil. Now, a victim of politics and budget cuts, the satellites of the Earth Observing System, known as EOS, are in a serious state of decline.
By the end of this decade, current and planned missions to observe the Earth will decline from 25 annually to about 5, leaving us with less than a quarter of our current observational capability.
We cannot take the ostrich view that if we can’t see the human impacts on our planet, the Earth will be just fine. We certainly wouldn’t handicap our personal physician by prohibiting the use of x-rays and diagnostic blood tests. We have a lot of ways to monitor the changing health of our planet, and we need to deploy them.
It is fine to go to the Moon and to Mars, but not at a cost of losing what we know about the ongoing changes to our only home—planet Earth.
Photo, taken on January 2, 2009, courtesy of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center via Flickr.