![]() ![]() This formalized the agency’s movement into Earth sciences. In 1976, Congress revised the Space Act, authorizing NASA to research the stratospheric ozone layer. ![]() The Nimbus series of experimental weather satellites and the Landsat series of land-observing satellites were major milestones in this era of collaborative research.ĭuring the 1970s, Congress wanted NASA to do more research to meet “national needs.” These needs included energy efficiency, pollution, ozone depletion, and climate change. NASA’s Applications program signed cooperative agreements with these other agencies to develop technologies –such as satellites and instruments – to observe Earth from space, while NOAA and USGS analyzed the data. Other federal government agencies were responsible for carrying out Earth science research, such as the Weather Bureau (now the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA) and the U.S. It was an “applications” program, in NASA-speak. The agency’s leaders made technology part of an Earth Observations program at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, which was established in 1959. ![]() Although it was given the role of developing technology for “space observations,” it did not initially have much of a role in Earth science. NASA was created by the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958. So how did the space agency end up taking such a significant role in climate science? Among the many areas NASA studies are solar activity, sea level rise, the temperature of the atmosphere and ocean, the health of the ozone layer, air pollution, and changes in sea ice and land ice. The agency has a broad climate research program. The agency’s observations of our home planet from space, the air, and on the ground are helping us learn how the interconnected systems of our planet interact. NASA is a global leader in studying Earth’s changing climate. ![]()
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