Review of NASA’s Solid-Earth Science Strategy
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This study was supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Award No. NASW-03027. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or agencies that provided support for the project.
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COMMITTEE TO REVIEW NASA’s SOLID-EARTH SCIENCE STRATEGY
EDWARD M. STOLPER, chair,
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
ANNY CAZENAVE,
Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales, Toulouse, France
CATHERINE G. CONSTABLE,
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California
FRANCIS A. DAHLEN, JR.,
Princeton University, New Jersey
WILLIAM E. DIETRICH,
University of California, Berkeley
BRADFORD H. HAGER,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
GRANT H. HEIKEN,
Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico (retired)
R. KEITH RANEY,
Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, Maryland
FRANK M. RICHTER,
University of Chicago, Illinois
MOUSUMI ROY,
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
LIANXING WEN,
State University of New York at Stony Brook
National Research Council Staff
ANNE M. LINN, Study Director
TERESIA K. WILMORE, Program Assistant
JAMES DAVIS, Program Assistant
BOARD ON EARTH SCIENCES AND RESOURCES
GEORGE M. HORNBERGER, Chair,
University of Virginia, Charlottesville
JILL BANFIELD,
University of California, Berkeley
STEVEN R. BOHLEN,
Joint Oceanographic Institutions, Washington, D.C.
VICKI COWART,
Consulting Geologist, Denver, Colorado
DAVID L. DILCHER,
University of Florida, Gainesville
ADAM M. DZIEWONSKI,
Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
WILLIAM L. GRAF,
University of South Carolina, Columbia
RHEA GRAHAM,
New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission, Albuquerque
V. RAMA MURTHY,
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
DIANNE R. NIELSON,
Utah Department of Environmental Quality, Salt Lake City
RAYMOND A. PRICE,
Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario
MARK SCHAEFER,
NatureServe, Arlington, Virginia
BILLIE L. TURNER II,
Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts
THOMAS J. WILBANKS,
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee
ANTHONY R. DE SOUZA, Director
National Research Council Staff
PAUL M. CUTLER, Senior Program Officer
TAMARA L. DICKINSON, Senior Program Officer
DAVID A. FEARY, Senior Program Officer
ANNE M. LINN, Senior Program Officer
KRISTEN L. KRAPF, Program Officer
RONALD F. ABLER, Scholar
TANJA PILZAK, Research Associate
VERNA J. BOWEN, Financial and Administrative Associate
JENNIFER T. ESTEP, Financial and Administrative Associate
JAMES DAVIS, Program Assistant
AMANDA ROBERTS, Program Assistant
Acknowledgments
This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the NRC’s Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We wish to thank the following individuals for their review of this report:
Bruce Buffett, University of Chicago, Illinois
Roger Clark, U.S. Geological Survey, Lakewood, Colorado
James Jackson, Bullard Laboratories, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Charles Langmuir, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
David Sandwell, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California
Robert Shuchman, Altarum Institute, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Jeff Weissel, Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, New York
Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recommendations nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Norman Sleep, Stanford University. Appointed by the National Research Council, they were responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring committee and the institution.
Preface
In 2000, Dr. Ghassem Asrar, associate administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA’s) Office of Earth Science, established a Solid-Earth Science Working Group (SESWG) to prepare a 25-year vision and strategy for solid-earth science at NASA. This group, consisting of 16 members drawn from academia and federal agencies, met on three occasions between late 2000 and early 2002. In addition, “town hall” sessions were held at the 2000 fall and 2001 spring meetings of the American Geophysical Union to brief the broad scientific community and to seek additional input. The working group released Living on a Restless Planet1 in late 2002. Dr. Asrar requested in 2003 that the National Research Council (NRC) provide an assessment of the strategy and vision presented in the SESWG document, and we report here the NRC response.
The charge to the NRC review committee is as follows:
An ad hoc committee will review NASA’s 25-year vision for its solid-earth science program described in the report Living on a Restless Planet. The committee will evaluate the report with particular emphasis on answering the following questions:
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Are the priorities of the report consistent with national priorities in the solid-earth sciences, as laid out in the strategic plans of relevant federal agencies and interagency organizations?
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Does the report include all the major research foci for which NASA can make a unique contribution?
The review committee held one meeting on March 14–15, 2004, at the National Academies’ Beckman Center in Irvine, California. In addition, the committee held teleconferences with Dr. Sean Solomon, chairman of SESWG, to discuss the background of the SESWG report, and with Dr. Asrar to discuss the motivation for the NRC review. Finally, the committee had access to a written review of the SESWG report prepared by the NRC Committee on Seismology and Geodynamics in September 2003 and to strategic planning documents produced by relevant agency and interagency groups. Our report is based on these inputs and on discussions among committee members at our meeting in Irvine.
1 |
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Living on a Restless Planet, Solid Earth Science Working Group Report, Pasadena, Calif., 63 pp., 2002, <http://solidearth.jpl.nasa.gov/seswg.html>. |
The committee thanks the following individuals for providing background material or other input: Ghassem Asrar, Roland Bürgmann, Curt Davis, Gary Egbert, Bill Farrand, Alexander Goetz, Richard Gomez, William Holt, Louise Kellogg, Alan Levander, Ken MacDonald, Jack Murphy, Michael Purucker, Mike Ramsey, David Sandwell, Paul Silver, Walter Smith, Sean Solomon, Thierry Toutin, Susan Ustin, Aaron Velasco, and Terry Wallace, Jr.