NASA, NOAA Recommend Full Funding, But White House Wants Cuts In Climate Satellite Programs - ENN

[hatrack]

WASHINGTON -- The President George W. Bush administration is considering less expensive options to putting up six new weather satellites equipped to monitor global warming, the White House's science adviser said Thursday.

The administration has been planning to cut back the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System, or NPOESS, to four satellites and omitting or downgrading the quality of most global warming monitors on them because of growing costs and technical glitches in the program.

"Our concern here is that we move ahead ... whether they're using the NPOESS approach or some other satellite approach," Jack Marburger told the House Science and Technology subcommittee that oversees the $12.5 billion (euro9.3 billion) project. He said the administration has not ruled out staying with the six-satellite plan. The dual-purpose satellites are a joint project of the Pentagon, NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The Associated Press reported Monday that NASA and NOAA reports in December and January to the White House recommended fully restoring the program to six satellites and all of the planned global monitoring sensors. "The recent loss of climate sensors ... places the overall climate program in serious jeopardy," the reports said. The NASA-NOAA reports to the White House said U.S. climate scientists will now have to rely instead on European satellites to gather data about glaciers, ice caps, sea levels, surface radiation, water vapor, snow cover and atmospheric carbon dioxide.

EDIT

http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=12924