Eyes in sky growing dim
Forecasters did a marvelous job predicting the path and evolution of what became Superstorm Sandy - accuracy that Americans have come to expect.
But one of the principal tools that forecasters use - a fleet of satellites that monitor weather, sea levels, atmospheric composition and other environmental factors - is in decline.
A fleet of between 20 and 30 satellites is wholly or partially involved in weather prediction. Three are used solely for forecasting - one in stationary orbit above the Western United States, another parked above the Eastern United States and a third in a polar orbit.
In September, engineers had to take the GEOS-East satellite off line. They were able to maneuver a backup into position, but if that had failed, forecasters would have been partially blind.
The National Research Council said in May that the United States has less reliable space-based forecasting capacity than it did five years ago. And launch failures of two weather satellites over the last two years, budget cuts, and what investigators have called "dysfunctional" management of a satellite system being developed by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration added to the problem.
The overriding issue is funding. NASA's Earth science budget has been reduced from $2 billion a year to about $1.5 billion. But value should be a bigger issue. Hurricane Katrina, for example, caused about $125 billion worth of physical damage. A weather satellite costs about $1 billion to build, launch and operate for its lifetime.
One congressional response to Sandy should be to resolve to make sure that the United States has a state-of-the-art fleet of Earth observation satellites.
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