Scientists Warn of Diminished Earth Studies From Space

January 16, 2007 | Source: New York Times

The nation’s ability to track retreating polar ice and shifting patterns of drought, rainfall and other environmental changes is being put “at great risk” by faltering efforts to replace aging satellite-borne sensors, the National Research Council of the National Academies warned.

By 2010, the number of operating Earth-observing instruments on NASA satellites, most of which are already past their planned lifetimes, is likely to drop by 40 percent.