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Global Climate Change Digest
A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
Published July 1988 through June 1999

FROM VOLUME 3, NUMBER 6, JUNE 1990

REPORTS...
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE

Item #d90jun65

EOS: A Mission to Planet Earth, 36 pp., Feb. 1990. Available (no charge) from the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Admin., Earth Sci. Applic. Div., Washington DC 20546.

Outlines the rationale, proposed structure and timetable for NASA's contribution to the U.S. Global Change Research Program, represented in the fiscal year 1991 budget by the Earth Observing System (EOS) and Earth Probes. EOS consists of a space-based observing system (supplemented by European and Japanese satellites), a data and information system (EOSDIS), and a scientific research program. While Earth Probes will focus on specific processes using more specialized platforms, EOS will continue and integrate the measurements now being taken by short-term research missions. This booklet includes, in full color, global displays, extensive examples of the many types of geophysical data to be studied. Contact the address above to receive future related documents. A Pre-EOS Handbook and an EOS Reference Handbook provide detailed information on candidate instruments, their measurements, and the Data and Information System.

Item #d90jun66

Space Operations: NASA Is Not Properly Safeguarding Valuable Data from Past Missions (GAO/IMTEC-90-1), 76 pp., Mar. 1990. U.S. General Accounting Office (POB 6015, Gaithersburg MD 20877; 202-275-6241). First five copies free; additional $2 ea.

GAO's investigation, conducted at the request of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, found that hundreds of thousands of tapes containing space science data are stored under "deplorable" conditions. NASA has not enforced federal regulations covering data storage nor developed its own standards; in the absence of an inventory the agency does not know what data are retained or may have been lost. Data management must be improved considerably before massive volumes of new data are collected from future missions.

Item #d90jun67

Recommendations from an Interdisciplinary Forum on Data Management for Global Change (OIES-5), 75 pp., Mar. 1990. Available (no charge) from Off. Interdisc. Earth Studies, Univ. Corp. Atmos. Res., POB 3000, Boulder CO 80307 (303-497-1682).

At the November 1988 forum in Baltimore, a federal interagency working group met for the first time with a broad representation of scientists and data managers to develop new approaches to data management. Discussed was the design and development of a national data and information system comprising both existing and future data centers, which would appear as a single national system to users. A wide variety of considerations such as security, storage media, presentation, standards and international cooperation are covered.

Item #d90jun68

Trace Gases and Their Relative Contribution to the Greenhouse Effect (AERE R 13716), R.G. Derwent (UK Dept. Environ., Harwell Lab., Oxfordshire OX11 0RA, UK), 23 pp., Jan. 1990. Available from HMSO: £8.

Establishes the global warming potential of over 20 trace gases, as a contribution to the development of a consistent and comprehensive methodology by Working Group 1 (science) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The warming commitment for an instantaneous release of each gas depends on its infrared properties, atmospheric lifetime and influence on other trace gases.

Item #d90jun69

Environmental Atlas of the Iowa-Kansas-Missouri-Nebraska Climate-Change Study Region, (ORNL/CDIAC-33), L.J. Allison et al. (Carbon Dioxide Info. Analysis Ctr., U.S. Dept. Energy), 133 pp. + 3 overlays, Mar. 1990. Available to DOE and its contractors from Off. Sci. Tech. Info., POB 62, Oak Ridge TN 37831 (615-576-8401; inquire for price), or from NTIS: $21.95.

Contains 45 maps and associated tabulated data characterizing the present agricultural and water resources of the region, along with basic geographic reference data. These serve as baseline input to future modeling studies of the potential effects of climate change.

Item #d90jun70

The Biosphere Dynamics Project--Progress Report, August 1988 to December 1989, A.M. Solomon (Proj. Leader), 27 pp., 1990. Available from IIASA (Intl. Inst. Appl. Systems Analysis), A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria (tel: 02236-71521*0). Includes activities of the Institute's Global Vegetation Change Study which expects to complete in 1990 a model for use by non-experts in assessing policy implications.