Concept information
Preferred term
GIIPSY
Definition
- Short Title: GIIPSY Project URL: http://www-bprc.mps.ohio-state.edu/rsl/GIIPSY/ Proposal URL: http://classic.ipy.org/development/eoi/proposal-details.php?id=91 Satellite observations are revolutionizing our ability to observe the poles and polar processes. No other technology developed since the IGY of 1957 provides the high-resolution, continental-scale, frequent-repeat, and all-weather observations available from spaceborne sensors. The utility of that technology is evidenced by associated scientific advances including measurements of long term trends in polar sea ice cover and extent, the realization that the polar ice sheets can change dramatically at decade or less time scales, and the quantification of relationships between processes at the poles and at mid and equatorial latitudes. There are many examples of successful spaceborne observations from pole to pole for scientific, commercial and governmental purposes. These successes encourage the use of the capabilities and consequently, the competition for access to resources from the international constellation of satellites becomes increasingly more intense. Frequently, this means that there are only limited opportunities for conducting large-scale projects that consume a significant fraction of system capabilities for some dedicated period of time. One example of a large-scale coordinated effort is the Radarsat Antarctic Mapping Project (RAMP) that required months of dedicated satellite and ground support time to achieve its objective of obtaining near instantaneous snapshots of Antarctica to serve as gauges for measuring future changes. Large-scale coordinated-experiments will continue to be important for polar scientists seeking to understand the role of polar processes in climate change, the contribution of the polar ice sheet to sea level, ice sheet and ocean interactions, and the dynamics of ice sheets and sea ice. These future missions will be further enhanced if complementary observations and data analysis from different satellite sensors can be coordinated (for example: MODIS, MISR, IceSAT; RADARSAT1 and RADARSAT2 (currently operating, and to be launched in 2006, respectively); ALOS (launched in January 2006); TerraSAR-X (launch 2006); the new approved ESA Earth Explorer series: GOCE (launch tbc 2007) - SMOS (launch tbc 2007) - ADM/Aeolus (launch tbc 2008) together with: - Envisat (currently operating) - METOP (launch tbc 2006)). Complementary to these hemispheric-scale projects are short-term, focused data acquisition campaigns over several weeks in support of coordinated and intensive ground-based and suborbital instrument measurements of the polar cryosphere, as recently proposed to NASA by the Polar Gateways subgroup for an Antarctic high-altitude balloon flight of an ice sounding radar. But across the temporal and areal scale of observations, coordination is challenging in part because of resource allocation issues and in part because space programs are operated by a host of national and international agencies. To overcome those challenges, the international polar science community needs a common rallying point. We propose to develop an international science plan for coordinated spaceborne and in situ observation of the polar regions and polar processes as part of the proposed International Polar Year and as part of the IGOS-Cryosphere theme implementation. The goal is to advance polar science by obtaining another critical benchmark of processes in the Arctic and Antarctic during the IPY and to set the stage for acquiring future benchmarks beyond IPY. The technical objective is to coordinate polar observations with spaceborne and in situ instruments and then make the resulting data and derived products available to the international science community. Acquisitions must be tailored to concentrate on those science problems that would best be served by a focused, time limited data acquisition campaign and/or those problems that would be served by having a diverse but integrated set of observations. One possible expansion of this idea would be to include ice covered regions from pole to pole that are known to be important contributors to current sea level change. Another extension could focus on the polar ionosphere which impacts active radar sounding and communications for orbital satellites. A new interdisciplinary objective could be to integrate cryospheric and ionospheric measurements to maximize resolution of cryospheric structures and changes over time. Accomplishment of this objective requires coordination between cryospheric and ionospheric data archives, e.g. respectively the NASA-supported data facilities for the Earth Observing System and for Sun Solar System Connection (S3C). Our lead institutions are involved in EOS while the lead of the Polar Gateways group is Chief Scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center for S3C. The goal of this proposal is to develop the most effective mechanism by which to plan and synchronise IPY satellite acquisition data requests (ultimately resulting from approved IPY Projects) via an instrument such as a coordinated IPY ESA Announcement of Opportunity (AO), a NASA Research Announcement, and national consultation activities conducted by collaborating agencies. This is necessary in order to receive approval from participating organizations for required support of the IPY satellite data processing overhead, and is also needed in order to anticipate volumes of data, mission planning and data distribution demand. Furthermore, these may be needed to secure remote sensing data needs in advance of requests for funding from the appropriate National or EU funding bodies. Due to the anticipated volume of IPY data acquisition requests, it may be important to consider establishing and IPY interdisciplinary coordination or satellite data acquisition planning group(s) to streamline and consolidate independent overlapping and/or complementary data requests. This will make the optimisation of the complex mission planning aspects more efficient. (en)
Broader concept
- G - I (en)
URI
https://gcmd.earthdata.nasa.gov/kms/concept/d4827c6a-7578-402d-90ef-79e68b588e49
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