00:00:06:01 - 00:00:41:00
Speaker 1
Thank you, everybody, for coming. I'm Andrea Donlan. I'm the study lead for this incubation study. And Glenny is my colleague. He'll be giving a talk later. I don't know where where the feedback is coming from. I apologize. And if people can't hear anything, I see sounds good from the chat. We'll do our best to monitor the chat. So this meeting is the first time we've had an STV meeting that's hybrid.

00:00:41:00 - 00:01:01:02
Speaker 1
And also in. The first study was a year long and our first meeting was scheduled for the 17th of March 2020. So I never even met a bunch of the people on the team until well after the study was done. So this is nice to be a person and I'm I'm the lead. Craig Leonie, did you wave, stand up and wave.

00:01:01:11 - 00:01:23:04
Speaker 1
He's the technology co-lead and we're going to be relying on everybody to help us make this a good meeting. I'll talk about the charge to the meeting in a minute. So this is there's a report floating around the workshop. If you want to take one at the end of the workshop, you're welcome to. But if we could leave them for people to reference now they're from the first study.

00:01:23:15 - 00:01:43:14
Speaker 1
This is our conceptual idea of an observing system where we have orbiters, high altitude vehicles, airplanes and we need to do field validation as well. So where did this all come from? I we want to impress on all of you the importance of helping us make this observing system. So I want to walk through where this came from.

00:01:43:14 - 00:02:10:19
Speaker 1
We'll have some talks this morning about it as well. The Decadal Survey came out in 2018 and we have built Dietrich here, who is key to helping me surface topography and vegetation. A targeted observable. There were two different types of observables recommended by the Decadal Survey. Designated observables and targeted observables. Designated observables are moving forward into observing system surface biology and biology is one of those.

00:02:11:10 - 00:02:37:17
Speaker 1
Surface topography and vegetation and planetary boundary layer were being not mature enough to go straight into a observing system. And the Decadal Survey recommended investment in these incubation studies to ensure them to becoming an observing system. So we have a really important job to do. The science justification, the technology and the flow down into an observing system so that by the next decade of survey, we as a community are ready.

00:02:39:01 - 00:03:05:20
Speaker 1
What is STB? It's high resolution, global topography, including bare surface land topography, ice topography, vegetation structure and shallow water bathymetry. The candidate measurement approach listed in the Decadal Survey was radar or light are. Since then, we as headquarters have added in stereo imaging. They had five science disciplines which we adopted but changed slightly. So we.

00:03:06:03 - 00:03:06:15
Speaker 2
Had to share the.

00:03:06:15 - 00:03:15:19
Speaker 1
Screen. Oh, it's not fair. Oh, she's sorry. Sorry. People that are here. I haven't gone through many slides.

00:03:17:11 - 00:03:18:05
Speaker 2
Yeah, sure.

00:03:18:06 - 00:03:54:02
Speaker 1
And I try this now as a sharing. Yeah, you can check me out. Okay. My apologies. So this was the first slide that I showed just showing our conceptual observing system. And I'm on the second slide now. So we, we flowed the science disciplines that were in the K2 survey and to study specific disciplines which are solid earth, vegetation structure, cryosphere, hydrology and coastal processes or coastal geomorphology, no, as I said, Stephen, Compassion is a new program element called incubation.

00:03:54:02 - 00:04:19:12
Speaker 1
It was intended to accelerate the readiness of high priority observables, not yet feasible for cost effective flight implementation. That's something we need to think about as we discuss and mature into an observing system as it needs to be cost effective. So they're going to be trained. There are some things that we want to do but can't do yet, or maybe we just need to mature the technology so that we can do it in a cost effective and timely way.

00:04:19:12 - 00:04:49:04
Speaker 1
STV Right now is not a mission or observing system. I'm sure we'll hear more from Ben about what it is and it's not a designated observable, like I said, it's a, it's a targeted observable. So the study incubation study is focused on state of the art evaluation, identifying identification of gaps and investment needs and preliminary traceability refinement. We can't say requirements yet because we're not observing system.

00:04:49:04 - 00:05:10:03
Speaker 1
This was the first report is floating around the workshop. You can find it online at this link down here. It was a framework for the decade. I want to emphasize framework. Nothing is set in stone in that report. It's the best we could take. Five different community, five different science disciplines, and three different well for different technology disciplines.

00:05:10:03 - 00:05:31:13
Speaker 1
If you count information systems and get us all talking and rolling in the same direction and working together. So that was our first stab at that in this study is is the next one. So our study objectives which came out of the call were to develop a study, science and architecture as input to the next Earth Science Decadal Survey.

00:05:31:13 - 00:05:55:17
Speaker 1
And we're really honored to have Bill Dietrich here this morning, who will talk about that process, advanced PI led research projects, I would add, in a coordinated fashion so that we can move forward this observing system, develop roles and responsibilities for team members to mature, study, coordinate our study projects, identify needed observing systems, simulation experiments, study areas, campaigns, and additional gaps.

00:05:55:17 - 00:06:17:04
Speaker 1
Leverage existing data on missions and activities and I would say future opportunities as well, and build an active community. And that's why you are all here. So I'm going to get to the team. But before I do that, why don't I just have people in the room stand up who are on the funded STV team and present your all team members in a sense, but stand up and wave so you can identify students as well.

00:06:17:22 - 00:06:45:15
Speaker 1
I see three people over there that aren't standing up the should. Steve, you're on the team so a good portion of the room. We have about 170 people registered for this workshop total. So we really appreciate your your help and this will help us identify future opportunities to fill gaps we want compelling science questions you'll hear from the science team leads shortly after the break.

00:06:46:02 - 00:07:17:19
Speaker 1
But we want memorable, understandable and valuable science questions that we can take with us through the study process. Again, this is where we are now. They are modifiable. At some point, they will be set in stone. The overarching question is how does earth changing surface structure inform us about climate change, natural hazards, ecosystem habitats and water availability? That's a lot of communities to bring together solid earth asks How does Earth's surface structure respond to tectonic and climate forces?

00:07:17:19 - 00:07:44:03
Speaker 1
And what are the implications for geologic hazards? Vegetation structure? How is Earth's vegetation responding to climate change and what are the feedbacks to the carbon cycle, hydrologic cycle and ecosystems? Cryosphere is how are the earth changing ice sheets and glaciers interacting with a global climate system and Earth's oceans? Hydrology is how a water availability and flow change with climate and increasingly dynamic landscapes.

00:07:44:18 - 00:08:07:24
Speaker 1
Coastal Geomorphology asks How are the coasts changing by natural and human influences? And what are the impacts and applications in overarching or underpins all of this? Depending on how you want to look at it? They're looking at how does understanding changing topography and vegetation structure enable better, better hazard and resource management? We'll have an applications panel this afternoon or this morning, I'm sorry, at 11.

00:08:09:12 - 00:08:32:20
Speaker 1
These are the science breakouts. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on the slide, probably because we're a little bit behind, but also because you're going to hear from each of the science leads and very brief talks. But those are our areas. And some of the things that we're we're looking at understanding technology. Again, I mentioned our late light, our radar and stereo imaging along with earth observing system simulation experiments.

00:08:33:15 - 00:09:03:21
Speaker 1
Overlying all of that is an architecture for the observing system that we're moving toward. And underpinning it is the platforms, especially airborne and high altitude, as well as the spaceborne platforms. These are the study leads. You'll see them rather meaning you have a key on the back we we put watch discipline you noted an interest in and your registration here it's color coded the names on the back and a couple of them are wrong but here in in your program they're correct so these are the people leading the efforts.

00:09:03:21 - 00:09:39:04
Speaker 1
You can contact them and they can flow it into the the study team. So what are we trying to do in general? Topography is more mapped globally. Excuse me, but we haven't done a good job yet. Is the science and technology community is separating the bare earth topography from the vegetation structure? And so that is the key focus here is how do we how do we do that classification of vegetation, understand the vegetation structure, remove it and the built environment so that we have the bare earth topography and then we can better satisfy these different science communities.

00:09:39:21 - 00:10:12:00
Speaker 1
We also want to measure ice topography, including sea ice and snow depth and shallow water bathymetry as well, which is quite a challenge. So here's a simple schematic of what we have. We have the topography with the overlying vegetation structure. That's our digital surface model. If we take out the terrain underneath, that's the digital terrain model, the red line, then we can get at the canopy height model and do a better job of getting into vegetation, vegetation structure.

00:10:12:15 - 00:10:35:07
Speaker 1
Those are our three main measurements that we're making. Ben Phillips from NASA headquarters is going to show a much nicer version of this, but we independently made these data information, knowledge, wisdom, pyramids, and I love his layout and what he says, but when we actually walk through the two and compare them, I was amazed how well we did independently that she coming up with the same thing.

00:10:35:07 - 00:11:03:19
Speaker 1
So I thought that was really good. Our main data, product and raw data, our images light our returns and radar returns. Those feed into those products that I mentioned, the digital surface model to remodel and canopy height model, but also snow depth free ice sea, sea ice free board, vegetation structure and shallow water bathymetry that helps us understand processes of natural hazard, climate impacts and ecological systems.

00:11:04:06 - 00:11:31:23
Speaker 1
And then that can move into action. I just wanted to show one, one example this turn out kind of nice. In June we had our science team meeting and Incline Village at the University of Nevada Reno campus at Lake Tahoe. Thank you, Bill Hinman, for hosting us. And so this image was in the report, and I just wanted to show an example of where we have the the full digital surface model or point cloud.

00:11:31:23 - 00:11:49:19
Speaker 1
On the left. You classify the features and the vegetation and the built environment and remove that. Now the Incline Village fault really shows up very well. You can see it over here, but not as well. And then because that's where our meeting was, we were able to go visit that fault and see what it looks like in the field.

00:11:49:19 - 00:12:09:19
Speaker 1
And to me, what it highlighted is here's this little rise on a hill. Yeah. You know, somebody knowledgeable, probably look at it and say there's a fault there. But we do it from altitude, from space. That fault pops out really well. So these are some of the science we can do with these data. Shallow water bathymetry is a data gap.

00:12:09:19 - 00:12:33:06
Speaker 1
You'll hear about it more, but the ships can go off short by. Well, where it's deeper, it's hard to measure the shallow water bathymetry near the coast. And yet there are a lot of processes, ecological processes, geophysical processes there that we need to understand. So that's going to be a challenging measurement to make from the report. We want topography everywhere all the time.

00:12:33:21 - 00:13:01:11
Speaker 1
One of the things that stood out in the report to me is we want high resolution topography, but where we differ from, say, the the user, the non science user community is that we want to understand process and to understand process you need repeat systematic measurements. So we want baseline topography everywhere. But then for surface topography, we care mostly about the tectonic, then actively deforming areas, actively deforming in different ways, like landslides are important as well.

00:13:02:04 - 00:13:37:06
Speaker 1
Vegetation structure is looking at the marine area. The Earth, shallow water bathymetry is not just looking at the ocean land interface, but also rivers and lakes. And so those show up in that plot. And then snow depth, there's a snow covered area and the needs ranked by importance. Again, this is in report. Spatial coverage is very important. Resolution is important, but you'll see in different cross cuts when we looked at it, repeat frequency came up again and again and again because again we want to understand process as scientists.

00:13:37:06 - 00:14:03:05
Speaker 1
This I thought was our biggest achievement of our study we took. If you look at the report, there are appendices of all the measurement needs for all the science, disciplines and subdisciplines. But we managed as a community to come together and distill that into one table, which does have a lot of information in it. We had our aspirational needs, the media need we're looking at as well as the most stringent need that we need and the discipline that that was associated with.

00:14:04:04 - 00:14:26:01
Speaker 1
And then we had threshold measurements as well. And I don't know one way to look at this and you can tell me if I should not say this is on the right side is kind of a $300 million observing system. On the left side is the billion dollar observing system. That's kind of how I classify it. And in my head I know we shouldn't put dollars, but just what we're working for in terms of coverage and complexity and accuracy.

00:14:26:01 - 00:14:50:01
Speaker 1
So, I mean, we made this roadmap that's in the study report as well. And then I started turning it into a gap chart where we are in this roadmap. So in the immediate 1 to 3 years, we need to do a lot of process modeling, performance modeling, observing systems, simulation experiments, mature the technology. And you can see we're not very far along on any of these points, but I think we're heading in a very good direction.

00:14:50:01 - 00:15:07:23
Speaker 1
I want to make sure we have an excellent foundation, understand our science well. The community understand we're working toward the same goals and then I think those will start advancing very quickly. The Decadal Survey process will start up again in about two years. So we don't have a lot of time to get our act together. Not that we don't have it together.

00:15:07:23 - 00:15:32:04
Speaker 1
I think we do think it's a great community and a really good team, both teams. So I'll summarize and then give the church to the workshop. An orbital observing system can meet a set of CV. Science applications need serving all disciplines, and we need to remember that is we're trading what's most important an architecture multiple platforms and sensors an orbital and some orbital assets would address.

00:15:32:04 - 00:15:59:07
Speaker 1
Our study needs more thoroughly and we'll talk about that in the breakouts, all science and applications disciplines need accurate repeat measurements to measure temporal changes. We need a global baseline topographic map and overlying vegetation structure, followed by targeted repeat measurements. Oh, we have a meeting here. What do you know? Charge to the workshop. We have science, technology and architecture needs and activities.

00:15:59:15 - 00:16:30:09
Speaker 1
We need to nail down our science questions and objectives. We need to justify those science needs through modeling. We need to understand how to separate vegetation from ground and also how to fuze data and conduct joint experiments. So in the breakouts, we're going to be talking about what targets we want to study and where we want to do airborne experiments that can help mature study on the technology side, we need to flow the science needs into capabilities, mature the technologies as needed in advanced processing.

00:16:30:09 - 00:16:54:00
Speaker 1
There are huge data volumes associated with all the different disciplines, technology disciplines that we have. So we need to be smart about how we do that. And then in architecture we need to understand coverage, resolution and latency, performance modeling, airborne and space spawning capabilities and our concept of operations. So you got different versions of this now and then in talks before the breaks.

00:16:54:00 - 00:17:12:02
Speaker 1
We're going to hear from headquarters. We're going to hear from the architecture people. But I hope everybody here can take this very seriously. And we want to lay out the timeline of the way now. So does the mission or observing system development process. And we'll hear about the Decadal Survey as well, so that we can feed into that process.

00:17:12:02 - 00:17:26:13
Speaker 1
So I thank you all for being here. I really appreciate it. Both online as well as in the room. Sorry about the little delay in the beginning. For that, we'll move on to Ben. Thanks. See?

00:17:31:05 - 00:17:55:16
Speaker 1
So I need to share the screen again. And we've there's a screen sharing console. Let me tell me, is it. Oh, it is. I think it is. Okay. Yeah. So we're good. Thank you. It's which you need to reference and.

00:17:55:16 - 00:18:34:23
Speaker 3
All right. Well, good morning, everyone. So like Indra said, really nice to have a group of folks here and also a really strong presence online. Looking forward to working together over the next couple of days. So I'm Ben Phillips. I'm the STV program scientist at NASA headquarters, and I'm going to give a few thoughts today on behalf of the the SDB Program Management Team, which includes Parminder Grumman, is the best TV technology lead in our science technology office and Hank Margolis, Mike Koski, awesome.

00:18:34:23 - 00:18:47:03
Speaker 3
Marcus Caitlin Harbeck Stevie, as you can already see, is very interdisciplinary observing system concept.

00:18:47:22 - 00:18:48:23
Speaker 2
And you have a big.

00:18:49:07 - 00:19:16:14
Speaker 3
Team of folks at headquarters across those disciplines who are looking to to support you in building that concept. And we have other folks from, from the headquarters, our team here as well. You're help me out here from Mike Seebohm after, after me and Amir Emery and Bob Bower, who also helped lead the whole don't get a survey incubation program.

00:19:16:14 - 00:19:32:05
Speaker 3
So I'm going to start with a couple of contacts charts and you've already heard a little bit about this. You'll hear more the so the Earth System Observatory and Andrea talked about the Decadal Survey which cued up.

00:19:32:13 - 00:19:33:20
Speaker 2
That study as this.

00:19:33:20 - 00:19:45:19
Speaker 3
Incubation observable, all with the goal of working to mature the concept for readiness for future implementation in space. Hopefully we're.

00:19:45:21 - 00:19:49:21
Speaker 2
We're seeking to to to see if we can demonstrate that that would be.

00:19:50:07 - 00:20:23:23
Speaker 3
Viable in the coming decade. The decadal Survey also identified these designated observables, which Narsa has now grouped into this concept of the Earth system Observatory. And so there were these five so-called designated observables shown here, surface biology and geology, which is a spectral imaging of observing system, surface deformation and change radar, which will be.

00:20:23:23 - 00:20:24:17
Speaker 2
Preceded by.

00:20:24:17 - 00:20:58:01
Speaker 3
A nice R this next year. And clouds, convection and precipitation and aerosols are now referred to as AOC. Atmospheric observing system and mass change, which is continuity of of the grace gravity missions. So this is this is our baseline of new observing capabilities that are either in formulation or early planning stages going into the next decade will survey later this decade.

00:20:58:08 - 00:21:00:01
Speaker 3
This is going to be sort of the foundation.

00:21:00:20 - 00:21:05:16
Speaker 2
On which STV needs to be articulated.

00:21:05:16 - 00:21:36:06
Speaker 3
So the other concept that I want to introduce is this earth science to action strategy. And Andrea showed her pyramid data that information, knowledge, wisdom, and it's, it's the same concept, right? This is the new framework that NASA headquarters is using to articulate our Earth science programs. So really leaning in to two applications, you know, all the way to engaging the public.

00:21:37:06 - 00:22:01:12
Speaker 3
So same sort of set of of layers here, you know, the foundational knowledge that comes from the capabilities we develop and the data measurements that are made for system science and applied research that to your really core corresponds to, you know, our traditional research and analysis and applications programs where we're doing.

00:22:01:23 - 00:22:02:23
Speaker 2
Basic and applied.

00:22:02:23 - 00:22:21:08
Speaker 3
Research use those measurements to increase understanding solutions and societal values. That's where we're connecting with partner agencies that that I've operational mandates or other users and then really pushing, you know, all the way up to public engagement and understanding UCS.

00:22:22:03 - 00:22:30:06
Speaker 2
So oh my goodness, I didn't know it was animated. Hey, it's a little distracting.

00:22:30:06 - 00:22:38:12
Speaker 3
But, but so this is just a first, first crack at something that I that I want us to work on as a, as a community.

00:22:39:08 - 00:22:39:12
Speaker 2
You know.

00:22:39:12 - 00:22:51:05
Speaker 3
Again, this this really is the new framework for for earth science at NASA. And so you know, it's going to be up to us to articulate.

00:22:51:05 - 00:22:51:23
Speaker 2
STV.

00:22:52:23 - 00:23:20:07
Speaker 3
In this context, so I'm not going to read through all the details here. But you know, a lot of this corresponds to what Andrea has already showed you. Give us the underlying measurements moving up to, you know, the science of, of hazards or coastal change, ecosystem dynamics, water cycle and then up to, you know, partnerships and.

00:23:21:03 - 00:23:23:19
Speaker 2
Developing tools and forecasting.

00:23:23:19 - 00:23:29:12
Speaker 3
Capabilities and so forth that can inform policy management and then really.

00:23:29:12 - 00:23:34:20
Speaker 2
Articulating and what does that mean to to people?

00:23:34:20 - 00:24:03:19
Speaker 3
So, so, so with that context, the goals for for this study community in the next two or three years, why, why the next 2 to 3 years? Andrea already mentioned the upcoming, you know, Decadal Survey timeline and the notional schedule below left. Don't don't hold NASA to this I, I just adopted.

00:24:04:18 - 00:24:06:02
Speaker 2
You know what we saw.

00:24:06:02 - 00:24:12:15
Speaker 3
For the 2018 Decadal Survey and march that forward. But indeed, you know.

00:24:12:15 - 00:24:15:23
Speaker 2
We we should anticipate that the planning.

00:24:15:23 - 00:24:19:09
Speaker 3
Processes, coordination requests for.

00:24:19:24 - 00:24:21:00
Speaker 2
Community input.

00:24:22:01 - 00:24:34:08
Speaker 3
Will start in the next couple of years and really, you know, the input from the community is going to mature in the end in the next three years. And then the National Academies and the committees.

00:24:34:08 - 00:24:36:13
Speaker 2
That have identified will be.

00:24:36:13 - 00:24:38:20
Speaker 3
Deliberate. And, you know, they'll.

00:24:38:20 - 00:24:39:20
Speaker 2
Take what they've gotten.

00:24:40:08 - 00:25:01:15
Speaker 3
And they'll work to identify priorities for the the upcoming decade and one of our fundamental goals when that's giving incubation is is to demonstrate that there's been adequate maturity from 2018 up to, you know, later this decade.

00:25:02:08 - 00:25:05:12
Speaker 2
To to to put this in a.

00:25:05:24 - 00:25:08:17
Speaker 3
Position to to be implemented in space.

00:25:08:22 - 00:25:10:05
Speaker 2
In the following decade. So.

00:25:10:15 - 00:25:14:11
Speaker 3
You know, in the in the language of the last survey positioning.

00:25:14:13 - 00:25:17:10
Speaker 2
STV to be identified as one of the designated.

00:25:17:10 - 00:25:25:17
Speaker 3
Observer as a priority observing systems that's, you know, ready to go and so, you know, these are a number of things that.

00:25:26:01 - 00:25:27:03
Speaker 2
We as a community.

00:25:27:11 - 00:25:29:20
Speaker 3
Need to work on these next few years. And a lot.

00:25:29:20 - 00:25:30:18
Speaker 2
Of this is underway.

00:25:30:18 - 00:25:34:20
Speaker 3
In the science and applications case, which includes refining.

00:25:34:20 - 00:25:38:06
Speaker 2
The the Science and Applications Traceability matrix that was.

00:25:38:21 - 00:25:39:20
Speaker 3
Drafted in the.

00:25:39:20 - 00:25:40:17
Speaker 2
Study report.

00:25:40:17 - 00:25:48:10
Speaker 3
That that Andrea referenced along with these key roles in that redaction period, me talking in this this new.

00:25:48:10 - 00:25:51:15
Speaker 2
Vocabulary that's that's important for NASA.

00:25:52:23 - 00:26:03:14
Speaker 3
Tied to technology maturation. So trying to find you identify and advance the most beneficial and promising solutions, the observing systems and simulations.

00:26:03:14 - 00:26:06:06
Speaker 2
BERMAN Capability, so that we can.

00:26:06:13 - 00:26:16:02
Speaker 3
Support early architecture studies. So those first three components are what we called for in Rosa's.

00:26:16:08 - 00:26:20:22
Speaker 2
Research opportunities in space in her science solicitation for Decadal.

00:26:21:05 - 00:26:43:22
Speaker 3
Survey Incubation in 2021. So all the know the funded team members who stood up, you know, responded to that call and are starting to work on those elements. And you mentioned field campaigns. We've we've already started to take advantage of some existing airborne campaigns like the recent fire sense and upcoming efforts are.

00:26:44:04 - 00:26:45:08
Speaker 2
Adding on TV.

00:26:45:08 - 00:27:00:01
Speaker 3
Relevant instruments to get, you know, these coupled observations across some of the different measurement techniques that are part of STV We want to think about potentially pushing for if.

00:27:00:08 - 00:27:01:08
Speaker 2
You know, if it's going to.

00:27:02:04 - 00:27:20:16
Speaker 3
Make a critical difference of some dedicated STV field campaigns working on the case for or for heritage, especially space heritage so that you can demonstrate that there is maturity in some of the underlying, you know, measurement capability.

00:27:20:21 - 00:27:22:16
Speaker 2
And we have existing platforms.

00:27:23:02 - 00:27:36:19
Speaker 3
That we can start to leverage there. We have emerging things like the airborne capability, possibly Earth system explorers, which is, you know, called that's out now that welcome proposals for.

00:27:38:11 - 00:27:40:05
Speaker 2
Missions including ice elevation.

00:27:40:05 - 00:27:43:12
Speaker 3
And ecosystem structure. So if those come to pass.

00:27:43:12 - 00:27:45:21
Speaker 2
Then, you know, we want to see what evolves.

00:27:45:21 - 00:27:46:21
Speaker 3
There and.

00:27:47:05 - 00:27:49:17
Speaker 2
See whether it would make sense for us to be to leverage.

00:27:49:17 - 00:27:51:03
Speaker 3
It.

00:27:51:03 - 00:28:00:00
Speaker 2
Publications from this this community, including synthesis papers that, you know, the Decadal Survey process could pick up and.

00:28:00:00 - 00:28:02:24
Speaker 3
See a synthesized sense of what this community.

00:28:03:24 - 00:28:09:23
Speaker 2
Is thinking, articulating the uniqueness of STV So.

00:28:10:17 - 00:28:16:11
Speaker 3
You know, said we're going to, we're going to come in with this baseline of, of the Earth System Observatory. What does STV do.

00:28:16:11 - 00:28:19:22
Speaker 2
For the ESA? Well you know, it can.

00:28:19:22 - 00:28:22:01
Speaker 3
Support geolocation and.

00:28:22:01 - 00:28:22:10
Speaker 2
Base.

00:28:22:10 - 00:28:26:22
Speaker 3
Based measurements for a lot of those other missions while also contributing its own.

00:28:27:15 - 00:28:32:00
Speaker 2
You know, unique measurements with these time dependent observations.

00:28:32:00 - 00:28:33:15
Speaker 3
So, so really clarifying.

00:28:33:15 - 00:28:37:01
Speaker 2
That case and why we need STV in, you.

00:28:37:01 - 00:29:01:04
Speaker 3
Know, in, in this larger observatory framework. And finally doing all of this as a, as a community, as a, as a broader team. And so I want to reinforce Andrea's message of, you know, folks to do their, their individual, you know, research and bring your expertize to bear on these issues. But ultimately, we need to roll that up and start to.

00:29:01:04 - 00:29:06:03
Speaker 2
Identify priorities, make sacrifices, because we're not going to get the billion dollar.

00:29:06:03 - 00:29:44:03
Speaker 3
Mission and and really work on this together and build our community and and towards a sense of consensus. So I'm really putting STV sort of in this nexus with the Earth System Observatory and that Earth Science Action pyramid articulating our role in that context. And so we really want to encourage the broader community to get involved. So thanks again to all of you here and online for participating.

00:29:44:03 - 00:29:44:23
Speaker 3
Your your.

00:29:45:00 - 00:29:50:05
Speaker 2
Participation here conveys your membership in, in the STV incubation.

00:29:50:05 - 00:30:02:03
Speaker 3
Team and we want to continue to grow that leverage your inputs you're going to hear about all of the, you know, the different working groups. And after the meeting.

00:30:02:13 - 00:30:03:16
Speaker 2
You know, we'll be providing more.

00:30:03:16 - 00:30:41:04
Speaker 3
Information about how you can contribute further at those disciplinary levels and we will have our next Rose's solicitation anticipated for later in 2024. And so that will be another calling and building on this first set of investments and welcoming participation from from all of you to to compete for being part of the funded team. And as one of one of those team members has already said, it's time to map the Earth in 4D using STV.

00:30:41:04 - 00:30:41:21
Speaker 2
And I'm looking.

00:30:41:21 - 00:30:45:09
Speaker 3
Forward to hearing all of your ideas next couple of days.

00:30:46:00 - 00:30:56:04
Speaker 1
It's thank you. And we want maximum.

00:31:05:06 - 00:31:44:16
Speaker 3
Thank you and all right. Well thanks for inviting me. I look forward to speaking with the STV community and learning about both your long term and near-term technology needs. I know quite a few of you, but I hope over the next couple of days to link up with more of you. When Bob Bauer, my colleague and I, we looked at the attendee list, we were surprised to see how many people were coming in from outside the agencies.

00:31:44:16 - 00:32:10:14
Speaker 3
So we thought we would give a little bit of background on what's happening within the Earth Science Division. So just an overview of where my organization lives. This is my organization being the Earth Science Technology Office. That's us on the far left, but our role is to really enable the other elements of the Earth Science Division. We don't we're not an end of ourselves.

00:32:11:19 - 00:32:44:17
Speaker 3
Our customers are really the research and analysis group led by Jack, the flight program that Scott Springer is leading and also the data, the Data Systems Group and a new group which is now being led by Tom Wagner, which is the Earth Action, which kind of replaces the old Applied Sciences Program. So in all of these instances, we're here to enable the other elements.

00:32:44:17 - 00:33:16:01
Speaker 3
So the division. So Karen and Julie took over in 20 and Karen became the division director in 2020, and Julie followed shortly thereafter. The pandemic kind of delayed a lot of the implementation of change within the division. But now I would say beginning in early 2022, Karen has really started to put her mark on the division and making some changes from what we had before.

00:33:16:01 - 00:33:45:21
Speaker 3
So, you know, fasten your seat belts Ben mentioned that we've got my doesn't spend years was no I'm the technology guidelines should be spinning so I won't I won't go through this again but this is basically we're looking at from the bottom of the top it's, you know, teaching, doing, learning. And then I'm sorry, it's knowing at the bottom nothing.

00:33:46:09 - 00:34:21:09
Speaker 3
And then learning, doing and teaching as you go up. And so this is this is like Ben said, this is really the important chart that Karen wants to emphasize. And the change is really from what we had previously, where the division was tasked with creating the high quality data products for use by the research community. The change now is we're now acting on the problems of natural and human induced climate change.

00:34:21:09 - 00:34:53:15
Speaker 3
We want to create products that are useful for decision support and disaster managers, so that influences the type of work type of investments that we make. So the initial Earth action focus areas were a series of white papers or put together by some of the headquarters managers and also the field centers over the summer introduced some ideas. So we have about a dozen of these white papers put together now.

00:34:53:15 - 00:35:30:16
Speaker 3
And these in these different areas. And the purpose is to really take a societal problem and focus the resources across those five elements that you saw on a specific problem. One example of this is the wildfire technology. So back in 2021, late 2021, we got direction from the ninth floor, all hands on deck from the White House that the government agencies involved with Earth Observation should direct resources toward the problem of wildland fire management.

00:35:32:01 - 00:36:06:20
Speaker 3
So from NASA's perspective, this was really the first Earth action activity that was launched by the division. So there was a technology piece that that Esther was leading. There's also a research and analysis piece and even contributions by the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate in terms of introducing new types of platforms. All of these are now under the management of a project called Fire Sense that's being led by Mike Fogg Koski out of Ames.

00:36:07:08 - 00:36:37:13
Speaker 3
So rather than having independent activities across the five elements, they're now coordinated under one project and with contributions being made for the budgets of those five elements. So this is what Karen is envisioning for some of these other activities as well. But fire science is really the first of the Earth action projects to be implemented. And then Ben also mentioned the Earth System Observatory.

00:36:37:13 - 00:37:09:00
Speaker 3
So in this case, those five four missions and they may have been some consolidation into for now would contribute to focusing around the science questions rather than the goal here is to remove some of the stovepipes that we have with individual missions and and combine the data from multiple missions to solve a specific science problem. But I want to point out, it's not just the NASA missions that are involved.

00:37:09:10 - 00:37:42:18
Speaker 3
We have a growing capability with the commercial sector. A lot of new products are being made available from companies like Planet and Power, and that's part of the extended what Karen calls the S0, plus the advantage with some of the commercial platforms is that they are tasked more. So we have the option of combining measurements or doing adaptive targeting to get some of the science questions that we want answered.

00:37:42:18 - 00:38:06:21
Speaker 3
The other thing I wanted to mention was there is a proposal in the works and we've been working on this model for several months now to to change the science team, make ups from from what they've done in the past to break this stovepipes around some of the the missions. So the existing model is on the left. The new model is on the right.

00:38:06:21 - 00:38:39:23
Speaker 3
It's called DART, which encompasses the data applications, research, and the T is technology. That's us. And so for the first time, as there will be part of the science teams for each individual mission and then for the integration, the integrated dart would be for centering around specific science problems. So there would be a science team identified for a science problem.

00:38:39:23 - 00:39:08:13
Speaker 3
Now why would you have a technologist on a science team for an existing mission like Nizar? The the advantage I see is that the technology arm of the agency will well understand the needs of the community better and we'll be able to plan for future missions. And so we're excited about this change. And I still working on the implementation details.

00:39:09:12 - 00:39:47:10
Speaker 3
This is, like I said, a work in progress. Okay. So that's a little bit about what's happening at the division level within Astro. We're happy because we're celebrating our 25th year in existence. We've had more than a thousand projects launched since 1998, and many of those projects have resulted in flight on missions, enabling missions. Many others have influenced the community, have resulted in a lot of research papers.

00:39:47:17 - 00:40:17:10
Speaker 3
Some have failed and we learn from failures. S2 is a place where failure is an option. And so this I think that the technology arm of the division is really what distinguishes us from the other agencies and what we're able to do. And so really push the bar forward. So we've got a web page which goes over the a lot of the missions that we've influenced.

00:40:17:10 - 00:40:47:11
Speaker 3
And I would encourage you to go to our our site and take a look at that. So our objectives are really to not only increase the capabilities of future missions, but very important is to reduce the cost. Our programs are designed to create to generate innovation from our field centers, from industry and from universities. And then we have to integrate the technology investments across the agency.

00:40:47:11 - 00:41:22:24
Speaker 3
We leverage other programs from, like the space Technology Mission Directorate, Nayak, SBIR, which is very important. We have a large investment in Earth science and SBIR, the game changing development program, the small satellite technology program, and the Space Technology Research Institute. All of these we're working together with the program managers of those programs to leverage those capabilities. And particularly, I think for this community, it's important for us to be working with SGMD.

00:41:22:24 - 00:42:14:14
Speaker 3
And I'll I'll get into just a minute. The field centers, the I read investments that are being made. We want alignment between these two investments and what's happening at the field centers and then other government agencies. And we are have we have collaborations ongoing with foreign entities when it's possible with IDR restrictions, sometimes that could be challenging. So our implementation approach we put together a couple of years ago this Earth Science Study Working Group with the change Administration, there was pressure put on the Space Technology Mission Directorate to work more closely with the Earth Science Division, which had not done previously, particularly in the early stage investments.

00:42:14:14 - 00:42:39:01
Speaker 3
So we're talking about investments in technology now for missions that wouldn't fly in the period 2030 to 2040. So we're really talking about beyond the current decadal as though cannot wait for educational survey to come out to determine where to make investments. We have to think for those 201, two and three investments, we have to think beyond the current decadal.

00:42:39:09 - 00:43:23:16
Speaker 3
And the way we do that is to engage with the community, with people like yourselves, working with the program managers at headquarters to look at both revolutionary end and evolutionary capabilities. And we don't do that by putting together a technology roadmap, as has been done in the past. What we really need is a science roadmap. We really need to understand what types of the science community would like but can't have and present, and then worry about how to to fill those technology gaps, you know, as we make the financial investments and the projects.

00:43:25:03 - 00:43:57:20
Speaker 3
So some examples of what we mean by revolutionary capabilities, you know, the transformational modeling going to digital twins or the replacement of some of the physical models with machine learning and artificial intelligence. This has been done over the past couple of years and we've seen, you know, 40,000 times speed up and some of the the atmospheric models. So with the with these types of capabilities, you know, there are step functions that we're seeing.

00:43:57:20 - 00:44:34:12
Speaker 3
And in some of the our ability to to perform research direct measurements of 3D and 4D coupled systems. So in June I, I test JPL to determine they're putting together a tomography study to determine what would, what types of technologies would be needed and what types of science applications would be would be beneficial. So they will probably be reaching out to many of you as we go forward.

00:44:34:12 - 00:45:05:04
Speaker 3
The use of multiple platforms or to get tomographic measurements requires investments in platform technologies, which S2 typically does not do we require investments from S TMD? And so we really need to understand what the science needs are to be reaching out and working with them, to get them funding, to be able to build those types of capabilities in calibration.

00:45:05:04 - 00:45:40:01
Speaker 3
Very important for especially as we work with the commercial sector and then adaptive targeting of measurements. Like I mentioned, we always map our current investments to the decadal that's currently active. And you can see you can go online and see where we have our projects and how we're aligned with the current digital. The Decadal Survey Incubation Program, which is most relevant for this community, is focusing on two areas.

00:45:40:01 - 00:46:08:00
Speaker 3
The planetary boundary layer and surface topography and vegetation. This is a result of a recommendation from the Decadal Survey to put those into a incubation group. And again, you're probably familiar with the goals. It's to link the science measurements to a long term need, even though there's not a mission identified. And then that last bullet is really look at the commercial opportunities.

00:46:08:00 - 00:46:53:02
Speaker 3
How can we leverage, how can we enable the private sector in and going forward with answering the science questions and we are aligned with the Weather and Atmospheric Dynamics Group in RNA and also the Earth's surface and interior group, the FY 21 solicitation for DSI was our first and it was joint with ANA. It produced 35 funded project, most of which were RNA projects, but six were targeted at technology development for the planetary boundary layer and surface topography and vegetation, and, and then just an overview of some of our programs.

00:46:53:11 - 00:47:31:23
Speaker 3
We are about $100 million investment per year in our projects. We go from component technologies to new instrument technologies. Our flagship program is our instrument instrument incubator program, which is roughly $30 million per year for information systems technology. And I see many of you familiar with that. And the new one that we added in the first solicitation in FY 21 is decadal incubation.

00:47:31:23 - 00:47:59:23
Speaker 3
The Wildland Fire Management Technology Program was started in the summer of 2022, and I mentioned that's aligned with the fire. The overarching Fire Sense Earth Action Project. We also have the Airborne Instrument Technology Transition Program. That funding comes from RNA to mature instruments and an airborne platform. And the other area where we're making new investments is in quantum sensing.

00:47:59:23 - 00:48:46:14
Speaker 3
So quantum sensing, apart from the semi classical techniques of light, our quantum sensing which focuses on measurements through entanglement or superposition, we now have secured some esteemed funding to begin a quantum sensing institute, which will be a five year activity, to look at earth science applications that might make use of of this type of technology. And it's also public knowledge now that we are in pre formulation of a technology demonstration mission for a quantum gravity radiometer, which we hope to fly early in the next decade.

00:48:47:22 - 00:49:27:15
Speaker 3
And again, this is looking at transfer missional capability. So not only will the gravity guarantee gravy ometer answer the today's questions, but which grace can do. But address new questions that we can't do with grace, such as the the assumed static adjustment of land after the glaciers move off the surface. So this is why it's important for us to understand the long term needs of of your community so we can begin making these types of investments.

00:49:28:17 - 00:49:36:13
Speaker 3
And I think that's all ahead. Thank you very much.

00:49:36:13 - 00:49:37:13
Speaker 1
Seems like somebody.

00:49:37:22 - 00:49:38:04
Speaker 2
Is up.

00:49:38:04 - 00:50:00:09
Speaker 1
Here. I just want to let you know, we will address questions at the end of the next two talks before the break. I'd like to do our best to get back on schedule, but I also want to have fruitful conversations. And in just to mention partly to address one of the questions we plan. The team is going to be working on Thursday to put together a set of findings from the workshop.

00:50:00:19 - 00:50:18:06
Speaker 1
So we're not going to make a workshop report that takes months to finish, but we are going to get findings together. So be thinking of that as you're participating in the meeting, in the breakouts, that this is very important. Let's see, Bill, your turn and on the right side. Right.

00:50:20:01 - 00:50:57:06
Speaker 4
Thanks, Will. Thank you for inviting me to this meeting. I'm hoping to learn a lot in the next couple of days about this program, which is of great interest to me. I was assigned this title, National Academies perspective on the old survey. I modified it to represent the fact that it's a protected perspective from a member of the National Academy Decadal Survey and the Decadal Mid-term Review Committee.

00:50:57:06 - 00:51:27:02
Speaker 4
So I'm also serving on that and I'm a committed tomahawk. Now there are four topics I'm going to cover a brief summary of the Decadal Survey recommendations status of the execution of the Decadal Survey by NASA. The midterm committee tasks, and some comments about the SB education program. Here's the title that you see now a couple of times of the decadal Survey.

00:51:28:11 - 00:52:02:00
Speaker 4
Here's the committee that you might be interested in who's on there? And Helen's in the back there. She actually played an important role to in getting a study into existence of what we were asked to do. Well, assess the progress in 2007, develop potential lists of top level science and application objectives. Identify gaps in the program of record and recommend approaches to development of robust etc. program earth observations.

00:52:02:04 - 00:52:29:13
Speaker 4
We also were asked to comment on the agency level come the concerns is listed there and very quick summary of the recommendations. The vision and strategy I want to emphasize is word thriving in on the changing planet. We had a long discussion about the direction that we could recommend and what you saw. What we emphasized was the need to get the data being collected into the hands of users.

00:52:29:22 - 00:52:55:05
Speaker 4
And I think that we see that implemented in the comments that have preceded this this presentation the second is that we collected a lot of observations and we addressed 35 key science application questions from hundreds from requests for information that were suggested. And these broke down to the six categories that you can see there of coupling water and energy cycles.

00:52:55:05 - 00:53:30:14
Speaker 4
It ecosystems, whether in air quality, sea level rise, reducing climate uncertainty and surface dynamics. The observations were put forward or were to augment the program of record with eight priority observables. The five that are listed there are aerosols, clouds, clouds, convection, mass change, surface biology in geology, surface defamation and change, and then three others to be selected competitively from among seven candidates that we listed.

00:53:30:23 - 00:53:55:10
Speaker 4
And then I'm highlighting here structure new now submission program elements to accomplish this, which I'll talk about next. And then we also commented on the various aspects of the programs of NASA, NOA and USGS. I think this is one of the key sites that help you understand the context of this. So regarding the program, a record we emphasize should be completed as planned.

00:53:56:10 - 00:54:27:10
Speaker 4
And the and then we moved on to say, here are four recommendations. What is the designator you've this term now designated is a new program introduced in this decadal survey to that was cost capped at medium to large sized missions to address observed goals essentially of the overall program. Then we suggested an Earth System Explorer, a new program element involving competitive opportunities for medium sized instruments and missions.

00:54:28:17 - 00:54:53:02
Speaker 4
And the and this is important promotes competition among priorities that was the idea here we're talking now about the incubation and new program focus on investment for priority observation opportunities. Investment in innovation for the future is what we focus on here. We're really concerned about good keeping innovation part of the program and then the venture class that was recommended for the previous Decadal Survey.

00:54:53:11 - 00:55:19:23
Speaker 4
We suggested a venture continuity with the idea that opportunity of that could may be maintained by low cost sustained observations. So this was a idea to expand the venture concept. You've seen these tables, I suspect, so. I won't read all to you. But this was how we classified, targeted, observable and then as to whether they would be considered designate or not, that is something that NASA's should focus on developing.

00:55:20:04 - 00:56:02:18
Speaker 4
So you see the five list there that I'm sure you're all familiar with. Then there was a list of seven topics that we could we recommended could be competed for by the Explorer class that we ranging from greenhouse gases, sea elevation, ocean surface ocean, ozone, trace gases, no depth, terrestrial ecosystems and atmospheric winds. And then here I've highlighted that in the end there are two planets, two intubations that were that move forward, the planetary battery layer, and then the surface topography and vegetation, which is why we're here.

00:56:03:18 - 00:56:28:00
Speaker 4
I want to emphasize why you're here. And the emphasis was on innovation. The committee sends the tension between achieving the critical objectives and continuing to have innovation in the program all within a decade of a framework. So this is why we propose the Earth System Explorer and the incubation and modification of the venture program to keep the innovation flowing.

00:56:28:11 - 00:56:53:19
Speaker 4
And so I highlighted here again the infusion of resources in an incubation element for developing needed capacity for beyond the next decade. And this is a quote from the survey. The recommended sustain program will make possible development of capabilities that are difficult to achieve through one off competitive calls, some of the long sought by managers. So you can see the motivation for the innovations in here.

00:56:54:09 - 00:57:35:09
Speaker 4
We also commented on programmatic, so we actually suggested program decision rules about how to weigh the problems of balance of of primary objectives and innovation. And course, there was suggestions about application in technology programs, a reevaluation of infrastructure. And this came up throughout the whole program, avoiding cost growth, was it? We were very concerned about that. And I come back again to the idea that the targeted observable in the incubation program element is a coordinated program, so that it really saw it go across technology, research, modeling and data systems throughout.

00:57:36:06 - 00:58:11:11
Speaker 4
And here we are with the program under way. No, I'm I'm going to use some science that director Karen Jane Germain excuse me gave to our mid-term review. And I'm going to show you later that all the presentations that we received are publicly available. And you can look at them and I encourage you to look at them. This is her introductory slides saying that how she she's approaching the program of record the implement that the designated observables and explorers and again you can see what was said earlier today emphasis on getting the societal benefit.

00:58:12:14 - 00:58:43:23
Speaker 4
Here's what was posted by her on the incubation program. And I was just the previous speaker has highlighted the efforts in way the 35 selected programs etc. and I know many of you are involved and so here you are. It's moving forward and here we are at the meeting. So what the to this may have some that in response to the decadal survey suggested have a designated observable NASA decided to create an earth system observing system.

00:58:44:18 - 00:59:12:21
Speaker 4
And as line is shown here the two designated variables of clouds, convection, precipitation, aerosols were combined into an atmospheric observing system. And then you see the surface biology, surface biology and geology, surface definition change in mass change and the estimated total investment. This is the status of those programs. The AOC or the atmospheric observing system is moving forward.

00:59:13:06 - 00:59:41:19
Speaker 4
The surface biology and geology is moving forward. Grace continuity is moving forward, and the surface definition change has been delayed in part because of delay and nice saw, which is only going to be launched in 2024. And so it's really more in a stunning phase. Here is a comment about the Earth System Explorer program. As as you as I know, people in this room are involved and it's underway.

00:59:41:19 - 01:00:12:14
Speaker 4
The competition proposals have come in and selection is underway. So the suggestion by the Decadal Survey is being pursued. I hope to the advantage of Sgv also it should be mentioned the Landsat next program. So it's a follow up event, says eight and nine, and it's a big change that the USGS is keen to have happen where there's going to be twice as many spectral bands with resolution improved by a factor two and with be coverage of Landsat eight and nine combined.

01:00:13:02 - 01:00:51:01
Speaker 4
So this is a significant change in the mindset program and one that the USGS is quite keen about now. This is something also I recommend to you. This is the the there was a call for an independent review of the Earth System Observatory in terms of what it was accomplishing. And there's a document you can download and read that gives a summary presentation of, of or some report of the status of the conversion of the designated examples into an Earth and service system and how well that's working.

01:00:51:15 - 01:01:25:13
Speaker 4
I think this is kind of a nerdy slide budget, but it really matters in terms of how the Decadal Survey perceive things and what's happened the decade the survey saw. This graph shows its costs in per year of program. The shaded area was the program of record, the color patterns record, the anticipated arrival of the different designated observables of the earth systems, explorers of the incubation and the venture continuity.

01:01:25:13 - 01:01:59:12
Speaker 4
And the idea was to as the wedge of the program record declines, the the new programs would be inserted but the goal was to be declining. So the next survey is not mostly dealing with program record legacies. So there was a this is a concerted effort to stay within the bounds of the budget now. So you get some idea what this was conceived as is that of the five it was proposed designated observables two would be the sort of 800 million costs.

01:01:59:24 - 01:02:22:23
Speaker 4
And then you see the successfully the lesser cost of three of them, 655 and 300. The explore of that concept would be three of them at about 350 million to venture continuity and then the $20 million a year of incubation. This was how we can see the budget. Well, you're going to you as you I think once you know, all costs exceeded, missions were delayed and mission numbers were reduced.

01:02:24:04 - 01:02:52:11
Speaker 4
Here is what the perceived at the time. Decadal Survey expected budgetary change would be in the blue line. The actual was a gray. And then we see here the president's budgets for 24 which I don't even know if we have a budget and a few days from now. So the point is that there was less allocated than was we thought would be if the Decadal Survey by almost $1,000,000,000 and the time period if why 28 to 23.

01:02:53:16 - 01:03:22:11
Speaker 4
So what is the cause was an assessment of the limit how budgets have affected what can get done. And this is a summary slide from director Germain that says that the the, the budget growth that that did occur or the impact the budget growth 1.7 excuse me, in the Landsat budget assumptions for 50, the COVID cost was estimated 300 million technological changes to 50.

01:03:22:20 - 01:04:01:02
Speaker 4
Our cost estimate optimism, record inflation 500. So $3.2 billion. So this was a large increase in cost not anticipated by the Decadal Survey, caused by things that no one can have any control on COVID 19 to other problems. So then we have the mid-term review of, of the the 2017 Decadal Survey and we've been assigned seven tasks which include the following assess the degree to which the programs NASA and knowing the USGS address the strategies, goals and priorities outlined in 2017 Decadal Survey.

01:04:01:17 - 01:04:37:05
Speaker 4
So where where has it gotten up to now? Recommend actions that could be taken to optimize the full breadth of NASA's Earth Science Program during the remaining decadal interval, and then finally recommend any actions that NASA, Noah and the USGS should undertake to prepare for the next decade, including information observable pathfinder's technology. I've highlighted yellow here because it's a very about sgv is what with this how can study program be forthcoming and then decadal Survey.

01:04:38:10 - 01:05:04:24
Speaker 4
This is the composition of the mid term and crew sorry, mid-term review committee and this is another more important slide. Those two links give you full access to the public presentations by many different groups that I really encourage you to look at. There's an excellent there's many really good presentations there. The top one is a fully recorded sessions.

01:05:04:24 - 01:05:31:05
Speaker 4
We had and the lower one oh sorry. The top one is the slide and lower winds. The video. I encourage you to go to these web pages and see reports from NOA USGS, NASA's various task groups. It's quite instructive. So let me talk about some general issues, then mention the public presentations for review and I'm not going to talk about even suggest any findings or perspectives.

01:05:31:05 - 01:06:15:04
Speaker 4
I mean, peer review has this point, but I can talk about we saw and what you would see came up. I've already mentioned this budget. As already mentioned, the budget was stressed by unanticipated costs. This is part of the responsible for the delay in my schedule and increase mission costs. This is what it looks like right now. Here are the designated observable missions and you see the dates are all moved into the next decade or survey period and you'll see the estimated costs which are higher than than we estimated and you'll see that there's four that have that are well on their way and development to expected launch this time and then with the surface

01:06:15:04 - 01:06:44:19
Speaker 4
definition changed the delay the nicer launch and now there's still a selection process that will move whatever happens after nice so we're in the next decade the continuity program has and is underway through the two projects. There's a commitment to the grace continuity and there's a commitment to launch it next. So that's happening with the costs associated with that.

01:06:45:09 - 01:07:14:10
Speaker 4
Then in innovation, well, you're here. Sgv is underway. The the as I understand there's been there'll be four Explorer missions selected to step one. And by this third quarter of 2024, eventually down to two launch missions in 2029 and 2031. That's what I understand to be the case. Many of you were involved. I think this is approximately correct.

01:07:14:19 - 01:07:43:13
Speaker 4
And so the I know this is important to all of you about what might be much. And then two other issues that came up that are have already been mentioned is the importance of international partners. And this has been a we've heard you'll hear it if you go to the talks repeated by many. What's the status of NASA's program versus particularly ESA on different programs?

01:07:44:00 - 01:08:18:03
Speaker 4
And then the commercial resources? Are the commercial capabilities actually effectively being incorporated into ideas in this program? Are they being in any way incorporated in the designated observables? So those are the issues that we have. We've you will see in those presentations now as TV considerations for the next decade of survey. I suggest for and of that I would be very keen to hear comments on at this meeting.

01:08:18:04 - 01:08:49:20
Speaker 4
One How will the pace and and continuance of the Explorer Mission's launches impact the arrival of an equivalent of an SUV, doesn't it? Miserable, as you can tell, I'm not emissions purple. This is written in English and with no acronyms. So I got a SUV in there. So what I'm saying is I understand from Washington, from a decade old survey perspective, there's less Explorer emissions than anticipated.

01:08:50:04 - 01:09:14:04
Speaker 4
And it's a broad it's the competition's broader than just the seven observables. What's the consequences how dependent and getting to ready for a deal in the next technical survey. Are you going to be on getting success with these Explorer missions and what are the consequences of that? The second that was a term that was raised a lot. The Decadal Survey is considered a flagship, which is the word for it costs a lot.

01:09:15:08 - 01:09:39:00
Speaker 4
Is there a possibility that successful SUV have zero or could become a continuity mission? This is another concern I heard and you will hear if you go to videos of the continuity. The world is changing fast and people say, can we just make measurements every once in a while and still get the story die and are saying no, things are happening too fast.

01:09:39:08 - 01:10:06:00
Speaker 4
And so the pressure to continuity is significant, but it means there's less money for other things. And so is there is is has to be a continuity potentially or not. And another question that could come up is, can one mission meet all the goals of the five self-defined SUV fields? The third is that the dedicated I'm sorry, the Decadal Survey emphasized international partnerships reduce the mission cost.

01:10:06:08 - 01:10:31:00
Speaker 4
And what I would like to hear are specific collaborations, coordination within space industries that can be identified here, because it's is raised as an issue, but it's not very specific as well, how that could play into a successful development video. And then finally, as always and I know discussed in 2021, is what is anticipated to be the useful capabilities in the commercial sector.

01:10:31:12 - 01:10:47:06
Speaker 4
So I don't suggest this is an inclusive list, but these are ones that I saw emerging in listening to the presentations that are publicly available to you. Thank you.

01:10:53:04 - 01:11:01:12
Speaker 1
Thanks a lot. Again, we'll move on. We'll have Joe Breen tell us how to get from science to an observing system.

01:11:02:02 - 01:11:03:06
Speaker 2
So we.

01:11:03:06 - 01:11:27:04
Speaker 1
Do. Thank you. And then we'll do a couple of quick questions and move to the break. And before the break, that word get back on set. Sorry. Joe Green and Mark Steffen are the architecture leads from JPL in Goddard Space Flight Center.

01:11:27:04 - 01:11:57:15
Speaker 3
Thank you, Andrea. So I'm Andrea Green. This marks the so we hope to help guide this process as we want to move from from incubation into a full fledged mission someday. So let's just talk about what what does that mean then in NASA's speak. So we're we're in a the effectively pre phase, a kind of incubation here. And it's going to take a little time and we'll get to that.

01:11:58:17 - 01:12:17:19
Speaker 3
But as you go forward, you go from from you know, from our pre formulation, we're trying to figure out what we're going to do. Our going to it to to more robust concept development where where we have to mature our technologies and and eventually design something that we're going to fly maybe multiple things are going to fly, including ground.

01:12:17:19 - 01:12:18:13
Speaker 2
System, planning.

01:12:18:13 - 01:12:22:17
Speaker 3
System and all the processing to provide robust science.

01:12:22:17 - 01:12:23:04
Speaker 2
Products.

01:12:23:22 - 01:12:57:14
Speaker 3
In the mapping the center logical space. This is the same view of the timeline for mission submissions, but you can see that goes into flight projects is quite a lot of reviews and processes to ensure we're going to be a successful mission. So as we as we look towards where the decade old fits into this in 2027, we have to have the community here, a number of white papers, things that motivate why these science measurements are important.

01:12:57:19 - 01:13:01:01
Speaker 3
The value and concepts.

01:13:01:01 - 01:13:01:16
Speaker 2
Concepts.

01:13:01:16 - 01:13:36:21
Speaker 3
That can be responsive to those needs that are credible. And I looked at the Cato insight in terms of whether we got our timing right. This is our best guess of what we think would be a approximation of the timeline. So I haven't heard and see a big objection there. So so that's good. And if we're successful in the digital process as they review the, the, the spectrum of inputs from everybody we like to see that indicated and observables come out of that.

01:13:37:04 - 01:14:09:09
Speaker 3
They recommend we go forward towards the mission and we'll have a mission concept review of after after we do our formulation. And that's basically a gate implementation and it takes time, takes a long time sometimes. And so sort of a we would guess as a sort of medium timeline as is about 20, 2035 launch and five notional five year program of collecting data and then perhaps even longer for close out beyond that after the mission timeline is done.

01:14:09:18 - 01:14:35:07
Speaker 3
If we haven't gotten through all that, all the product development with the bottom here I'm showing the past decade all reports are and we you know we have a recommendation for the the cover art for the 2027 decadal in the year that the decade of Craig Sprague.

01:14:35:07 - 01:14:36:21
Speaker 2
So do we need what we would.

01:14:37:02 - 01:14:46:21
Speaker 3
What should we focus on? We need a thread science traceability matrix. We really want to see how how to source terms, how do the how do the features.

01:14:46:21 - 01:14:48:17
Speaker 2
How do how do all these things.

01:14:49:03 - 01:15:33:22
Speaker 3
That are that are laid out in a nice report that have all these threads in them, how did how did they actually present themselves? How do those trace to measurements that inform the science models that are that you're hoping to to inform and the uncertainty that goes with that and ultimately how are these things validated? And so with your current studies or airborne work, other measurements that I think we're going to be in a great place to lay a strong foundation for the same time, you know, the instruments that that we think we can deploy, the models, the houses, the things that show this comes together as a as an actual durable measurement from from

01:15:34:02 - 01:16:06:07
Speaker 3
remote sensing that that's doable, including the concept that there's a completeness to the measurement that achieves total Earth's surface topography or completion and time to make measurements necessary to understand processes. And of course, this has to trade all the different concepts that we have, you know, between the technology approaches and where we need to go in a is someone who wants to help balance the risk, balance the, the, the, the value.

01:16:06:07 - 01:16:33:07
Speaker 3
I want to know what value each thread has ultimately to the science, what risk goes with that thread and, and like that to put 30% of the resources into it into a thread that's that has a very narrow value. So, so as we optimize for, for a finite budget, for, for a mission. So those are things we'll have to all come together.

01:16:33:07 - 01:16:56:04
Speaker 3
And, you know, in the study report, of course, they they came up with measurement needs, ambitious ones and ones that are just at a threshold, you know, like we'd like to see that updated and, and have that broken down a little bit more fine scale. As far as Mark, we'll talk about the technology.

01:16:56:04 - 01:16:56:24
Speaker 2
Readiness as we.

01:16:56:24 - 01:17:23:06
Speaker 3
Want to move on to know future concepts. But I also just want to throw in that that the ground development is going to be a major activity as part of this integrating sensor data, having robust automatic products as we talk about very high resolution, full coverage of the Earth, that's a lot of data and it's a lot to manage and we want to make sure it gets high quality, robust, reliable products that are that are disseminated to the community.

01:17:24:09 - 01:17:51:15
Speaker 3
And there's an optimization problem that's stuff that we like to do where we think about the deployment space segments, how we operate them, how we fly them and their processing chain. And it's a core optimization of those things to have products. And just just one element of that to think about is when you think about space based imaging, this, this is every sun synchronous low earth orbit available.

01:17:51:22 - 01:17:53:23
Speaker 3
If you if you're interstellar and being.

01:17:53:23 - 01:17:54:21
Speaker 2
Sun synchronous which.

01:17:55:21 - 01:18:12:16
Speaker 3
For imaging is important, less and less important for radar and radar and lighter. And as you choose to be sun synchronous, as you play with altitude, you'll find that there different cadences and and you can find yourself on repeat the daily daily but.

01:18:13:04 - 01:18:14:04
Speaker 2
We will have very sparse.

01:18:14:04 - 01:18:37:04
Speaker 3
Coverage of the world you're going to overfly specific brown tracks and you get very high density repeats that you possess and you're never over the same place very often. Maybe 45 days. So just one of those many trades as we think about where we fly and that couples into how big of a sensor the higher flight, the more power you need, the bigger the aperture, the antenna.

01:18:37:20 - 01:19:11:22
Speaker 3
So those things come together and you want to maximize the return on what you're going to fly it on the mark now and talk about technology readiness. I think so. I'm sure many of you are familiar with this. But but for for those who aren't, NASA's uses technology readiness levels to assess, you know, where along the development phase different technologies are and how they are for space implementation.

01:19:13:05 - 01:19:44:12
Speaker 3
The basic scale goes from TRL one, which is kind of an idea at its inception point up to TRL nine, which is the, you know, basically has flown successfully in space. So and then kind of along the way, just a couple other critical points. TRL four is basically a lab demonstration of the of the system. And what we define as the system can can change a little bit.

01:19:44:12 - 01:20:16:18
Speaker 3
I'll get into that in a minute. One other critical part is, TRL six, which is basically space qualified technology. So it hasn't flown yet, but it's gone through all the tests that show that it should survive in orbit. So the reason I bring this up is that, you know, right now we're in incubation, which means we should be developing the technologies for the for the next decade.

01:20:17:03 - 01:20:45:18
Speaker 3
And in order to to be ready, we have to have. Well, one one of the things that, you know, NASA's rules is that basically by a mission, preliminary design review, you have to have all your technologies at TRL six. So you basically have to have that demonstrated. And so, Joe kind of showed the timeline. So if we're going to start and earlier we showed that, you know, we're going to be developing white papers.

01:20:46:01 - 01:21:12:24
Speaker 3
So if we want to get the designated observable into the next decade survey for US TV, we have to show that, you know, we can the technologies will sort of meet these timelines of being at TRL six by the time they need to get implemented and built. So those are just of some critical things. Later, we'll we'll talk a little bit about where technologies are.

01:21:14:05 - 01:21:54:03
Speaker 3
You know, so there still are time for less mature technologies to be matured by the time we get to those missions. There's also some opportunities for things like Earth venture that that we could either use to to mature the technologies or where we could implement more mature technologies while we're developing newer technologies. So, you know, but I think in order to meet the challenges of STV in that for the 2027 Decadal Survey, technology maturation is going to have to be a big part of it and.

01:21:54:03 - 01:22:28:09
Speaker 3
Understanding the gaps between current technologies and the science desires, trying to match those up and then really have some targeted technology development so that, you know, we're ready when, when it's time. So, so then just, you know, one other thing. As we showed the Decadal Survey for 2027 shows that, you know, maybe we'd be launching another mission by by the mid 2030s.

01:22:30:02 - 01:23:05:06
Speaker 3
You know, for some of us that sounds like a pretty far out. So just to let you know there are other opportunities along the way. So we're we're not you know, that doesn't mean you know, I just want to encourage people that if you just like 20, 35, that's so far out, like, what am I doing here? You know, I think trying to to have a full program where we have earlier programs and then, you know, have a real STV mission is, is also important.

01:23:05:06 - 01:23:32:16
Speaker 3
So there's, so there's other opportunities to try to get some of these measurements along the way and inform what, what that STV ultimate mission finally looks like. So okay. So then what are the steps for? You know, mostly this meeting and beyond is, you know, trying to understand the science needs and mature those into kind of a concise story.

01:23:33:03 - 01:24:02:01
Speaker 3
And then also advance the maturity of the, of the approaches and then be sure those two things link up and then look for additional opportunities. And, and one thing we've mentioned, I'm somewhat involved in the PBL. I'll say I think there's not a lot of a lot of people in the study community aren't looking that hard at the PBL, but the.

01:24:02:10 - 01:24:03:06
Speaker 2
Public health.

01:24:03:06 - 01:24:29:13
Speaker 3
Community is looking very hard at what STV products are going to provide. So I think one thing that oh sorry, PBL is planetary boundary layer. So defining the surface can be really important for people who are trying to look at the lowest layer of the atmosphere. And so it's I just think there's there's room for us to actually use that.

01:24:30:04 - 01:24:56:16
Speaker 3
The fact that the planetary boundary layer folks really would like to look at our data products in order to in to inform what they're working on. So there I think there's room for synergy. I mean STV is kind of complicated enough on its own but, but just something to kind of keep in the back of our mind. It might be extra justification making those designated observables.

01:24:58:05 - 01:25:11:16
Speaker 3
And then as has been mentioned before, you know, trying to look at both nascent and commercial architectures, what capabilities are and then how do we, you know, merge those best into an observing system.

01:25:11:22 - 01:25:43:05
Speaker 1
So, so much and we've managed to regain 5 minutes. We'll shorten your break. But I do want to go to some questions. We're going to starting the chat, John. They'll ask one question I have is to what extent is Asia machine learning? To what extent will AI and machine learning be a part of the anticipated STV activities? I anticipate them to be high pre.

01:25:43:05 - 01:26:00:12
Speaker 1
You can go on your answer questions to if you'd like. So as I said, we have a lot of data volumes we're going to need to do automated classification and detection and improve our processing algorithms. So I think it's going to be extremely important. So that was implicit what I said, but not explicit below. Did you want to add anything to that?

01:26:01:14 - 01:26:02:03
Speaker 2
Of course.

01:26:03:07 - 01:26:06:01
Speaker 3
But I think it's also important for data fusion as well.

01:26:06:12 - 01:26:21:10
Speaker 1
Excellent. Yeah, I agree. And The second question is, how is NASA incorporating the recommendations from the other federal agencies through the satellite meets working group? We're going to pass that one off. The been.

01:26:21:10 - 01:26:40:02
Speaker 2
Yeah so well certainly you know we we see that in our in partnership this is really important we did have participants from other agencies involved in the study phase as well as early funding teams. And that's I want to tell you.

01:26:41:03 - 01:26:42:13
Speaker 3
We also did a.

01:26:42:13 - 01:27:26:24
Speaker 2
Crosswalk directly with the satellite. It's working with requests from response rounds. And there are a number of once for USGS, you know, we see email. So we funded the points of contact. So those requests sort of influence or participate in a certain means. So it's important to promote the objectives and to speak the truth.

01:27:27:02 - 01:27:29:15
Speaker 3
So so yeah, we're cognizant of that.

01:27:30:18 - 01:27:46:14
Speaker 2
The satellite needs to process and some of independent use our prioritization budgeting process. We simply want to see construction.

01:27:46:14 - 01:28:16:23
Speaker 1
Thank you. Are there any questions you can share or any questions in the room for discussion before we move? We'll have time at the end of the day for a lot more discussion. So keep thinking of them on your agenda. I want to point out, in addition to our findings, once this meeting open and I have time to read a proposal will propose an Earth Science Journal special Earth and Space Science Special talking about volume for so that we can have a collection of all TV related work.

01:28:18:00 - 01:28:35:22
Speaker 1
So you want to communicate this every way possible. There will be an interview session on Monday that if this year and there is an eight hour session that people can submit to, we invited speakers to.