U S Government Accountability Office

Environmental Satellites U S Government Accountability Office

Environmental satellites providedata on the earth and its spaceenvironment that are used forforecasting the weather, measuringvariations in climate over time, andpredicting space weather. Inplanning for the next generation ofthese satellites, federal agenciesoriginally sought to fulfill weather, climate, and space weatherrequirements. However, in 2006, federal agencies restructured twokey satellite acquisitions, theNational Polar-orbiting OperationalEnvironmental Satellite System(NPOESS) and the GeostationaryOperational EnvironmentalSatellite-R series (GOES-R). Thisinvolved removing key climate andspace weather instruments. GAO was asked to (1) assess plansfor restoring the capabilities thatwere removed from the two keysatellite acquisitions, (2) evaluatefederal efforts to establish astrategy for the long-term provisionof satellite-provided climate data, and (3) evaluate federal efforts toestablish a strategy for the longtermprovision of satellite-providedspace weather data. To do so, GAOanalyzed agency plans and repor