A group of scientists known as Medea will work with government officials in targeting areas for study and deciding what images might be useful to science. Medea, or the Measurements of Earth Data for Environmental Analysis, is led by Scripps geophysicist Gordon MacDonald. He was in Europe and could not be reached for comment on this article.
Sandwell says the radar and Medea efforts reflect an increasing interest in using satellite maps to understand problems on the ground. He expressed hope that the techniques will be viewed more often by scientists as a standard investigative tool. To understand the Earth truly, sometimes you have to step back and understand all the aspect of Earth — clouds, geology, oceans and chemistry. People now want to look with higher resolution and do things with more precise measurements.
The TRW-built Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer-Earth Probe (TOMS-EP), the first satellite dedicated to mapping the Earth’s ozone layer, is scheduled for launch vary soon. Once in orbit, the satellite will allow NASA to resume its long-term program of daily, space-based mapping of the global distribution of the Earth’s ozone layer, a process critical to monitoring the Earth’s environmental health.