NASA turns focus on planet Earth

LOS ANGELES — After decades of gazing into space, NASA is turning its technology back toward Earth to study the effects of drought, fire and climate change on the Blue Planet.

At the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge last Thursday, scientists and state officials gathered to discuss how satellite data, 3D imaging and new radar and laser technologies can provide invaluable insights into Earth’s rapidly changing systems.

Some said the meeting marked a sea change for previously siloed agencies, and underscored the need to work together to solve the climate crisis.

“I don’t want to be overly dramatic, but in truth, this discussion is about saving our planet,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told the group of attendees, which included Earth and space scientists from NASA and JPL, local congressional representatives and California environmental secretaries Wade Crowfoot and Jared Blumenfeld.

Upcoming Earth-centric missions will provide a more precise look at “everything that’s happening” with the oceans, the land and the atmosphere than ever before, Nelson said. Among the big-ticket items were new tools to measure snowpack and groundwater, satellites to monitor methane emissions and remote sensing assets to assess the impact of hazards such as wildfires, earthquakes and mudslides.

“We’re facing an existential crisis on this planet,” said Crowfoot, the state’s natural resources secretary. “These challenges are intense. … But there’s no better place than California to do this work, because we understand the gravity of the threat.”

The meeting between California and federal officials was a far cry from 2018, when — frustrated by the Trump administration’s efforts to scuttle climate research — then-Gov. Jerry Brown insisted that California would launch “our own damn satellite, to figure out where the pollution is and how are we going to end it.”

Now, three years later, Californians need only look out their windows to get a sense of what scientists can observe from above. Wildfires are burning record acreage across the West, while worsening drought is draining the region’s water supplies to unseen levels. The state also recorded its hottest summer ever in 2021.

Many at the meeting hoped NASA and JPL’s findings would help combat global warming by informing decision-makers as they determine the best paths forward.

“It’s really a game changer to be able to have this data,” NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy said, noting that the U.S. can also lead the rest of the world in utilizing the same tools. “Because we’ll never solve climate change until everybody is a participant.”

Many of the projects have been in development for years, but a recent memorandum of understanding between the state and JPL helped get additional projects off the ground, Crowfoot said — including critical items focused on water resiliency. The Western U.S. in recent months has seen such severe drought conditions that officials closed Lake Oroville’s hydroelectric power plant for the first time and declared the first-ever water shortage on the Colorado River, among other actions.

One new web-based platform, OpenET, will provide satellite-based information on evapotranspiration, the process through which water leaves plants, soils and other surfaces, which could help state officials understand water usage in agricultural areas and assist farmers with precision irrigation.

“As states, we do our best to manage this resource of water, but we’re never going to do it with the sophistication we need to without partners like NASA,” Crowfoot said, adding that the agency could be the “tip of the spear” when it comes to combating climate change.

Other water-related items include surface water and ocean topography tools known as SWOT that will contribute to NASA’s first-ever global survey of the Earth’s surface water. Every 21 days, SWOT will survey almost 600,000 miles of global rivers at least twice, aiding drought forecasters and hazardous-flood preparations, officials said. It is set to launch in 2022.