This PDF file contains the front matter associated with SPIE Proceedings Volume 7151, including the Title Page, Copyright information, Table of Contents, Introduction, the Conference and Symposium Committees listings, some abstracts and a powerpoint presentation.

The Group on Earth Observations (GEO) is driving a paradigm shift in the Earth Observation community, refocusing Earth observing systems on GEO Societal Benefit Areas (SBA). Over the short history of space-based Earth observing systems most decisions have been made based on improving our scientific understanding of the Earth with the implicit assumption that this would serve society well in the long run. The space agencies responsible for developing the satellites used for global Earth observations are typically science driven. The innovation of GEO is the call for investments by space agencies to be driven by global societal needs. This paper presents the preliminary findings of an analysis focused on the observational requirements of the GEO Energy SBA. The analysis was performed by the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) Systems Engineering Office (SEO) which is responsible for facilitating the development of implementation plans that have the maximum potential for success while optimizing the benefit to society. The analysis utilizes a new taxonomy for organizing requirements, assesses the current gaps in spacebased measurements and missions, assesses the impact of the current and planned space-based missions, and presents a set of recommendations.

The U.S. GCOS Program [http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/usgcos/index.htm htm] at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) [http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov] is involved in working to implement a sustainable and robust GCOS observing network for international atmospheric, oceanographic, and terrestrial climate observing. The U.S. GCOS support philosophy is based upon a three-tiered approach involving a series of international, regional, and bi-lateral project efforts. One of the most active and important areas of involvement is in the Pacific Ocean region where we leverage support for this via formal climate bilateral agreements that the U.S. has with both Australia and New Zealand. NCDC and the U.S. GCOS Program Manager serve as the NOAA and U.S. lead on these bilateral climate agreements. This paper will describe the efforts undertaken in the Pacific region towards developing a more sustainable and robust GCOS observing ground-based network for atmospheric, oceanographic, and terrestrial climate observing in the region. The paper will describe the actions to date, plans for the future, and how the efforts to date such as the establishment of a virtual Regional Climate Center for the region in order to, among other things, work towards improving data availability and access for and from the nations in the region in order to improve climate services across the region. NCDC is also interested in developing partnerships for installing U.S. Climate Reference Network [see http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/crn] equipment to be part of a global long-term climate reference network for improving climate information from more data sparse tropical and high-elevation areas. In order to properly document this, a full description of the overall climate observations program in the U.S. is required.

Satellite infrared hyperspectral instruments provide atmospheric soundings with high spatial resolution. Already implemented aboard polar orbiting satellites, these instruments have provided data that are proving to improve greatly global Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP). When implemented aboard geostationary satellites as imaging spectrometers, even greater impacts on global NWP are expected from their capability to observe vertically resolved cloud and water vapor tracer winds. Possibly most important, geostationary imaging spectrometry will enable much improved mesoscale severe weather prediction because of the ability to observe atmospheric dynamics through nearcontinuous observation of the three dimensional water vapor and temperature distribution of the atmosphere. Furthermore, hyperspectral measurements of greenhouse and pollutant gas fluxes from geostationary orbit are expected to be an important ingredient for understanding climate change and producing timely air quality forecasts. In this paper, the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), recent improvements in the satellite observing system, and the importance and expected benefits of geostationary satellite imaging spectrometry for the GEOSS are discussed. Demonstration of a few of the expected measurement capabilities of these systems is provided from experimental aircraft and satellite measurements. Finally, the status of the development of the geostationary satellite imaging spectrometer is provided.

ADEOS II was launched on Dec. 2002. However, after about 10 months operation, it has lost most of its power due to the solar paddle failure. As a follow on of ADEOS II mission, JAXA is now planning GCOM mission which is composed of a series of satellites. They are now called GCOM-W and GCOM-C satellites. Both satellites are composed of 3 satellites with 5 year lifetime. Hence, 13 years of continuous observation can be assured with 1 year overlaps. The first satellite of GCOM-W will be launched in fiscal 2011 while the first one of GCOM-C will be launched in fiscal 2013. GCOM-W will carry AMSR F/O (tentatively called as AMSR2). AMSR2 will be very similar to AMSR on ADEOS II and AMSR-E on EOS-Aqua with some modifications. The orbit of GCOM-W is 700km altitude and 13:30 ascending node time (TBD) to continue the AMSR-E observation. GCOM-C will carry GLI F/O (tentatively called as SGLI). The SGLI will be rather different from GLI. The main targets of SGLI are atmospheric aerosols, coastal zone and land. In order to measure aerosols over both ocean and land, it will have a near ultra violet channel, as well as polarization and bi-directional observation capability. For, coastal zone and land observation, the IFOV of SGLI for these targets will be around 250m. The instrument will be composed of several components. The shorter wavelength region will adopt push broom scanners, while long wave region will use a conventional whisk broom scanner. The orbit of GCOM-C is the same as that of ADEOS II, i.e. around 800km altitude, and 10:30 descending node time.

During the GEOSS era, a Doppler wind lidar (DWL) described in this paper will be able to measure directly the 3-dimensional wind field. These observations can be used synergistically with traditional imagers, passive radiometers and active scatterometers to improve significantly the weather and climate missions. Synergisms being explored include laser height assignment and layer wind calibration for Cloud Motion Vectors (CMVs) and Water Vapor Motion Vectors (WVMVs), and the adjudication of directional ambiguities in Ocean Vector Winds (OVW) retrievals. These synergistic links will be incorporated into adaptive targeting schemes being evaluated within Observing System Simulation Experiments designed to explore ways to optimize the utility of the DWL observations.

The Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) will provide long-term data for a wide variety of communities. . To be meaningful and useful in the societal benefit applications, the global satellite observations need continuous and consistent measurements, which require improved cross instrument calibration and product validation. Cross-sensor calibration/validation is necessary for achieving data continuity and consistency. Several institutes and laboratories have been trying to plan and initiate the appropriate processes to accomplish the calibration/validation indicated for the various measurements and disciplines that will most likely be involved. EastFIRE Laboratory at George Mason University (GMU) in the United States has been working on a cross-sensor calibration/validation system during the past seven years, and has demonstrated the capability and performance of the system for NPP/NPOESS prelaunch testing support. The EastFIRE cross-sensor calibration and validation system can be further extended to include more sensors and measurements to support the GEOSS communities in data consistency control and construction of long-term consistent Climate Data Records (CDRs). The primary objectives of the present system expansion and integration are: 1) to support satellite observation research and operations; 2) to support multiple sensor cross-calibration and product cross-validation; 3) to support prelaunch testing and post-launch validation of the next generation earth observation missions; and 4) to build global FCDRs (Fundamental Climate Data Records) for the GEOSS communities using Sensor Data Records (SDRs) from multiple sensors.

The United States National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) will provide Earth observations in both X-band and L-band direct broadcasts (DB) to the global direct readout (DRO) community. NPOESS capabilities provide the Oceanic regions of the world with the ability to assess their regional environments from space in near-real time by providing DRO capabilities for 41 HRD environmental data records (EDRs) to include imagery, and relays from ARGOS Advanced Data Collection System (A-DCS) sensor. Additionally, NPOESS provides within the direct broadcast links dynamic mission support data (MSD) which updates more quickly than can be accommodated through thrice annual software releases. MSD included within the links include weather forecast model parameters and algorithm processing coefficients. The NPOESS data processing software will be made available free of charge2 to the global community. Thus the NPOESS DRO mission will allow regional oceanic communities to compile knowledge of their local environments by having an up to date understanding of developing weather systems for disaster monitoring, an understanding of land and ocean environmental trends, and in-situ measurement retrieval from A-DCS sensors. This information interpreted and understood by experts of the region allows for significant contributions to the Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) goals and mission that are not otherwise possible within the large oceanic community with limited communication resources.

Earth observations have played an increasing role in informing decision making in the energy sector. In renewable energy applications, spaceborne observations now routinely augment sparse ground-based observations for solar energy resource assessment. As one of the nine Global Earth Observing System of Systems (GEOSS) societal benefit areas, the enhancement of policy and management decision making in the energy sector is receiving considerable attention in activities conducted by the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS). We describe current projects being conducted by CEOS member agencies to partner with end-user energy decision makers to enhance their decision support systems using space-based observations. These prototype projects have frequently been pursued through the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) Energy Community of Practice and, more recently, in collaboration with the CEOS Energy societal benefit area (SBA). Several case studies exhibiting the utility of Earth observations to enhance renewable energy resource assessment, forecast space-weather impacts on the power grid, and optimize energy efficiency in the built environment are discussed.

The spatial data is important for researching atmospheric pollution by Geographic Information System and Remote Sensing, and multi-grid shows important way on the global sharing, analysis and display. This paper reviews the recent progress of monitoring atmospheric contamination, a new concept: spatial data based on multi-grid, using different size grid in various scale research region in the same platform, and transform the conventional geo-spatial data into multi-grid's geo-spatial data. As an application example, the authors construct of regional atmospheric pollution control and decision support system with MODIS aerosol product and in-situ atmospheric pollution data in China as one of social economic benefits in GEOSS.