There’s no money to run White House tours, but apparently there’s money to pull one of Al’s pet projects out of mothballs.
Satellite shelved after 2000 election to now fly
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is proposing dusting off and finally launching an old environmental satellite championed by Al Gore but shelved a dozen years by his 2000 rival George W. Bush.
Obama proposed Wednesday spending nearly $35 million in his 2014 budget to refurbish a satellite, nicknamed GoreSat by critics, that’s been sitting in storage after it was shelved in 2001, months after Bush took office. It cost about $100 million by then with NASA’s internal auditors faulting its cost increases.
In 1998, Gore, then vice president, proposed the idea of a satellite that would head nearly 1 million miles out in deep space in a special gravity balancing area between Earth and the Sun. The satellite would gaze at Earth, beam down a continuous picture of our planet and take what scientists said was needed climate change measurements.
It originally was named Triana after the sailor on Christopher Columbus’s crew who first sighted land in the Americas. NASA later changed its name to Deep Space Climate Observatory or DISCOVR. But it often got called GoreSat by opponents who called it an expensive screensaver for the vice president.
More: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/satellite-shelved-after-2000-election-now-fly
===================================================
Readers may recall this comment from “DAV” on WUWT:
Al has claimed to be American technology’s biggest boon (invented the Internet donchya know) yet was almost solely responsible for the Triana spacecraft (aka GoreSat in some circles now known as DSCOVR). The only spacecraft conceived without a mission — in a Lagrangian orbit no less. Al’s idea essentially: we should have a camera in orbit constantly looking at the Earth. You should have seen the scrambling to find things for it to do. The final mission instrument complement was all after the fact add-on. When it comes to technology I think Al is clueless.
What misleads Al isn’t the “consensus” so much as belief in his own ability to forecast the direction of the wind.
Disclosure: I worked on Triana.
Given that it is now more than a decade old, I wonder if the technology is even worth launching?
Wikipedia says:
The satellite’s original purpose was to provide a near-continuous view of the entire Earth and make that live image available via the Internet. Gore hoped not only to advance science with these images, but also to raise awareness of the Earth itself, updating the influential The Blue Marble photograph taken by Apollo 17.
Yeah, “expensive screensaver” about covers it.
UPDATE: Further investigation reveals this might have some value after all, and while Mr. Gore might get his screensaver we might also get a solar warning system. Maybe this spacecraft finally has a mission:
details: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1102/21dscovr/
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration would manage the DSCOVR mission as an operational sentinel to give notice of approaching solar storms with potentially calamitous consequences for terrestrial electrical grids, communications, GPS navigation, air travel, satellite operations and human spaceflight.
“The FY2012 funds would support the refurbishment of an existing NASA satellite, DSCOVR,” said Jane Lubchenco, NOAA’s administrator. “This acquisition will allow NOAA to continue to receive vital data to help anticipate and mitigate space weather damage, which could potentially result in costs to the United States of $1 to $2 trillion.”
NASA’s Advanced Composition Explorer, launched in 1997, is the only spacecraft currently providing short-term warnings of geomagnetic storms. ACE is also stationed at the L1 point, giving forecasters about a 40-minute warning of approaching solar events that could disrupt life and economic activity on Earth.
ACE is operating 12 years beyond its design life and could fail at any time.
Replacing ACE would be of value, the question is will this repurposed spacecraft do the job adequately?
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
There’s plenty of what passes for climate science to be cynical about these days, but I suggest that a full Earth-looking satellite is worth a careful look by all sides in the climate debate. Continuous imagery of the full, sunny side of Earth, along with simultaneous irradiance measurements, has major potential for more fully understanding the impact of cloud cover on Earth’s radiation budget. The complex roles of cloud cover, aerosols and water vapor are among the most important parameters that are not properly considered in today’s generation of global climate models, which failed to predict the relatively stable global temperature over the past decade or more in the face of a substantial increase in carbon dioxide. The 2K x 2K resolution of the CCD array is primitive by today’s standards, but it’s better than the total absence of a full-Earth sensor. Other sensors on this satellite also have merit, including geomagnetic storm detection. The bottom line is that instruments and measurements trump models, agendas, opinions, guesses and politics. I vote for instruments and measurements.
wow. A laGrangian Orbit. Should outta have a pixel the size of Switzerland from that distance. Oooh! Fuzzy logic smoothing!! Enough to turn weather into climate!
@ur momisugly Anthony,
“Since it was canceled, the satellite has been at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. In 2009 and 2010, NASA spent another $14 million to refurbish its instruments. NASA this year has spent $3.4 million to test it. Obama put $9.9 million in NASA’s budget for two science instruments and $23.7 million in the budget of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.”
So it appears to have updated instruments and ready for the task of replacing ACE.
I’ve seen a few satellites in my time, but I can’t recall seeing an uglier one. Apropos, for some reason.
Each of the STEREO satellites are at L4 and L5 (that is why one data set is Forward and the other Rear). ACE and SOHO are circling L1 between Earth and Sun. The re-appropriated GoreSAT will be placed in L1 perpendicular orbit and face the sun.
While Forrest M. Mims III has a valid point, I think that LandSAT is better suited for that mission.
GoreSat can be used to locate deniers (who have Big Oil signs above thier heads) so we can destroy their compounds of denial.
It will also be able to lock onto to heat areas like volcanoes to give precise readings which when a hockey stick smoothing filter are applied will show the whole planet is burning up as Saint Gore predicted.
Personally as Saint Gore has invested so much of himself into this space craft he should personally accompany it when it is launched into orbit. * Heck even the Iranians are launchin’ monkeys into orbit these days!
/sarc
* this is not a ‘death threat’ but a sign of Gores commitment to the planet. I cannot take him seriously until he has launched himself into space to tell us “it’s worse than we thought.” I am sure Al will agree how limiting Earth can be for a giant ego that needs to be waaaaaay above everyone else.
/ extra sarc
IMVHO, Flashman’s points:
and
are the most important things to bear in mind for the whole of WUWT.
Stephanie Bond says:
April 11, 2013 at 5:06 pm
The only Happy Ending possible here is if Al Gore gets launched with his satellite.
Hopefully this satellite has a twin…
http://dailybail.com/home/photo-of-the-day-bernankes-first-helicopter.html
K seriously…
I have in the past mentioned that the ONLY way to get valid data about the overall energy leaving the planet is to have a satellite watching it. A satellite with a very, very sensitive sensor, since the variations are going to be very, very minute. And the ideal resolution is 1 pixel per planet. However, it needs both DAY and NIGHT values, so would need to be at L1 and L2. The one at L1 can also be watching the Sun to get as direct as possible of a measurement at what energy is coming AT the planet.
Thing is, the radiative theory people believe that CO2 is reducing planetary radiance, keeping more energy in the system, heating it up, making more severe storms, etc., and it needs to be shown that, while that value no doubt wanders around a LOT, there is no trend… and certainly that trend does NOT match atmospheric CO2.
Or, if it does, I’ll finally have reason to believe that I’m wrong… which, incidentally, is something I’m always willing to admit if it can be proven. Contrary to the belief of many commenters, there is absolutely no credible evidence that CO2 has any significant effect, what tiny effect it might have is overwhelmed by other effects.
Assuming the thing is refurb’d and modernized and ready to go, I’d still be more comfortable knowing that the mission has had every possible result anticipated, that it was not, for example, intended to simply “prove” a CO2 connection. That is the overall concern that many regular posters here have, and why it’s easy to mock the whole thing. (By the way, I love the old OS comment about Windows CE, Me, and NT).
William McClenney says: April 11, 2013 at 5:33 pm
How many kilopixels is it?
160 x 100 if you want to run all 16 colors. Otherwise 320 x 200 in 4 color mode. It will download in merely a few minutes with the 4 kbit dial up modem.
IBM Color Graphics Adapter Modes
I vote for more, and better calibrated, high resolution, instrumented data on the Earth’s albedo. Putting this satellite up at a Lagrangian point will at least give us the possiblity of reaching that goal. My concerns are more practical, such as the risk of finding space junk (not necessarily manmade) in the point chosen.
Updating the instrumentation would be nice, but I suspect not necessary if it’s already in the payload. Progress in rad hardening small feature ICs for space hasn’t be overwhelmingly rapid. Bigger transistors resist random radiation better than smaller ones, up to a point. The fact that old space technology regularly outlives it’s specified lifetime shows that, at least in that area, science and engineering have done an excellent job. Even the shuttle disasters showed, apart from bad go/no-go decisions, and failing to inspect the results of possible physical damage, that the technology is pretty robust.
OK – what will this give us that the GOES (as well as METEO/GMS) satellites do not already give us? Nothing, of course. GOES already look at the whole hemisphere in visible (albedo), IR & they look at the Sun as well (solar weather). IOW, as many others have said, it’s not needed.
Also, from the Lagrangian point, the satellite is not stationary from the Earth’s ground perspective like geostationary sats so tracking stations will need to be positioned around the world at several spots to have continuous data coverage. There is more money involved with this that just the building of a satellite. I wonder if they have thought *that* through?
Jeff
“The 2K x 2K resolution of the CCD array is primitive by today’s standards, but it’s better than the total absence of a full-Earth sensor.”
Teledyne Dalsa in Waterloo makes a 108 megapixel CCD. Maybe they could spring for one.
John Andrews says:
April 11, 2013 at 6:31 pm
By the way, people, ad hominem remarks are a big turn off.
==============
If only it was true. Sure hasn’t stopped Gore from screwing us.
One small picture of the brute. I don’t see any optics. From a million miles away (remember the Plimsoles?) the earth subtends about 7 millradians, or a little less than the apparent width of the moon as viewed from the Earth. In the visible a relatively small camera will produce a pretty detailed and pleasing image. In round numbers the instantaneous field of view might be 7 mrad/1000 = 7 urads, or a patch on the Earth 7 miles across. The IR instrumentation I’m guessing would not include an imager, that’s big and needs cooling for return of very limited resolution. Maybe a collection of radiometers? Anybody out there that knows about this kind of thing?
Forrest M. Mims III says:
April 11, 2013 at 9:55 pm
The 2K x 2K resolution of the CCD array is primitive…
======
Better off to launch a $59 camera from Walmart. 16MP resolution with 8x zoom.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/GE-16-MP-E1680W-BK/21667758?_mm=
Trying to exploit higher resolution by going with a big array means a larger aperture with longer focal length and with way more complicated optics. Bigger optics means more SWaP (size/weight/power). And at some point jitter and pointing control has to be upgraded. If the sat wasn’t designed with that in mind you can’t always add it after the fact.
As long as we are fantasizing about data collection lets put a hyperspectral image on it.But back to the energy in energy out questions, what spectral bands would you want to measure? I know a little about simple radiometers, you want the detector to be at the extra pupil to integrate the object being measured across the detector area. Anyone know the radiometry?
Question:
If the purpose of this satellite is to somehow improve data collection, then please explain why the 3 main temperature records ignore the satellite data? Why not incorporate the data you already have before asking for new data? Or is the real purpose to cherry pick, select the data streams that show what you want and ignore those that don’t?
It seems incredibly strange to me that NASA has all these satellites for studying earth, but NASA GISS uses land and ship based temperature records to build their global temperature records, while ignoring the satellite data. One would think that they would have long ago switched over to using the satellite records as they are very likely much more accurate, give better coverage and can largely avoid the problems with urbanization affecting land based records.
Why has NASA diverted so much money from studying space to studying the earth and then not made use of the best data available in creating their temperature records?
I bet you, it’s programmed to beam hockey sticks down to Earth.
“Updating” an old system with an old system. Sounds logical to me. But then I believe the warmists and their obcessive “sky is falling” chant. NOT
I have problem with it being dated and in storage for so long.Having been in aviation and have helped in the restoration and maintenance of older aircraft (some in sailboats, too). if there
is no upgrade to the science equipment, and, there is always something you didn’t
anticipate-like someone, somewhere, a long time ago left a Phillips screwdriver in an obscure
but critical area…. Even preflight on such thing is always-interesting…
If someone wants to launch a replacement for ACE, I’m good with that. If they want to put a camera to take visible light pictures of the Earth on the same satellite, that’s not a big problem for me. Continuous video isn’t necessary. One picture every 2 to 5 minutes should be more than adequate.
Somehow I doubt that this mothballed satellite can be converted to this new task for less than the cost of building a new satellite from scratch.
John Andrews said:
April 11, 2013 at 6:31 pm
[snippage] By the way, people, ad hominem remarks are a big turn off.
—————————————
But it’s so fun! Besides of which, turnabout, as is said, is fair play.
Damn thing looks more like an engineering bread board (that has been modded many times) then a real production system.