Keith’s note: according to the Hill: “Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy said Thursday that climate and earth science at the agency will “move aside” as it refocuses solely on space exploration.
“All the climate science and all of the other priorities that the last administration had at NASA we’re going to move aside, and all of the science that we do is going to be directed towards exploration, which is the mission of NASA.” Newsflash Sean Duffy: NASA is chartered to do climate science, you know, the stuff that happens in an “atmosphere”. e.g. National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958” Public Law #85-568,72 Stat. 426. Sec. 102.(c) (1) “The expansion of human knowledge of phenomena in the atmosphere and space;” This picture is Earth’s “atmosphere” as seen from “space”.

Keith’s note: This letter from Earth scientists has also been published in Science magazine and is reprinted here with the permission of the authors [Science, 389, 357-358. doi:10.1126/science.adz6100]: “In May, the US administration proposed budget cuts to NASA, including a more than 50% decrease in funding for the agency’s Earth Science Division (ESD) (1), the mission of which is to gather knowledge about Earth through space-based observation and other tools (2).

Keith’s note: the following was sent out to users of the NCCS MSS – NASA Center for Climate Simulation MSS (Mass Storage System) managed out of NASA Goddard: (more below)

Keith’s note: Update on the earlier post Going Out Of Business Sale For JPL Satellites: emails are circulating within JPL and NASA that mention a number of satellites that are listed as being targeted for shut down in the President’s FY 2026 budget request. NASA HQ is apparently not waiting for an actual budget. The list of satellites of the discount rack at NASA now includes OCO-2, OCO-3, SAGE III, CLARREO-Pathfinder, GLIMR, DSCOVR, CYGNSS, Terra, Aqua, Aura, and GeoCarb. Stay tuned for more bargains!

Keith’s note: According to this AP story: “Earlier this month, the official government websites that hosted the authoritative, peer-reviewed national climate assessments went dark. Such sites tell state and local governments and the public what to expect in their backyards from a warming world and how best to adapt to it. At the time, the White House said NASA would house the reports to comply with a 1990 law that requires the reports, which the space agency said it planned to do. But on Monday, NASA announced that it aborted those plans.”

Keith’s note: If they can delete climate and Earth Science data at NOAA they can do the same thing to science data at NASA. According to this release from House Science Democrats: Ranking Members Condemn Trump Administration Plan to Shut Down NOAA Research Websites and Their Data: “Last night, reporting revealed that the Trump administration plans to shut down websites associated with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) research division. President Trump and Commerce Secretary Lutnick plan to cancel the contracts of webservers that support these websites. If the websites are eliminated, the climate and weather data hosted on these sites would also be lost.” Update: NOAA research websites slated to go dark get a reprieve

Keith’s note: I was just on Alhurra TV talking about the upcoming launch of the PACE mission and how it can contribute to our understanding of Earth’s climate. I lost the translator audio half way through for about 30 seconds – then it came back. The trick in doing these interviews is to speak and pause periodically so the translator can keep up (I used to be a Sign Language interpreter so I get that) and also to avoid NASA jargon and acronyms (which no one on Earth outside of NASA actually speaks), and present things in every day language for an audience who does not read NASA press releases every day. Here’s the [audio].

Keith’s note: According to NASA PAO: “A NASA instrument to provide unprecedented resolution of monitoring major air pollutants – down to four square miles – lifted off on its way to geostationary orbit at 12:30 a.m. EDT Friday. The Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) instrument will improve life on Earth by revolutionizing the way scientists observe air quality from space.” More. ICYMI I just did an interview with BBC World Service on the TEMPO launch and the benefits it will have to actual individuals back on Earth. Audio

Keith’s note: The latest report from the IPCC – AR6 Synthesis Report – has been out for more than a day. The Biden Administration has been making full throated endorsements about the need to combat Climate Change as a whole of government effort. NASA has a seat at the table at the White House National Climate Task Force. Last year NASA made a big deal about VP Harris and NASA’s climate efforts. SO you’d expect that there would be some mention of this report given that the rest of the world is responding. Yet no mention is at NASA.gov at @NASA or @NASA Earth. Again, NASA PAO is just totally out of synch with issues of vital importance to its overtly stated mission. Wake up PAO.

NASA: Request for Public Nominations for Authors and Scientific/ Technical Inputs and Notice of Planned Public Engagement Opportunities for the Fifth National Climate Assessment, NASA “NASA, on behalf of the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), is soliciting nominations for authors and scientific/ technical inputs for the Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5). Refer to the NCA5 Draft Prospectus (presented in a previous Federal Register Notice and accessible via www.globalchange.gov/notices) for […]