Billion-Dollar Budget For Global Change Means Big Boosts For NASA, NOAA, NSF

Satellite design, data handling get most of the global change research budget; $15 million will go for training. WASHINGTON--Global change leads the way in the rate of increase for research projects in the president's 1991 budget request. From a 1990 total of $659 million, the global change research budget is scheduled to increase to $1.034 billion spread across seven federal agencies. And unlike last year, says Robert Corell, head of the National Science Foundation geosciences directorate, when the program's overall budget swelled in midyear after agencies redefined existing activities to become global change initiatives, the $375 million requested for 1991 is new money. Corell is also vice chairman of the Committee on Earth Sciences (CES), an interagency panel that developed the research plan. With a $172 million increase, to $661 million, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration gets the biggest piece of the global change pie. But NASA won't be using the funds to solve many of the "scientific uncertainties" that seem to be bogging down policymakers. For the Earth Observing System (Eos), a program involving two satellites in polar orbit with an array of still-unnamed instruments, NASA is hoping to spend $132 million to design and build the Eos spacecraft. With another $103 million, it will send scientists to their drawing boards to decide the instruments they'd like to launch. They will plan interdisciplinary projects, according to Shelby Tilford, director of earth systems sciences at NASA. But Eos isn't scheduled to lift off and begin transmitting data until 1997. There is also a request for $25 million for earth probes, which will help determine ocean productivity and carbon dioxide exchange between air and ocean, and $8 million for construction of facilities. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is also getting a big boost, at least on paper. After barely squeezing $18 million out of Congress in 1990 for global change studies, NOAA's 1991 budget seeks $87 million. "NOAA got the largest percentage increases because the CES felt strongly about the relevance and readiness of our proposals," says Eileen Shea, executive secretary for NOAA climate and global change programs. "What we're counting on now is making our case on the Hill." About $26.5 million of that 1991 request will go for new programs. Another $16.9 million is for global environmental sciences data management (GESDM), CES's first stab at setting up a way to take advantage of all the data these projects will generate. Also, $4 million will go for a marine ecosystem response program. The existing NOAA global change programs will get $33 million. "There is a large increase in the ocean components of our programs because our program is important to the national program," says Shea. Next to the role of clouds, ocean circulation, and land, air and ocean energy exchange are viewed as the most pressing scientific issues. The tropical Ocean-Global Atmosphere and Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Experiments will get $4 million more to monitor wind and temperatures in the Pacific. There will be $10 million to establish climate modeling and analytical centers. In the past, NOAA has kept most of its research in-house. "But when we designed the global change program, it was obvious that we couldn't do it with just the brainpower we had inside," says Shea. NOAA had planned to give 20% of the global climate work to extramural scientists, and now it looks like that percentage may double. "It's a tremendous change," she adds. NSF, too, is planning for big increases. "We've made a major effort to target some of the high-priority, serious issues," says Corell. NSF's $48 million increase will bolster the World Ocean Circulation Experiment and the Global Ocean Flux Study, for example. NSF officials hope to begin four programs in the geosciences directorate and a joint program between geo- sciences and the directorate for biological, behavioral, and social sciences. Last year the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wound up with only $13 million, $4 million less than it had hoped for, to study climate change. In 1991, however, it hopes to double its budget. The agency wants to tap university scientists to study feedbacks between biological and atmospheric systems and to look at how chemicals are transported on a global scale and at regional climate changes. This $26 million would still be a small part of EPA's $200 million extramural research budget, but much of that money supports research related to regulatory activities. "That is not the case with global change," says Tony Janetos, EPA program manager for global change research. "There's a lot of immediate science that needs to be done to reduce some of the scientific uncertainties." Scientists apply for support through EPA laboratories, which Janetos hopes will develop closer ties to universities as a result. In contrast, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is keeping its $47.4 million for global change research close to home. For 1991, it has redefined seven U.S. Forest Service activities as focused global change programs. It hopes to have $7.9 million for new programs in the Agricultural Research Service, $1.5 million for the Soil Conservation Service, and $4.3 million for land-grant universities through formula grants for studies in methane and trace gases. If Congress okays the proposed $100 million for competitive research grants, some funds will be used for global change projects, says Gary Evans, USDA special assistant for global change issues. The Department of Interior will also keep most of its global change funds in-house, but will expand efforts beyond the U.S. Geological Survey to other branches in the department, such as the National Park, Minerals Management, and Fish and Wildlife Services, and the Bureau of Reclamation. "The USGS still gets the lion's share," says Paul Dresler, executive secretary of CES, but each of these other agencies will have about $2 million for global change programs in 1991. At the Department of Energy, which has asked for a total of $66 million in 1991, research on carbon dioxide will get about $51 million. A new program to collect data for climate modeling and detection will get $4 million, and a program to study the link between greenhouse gases and climate change will get $7 million. About half of all DOE funding supports extramural scientists. More "global change" scientists will also be trained in 1991. About $10 million of NSF's $103 million share of the pot will be used to support several hundred undergraduates, graduate students, and post- doctoral fellows in a program that will be run through NSF but managed by representatives from all the agencies. NSF will also sponsor several summer institutes on interdisciplinary research problems related to global change. The Department of Energy plans to spend $4 million to provide young scientists with the chance to work at national labs and to develop global change expertise. NASA is allocating $500,000 to prepare the next generation of Eos investigators, and NOAA will sponsor fellowships in connection with its Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment.

Billion-Dollar Budget For Global Change Means Big Boosts For NASA, NOAA, NSF

Mar 4, 1990

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