Cooperation: Earth

From the standpoint of sensors, US officials say, a broad range of useful measuring systems already are in place. For example, through NASA's Mission to Planet Earth program, the US has spent $7 billion on 18 satellites currently in orbit. These measure changes in sea levels, monitor ocean biological activity, track changes in glaciers, and gather data on other key features of the planet.

Yet other systems of sensors, ranging from tide gauges for measuring sea level in developing countries to weather stations in some of the former Soviet republics, are falling into disrepair.

Elsewhere, technological advances such as GPS- capable sensors on weather balloons, increasingly used in developed countries, are beyond the financial reach of some developing nations who contribute data twice a day for use by weather forecasters worldwide.

One of the challenges, analysts say, will be devising a way to help participants gather and interpret information using the latest available technology and at a level of precision that will be useful to science as well as commerce.

"The basic thrust of the meeting seems to be that observations are good, yet bad observations are not good and can mislead" researchers and other people interested in using the information, notes Kevin Trenberth, who heads the climate-modeling section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. "With climate, for example, you're looking for very small changes over long periods of time."

He also warns that data gathered from a global network "should be freely and openly available to everyone." To do otherwise, he says, would leave the impression that the industrial countries, and particularly the US, are enlisting the aid of nations worldwide to develop information that would be usable only in nations that have the money, talent, and equipment to capture, archive, and analyze the vast volumes of information that a global network would generate.

For example, the data management system for NASA's Mission to Planet Earth alone carried a $1 billion price tag, says Ghassem Asrar, associate administrator for NASA's office of earth science.

And even the raw data have economic value, adds Brig. Gen. Jack Kelly (ret.), director of the National Weather Service. Satellite photos of croplands can have a direct bearing on the futures markets worldwide. "So as you build a network, how do you integrate the needs of the private sector" with those of noncommercial users? he asks.

Yet, General Kelly continues, the challenges are hardly insurmountable. "At the height of the cold war, when we were kids learning to duck underneath a desk, the US, Russia, and communist China agreed on very little. But we were able agree that we would routinely and reliably exchange weather information. It took political will, but we created the standards and telecommunications networks to rapidly and reliably share" the data, he says.

The proposal for a global Earth-observation network "is on a bigger scale and covers more elements of the ocean, land, and atmosphere. But it's doable now," he adds. "The only thing that has been lacking is political will."

He and other proponents say they hope Thursday's meeting will bridge that gap.

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