NOAA - ISRO Joint Science Projects on Earth Observation System Science, Technology, and Applications for Societal Benefits

摘要

India and the United States of America (U.S.A.) held a joint conference from June 21-25, 2004 in Bangalore, India to strengthen and expand cooperation in the area of space science, applications, and commerce. Following the recommendations in the joint vision statement released at the end of the conference, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Indian Space and Reconnaissance Organization (ISRO) initiated several joint science projects in the area of satellite product development and applications. This is an extraordinary step since it concentrates on improvements in the data and scientific exchange between India and the United States, consistent with a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by the two nations in 1997. With the relationship between both countries strengthening with President Bush's visit in early 2006 and new program announcements between the two countries, there is a renewed commitment at ISRO and other Indian agencies and at NOAA in the U.S. to fulfill the agreements reached on the joint science projects. The collaboration is underway with several science projects that started in 2005 providing initial results. NOAA and ISRO agreed that the projects must promote scientific understanding of the satellite data and lead to a satellite-based decision support systems for disaster and public health warnings. The projects target the following areas: 1. Supporting a drought monitoring system for India 2. Improving precipitation estimates over India from Kalpana-1 3. Increasing aerosol optical depth measurements and products over India 4. Developing early indicators of malaria and other vector borne diseases via satellite monitoring of environmental conditions and linking them to predictive models 5. Monitoring sea surface temperature (SST) from INSAT-3D to support improved forecasting of regional storms, monsoon onset and cyclones The research collaborations and results from these projects will be presented and discussed in the context of India-US cooperation and the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) concept.