How is Nasa trying to tackle climate change?
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NASA’s new programme will guide efforts to better understand hurricanes such as Hurricane Maria, shown here in a 2017 thermal image captured by NASA’s Terra satellite
Nasa has announced it'll be designing a new set of mission focussed on Earth, rather than exploring space.
The missions aims are to gain important information which will be used to help with efforts to fight climate change, fight forest fires, hurricanes, and improving agricultural processes.
It's all part of a new programme called the Earth System Observatory.
It will use satellites to create a 3D view of Earth to help researchers learn more about the planet's changing climate and tackle big climate science questions.
The observatory will be following recommendations made by scientists during the 2017 Earth Science Decadal Survey which was published at the beginning 2018.
Following the survey, it was suggested that Nasa take up a range of missions focused on big issues currently affecting the Earth including:
• Looking at how aerosols affect the planet
• Tackling the largest sources of uncertainty in when it comes to the future of climate change, air quality forecasting, and prediction of severe weather
• Providing drought assessment and forecasting, and planning for water use for agriculture
• Learning more about how climate change impacts food and agriculture, habitation, and natural resources
• Looking at sea-level and landscape change driven by climate change, hazard forecasts, and the role of earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, glaciers, groundwater, and the Earth's interior
The new programme was announced by the White House as part of a drive to monitor and tackle the impact of climate change.
"NASA's Earth System Observatory will be a new architecture of advanced spaceborne Earth observation systems, providing the world with an unprecedented understanding of the critical interactions between Earth's atmosphere, land, ocean, and ice processes," the White House said about the new programme.
"These processes determine how the changing climate will play out at regional and local levels, on near and long-term time scales."
Newsround's quick guide to climate change
Nasa administrator Senator Bill Nelson also spoke out following the announcement.
"Over the past three decades, much of what we've learned about the Earth's changing climate is built on NASA satellite observations and research.
NASA's new Earth System Observatory will expand that work, providing the world with an unprecedented understanding of our Earth's climate system, arming us with next-generation data critical to mitigating climate change, and protecting our communities in the face of natural disasters."
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