More Money for Earth Sciences

Good news for Earth Scientists: President Bush announced significant funding for restoring capabilities to the US for Easth monotoring sattelite missions.

"The climate sensor package will be supported in FY2009 with $74 million requested for the Department of Commerce's (DOC) National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The new series of research missions will be supported by $103 million in FY2009, and a total of $910 million for FY2009-2013, requested for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)."

While this is great news, it is a small step toward having a truly robust and sustained earth science mission that is not at the expense of other initiatives. Tell your congressmen that this is an important move and that they need to do more to bolster earth sciences and other space missions.