Meeting the Geodetic Challenge of the NRC's Decadal Survey

John LaBrecque
Lead, Earth Surface and Interior Focus Area, NASA Earth Science Division, Washington, DC 20546, USA

NASA's Space Geodesy Program within Earth Science Division is aligned with the goals and missions identified within the NRC’s Decadal Survey (Earth Science and Applications from Space, 2007, (www.nap.edu)) and the SESWG Report (Solid Earth Sciences Working Group Report entitled Living on a Restless Planet (solidearth.jpl.nasa.gov/seswg.html) as reviewed by the National Research Council, (www.nap.edu).

The NRC Decadal Survey identified over six missions to be developed during the next decade that will rely significantly upon the science and data products of the Global Geodetic Observing System. Furthermore, the NRC report expressed great concern that this very same global geodetic infrastructure is on the verge of collapse.

This paper reports on the efforts of NASA and its national and international sister agencies to reverse that trend of collapse, to meet the measurement goals of the NRC Decadal Survey, and to achieve the vision expressed in the foundation document of the Global Geodetic Observing System (Plag and Pearlman, 2009). These efforts include advancing the geodetic technology and infrastructure and developing the DESDynI, GRACE Follow-On, ICESat-II, and GPS radio occultation geodetic satellite missions.