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Science 30 March 2007:
Vol. 315. no. 5820, p. 1767
DOI: 10.1126/science.1142466
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Editorial

Crisis in Earth Observation

Scott Goetz

Satellite sensors have been imaging Earth's land surface, oceans, and ice fields since the early 1970s. The data sets derived from these observations have chronicled transformations on the planet's surface, ranging from urban sprawl to tropical deforestation, covering even the most remote regions of the globe. Scientists in the United States, supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and other agencies, have demonstrated the utility and societal benefits of the data in a wide range of applications, including community planning, crop monitoring, coral reef mapping, water-quality assessment, disaster management, and homeland security. Sadly, this is about to change.

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Remote sensing in physical geography: a twenty-first-century perspective.
D. S. Boyd (2009)
Progress in Physical Geography 33, 451-456
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Land Change Science Special Feature: The emergence of land change science for global environmental change and sustainability.
B. L. Turner II, E. F. Lambin, and A. Reenberg (2007)
PNAS 104, 20666-20671
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)