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The blueprint is as much a political document as a fiscal plan, in this case designed to send a message that the administration intends to pursue a long-sought goal of some conservatives: to clamp down on NASA’s study of Earth rather than space. ……In the past, NASA has built and operated climate satellites and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has operated weather satellites. While there is some overlap, weather satellites focus on basics like clouds, winds, temperatures and moisture to provide information for forecasts. Most of NASA’s instruments are designed to provide long-term records of phenomena like ice-sheet thickness, sea-level rise, vegetation changes and the makeup of the atmosphere…..there are currently few plans to replace NASA’s instruments, many of which are at or near the end of their useful lives.

“Climate monitoring has fallen into this big gap between the agencies,” said Thomas P. Ackerman, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Washington…..Of the four missions that the Trump administration wants to eliminate, one is of particular importance to researchers. The

Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory, or Clarreo, is an imager that would be mounted on the International Space Station……https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/10/climate/trump-nasa-satellites-global-warming-data.html?_r=0