<div>The global scientific community has been working for decades to improve data collection on the global environment, which is mostly Earth's oceans, covering 70 percent of global surface. </div>
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<div>Advances in gathering ocean data have improved immensely with the <strong>deployment of over 3000 ARGO buoys from 2000-2007</strong> ( <a href="http://www-argo.ucsd.edu/">http://www-argo.ucsd.edu/</a> ). </div>
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<div>Also, satellite environmental data gathering has advanced, covering both land (use of surface data gathering has been replaced somewhat by satellite observations) and ocean, with <strong>NESDIS (National Environmental Satellite Data Information Service)</strong> <strong>GOES</strong> (<strong>Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites), POES, DMSP, JASON-2, JPSS, GOES-R </strong>( <a href="http://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/SatInformation.html">http://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/SatInformation.html</a> ). </div>
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<div>Also, <strong>NASA GRACE satellites</strong> (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment: <a href="http://www.csr.utexas.edu/grace/">http://www.csr.utexas.edu/grace/</a> ) using microwave interferometry have measured ice mass loss in both Antarctica and Greenland ( <a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003600/a003663/" target="_blank">http://svs.gsfc.<span class="" id="st" name="st">nasa</span>.gov/vis/a000000/a003600/a003663/</a> , <a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2009/2009GL040222.shtml" target="_blank">http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2009/2009GL040222.shtml</a> , <a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2006/mar/HQ_06085_arctic_ice.html" target="_blank">http://www.<span class="" id="st" name="st">nasa</span>.gov/home/hqnews/2006/mar/HQ_06085_arctic_ice.html</a> ). </div>
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<div>NASA also deployed the <strong>TERRA satellite</strong> in late 1999 ( <a href="http://terra.nasa.gov/">http://terra.nasa.gov/</a> : <strong>This website now shows Gulf oil disaster images from TERRA</strong>) to assist in gathering data on <strong>Earth's Energy Balance:</strong> <strong>The Earth Observing System Terra Series</strong><font face="Arial" size="3"> </font>( <a href="http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/gsfc/service/gallery/fact_sheets/earthsci/terra/earths_energy_balance.htm">http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/gsfc/service/gallery/fact_sheets/earthsci/terra/earths_energy_balance.htm</a> ), which involves studying and modeling numerous climate variables, including clouds, as the immediately preceding website describes. The preceding scientific presentation on <strong>Earth's Energy Balance</strong> with discussion of clouds is required reading for <strong>anthropogenic climate warming skeptics.</strong> </div>
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<div>Even in the 1980s, NASA deployed the <strong>ERBS satellites</strong> for the <strong>Earth Radiation Budget Experiment ( <a href="http://asd-www.larc.nasa.gov/erbe/ASDerbe.html">http://asd-www.larc.nasa.gov/erbe/ASDerbe.html</a> , <a href="http://asd-www.larc.nasa.gov/erbe/components2.gif">http://asd-www.larc.nasa.gov/erbe/components2.gif</a> ), </strong>important in studying the climate forcing of human CO2 emissions on the Earth's energy balance ( <a href="http://www.aip.org/history/climate/co2.htm">http://www.aip.org/history/climate/co2.htm</a> ). </div>
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<div>There is also the <strong>Integrated Global Observing Strategy</strong>, to coordinate global environmental data, with numerous contributing partners from around the world( <a href="http://www.igospartners.org/partMEMB.htm">http://www.igospartners.org/partMEMB.htm</a> , <a href="http://www.igospartners.org/meet.htm">http://www.igospartners.org/meet.htm</a> ), though any attempt to centralize global environmental data gathering through one organization is an imposing task, subject to the objection that maintaining numerous international independent scientific organizations working on the same scientific data issues and theories, with each cross checking the others, even competitively, is likely to yield a more objective less politicized rigorous peer review of data and theory.</div>
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<div>Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett</div>