Planetary Skin News
posted on November 12, 2009
By TIME Magazine
“What happens to Earth when a forest is razed or energy use soars? We don't know because environmental data are collected by isolated sources, making it impossible to see the whole picture. With the theory that you can't manage what you can't measure, NASA and Cisco have teamed up to develop Planetary Skin, a global "nervous system" that will integrate land-, sea-, air- and space-based sensors, helping the public and private sectors make decisions to prevent and adapt to climate change. The pilot project — a prototype is due by 2010 — will track how much carbon is held by rain forests and where.”
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posted on March 19, 2009
By Cheryl Pellerin, Staff Writer
NASA, Cisco collaborate to integrate climate data, Web technology. The Planetary Skin platform will capture, collect, analyze and report data on environmental conditions around the world.
Washington ― Every day, on and above Earth, millions of sensors collect vast amounts of data representing interactions among the planet’s systems of land, air, water and life. This is the kind of data needed to address the complexities of climate change or a move to a low-carbon-dioxide world economy, but gathering it is just the first step.
The next steps, barely possible given the state of information technology, involve integrating data from air- and space-borne and terrestrial instruments with computer models of climate, ecosystems and biological systems, then analyzing and reporting results that can be scaled to the needs of nations and communities.
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posted on March 3, 2009
By Michael Burnham, Greenwire
Climate science isn't exactly sexy, but the name of the U.S. space agency's latest project has some sizzle.
NASA and Cisco Systems Inc. are developing "Planetary Skin" -- a marriage of satellites, land sensors and the Internet -- to capture, analyze and interpret global environmental data. Under terms of an agreement announced during a Capitol Hill climate summit today, NASA and Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) will develop the online collaborative platform to process data from satellite, airborne and sea- and land-based sensors around the globe.
The goal is to translate the data into information that governments and businesses can use to mitigate and adapt to climate change and manage energy and natural resources more effectively, NASA and Cisco officials explained in interviews.
posted on March 3, 2009
By Frank Davies, Mercury News Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — Cisco and NASA launched a partnership Tuesday to develop new online tools to measure and analyze climate change, aiming for a global platform that would help leaders make decisions on emissions controls.
The first pilot project of the "Planetary Skin" initiative — mostly coordinated by NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View — will focus on rain forests and deforestation. Some climate experts estimate that the loss of forests, which absorb carbon dioxide, has contributed about 30 percent of the atmospheric buildup of greenhouse gases that cause global warming.
