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88 ENVIRONMEhTTAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT 



STORAGt AND ANALYSIS OF ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING DATA 



The national laboratories can also make imponant contributions to federal 

 environmental R&D programs in the storage and analysis of environmental 

 monitoring data. As research on global change proceeds, it will be essential 

 to couple data from broad-coverage satellite observations with data from 

 the more narrow coverage provided by remote sensing from the ground and 

 from aircraft. The national laboratories have extensive experience in building 

 and operating satellites and in reducing the dau they generate. The lab- 

 oratories have proven ability to design and build instruments, to integrate 

 these instruments within spacecraft, and to design the data processing com- 

 ponent essential to the success of a space-based mission. The extent of this 

 experience is not widely known because these space-related efforts have been 

 conducted in support of national security programs. While NASA undoubt- 

 edly will continue to have primary responsibility for much of the space effort 

 supporting studies of global change, these capabilities make the national 

 laboratories a resource for quick-reaction, opportunistic attempts to solve 

 specific problems. 



Political Challenges 



The integration of the DoE national laboratories into environmental research 

 and development programs presents difBcult political challenges. First, many 

 view the laboratories' historic mission as incomparible with environmental 

 concerns. Moreover, since the design of nuclear weapons may conunue to 

 be the laboratories' primary mission, it could be difficult to focus the at- 

 tention of top management on environmental research and development, 

 which might be deemed a secondary or teruary concern. Second, to date, 

 the laboratories have achieved only partial success in developing expertise 

 in the environmental sciences to complement their considerable expertise 

 in engineering, physics, chemistry, and biology. Third, the laboratories tend 

 to be most successfiil when solving problems that require large, coordinated 

 efforts. While important aspects of environmental problems are of this char- 

 aaer, many issues can be best addressed by the individual investigator working 

 in the laboratory or by the individual modeler analyzing well-defined 

 problems. 



In spite of these potential difficulties, we believe that the national 

 laboratories can and should devote substantially more attcnrion to R&D 

 supporting the narion's environmental protection objeaives, and that the 

 obsucles facing the national laboratories in making this mission tratuirion 

 can be surmounted. DoE has demonstrated that it can modify its mission 

 to make important contribuuons to the mapping of the human genome. 



